Birthday Week Day 3 {Say What?!}

Let me back up a little.

July 2010, we went in for our routine ultrasound. We were really excited to see our baby for the first time. At this point, I was 20 weeks along and had only heard the heart beat though doppler. On the way to the OB office that day, I had this urge just to pray for peace for whatever the outcome of the ultrasound. Something inside was telling me this ultrasound was going to be different. I am not a person that really worries or get worked up about things but I just prayed for protection and health over our baby. I prayed for peace. I prayed that no matter what was revealed in this ultrasound, we would be content and trust God. I prayed for peace.

Turns out that this would prove to be a very different ultrasound. 

Our anxiety grew as the moments grew closer to seeing that little black and white screen fill up w/ our growing bean. The tech covered my belly in the gooey blue stuff and put the little do-dad on my belly. She rubbed it around a bit to get a good view. I barely had the chance to look at the screen when she said, "well I guess there's no easy way to put this other than to just say it." Our hearts sunk. In hindsight, I should have known it wasn't something horrible bc generally it has to be the OB that delivers that kind of news. Never the less, the split seconds between that sentence and the next seemed like an eternity and dread for what could come next was all that filled my being. 

"You've got two in there." 

I was shocked. Michael was shocked. More than anything, though, we were RELIEVED! 

"What?! Are you kidding me???" 

I think Michael just kept giggling and grinning ear to ear. He kept cracking jokes and telling Malakai he was going to be a big brother of TWO sisters!

She kept moving things around and looking and said, "I can't know for sure because of how far along you are but I'm pretty sure they are identical." 

WHAT?! IDENTICAL??? 

This was all too much to process. 

After some searching for the membrane and peeking around, she determined that both were girls and most likely, they were identical and sharing a placenta (monozygotic/dichorionic).

 The ultrasound tech noted how calm we were. Apparently, the general response includes a lot of screaming, crying and freaking out. I think she just chalked up our response to shock but I think it was partly relief from the way she presented it and mostly the grace of God giving us a peace and joy for this double portion :) 

Following the ultrasound, we sat waiting to see the doctor. We didn't even really know what to say to one another. I stared at the floor, smiled at Michael and attempted to wrap my head around this news. (BTW- I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.)

Due to the fact that they were sharing a placenta, we would need to regularly see a specialist to be monitored for twin to twin transfusion (basically, where one twin is getting more nutrients than the other which can cause a multitude of issues for both babies). Praise God, we didn't have any complications and week to week received the good news that both babies were growing nicely. 

Thus, began our journey into parenting multiples. Sharing this news with friends and family was a lot of fun :) Some knew right away what they were seeing, while others thought maybe they were seeing butt cheeks ??? Yeah, no. 

Regardless, we were overjoyed and scared to death!