How It All Went Down: The story of my pregnancy and childbirth - Part 2

The first trimester of my pregnancy went really well.  I was nauseous a lot, but never actually sick and I didn't gain any weight.  My OB told me that I had a "generously-sized uterus".  I thought this was strange considering that I've always been such a small person, but didn't think too much of it since my OB didn't say anything more about it.  At 13 weeks, I felt my first kick.  Not just a little kick, but a jab to the ribs that made me nearly jump out of my seat.  The kicks continued through the staff meeting where I was trying to type minutes.  Everyone said that was really early to feel the baby kicking.

Shortly before my 20 week ultrasound, my belly grew like crazy and I started packing on the pounds.  I figured my body was just playing catch-up since I didn't gain any weight my first trimester.

Jonathan and I had been going to a Bradley Method class with the hope of having our baby naturally (i.e. vaginally and without drugs).  I was following the Brewer diet eating lots of protein and I still felt pretty great.  At my appointment before my ultrasound, my OB briefly found the baby's heartbeat just under my rib cage, lost it, and then found it again really low.  So I know the baby can move around a lot at this time, but that still struck me as odd.

Finally it was time for my 20 week ultrasound.  Jonathan and I brought both our moms to see their new grandbaby.  The tech joked with our moms about having to pay admission to come in.  We were all very excited and anxious to hear that the baby was healthy and find out the sex.  This is where it gets crazy.

Tech:  Here's Baby A's head...

Us to Tech:  Excuse me?!?!  Baby A?!?!  No, no.  There's only one baby.  One of those round things is a head and the other is a bottom - right?

Tech:  Didn't you know you were having twins?

Us to each other:  Do you have twins  in your family?!?!  NO!

The poor tech spent the remainder of the ultrasound proving to us that there really were two babies.  I didn't believe it until he showed me the profile of both of them in the same shot.  I felt like I was witnessing a miracle - and at the same time, I was panicking and full of terror at how this changed everything.  The only experience I ever had that was the least bit similar (and even this is a stretch) is standing at the alter on your wedding day.  So many emotions all at once.

Now that we knew there were two we really wanted to know the sex.  He told us that he could tell that one was a girl for sure and he was pretty sure the other was also a girl even though he couldn't see it.  I assumed this meant identical girls, but he wasn't allowed to tell us anything more.