Our Journey - Part 3

Our Journey to have a family - My Pregnancy - Part 3

Well after 11 years TTC we were finally PG. It was a shock, and I couldn’t help thinking what could go wrong and what have we done messing with mother nature? We were due August 22nd, 2005

Well I hadn't told anyone in my family that we were going through IVF. I caved and told my mom on a really bad day during my 2 week wait. BAD idea!! Then I had to tell her that I was PG. Even though I asked her not to tell anyone they did anyway. We were away for Christmas and so I guess she thought she would tell people since we weren't there (anything to get back at me I guess). I was like 3 weeks PG I didn't want to tell anyone just yet and after all we had been through I thought it was our news to share with the family. According to my parents it was 'their' news to share. Man was I annoyed. They even told some friends that I wanted to tell. If I ever manage to get PG they will be the last people to know!! She was even telling people at work and customers and to this day she still tells everyone that we went through IVF. I think that is up to me if I want to share that or not. Ugg, oh well I had to get that off of my chest. Now onto more wonderful things!!

Well we were away for 2 weeks, it was great and very relaxing. I think it was the most relaxing Christmas ever. I really enjoyed it, when we are at home we have to go everywhere and see everyone, we didn’t do that when we were away. It was so cool on Christmas Eve there was a nasty storm and we lost power, we got to eat by lamp light. It was so nice. Anyway we stayed until New Years and came home a few days after. I won’t forget the day we came home as it was my first experience with Morning Sickness, or what I decided to call 24/7 sickness!!! It didn’t help that I had caught a cold, so at first I wasn't sure if it was the cold or morning sickness. We had to be up early to catch our flight and man was I nauseous. The first leg of our flight I was looking for the barf bag… couldn't find one though!! I was lucky and I didn't get sick.

Our first ultrasound was a day after we returned. I have a bit of a belly to begin with so the normal ultrasound wasn't good enough; they had to do the internal one. Yuck. Of course I was paranoid about that too, I was afraid it would knock something out. ( What can I say I was pretty much paranoid for the first 3 months! I was so freaked out as it seemed like it took forever and she didn’t say much else. I thought something was wrong or I wasn't Pregnant anymore. Anyway I had a feeling that we had more than one just by what the u/s tech said. She asked me how old 'they' should be. I was lucky that they let my husband in to see the u/s as they normally don't with internal ultrasounds.

Oh my that was quite an amazing moment, almost as amazing as their birth. Yes we had twins!! We got to see 2 little heart beats just a beating away. It was AMAZING!! My husband and I both broke into the 'ugly' cry as Oprah would say!! My family dr. was so kind she even called when she got the ultrasound results to let us know that we had twins and everything looked good.

I had to take the rest of the week off of work as I was very sick with a cold and I was worried about the babies! Wow 2 babies (man I had no idea what I was in for!! )! I had always wanted twins. I am an only child and I didn't really want to have an only child. I was concerned that with our fertility problems if we ever did have kids we would only have one. Problem solved!

Needless to say we didn't tell my family that we were having twins. We decided to wait until the first trimester was complete.

I think that next month was a blur as I was really sick with the cold and the morning sickness was starting to get worse. I ended up having to take the month of February off of work due to morning sickness. It was brutal, I had to go on diclectin, which worried me too! The morning sickness did make me feel better about the Pregnancy, as long as I was sick I new things were ok.

I had to go for ultrasounds monthly, which was good as it gave me some piece of mind. I would have a dr's appt then two weeks later an ultrasound then another 2 weeks would be another dr's appt. This meant I either got to see the little ones or hear their heart beats every couple of weeks. It truly was helpful on keeping me a little less worried about the Pregnancy. The first few months every ultrasound I would be so worried that there would only be one fetus and one would be gone. I always felt better when we got to see them.

We had another u/s Feb 14th it was a little painful as they were really pushing with the u/s wand. It was cool and I was past the 3 month hump so I was starting to feel a little better. (I got to keep the morning sickness for another month though!! ( ) My husband phoned all his family and I emailed the u/s picture to my parents, told them if they wanted to know how many they could figure it out themselves. They had marked the u/s Twin A/Twin B so I had to remove that after I scanned them in. As ultrasounds aren't that clear that early they never did figure it out!! ( I am sooo bad! We did tell them there were twins by the end of the day though, I am not that mean. (Although I would have liked to make them stew for a while. Needless to say they called everyone they knew to tell them).

By the end of March the Morning Sickness started to improve. My husband used to laugh at me when he would hear me crunching on crackers at 3 in the morning. It used to wake me up a lot. I was really nervous when it started to improve as the sickness was comforting. I guess that is the joys of dealing with infertility for 10 plus years.

I had been so exhausted for the first couple of months so now I was finally starting to feel better and my belly was starting to grow. We started cleaning out the house and getting ready for the babies, after 10 years of marriage and no kids our house was not fit for babies.

I finally got in to see my OB in March. She told me that regardless I would be taken off work at 26 weeks (middle of May). I was told that I would be on light bed rest at that time.. hmm sounds like fun! Not! Things were pretty much mundane for a while. I was suffering from Migraines now, which I never suffered from before, wonderful. We had yet another ultrasound (u/s) at the end of March; we found out that we were having 2 boys. I was kind of hoping for one of each but I really just wanted healthy babies. This time they actually looked like babies it was very cool and surreal. I was still in denial that I was actually pregnant, I think now it was starting to sink in a little???

In April I really started to get uncomfortable, we also started prenatal classes for couples with multiples. (That was fun; they just scared the crap out of me when they started in on the signs of preterm labour and all the nasty things that can go wrong with multiple births) Near the end of April I was getting low pressure, it was really uncomfortable. I called my OB. She made me go into the hospital for a check right away. That was my last day of work. I was officially on bed rest, no shopping allowed (we still hadn’t bought cribs yet, or any other baby stuff.)

I thought I would get lots done now that I was off work, but each week that went by just got more difficult. I thought it was bad a first but I had NO idea what I was in for in the coming weeks.

We were supposed to go camping in May however I opted to stay home as it was very difficult for me to get comfortable. I didn't think I would be able to get comfortable away from home. It was good we didn’t go as it was the first of one of my bad weekends. I was getting really big now, every appt to my doctor she would say 'oh I feel sorry for you'. That can't be good if the dr. is saying that??

Well May and June came and went with no major issues; I kept growing and kept getting more uncomfortable which is to be expected with twins. My goal was to make it at least to 32 weeks so I could deliver at the hospital my dr. works at. I was really hoping to make it to August 5th. My original due date was the 22nd so I was hoping I could make it that far.

I spent most of my time watching TV by July. Good thing I can stand soaps or I would have been in trouble! July was a very difficult month for me; I just kept trying to take it one day at a time. There was no getting comfortable and sleeping was not so great! The last two weeks of my pg I gained 40 lbs. It was horrible. I had to be careful on how I got into the shower; if I turned sideways I wouldn't be able to make it in the door. Wow was I getting huge. I was getting to the point I didn't know how I could possibly make it through another day. My last dr.'s appt I had elevated protein in my urine so I was admitted that day, July 20th. (There was no way I wanted to have the boys on the 21st as my mom would win the family baby pool) I was only 35 weeks and 3 days, I was hoping to make it a few more but by this point I was DONE!! (

See Part 4 – My Delivery