The "Two-Fer" Details

So yesterday, we went to our Dr's appointment ignorant of the changes that were to occur mere minutes after arriving. I drug Andrew along cause I had been told we'd hear the heartbeat at this visit (which never happened, with all the hooplah. We saw the hearts beating healthily in sonograms, though). I'm really glad he was there. To tell him afterwards would have been significantly less cool.

I have to say there have been moments so far in my pregnancy where I have suspected perhaps I might have been carrying twins, but I dismissed them as improbable. As we waited in the exam room, with it seeming weird to undress in front of my husband in a Dr's office, and me feeling the cold December air on my bare butt as I sat on the table, Andrew had gotten a phone call, and was finishing it up as the doctor came in. She switched on the ultrasound machine, and squeezed the cold gooey gel on my tummy. She wiggled the wand thing around a second or two, with me watching. I saw two alien-like blobs appear on screen, but assumed that it was just the doctor getting her bearings, two different angles of the same image. Then she said "Oh my gosh."

Not something you want to hear your doctor say, generally.

Then "Are you seeing this?"
Am I seeing what? Um, kind of?

Then the doctor said the magic word. Twins! Almost giddy, she was. Or perhaps I was projecting cause that's how I felt.

Andrew, momentarily stricken deaf, did not hear. He thought he was about to get to gloat after he had a dream a few days ago that it was a boy. He thought she had said "a boy." Nope. After a stunned blink or two, he repeated Twins?

We discussed it for a few minutes with the doctor, who then told us we would see the sonogram tech in a little bit. We retired to the waiting room, two unsatisfying magazines, and some excited moments of getting a grip. Every now and then a new thing would occur to me. Jeez. We're going to need two of everything! Andrew did the math on probability of two boys (25%) two girls (25%) a boy & a girl (50%).

Having become accustomed to the idea of one little person wandering around the house soon, now I have to wrap my brain around TWO OF THEM who will likely look a lot a like (even given that they are fraternal, not identical--two placentas=two eggs). It's mind-boggling. Truly.

Plans have already begun to change a bit. We had planned to try to keep the "guest room" a little more guest-room-ish for a while, with no big wholescale shift to nursery mode. We figured we'd keep the baby in our room for a while, and there would be plenty of room to keep the queen sized bed & tons of bookshelves in what will be the twins' room now for a while yet. Till toddler stage at least. But now, we'll have to redo the room. We're going to need two cribs, and just basically a place to put baby A who is sleeping when baby B is squalling.

They'll undoubtedly do that, since while watching the sonogram they took turns. Baby B was wiggling, kicking, & doing the macarena at first while Baby A appeared to be napping. Little see-through hand balled up to the mouth (probably thumb in mouth from the looks). Baby B wiggled, protested the paparazzi cameras. Baby A napped. When the sonogram tech tried to get Baby A to cooperate with her measuring needs, she had to poke and prod and get me to switch from side to side. Baby B calmed down, went still with tiny hand up to face. Appeared to go to sleep. Baby A, irritated with the poking, turned a clearly perfectly formed butt to the camera for a moment. We could see the little braid of spinal cord snaking down and little globes of baby butt roundly formed, smooth. So I have already been "mooned." Figures. Just like daddy. But then, eventually, the baby, kicking and wiggling and waving arms about, got the measurements done and satisfactorily judged. From those, the chances of Down's Syndrome was ruled out. So that's a relief, although I wasn't really that worried about it.

The sonogram tech said "they take turns."

So yes, as Robotnik already predicted, I doubt I'll get much sleep after June/July ish.

But the good news is that this morning, sleepless at 5 am, I thought of a way to sketch my unifying thesis for my chapters of my dissertation. So that's a good development, which may lead to much rejoicing soon.

I again promise not to overwhelm the blog with too much baby talk. I think I'll probably go through with my earlier plan to see if I can sustain a separate blog for baby talk. I think I'll call it twofer. We'll see if I have time/energy/artwork to do so. Would anyone read it? Maybe.

In the meantime, on to the re-rack. (Which means: you get out of bed. Spend several hours up and about. Then you go back to bed.) If I can sleep with thoughts of "eating for THREE!"