Mama-To-Be

Counting down to baby twins with my favorite maternity photos from the last five years. Also, enjoy learning about our pregnancy story below!

After looking through all of these amazing memories, I am so incredibly thankful to my best friend Lindsay Parks for beautifully capturing the biggest moments of my life. 

How I found out I was pregnant: Since Eric and I were not trying, I randomly took a digital test one night after my period was 5 days late. After I took the test, I soaked in the tub and completely forgot about looking at the results. As I was toweling off, I just happened to look down and see one little word. Pregnant!

I screamed for Eric and let's just say he was beyond shocked! We hugged and kissed as our two little boys clamored to see what all the excitement was about. They joined in for extra hugs and kisses too!

How we found out we were having twins: Being that this was my 3rd pregnancy, Eric and I scheduled our first ultrasound at 12 weeks to check on baby. Throughout the first 12 weeks, everything about this pregnancy felt completely different from my previous two. I was extremely nauseous all the time and never could quite shake it. In the past pregnancies, I would eat and always feel much better. I also noticed that I was gaining weight rapidly. At around 7 weeks, my stomach had already popped. In my mind, I knew that something was different. As friends and family would laugh and say "maybe it's twins." I would brush off the crazy comments by telling myself that this was my 3rd pregnancy and naturally it's going to be different. 

On the day of the ultrasound, I was extremely nervous to hear the baby's heartbeat. Eric reassured me that I had nothing to be anxious about. After a long, nervous wait at the doctor's, we were finally called into the little ultrasound room. Oh, how I was overjoyed when the baby and it's little heartbeat popped up on the screen! My anxiety immediately subsided, but my intuition started to kick in. I turned to the sonogram tech and simply said, "it's only one baby in there?" She looked at me quite surprised and then said "why do you ask?" She then paused for almost a minute, and responds "there is a second baby!" We could all of a sudden see two babies on the screen at once. I screamed, "NO, I already have two babies at home!" As my husband is quietly sobbing, he exclaimed "this is the most shocking news of my life!" The sonogram tech then turns to me and asks if my husband is going to be ok because "he is starting to freak me out." She then says I know you're going to be ok, as I shriek back "I'm not ok!" Still in disbelief, we gather our belongings and ourselves as we wonder what the future holds. 

Now that we have processed the twin surprise, we will always look back fondly at this one moment in our busy lives as one of those times when we realize that everything is about to change for the better. 

How we found out that we are having identical twins: We were at the DR's getting our second ultrasound when a different sonogram tech mentioned only seeing one placenta. I asked the tech if that meant the babies were identical. Her response, not too convincing, was "I think so." Since, I already knew that one baby was a boy from an earlier blood test, my hopes for a little girl were quickly becoming obsolete. Although, I left the DR's office feeling happy about everything looking healthy, I still wasn't entirely convinced the babies were identical, especially since we could only see the sex of one little baby boy. 

This week was my first appointment with the fetal specialist and I was beyond anxious to say the least. The hi-tech sonogram was long and stressful but both babies were healthy, normal, and baby boys! The doctor then came in and determined the twins were definitely identical based on having only one placenta and a thin separating membrane. With the identical diagnosis my pregnancy now becomes much more hi-risk. 

I will be seeing this specialist every 2 weeks until 30 weeks (10 more weeks) due to the extra high risk. 

Please keep our family in your hearts and prayers for a continued healthy twin pregnancy. We are so very thankful for all the love and support from family and friends!

xo,

Ashley