Surprise...It'sTwins!

You never know what life has in store for you!
Life used to be calm and organized when it was just me, my husband and our beautiful son Joe. Then when he was a little over a year old I found out I was pregnant.

A little stunned that we would soon have another addition to our family, I made the appointment to confirm the pregnancy with my ob gyn. My husband came along for the ride and when the doctor looked on the sonogram he made a quick comment about a second empty sac. I remember thinking, what could that be? After reassuring us that I was pregnant and that it was possible I might have had a blighted twin, he sent me on my way to have a more in-depth sonogram that could see if that twin was really blighted afterall.

This next part I will never forget. Mostly because I went by myself to the appointment, stupidly thinking there was no way I could be having twins, and mostly because it was the appointment that changed our lives.
My husband who was working a temp job to make ends meet while he finished graduate school, asked me to call him when I was done with the doctor. As I lay on the table, patiently waiting for the technician to finish probing my burgeoning belly, I was thinking of everything else except what she said to me next. "I clearly see two healthy hearts beating here. You are having twins." I remember thinking I must have heard her wrong. Could you please repeat that again?

"Your doctor wanted to confirm that you were having twins, right? Well, we found two healthy heart beats and you look like your about 10 weeks along."

I know 30 weeks and more was what it was going to take to make this newest development sink in. How could I be having twins when no one in my family has twins? And how am I going to tell my husband? What is he going to say? What about Joe? How is he going to adjust to having two siblings instead of just one more? And the most pressing of all - how are we going to pay for two more little mouths?

I gathered my things, thanked the technician and ran back to my car desperately trying to think how I was going to tell my husband. He doesn't do well with change - from the smallest change - how about chicken instead of fish? to a big change- why don't we trade our car and buy a new one?

Breaking the news was not going to be easy, but I mustered my strength and dialed his cell phone number. The poor bastard didn't know what hit him. The conversation went like this, "hi honey, I am leaving the doctor's office and surprise... we're having twins."
The line went quiet and I thought he passed out. But he started laughing and asked me if I was joking. After about the fifth time that I told him I wasn't joking, he finally realized I wasn't laughing with him. I could hear the wheels in his head spinning and coming to the very same questions I had just catalogued a few minutes before.
Finally, he said,"Wow, twins. That's great." Impressive. I thought he was just going to keep laughing.

Well, like I said it would take a good 30 weeks or so for the reality to finally set in that we were having twins. And sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder if reality really ever does set in when you live in the world of multiples.
It isn't always a pretty ride, and sometimes there's lots of crying and screaming (and loads of pleading from us parents) but it sure beats the alternative.
Life can be crazy and chaotic, but it's definitely double the fun, (or triple the fun in our case,) to have our beautiful children accompany us on this journey.