Reactions

We've gotten a lot of questions about how we and others have reacted to the news. My immediate reaction was shaking, crying, denial. Jonathan never missed a beat. As soon as he saw two, he was by my side beaming. He was stoked even before we found out they were boys but he was over the moon once the tech told him he was going to have two sons. He's been my rock so far- trusting that God wasn't shocked like we were and that this is going to be the ride of our lives.

I laid on that table and my mind was racing. My thoughts were something like this

holy cow twins i'm going to have twins i have two babies in my belly i'm going to have four kids i'm going to have four kids under four i'm going to have three kids under two how am i going to go to target we have to get another car seat thank goodness we have that van i'll have to get up at 5am to go jogging before they all wake up we're going to have four in high school at the same time oh we're going to have four in college at the same time what if i go into labor early what if they are preemies what if i have to go on bedrest who is going to clean my house well i don't clean it now anyways it may be cleaner if i have to go on bedrest kiran is going to love this sienna is prob going to need therapy when she is older....

you get the picture.

After my ultrasound, we got to go tell everyone our news! For the record, about a month prior, I was talking to Brenna on the phone one evening and I was just exhausted. She told me that she thought I was pregnant with twins and that they were boys. And that if she was right, I had to call her first. I walked out of the office and called her while I was waiting for J to get the car. All I could get out was "I'm calling you first!" and then she started screaming and I burst into tears.

We called our family first. Every conversation was basically something like this
Family Member: "So what is it???"
Jonathan: "Its a boy!..."
FM: "Woohoo! Yea! Congrats! That's awesome!"
J: "And another boy!"
FM in a really low voice: "What?"

My dad wasn't speechless per se but he just said a bunch of words and it didn't make any sort of sense. My brother told me that this made our family even weirder. Jordan suggested Bo and Luke for names.

My mom was keeping the girls for us during the ultrasound. When we got home the girls both came running and Kiran was asking, "Am I going to have a brother or a sister?" I got down on my knees and said, "Well Kiran you are going to have a brother! In fact you are going to have two brothers!" My mom was standing behind the girls and she just looked at me like what are these words that are coming out of your mouth??? Kiran was by far the most nonchalant. Since Brenna had her twins, Kiran has had twins in her belly so it was just normal for me to have twins in my belly. She has totally taken it in stride even suggesting that her brothers could sleep in Sienna's crib when they came. The next day Kiran would walk around, put her hand on one side of her belly and say "This is Baby A" and then put her hand on the other side of her belly and say "This is Baby B." She will pick up the ultrasound pictures and say," But Mommy I don't know which one of my brothers this is!"

Its been a very exciting couple of days. We appreciate all the congrats and prayers and comments. I'm starting to come out of the fog. The fog was so thick that on Tues evening my youngest daughter ate three cupcakes for dinner. I got a twin book and I got some advice and I'm starting to make lists. I just keep reminding myself to breathe.

Did Yesterday Really Happen?

As soon as the ultrasound tech put the wand on my belly, she asked, "Have you had any other ultrasounds?"

I said, "No, this is the first one this pregnancy."


She put this up on the screen

and asked us if we saw anything interesting.

Jonathan immediately said, "There's two!" And she said, "Yep there's two."

Those are their two little chests- the little black holes inside the grey blobs are their hearts.


This was the part when I covered my face shaking, crying and feeling like I was going to pass out. We were in there an hour measuring everything and I don't remember anything. I know that they were 9oz (Baby A) and 8oz (Baby B) and they looked perfect. The tech saw two sacs which is good but she thinks its only one placenta. We'll have a better idea when we have a Level 2 ultrasound at Maternal Fetal Medicine on Dec 2.


We had NO IDEA that there were twins. Not expecting that at all. Looking back we can see how this pregnancy was slightly different but not in any major way. We joked about it all the time. Just before we went in for the ultrasound, J looked at my belly and said, "I don't think its big enough for there to be two." I agreed. Totally kidding and never really expecting to actually see two heartbeats, lots of arms and legs and boy parts. The ultrasound tech said it had been two years since she had someone come in for an anatomy scan and find out that they were having twins. She said that I was the furthest along that she had ever diagnosed twins (18.5 weeks). Edited: We now know of a few twins in the family but twins do not run in the family.

Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Ramblings

Every time I go to Walmart, I select a cart, start shopping, and then think, "Man I got a bum cart again." Today I realized that all the carts at Walmart are bum carts.

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Kiran is convinced that the song "If I Had a Million Dollars" by Barenaked Ladies is really "If I Had a Million Toddlers."

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I have a cold. Its kicking my tail. And I have no voice now so I have resorted to snapping at Kiran when I need her attention from across the house.

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Baby Poll closes tonight because my ultrasound is tomorrow! Hopfully we'll have some news to share tomorrow!

Exhausted

Sorry for the lack of blogging.

I have been exhausted this past week. Utterly exhausted. Throw in a growth spurt for the baby and a stomach virus that keeps coming and going and I've been pretty incoherent for the past 8 days.

Anyhow, I enjoyed hearing your guesses on Baby Caskey. I put up a poll on the side so you can vote anonymously and I can have them tallied for me. For the record, Emily guessed girl so you can use that information as you will. You have one week. Then I'll tell you my family's guesses and then we'll hopefully find out the truth.

Boy or Girl?

Emily is notorious for always guessing wrong for the gender of the unborn baby. She needed more information before guessing so I thought I'd answer her questions here and see what everyone else thought too. We get to find out in 2.5 weeks! I do have a mother's intution about this one but I'm not telling yet.

1. What are you craving?

Well, not sweets. Hamburgers, mexican food, popcorn, peanut butter, cheese and crackers. Basically any food except sweets. And hummus makes me want to throw up even though I used to eat it every day.

2. How is your nausea?

Nausea? What is nausea? My body knows 2 states 1. Happy Zofran-induced state 2. Vomiting continuously until I can get more Zofran state

3. How is your belly shape compared to the last two?

Pretty much the same- but bigger quicker the third time around! See:

Festival Season

Its festival season here in the South too (not just in India!).

Last weekend, LP & I took the girls to the Harvest Festival in Inman. I don't know if you've been to Inman but I have. And based on my past visits there, I did not have high expectations for this festival. I was totally wrong. It was much bigger and better than I thought it was going to be.

Kiran got her face painted

Sienna ate lots of funnel cake

Today Jonathan and I took the kids to the International Festival downtown. This festival rocked. I loved it. We:

• were begged by a Cambodian to go to his country and tell people about Jesus
• traded stories with an Indian who was from Rajastan but worked in Delhi
• met a Filapino lady who lives near us and promised to teach me how to make Filapino egg rolls (and promised to have my fave meat on a stick dish at next year's festival).
• ate empanados from the Dominican Republic, brats from Germany and egg rolls from the Philippines

I loved hearing all the different music playing and seeing all the different traditional dress. I think every culture has something unique and special to hold on to. I don't like seeing countries become all Westernized to the point of losing their cultural identity.

We don't have any more festivals planned right now- are there any good ones coming up?