A LOOK BACK IN TIME!

Well, I have been doing a lot of writing and a lot thinking. This next month, we will reach some milestones - Chris will be 18 months and Matt and Jon will be turning 5. I wanted to write down all that has happened to change our lives forever... so here is part of the story!

Where do I begin… how about January 3, 2003, the day I knew we have just made a baby (little did we know). I started to feel signs of pregnancy about two weeks later – nauseous, soreness. I called my doctor to set up an appointment the end of January. I received the referral and started with my OB. When we heard the heartbeat, I asked if they heard an echo at all. They did not; they insisted there was only one. I was skeptical since there were twins in my family (almost every generation in my fathers and every third in my mothers and I was it). Things were going well so far. Spring break changed all that. On Wednesday morning, I started vomiting and it became continuous. By Friday morning, my OB called in a prescription for me. The medicine helped! I would have to continue this medicine throughout the pregnancy.

I had my first ultrasound scheduled for the beginning of May. Chad met me at the office and we went in together. Instantly, the technician had this look on her face and stated, “Do you see what I see?” We became very worried at this point; we couldn’t tell what she was looking at. You need to be trained in order to figure anything out on those computers. Finally, after probing from us, she said, “there’s one; and there’s another…” And paused… both Chad and I got really worried that she was going to find more. We both yelled “stop!” She laughed, but she wanted to make sure she didn’t see anything else. She excused herself for just a minute. We were the last appointment of the day and she needed to call her ride to let them know she’d be late. Twins take up twice as much time since there are two babies to look over. Everything looked great. My mom called during the appointment but we wouldn’t give her any details. Chad kept laughing and I just cried. I didn’t know what else to do. We were just in so much shock.

That summer was busy with planning and preparing. I flew home to Pennsylvania to see my family, as I did every summer. Both sides scheduled baby showers. I shipped most of the stuff home (whatever wouldn’t fit in the suitcases). Some family members actually sent the items here which helped me a lot. During the flight, I made one of the flight attendants very nervous. The boys kept kicking me and of course since I was carrying twins, I was already big. I was prepared though; I had a signed note from my doctor stating my week and that I was safe to travel.

I remember taking the prenatal classes. There was another woman there who was also expecting twins. Anytime we laid on the floor to do our breathing exercises, she would have contractions, but they would stop if she laid on her side. Well, I started doing the same thing. Anytime I laid on my back, I would have the Braxton hicks.

Beginning of August, I started back to teaching and that was when the swelling started. I know I made the head of maintenance very nervous. Phoenix started to have a gasoline shortage because of a pipeline break. People would stand in line for two or more hours just to fill their tank. Both Chad and I made sure that ours never went below halfway, just in case. I remember standing at a gas pump at Safeway, after having been in line for half an hour, and several people kept looking over at me; guess some of them were a little nervous at the sight of a nine month pregnant person rubbing her stomach while pumping gasoline. Anytime we had a staff meeting, my principal insisted each time that I had an extra chair and my feet up. Guess that shows that I made more people nervous.