Silly Mom Thoughts

Something interesting occurred to me recently. During a conversation with my aunt, I was reminded how my Papa used to say, “You’re having twins, I know it!” to every single one of my female cousins when they got pregnant. Yet, he was always wrong, and always there would be just one baby. Sadly, Papa passed away in November 2007. I have been wracking my brain to think of anyone, but honestly I believe that since then, none of Papa’s grandkids has gotten pregnant.

Until me, that is.

And it’s twins.

That was so Papa’s doing. I can see him up there, elbowing Jesus and chuckling, “Hey, could you do me a favor? Send my granddaughter a set of twins? Sure would appreciate it if you could.”

Thanks, Papa.

(No seriously, thank you. I’m stoked.)

I was supposed to have an appointment on February 13th for a pap smear and all that fun stuff, along with an ultrasound to peek at the babies. Last Friday, the doctor’s office called and told me they had to bump my appointment back a week, to the 20th. I called back and said, “Umm, I don’t mind being bumped back for the girly exam, but I really need to see these babies again by ultrasound, stat.” (Fine, I didn’t say, “stat,” but I’m tellin’ ya, there was a definite “stat” urgency to my voice.) The receptionist said, “You’re having twins? Oh, that’s a little different then.”

They called me on Monday and said that I would be able to get in on Wednesday (today) for a real ultrasound with a real technician. I was so relieved! It’s funny, though. I have this peace about my pregnancy in the past week or so. I just know everything is going to be okay. I don’t know if it’s because I think Papa has something to do with it, or because I know I have prayers flooding in for my little twinkies from all over the US, but I have this calmness about my pregnancy that I have never experienced in prior pregnancies. I am fully aware that twin pregnancies are higher risk for fetal death, birth defects, etc. But, I also know that between my two tiny little grandmothers, they birthed three sets of super healthy twins. I think I can too.

So today, when I leaned back onto the examining bed, I knew I would see two beautiful heartbeats. Sure enough, I did. Both babies are measuring exactly the same size (8w2d), and had exactly the same heart rate (169 bpm). I saw them both with my own eyes. Baby A was easy to see, once again, and Baby B was much trickier to get a good view of. The technician said Baby B was just in a difficult position right now.

The technician did an outer (transabdominal) ultrasound first, which shocked me because I thought you couldn’t see babies this tiny from the outside until much further along. He said that it depends upon a woman’s size and uterus shape (I believe). For the first time during this pregnancy, I felt skinny. After all, I was skinny enough to see my babies from an outer ultrasound!

Of course, he still had to do a transvaginal ultrasound too, but I didn’t care. I got to see my babies on the screen for twenty whole minutes! (Along with various other body parts. I’m no ultrasound technician, but I’m pretty sure I saw a hand in my kidney.) I had been sneezing all morning, and in the back of my mind I worried what would happen if I sneezed while the transducer wand was up my hoo-hoo. Fortunately, I didn’t have to sneeze, so I didn’t have to find out.

And this morning, I had a new breakthrough with my morning sickness. First, I threw up! I have never ever thrown up in pregnancy and I usually hate puking, but man oh man, did it feel gooooood afterwards. I felt as though I could take on the world! Later, when the nausea crept up again, I tried some Altoids Ginger candies and they worked almost immediately. I don’t care if the reason they worked is all in my head, so long as it worked.

To add to my wonderful day, my amazingly selfless, sweet-hearted friend Danielle not only agreed to watch my kids during my ultrasound (this will be the 2nd time in a week she has watched them), but she picked them up an hour early so I could have some time to myself. I simply cannot believe how blessed I am for the people I have in my life.

So, there you have my day. Wonderful, by any pregnant mommy’s standards (even with the puking).