Twin Sanity book excerpt... We're having twins!

When we learned that we were expecting twins, it was difficult not to completely panic. One baby, I thought we could handle, but two?! At the same time? Freak out.

What finally brought my blood pressure back to normal was visiting with another mom of twins, seeing that she and her children were thriving, and having her assure me that I would, too. It is my goal to bring some of that same soothing encouragement through Twin Sanity, both through practical how-tos and "I've been there, thought that, you're not going crazy" journal excerpts from when I was actually in the shoes of an expectant mom of twins.

Here's a taste of Twin Sanity, written June 16, 2007...

We went to the doctor on Wednesday, and after visiting with the nurse, Dr. K. came in and started talking with us about our pregnancy in general. He flipped through my chart, and pointed out my hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) hormone level from the last blood they drew about three weeks ago. I knew from talking to our friend, who is a physician’s assistant in town, that the hCG level increases exponentially during the first trimester and should have been somewhere around 40,000-50,000 when I went in for blood work three weeks before. The number Dr. K. pointed to was 139,000. Hmmm… He sort-of chuckled as he said, “Your numbers here are extremely high—you know, this could mean you’re having twins!” Stephen and I looked at each other, looked at him, and I said, “You know, that’s not funny.” I think I even said something like, “Welcome to the doctor’s office; here’s your heart attack!” Dr. K. said, “I’m not really joking. It could be. We’ll take a look in a minute here and see.”

Moments later, Dr. K. revved up the ultrasound machine, had me lying on my back, and placed the magic ultrasound wand against my belly. It didn’t take an MD to recognize that there were TWO little craniums in there. “Well, guess what guys,” Dr. K. said. “Is that what I think it is?” I asked. “Yep—looks like you’re having twins!” Stephen moved closer to me and held my hand as the doctor moved the wand around some more, getting a better look at our babIES. We laughed to ourselves in shock and disbelief as the doctor described what we were seeing on the screen. Tears welled up in my eyes. Two?!

Wow. Just seeing images of your baby for the first time on an ultrasound would have been mind-blowing enough. But twins?! Two babies?! After getting snapshots of each baby and the two together, ultrasound time was over. Stephen gave me a kiss. Dr. K. flipped the lights back on, and we talked about a few things before the end of our appointment time. Now there were other things to think about—for example, now that we were talking multiple births, we were talking about a high-risk pregnancy. We needed to start thinking about whether or not we wanted to plan on a c-section, since unless both babies are head-down for delivery, an emergency c-section could be required anyway. Would the babies make it to 40 weeks? Almost definitely not—apparently if multiples make it to 37 weeks, the doctors call it good and go in after them, so our babies would probably be born around December 7 instead of closer to their due date of December 29. Hmmm… Oh, yeah, I knew I had some questions written down—thank goodness I’d written them down—there was no way I could think clearly enough to remember anything at this moment. Among other items on my list was my friend, Katie’s, wedding date of November 17. I had already told my dear friend, Jennifer, that I wouldn’t be able to fly to her Philadelphia wedding in November, but I’d been wondering if I might be able to drive home for Katie’s wedding, even if I were too big to fit into a bridesmaid’s dress. I simply said, “Well, I guess I won’t be traveling for any weddings in November,” and crossed that item off my list.

Dr. K. congratulated us and shook our hands, and on the way out of the examining room, Stephen held up two fingers at the office staff. “It’s twins!” They were all very excited for us. We walked down the hall to the lab so I could have some blood drawn, and while I was waiting, Stephen called work, telling them they’d better take him off the flying schedule for the rest of the day [the only time before or since that he’d ever done this] because he was in no shape to fly—he just found out we’re having twins! (His friend/flight-commander good-naturedly laughed at him on the phone.) We left the office probably looking like deer in headlights. What exciting news! What completely shocking news. We kept looking at each other. Two babies? Two babies?! Two?! Huh…