All the time I am asked, “so were you surprised when you found out it was twins?”
Sometimes I just nod and smile and say yes to the inquiring strangers, but oddly enough my answer is “not really.”
When my husband came back from a deployment in March we decided we wanted to start trying for baby number two. And sadly our first attempt resulted in a “chemical pregnancy” or in other words a very early miscarriage. As our daughter’s first birthday came and went we found ourselves expecting again.
I felt so very, very tired and despite only being a few weeks along I found my belly pouching out a bit (they say you show earlier the second time around) and found myself hating all smells and getting migraines constantly. I couldn’t believe the way my hormones were wreaking havoc with my body so early on!
Then while not so patiently awaiting our first 8 week appointment to see our little fetus, I had a dream. I was on Shark Tank (the popular show where people go on with ideas for inventions and businesses), and I was demonstrating to the panel a device I created that hooks two shopping carts together. I had my minivan parked in front of them, and I was showing them how I get my shopping carts and use my invention to hook them together then put one twin car seat in one shopping cart, the other twin car seat in the shopping other cart, and then my toddler in the front and push our great big family into the store! …. wait, what? I woke up with my head reeling. That was strange I thought. I remember telling my husband and laughing it off.
It was only a few weeks later we were in Babies R Us shopping for a baby shower, and I found myself asking him “I wonder if they even sell triple strollers here?” I think he looked at me like I had two heads. “Well let’s just look I said, you never know.” They indeed do not sell triple strollers in-store there. But the point is in the weeks to come I just found myself thinking, “what are we going to do?”
“I’m going I have to get a new car,” I thought. Get a new car? I hadn’t even been to the doctor!! I was even starting to think that I had lost my mind. As the appointment became only days away I was snap chatting my best friend, and in a moment of desperation I asked, “when you were pregnant did you ever seriously worry that they were going to tell you it was twins?”
I wanted her to say this was all normal, not crazy at all. It was probably a common worry all women had, right? Unfortunately, my friend said no she did not ever really think that. Nor did I think that with my first for that matter. Okay, so maybe I was losing it a little bit. I know I was making my husband lose it anyway. He finally came home from work one day and sat on the couch and said, “so I was thinking about it all the way home from work, and I think you’re right it is going to be twins. I just know it.” And I laughed and said, “yeah, I know.” And he said, “no really, it is.” And again, I nodded and said, “yeah, I know.”
Finally, the day of our doctors appointment arrived and we both couldn’t have been more anxious. As I laid on the table and the doctor performed the ultrasound my husband and toddler sat near my head and the doctor had the screened turned away from us. After such a long time that I began to panic there was something terribly wrong, he muttered the word, “interesting” while still staring at the screen.
My husband’s eyes became wide. “There’s only one in there right…” He asked jokingly.
“Well, actually, no.” The doctor finally said. “There’s two.” Then after a moment the nurse said to my husband in disbelief, “how did you know?!”
A smile spread across my face and we both started to laugh. Was I surprised? Well, not really. A little surprised I was right all along and not completely crazy. Mostly just relieved I wasn’t completely crazy. 
This was really happening after all.
Leiterman Littles 