First Trimester of Pregnancy

6 Weeks Pregnant

My pregnant belly sure was growing fast with the two little bambinos in there.  I could not believe at 6 weeks pregnant my belly was already starting to push out!  I lucked out during my first trimester and did not have any vomiting.  Morning sickness is supposed to be worse in women who are carrying multiples due to the high levels of hormones surging through your body.  I did, however, have nausea.  I craved a lot of protein... loved some beef jerky.  I also loved cheese and crackers, and I wasn't too big on sweets.  Which is quite weird for me since I have quite the sweet tooth.

I felt tired all the time!  I remember coming home from working 12 hours, and I could not keep my eyes opened.  I fell asleep on the couch while sitting up a lot!  Topher would try to have me stay awake but I couldn't do it!

At the end of December Topher and I made a trip to Cabela's.  Topher was so excited and wanted to explore the entire store.  I was just so tired that halfway through I had to sit in a chair while he walked around.

Topher and I had so much fun walking around the different baby stores.  We got our babies their first present: two Sophie the giraffe chew toys.

We also got an ornament!

I ended up writing A and B on the belly of the snowman.  My parents also got me an A and B ornament for Baby A and Baby B.

11 Weeks Pregnant:

This was the time of the pregnancy where I looked like I looked chubby.  I also liked to lounge around a lot in sweatpants and t shirts.  At 11 weeks pregnant I announced my pregnancy to social media- Instagram and Facebook.  This is what I posted:

Make a wish,

say a prayer,

sometimes miracles come in pairs!

At 12 weeks pregnant I got to go in for an ultrasound.  I had not had an ultrasound since I was 8 weeks pregnant... after that time my care was transferred from the fertility doctor to my OBGYN, which meant no more weekly ultrasounds to see my little sweeties :(  Here are some of the pictures:

Baby A

Baby B

When I saw these two little cuties on the television screen I began to cry.  The last time I had seen them they looked like little blobs.  In just 4 weeks they had transformed into looking like little tiny babies!  It really hit me that I was pregnant!  And there were two babies in there!  So long I had waited to be blessed with a baby growing in my belly, and it was finally here... with not only one but two babies!  Baby A was really active during the ultrasound, so we got a couple of cute ones.

Baby A's feet:

Baby A's hands:

Before our appointment Topher was pretty sure that I was carrying two little boys in my belly.  I wasn't sure what sex the babies were but was hoping that at least one of them was a girl. During the ultrasound Topher asked the ultrasound tech if she could tell if they were boys or girls.  The ultrasound tech told us that she thought they were both girls.  She said she was about 90% sure, but told us not to go painting the room yet.  I could not believe it!  Not one but two girls!  I was so excited!  We kept this a secret from everyone for a few weeks.

Since my belly was growing so fast, at 13 weeks I decided it was time to go hit up the maternity stores to get me some new clothes.  My mom was still living in Utah at the time, so she asked me to send some pictures of me modeling the new clothes that I had gotten.  I'm so glad that I snapped some photos of this.  Although the lighting was horrible.

Altogether my first trimester was great!  I didn't have any growing belly pains or vomiting!  Just nausea and tiredness.

One or Two...

On November 30, 2013, Topher and I had a very important ultrasound scheduled.  We would be finding out if we were having a singleton, twins, or triplets.  Topher was pretty dang sure we were having twins, I on the other hand thought that there would just be one baby in there.  When Dr Larsen started the ultrasound he looked at me and said: "How good are you at reading ultrasounds?"  I said: "Not very."  But I was pretty sure I had seen two different sacs.  He then said: "Congratulations, you are having twins!"

I began laughing!  I just couldn't believe it.  Never in a million years did I ever think I would be having twins.  Topher also began chuckling.  We were so excited!

After the appointment we went to a Chick-fil-a nearby to text the picture of the big news to our family.  Here are some of the text messages we received (remember that we called most family members to break the news):

Mom: is that one or two?
*And then a phone call immediately after the text

Uncle Bob: !!! Is that two?
Me: Yep!  It's twins
Uncle Bob: So awesome.  I'm so happy for you sweetie.  My eyes are a little misty right now.

Aunt Leanne: No freaking way..... Ahhhhhhhhhhh again..... So excited!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Thanks!  Feels so surreal!
Aunt Leanne: You will be the best Mommy ever!!!!!!!

Connie (friend): Is that one or two?
Me: Twins!
Connie: Omg Omg...wow.. r u freaking out!!!!  What's their names.. lol.. u see your mom was right cause grandmas always always know!!!!  Yeah yeah... tell Chris not to have a heart attack and sign up for lots of hours at Gilbert.

Melissa (Friend): Goosebumps!!!!!!  Congrats!!!!  So amazingly happy for you!!!!!!!!!!  Love you guys!!!!!! I knew you could do it!!  Haha :) btw: is that two or three in there??
Me: Ha ha!  Two
Melissa: Haha!!! AWESOME!!!! Come on lil' Lish's!!!!!  We love you already!!!!!! Great!
Me: Thanks Melissa
Melissa: I've been saying for awhile now that I can't wait to be an aunt.  You know I'm not a big fan of babies (unless super close family members, like my sister had a baby) so excited for the both of you.  Been thinking of you all day!!  Feels like my sister is pregnant, love those little Lish's already... sign me up on the babysitting list!! :)

Marla (Friend): So we have two babies?
Me: Yep, that's right!  Twins!
Marla: I thought so!! So excited!!

Marissa: Yay! So happy for you guys.  You are gonna have your hands full.
Me: Yep!  Thanks :)  We've waited a long time for this!

Lynsey (friend): Omg!!!!  I'm so flipping happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Thank you!
Lynsey: Tears in my eyes for you Whitney.  You are gonna be the most amazing Mother!

Toni (friend): OMG!!!! I am crying!!!! I am so happy for you!  Not in a weird way but I seriously have been praying everyday for you guys!  Congratulations!!!

Ayami (friend):  Congratulations, Whitney!!  You gave my eyes in tear!!! So dang happy for you guys!!  So twins, right?  Thing 1 and Thing 2
Me: That's right!
Ayami: I really wanna hug you right now!
Me: Thank you!  Virtual hug!
Ayami: Just don't do heavy lifting and don't do much.  Let Chris do everything for you!
Me: Chris won't let me do anything really!  And at work, they are babying me.
Ayami: That's good!!!  So so so excited!!!
Me: Yeah, still feels surreal
Ayami: You waited for a long long time, so you should be!!  Courtney is sooo happy for you too.  She is really wonderful.
Me: Yes she is.  Best sister ever

We then headed over to Buy Buy Baby to check out all of the fun baby items.

Surprise!

The week of Thanksgiving I came home to a surprise out front of my house...

My Aunt Stacey and cousins Chyenne, Hannah, and Savannah had come over that day to decorate my yard for the announcement of my pregnancy.

The Big News...

November 19, 2012, was a very important date to our little family.  I was going in for a blood draw.  Now this was no ordinary blood draw.  Nope.  We would be finding out that day if I was pregnant.  The days leading up to it Topher tried to have me cheat and take a urine pregnancy test, but I wouldn't do it.  I told him that I did not want my dreams killed too soon.  It was much more fun living in a fantasy land of pretending I was pregnant, and I did not want that bubble bursted. Topher and I kept this blood test a secret from everyone.  We told close family that we were going in to get blood drawn to make sure my progesterone level was doing alright.  We wanted time to ourselves to either rebel in the joy of finding out that we were expecting, or time to mourn the sad news.  Our blood draw time was at 0745, and I remember asking the phlebotomist about what time do you normally find out the blood results.  She stated usually between 2-3 in the afternoon.  She then said: "Just try not to think about it.  Do stuff to keep your mind off of it."  Now that is hilarious!  Try not to think about whether or not I'm pregnant?!  Try to keep my mind off of whether I will finally reach my life long goal of being pregnant?!  That was not going to happen.

After the blood draw, we went over to a Wendy's close by for some yummy biscuits and gravy.  Then it was time to go home, and wait... and wait... and wait...  At about 1:30 my phone starts to ring.  This was it!  The phone conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello.
Dr Zoneraich:  Is this Whitney?
Me: Yes.
Dr Zoneraich:  Congratulations!
Me: Oh yeah?!
Dr Zoneraich:  What do you mean 'Oh yeah?'  You're pregnant!
Me: Yay!

He then went into details about my medications and follow up appointments.  Once I got off the phone, Topher hugged me and said: "Let it all out."  This is when I began to sob tears of joy!  Four long years of infertility, over 48 months of failed cycles, and numerous negative pregnancy tests had ended.  I was pregnant.  Topher and I were going to finally be a daddy and mommy!!!

So what did I do after finding out this monumental news?  I grabbed a pregnancy test that I had laying around in the bathroom and I peed on it.  And look what showed up:

Two freaking lines!  You cannot even imagine how many pregnancy tests I had taken in the past, and you cannot imagine how many times that I had seen just one stupid line!  This was so amazing!  Two lines!!!

What did we do next?  We headed over to my mom's house to spread the good news.  Now this was the fun part because no one expected to find out I was pregnant that day.  We found a little box to put the pregnancy test in.  We told my mom that we had found the little box outside her front door.  She opened it, looked at it for a minute, then said: "You're pregnant!" and began to hug me.  My lovely sister, Courtney, came over to my mom's house after she picked up her kids from school, and we had her look into the box as well.  She was so surprised!  Don't worry if you feel left out, we have it all on our video camera so we can remember it forever.  I sent the above picture via text message to my dad (he was back in Utah working).  He called me not knowing if it meant I was pregnant or not.  Silly guys never read directions!  And Topher called his mom to tell her the big news.

On the way home we stopped by Wal Mart to get another pregnancy test.  I wanted the one that actually says: Pregnant on it, and look what this one said:

Pregnant!

And of course we had to get belly shots of 4 weeks pregnant.