ONE YEAR AGO TODAY:
One year ago today I went to the doctor, on a super, secret special mission. Only daddy (Matt) and Valencia’s soon to be godmother, Nellie, knew. I was going in for my first OB appointment. I was about 7-8 weeks pregnant. I had gotten ultrasounds with all previous pregnancies so I knew my Dr. (same one for all of my kids) would do one for me again. Some reasons he would do it would be to confirm my dates but other reasons would be to see if there was more than one in there considering I had twins before! Coincidentally, exactly-to the day-nine years before. My first appointment was on Wyatt and Anabella’s 8th birthday. I thought it was funny and teased Matt that “oh wouldn’t it be funny if we found out about another set of twins ON the twins’ bday?”. Little did I know….
We went through all of the routine as in other pregnancies. I was SO EXCITED. Dr. L was utterly unconcerned with my “advanced maternal age” and was as positive and up-beat as I was. After all, my pregnancies were ALL a total breeze, I was SO HEALTHY, the picture of health. I would always heal and recover within days. I had this. I was ready to go. Then, as a last stop before me taking what I knew would be a cute little picture of a “gummy bear baby”–what? I think they look like little gummy bears with the teensy arm and leg buds–home and figuring out the best way to tell the kids of our great secret, I went in to get the ultrasound done.
The instant we saw “the heartbeat” I knew. What, I’m not sure, but I knew something was…different. And Dr. L knew it too. Rather than make out one little body and teeny parts, the baby looked funny shaped and had more “parts”. But it was the heartbeat that told me everything and nothing at all. As soon as he saw it he zoomed in. As soon as he zoomed in I was sure, it was not one but TWO heartbeats. But I had no idea why they were like that, so close together. He said, quizzically, “Hmm, I can’t make it out entirely, but it looks like it could be two.” They were fluttering at about the same rate though, so he couldn’t be sure. His equipment did not have the resolution needed to confirm it. They were SO CLOSE TOGETHER, they basically looked attached. But something just told me, there were two. I didn’t want to get too excited and I didn’t want to be too afraid. Rather than panic, I tried to remain calm and take things one minute at a time. Dr. L sent me immediately to Maple Grove (thanking God every day that he sent me there, some of my now-favorite people in the world work there) to get the high level ultrasound to confirm what the heck was going on.
I’ve told before what happened at MG. I have it written down here:
https://thelifeoflaurencia.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/from-the-beginning/
When I was driving from our clinic to MG, I worried that one baby might not live. I wondered if they were conjoined, I began to worry about Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. And then I stopped wondering and worrying because no matter what my thoughts were it was all a big question mark. As you all know, some of the answers came later, and some could only come the day they were born. Today though, I’m remembering the joy and bewilderment we were fortunate enough to experience one year ago today. We stood in awe at God’s gifts to us. TWO sets of twins? Two different kinds! What the? I could have planned and planned and never have come up with such an agenda for our lives. But God has plans that we don’t always contemplate. And sometimes we don’t ever get to understand here on Earth all of the “whys”. All I knew that day was that I was blessed to be seeing my precious babIES alive in my tummy. I am so thankful that despite everything, I was able to know both of my girls for as long as possible. One year ago today I saw my Laurencia and Valencia for the first time. Here is the picture I have of our first meeting:
I love you Laurencia, just like I tell Lencie every time I’m holding her and kissing her all up. I love you so much and miss you even more. I wish I’d known one year ago what I’d be doing right now so that I could have spent every minute you were alive telling you how much I loved you.
NINE YEARS AGO TODAY:
Nine years ago today I got to meet these two, OUTside of my tummy:
Wyatt, 6 lbs. 7 oz. and Anabella, 5 lbs. 15 oz. I often say it was the most amazing day of my life. Except, I don’t really use the word “amazing”, the word I use is “cool”. It was SO COOL ok?
We didn’t know if they were boys or girls or one of each. Oh, how I dreamed of having a sister for Gabby and to get a son…well, that would have just been asking too much.
And that’s exactly what we got. Wyatt was born first, at 11:11 and I’ll never forget when they told us, “It’s a BOY!” We had a son. Wow. But before being able to really grasp that fact, I delivered feisty little Miss Anabella, breech, four minutes later. Everything went so beautifully. It has been crazy and wonderful and fun and loud and lovely having these two in our family.
They are presently sleeping next to each other pretty much just like in the photo below. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same right?
Happy birthday to my first twins. I fully expect to have another sweet photo of you, next to each other, wearing goofy hats, nine years from now. I love that I have gotten to spend the last nine years with you and that you got to spend them with each other.
Victory of the Lamb 