A Second Set of twins!
I was hanging out with my sister-in-law one day when she told me about one of our mutual friends who just found out she was pregnant with her SECOND set of twins. “Wow” I thought, “That would be so cool!” I was immediately so excited for her and secretly a little bit jealous. It just sounded awesome to have two sets of twins and definitely not something I had heard of happening often. There was, of course, a part of me that felt overwhelmed for her as well. I couldn’t even imagine the thought of having another set of two babies at the same time. I knew the odds of me having twins again went up a little since I was a twin mom already, but the chances were so slim. I think I read the odds were every 1 out of 700,000 women have two sets of twins….? Crazy odds.
I was getting baby fever again when the big twins were almost one, and thought I could definitely handle another little baby in the mix….I was thinking of just 1 little addition to the family, mind you! Haha. When we found out we were pregnant again, I wanted to have an ultrasound ASAP. I didn’t expect to see two babies, but was very anxious to find out. Michael came with me this time, and we brought the older twins… Of course Sebastian unplugged the sonogram machine as soon as the nurse set us up, haha.
I requested the same sonographer as before, if she was free, just in case it was a second set of twins (and because I really liked her). She made me feel so at home and good about the idea of bringing more children into the world! We need more people like her honestly.
After we were all set up, she turned and looked me ….A SECOND set of TWINS! We couldn’t believe it! I was so excited and so frightened at the same time. Michael could clearly tell there were two sacks and so could I, but I thought, “That must be a different part of my body, but what!?” After the shock wore off a bit and I was done crying tears of joy and fear, me next thought was, “What are we gonna name them?” I just get so excited to use my favorite names and getting to use two names at a time AGAIN? Woohoo! (Funny sidenote is that Michael and I have gone back-and-forth on names for both pregnancies and landed on names we didn’t plan on in the beginning!)
After we left and things started settling in..
We were excited to do another gender reveal, I was anxiously praying that at least one of the babies was a girl. November had just turned six when we found out we were pregnant again, and I desperately wanted her to have a little sister to play with while she was still young!
The 20 week ultrasound is always very exciting. The first time we went we brought the kids with us, being able to see both babies jumping around and kicking is always so emotional everyone. The second time, though, we thought it would be more fun to surprise the older kids with the babies genders, and do more of a party reveal! Again, you better believe I was praying that at least one of them was a girl, for sweet Novi’s sake. We let them hit baseballs one at a time, Sawyer got to hit Leo’s ball and Novi surprised herself and the rest of the family with baby B, another GIRL!!!
This second pregnancy continued…but not as planned. Smooth, easy and pretty pain free was what I expected! I did not expect to get HUGE or feel HUGE.
Unfortunately, this pregnancy brought a lot more side effects; morning, sickness, joint pain, varicose veins, and just overall much more discomfort. I felt like everyone could tell I had two babies this time! I walked around with a waddle from the very beginning, and for some weird reason I didn’t stay in as much shape as they said I would running after two 18 month olds! haha To say the least it was just an uncomfortable 9 months. This I hear is normal though with the second and proceeding pregnancies. I should have been prepared and will be with the next one for sure.
Reaching about 37 weeks both babies were still breach, and too squished to move around it seemed so Michael and I decided the safest route again was to have another C-section. I promised myself though that one day I would be a “homebirth Mama.” We shall see. The doctor that delivered my first set of twins accepted me as his patient around 37 weeks and we scheduled my first appointment with him at 38 weeks. As soon as he saw me he decided it was best to go ahead and have the c-section that very evening. Most twin pregnancies don’t make it to 38 weeks! Thank goodness my mother was already here ready to help out! So, without arguing we went ahead and gave had the babies that evening at almost 39 weeks again, to two very healthy babies. Leo came out just over 7 pounds and little Lucy was only 5’10! So small, I thought, for having almost all the boys be around 7 pounds. But they assured me it was still considered a very good weight for being a twin. Boy, were they the cutest! Seeing their little faces and holding for the first time is always overwhelming and to think I could be doing this twice everytime….haha, oh my.
Well, we did it! We brought another TWO children into this world. And, since twins was all I knew, I was pretty confident I could do it again. I really did feel like a pro with two at a time now. Nursing two at a time, changing two at a time, constantly repeating everything I had just done with one baby….Nothing seemed daunting that I hadn’t already experieced. BUT, conquering two new babies along with two toddlers at home? Now that was the next question. How in the world is this going to work?…..We shall see.
And so it begins… the life of 4 babies under 2 years old!