mono-di

Okay, my other post was getting long, so here's the specifics about the twins...

monochorionic - 1 chorion or placenta
diamniotic - 2 amnions or 2 sacks - 1 for each baby
2 babies
2 yolk sacks
2 HAPPY/SCARED parents
a.k.a. mono-di (pronounced mono-dye)
They are identical twins :)

One fertilized egg that split quite early on

I called my brother to tell him that everything was fine but slipped. He asked me if the baby was happy & healthy. I responded that I couldn't tell if they were happy, but all looked well. "THEY?" I didn't wanna spill to the siblings before we told our parents, but oopsy :)

We told my mom over dinner... showed her the pictures and through teary eyes she noticed the two babies... "two?!" she cried... It took us a few hours to get ahold of dad, but he was equally thrilled.

Mark told his dad over the phone. He goes to bed early, but we didn't wanna wait to tell him the HUGE news in person.

We then (exhaustedly) headed out to Parma to show mark's mom and dave. We showed her the picture... "What's A and B?" You could tell they were equally excited, but MUCH more shocked. His mom was the quietest I've ever seen/heard her! But today I got the coolest text message from her...
"The other day my chinese horoscope said i would fall in luv unexpectedly & i thought i better not... but i realized what it meant & i did fall in love last night"

seeing double

As I noted in prior posts, I felt like something was wrong with this pregnancy and I was pretty vocal about it. After some discussion, we decided to get the ultrasound on the earlier side rather than later so we could sleep a little easier at night. I scheduled our ultrasound at the hospital at 4 pm. This was the magic "bladder buster" type of ultrasound. By the time we got there at 3:40, I was already doing the peepee dance like crazy. Thank GOD they were on time!

We started with an abdominal ultrasound. I was laying down on the bed in a position that kept me from seeing ANYTHING on the screen, which was super frustrating. So I had the joy of spending the next long few minutes reading the looks on the tech & my dear husband's face. First of all, the girl kept going back and forth with the U/S (ultrasound) wand. Over and Over. She had this crazy puzzled look on her face. Finally, I start asking questions...

Okay, maybe its ectopic... "Is there a baby in there?" "yep"

Okay, maybe baby's not okay... "baby looks okay?" "yep, there's a heartbeat" (I started crying at this point and thanked God out loud)

How many are in there?... "so far i can see one, but we're gonna do a transvaginal u/s to get a better view" "okay"

Still, the looks don't look good... "See any fibroids in there?" "nope, looks good"

So, I finally got the okay to empty my bladder, and when I came back Mark tells me he thinks there are two in there. "No hunny, don't worry. You're just seeing the yolk sack and the baby"

I cannot believe Mark kept his mouth shut throughout the transvaginal ultrasound!!! He just held and squeezed my hand. Finally, she turned the screen to me and said "this is what we're looking at here"... "There are two babies in here" as she pointed to them each on the screen. I just cried. We were so happy.

Our first baby pics:

Baby A Baby B

First doctor appointment

Our first OB appt. was kind of a disappointment. Not because I wasn't pregnant anymore, but because she didn't do an ultrasound. I am fully aware that it's not customary to do an ultrasound at a first appointment, but I was still really hoping for one. We purposely waited until I was 7 weeks 5 days pregnant to see the doc so hopefully we would have something to actually see on the ultrasound. Due to my connective tissue disease, she did order an ultrasound and told us we could go any time in the next 4 weeks. She answered lots and lots of our questions and gave a LOT of (much needed) piece of mind.

At this point I was still convinced that there was something wrong... I was frequently getting some rough right sided pain. As a medical professional, I was doing my best to talk myself out of any terrible problem I could come up with. I was pretty convinced at that point that the pregnancy was ectopic, but was reassured daily that if my tube hadn't burst by now, we would know quite soon! I know, I know... I'm my worst nightmare.


We planned on telling Mark's side of the family that night, and decided that even though we didn't get to see our little one at our appointment, we couldn't wait any longer!!! I felt so terrible that they had to wait 3 weeks longer to hear our news, but we both knew his mom would be so excited that the entire world would know within moments of telling her our news. Man were we right! We went out to dinner at Weymouth country club for Mark's birthday that night with his parents, his sister & bro-in-law and both sets of grandparents. Mark gave Dave and his mom a valentines card for "grandma & grandpa." His mom asked if he was kidding. No Mom, No joke! So she immediately starting text messaging all her friends that we were pregnant. No joke, the entire world knew within an hour... His sister Kelly cried and was so excited for us. I am so honored to have such wonderful in-laws. They're gonna be so great with this baby!

BFP

Well, not quite a surprise, but today was the day we got our BFP (big fat positive) :) Actually, our 3rd one... but we didn't count the first two.

On Christmas day we saw that magic second line we had been waiting since August for... but after our dreams were crushed quickly back in September, Mark quickly made it clear we weren't getting excited about this one (yet). I woke him around 4 am to get his opinion on the lines. He agreed there were two, but gruffly/tiredly stated "don't get your hopes up" and turned back over into bed.

We went ahead and hosted our first Christmas dinner. I was so proud of how my table looked and how dinner was soooo successful! I loved every moment of it, but I was super anxious the whole night, and my stomach was doing flips and turns like CRAZY. I just figured it was the stress of the day, and listened to my wonderful husband and did not get my hopes up.

When it came down to drinking wine at dinner that night though, he wouldn't let me have a sip... I didn't mind :o) My neices and nephews were so well-behaved and so adorable. I already love them so much, I can only imagine how much I could possibly love a baby of my own!

Around 3:30 that next morning I woke up again (please understand, using the "first morning urine" is the most concentrated, so if that's what time I got up, that's what time the test was taken! The next day I took another one of my 25cent tests (why not... I had like 25 of em?!) Again, two lines. I couldn't believe my eyes, so what else could a scientist girl like me do. I took another test and dipped it in water - see if that second faint line showed up too (it did not - JACKPOT!). So I showed grumpy Mark the test results and he again gave me a not-so-excited response. "we'll see..."

That same night was the night we spent with Mark's family for Christmas. Funny enough, Mark's sister asked me when Mark & I were going to have kids. I just laughed... "eventually." Normally we stay late and hang out for awhile, but Mark was super antsy that night. We had decided that I would take a digital test (one of those ones that say "pregnant" or "not pregnant" on the test area) the next morning. Those type require more HCG hormone in your body to truly diagnose a pregnancy. The whole night Mark was super cuddly and kept whispering to me, "Are we gonna go buy that test when we leave?" "So we're gonna stop at CVS?" "you ready to go now?" and so on...

Sunday morning... BAM :)

We decided to tell my parents that night. We gave them a present that "I forgot under the tree" Christmas day. On the outside it said "To Mom & Dad from Mark & Kerri" On the inside it said "Actually to grandma and grandpa from Number 7" Mom got it right away... burst into sobs immediately when dad read the label out loud. We put a copy of this picture on the inside of the box. Dad was a little bit slower to catch on. Kristin even had to say "Nonono, dad not me..." but once he figured it out that I was pregnant he was so excited. I don't know how many times he told me how pleased he was that night, but the look on his face was completely priceless and one that I will never forget. Pure joy.