Pregnant with twins! What I know so far...and a bump pic

I shared our huge secret on Instagram last week and I needed a blog post to follow up with all the rest of the words and feelings that didn't make it out of my still shocked brain!



So yeah, I am 13 weeks pregnant with boy/girl twins, naturally conceived after needing IVF to make our oldest son.

How did this even happen? Believe me, I've been wracking my brain over this for 11 weeks, how I got pregnant after all we did to have Lachlan (which was 2 IUIs, 2 IVFs and an FET). The only thing I can think of was that having a baby before may have temporarily altered or fixed something in me...gave me more regular cycles. I have no idea. I was about to go to my midwife to discuss supplements like DHEA and COQ10 for one last attempt at a natural pregnancy before deciding to do another round of IVF, but I got a positive pregnancy test 3 days before my appointment. The timing was eerie. But if you Google "spontaneous pregnancy after successful IVF" you will find a series of articles that talk about studies done that show this is apparently not all that uncommon.

We're so freakin excited to give our son siblings when we honestly believed he would be an only child! But I'd be lying if I didn't say we are also slightly terrified of having two at the same time! I go back and forth ALL THE TIME between happiness and anxiety lol! Where I'm at right now, I'm most worried about 1) the no-sleep aspect and syncing their sleep schedules 2) what I'm going to do if breastfeeding is excruciating again (I exclusively pumped for 5 months for Lachlan due to pain) because realistically, when will I have time to pump with a toddler and 2 newborns around? And 3) keeping Lachlan entertained and keeping up with his activities outside the house.

And I'm most happy about 1) lifelong friends 2) serious cuteness factor 3) Lach having a brother and we still get a girl!

My mom and sister want to come out before and after they're born so I'm feeling hopeful that will help us a ton. So yea, lots of back and forth over here, though we're finally accepting the fact this is happening, where for 10 weeks we were in complete disbelief! I never thought I'd be a mother to twins! This is an entirely new world for me, one that I'm excited to find out more about.

What I know so far:

• I ovulated 2 eggs which typically happens when a woman is getting "older" haha! But the fact that both were fertilized still just blows my mind. We couldn't even make 2 healthy embryos in a lab. We only had the one that became Lachlan. 
• My due date is June 26, but they will most likely come early in May and may require a NICU stay. 
• They are di/di twins, which means dichorionic/diamniotic. So they are in their own separate sacs with their own separate placentas. This is the lowest risk type of twin pregnancy to have. 
• They are fraternal. All boy/girl twins are since they have different genitalia. Lots of people don't seem to think about that though, so they are already asking if they are identical after hearing they are boy and girl lol. 
• We know their sexes because I had a very in depth Panorama blood test sent to Natera which told us their genetic disorder risk (low) and sexes. I thought we'd have to wait till our anatomy scan and I'm so glad we didn't because I really HATE not knowing things! It helps me to bond with them too knowing what they are. 
• We are buying a minivan. Bye bye zippy little Volkswagon Rabbit and any coolness factor I had left! 
• I can still see my midwife at the clinic I went to with Lachlan, but I will have to alternate my appointments by seeing her with the OBs since I'm "high risk" now. 
• There's a chance I can still deliver vaginally. As long as baby A (the one closest to the exit) is head down, we're good to go. And if baby B is breech, they can hopefully rotate them after A comes out. But there's a lot of other factors that come into play here whether I'll need a c-section or not. Part of me wants to have one to avoid another long awful labor and also to have a set date would be nice to tell my parents so they could book their flights and be out here in time to watch Lachlan. And part of me doesn't want one because of the long recovery process. So obviously, we're going to do whatever's best for everyone! 

So yea, there it is!



At 13 weeks pregnant, I certainly feel (and look) more like when I was 18-20 weeks with Lachlan. I've been in maternity jeans since 6 weeks and my winter jacket zipped up feels like a sausage encasing. My morning sickness has been awful, I puked a few times but it's mostly gagging and wretching at every single smell. My sense of smell is 1000x stronger than before and it's just awful! My appetite is returning though. I had lost 4 pounds in the early weeks from the constant food smell aversion. But when I'm not nauseous, I'm starving, and when I eat I return to feeling nauseous all over again. I know that being pregnant with twins is going to be harder than anything I've ever done, and scarier too with all the risks involved. I was super uncomfortable with Lachlan and he was just one little guy, so I can't even imagine how uncomfortable things are going to get with two. When I start to feel anxious about anything twin related or sad from the constant nausea feeling, I find that looking at cute twin photos on Pinterest raises my spirits.