I suppose I should start from the beginning...

Jake and I had always agreed to start having children the year that I turn 24. I'm not really sure why that was the magic year, but it just seemed right to us. I guess we just figured that if we tried to time it out just right (wait until we get a new car or have every bill paid off) we wouldn't ever get started. So, 2013 was the year to start. And it didn't take us very long.

On February 12, I came home for lunch (I only get a half an hour lunch break) and decided to take a pregnancy test. I wouldn't recommend that.  Once I saw the positive results, I was jittery all afternoon at work and could not concentrate for the life of me.  Immediately after work, I went to a local shop and had a t-shirt made that read "World's Best Dad." (I totally stole that idea from Grey's Anatomy :) I knew I would make it home before Jake would, so I had planned on putting the shirt on our bed with the positive pregnancy test so he would see it when he went up to our room to change his clothes after work.  At about the time Jake got home, I got a call from my sister-in-law, Sarah.  During the whole conversation with her, I so wasn't focused. I wanted to be upstairs for when Jake saw his "surprise," but I didn't know how to stay on the phone and try to keep him downstairs at the same time without saying anything. Eventually I just had to let Sarah go (abruptly, sorry!) and I stood on the stairs as I saw him looking at it. He turned to look at me and asked me if I was serious, which I was, and hugged me. He was quiet, like usual, but I knew he was excited and scared. Which is exactly how I felt.

Not too clear of a picture, but I think you get the idea! :)

I scheduled an appointment with the doctor to verify that I was pregnant on the next day. I did all the usual stuff and they confirmed that I was, indeed, pregnant. We then scheduled my first ultrasound and they let me go. That was that.

Our first ultrasound was on March 25, and I was at ten weeks. We had told both of our families prior to this appointment, but we hadn't gone public with it yet. We were planning on doing that the evening of the 25th, after our first appointment just to make sure everything was okay. I was so excited to see our little booger (even though I knew it was basically going to look like a gummy bear).  It felt like forever before we even went into the ultrasound room, but that was most likely because I had to pee so bad. When we got in there, the tech began the ultrasound. I was a mess of emotions already, and I figured Jake was, too, because he was pretty quiet. The ultrasound was underway, and I jokingly asked that there was only baby in there. She replied that there was only one baby, and continued to do the rest of her tasks. She even checked around the uterus to make sure, and she didn't see anything. Then, she began to measure the crown to rump length. This is where she was having a bit of trouble.  She then realized that she "fibbed" to us, and there was a second baby hiding behind the first one. I'm pretty sure I laughed, because I didn't know what else to do. There was no way that this was happening to us. And again, Jake was quiet. I think he was utilizing that rule that we all learned in kindergarten where "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." We were both just shocked. She then went to find two heartbeats, and sure enough, there were two.

This picture shows proof of the two heartbeats.

The tech finished up the ultrasound and had us sit out in the lobby as she made a CD of the ultrasound pictures for us to take home.  As we sat there, we just kind of let the news sink in. All I remember thinking about was that we now needed two of everything.  I had known that one baby was going to be expensive, but two? That just blew my mind. 

Here is our pregnancy announcement. I had one made before our ultrasound, but after we found out we were having twins, I had to go home and make another one. The things I do for those babies! :)

Ok... moving on. The next day, Dr. Nikki Ehn wanted to see me, so I stopped at the office so she could talk to me. Apparently after looking over our ultrasound, she had some concerns that our twins might be conjoined. She didn't think so because she saw movement, but they were so close together and she also didn't see a dividing membrane.  She wanted us to go to Des Moines to the Perinatal Center of Iowa so they could take a look at our case of the twins. So, our appointment in Des Moines got scheduled for that Friday.

When we got there, we sat in the waiting room for a LONG time. I suppose it was because it was because they tried to squeeze us in, and I'm sure it also seemed longer because we didn't know what was coming. Once we got into this ultrasound room, they began and almost immediately confirmed that they were not conjoined. That was a relief. However, we did find out that our twins were called monoamniotic-monochorionic, or momo for short. This happens when the egg splits about 6-8 days after conception. If it had split any later, then they would have been conjoined twins.

At this appointment, our doctor explained to us that I would have to go into the hospital at 24 weeks until the babies are born. He also told us that the babies would not go past 32 weeks gestational age. He honestly didn't explain a whole lot to us, other than what the twins were called so we could go home and research it.

We were scheduled to come back in four weeks, and when we were there, they had already found cord entanglement in the ultrasound. That is one of the big concerns for MoMo twins, and why they are such a high risk pregnancy. Because there isn't a membrane separating the babies, they can both float around freely, which causes their umbilical cords to tangle and basically tie itself in a knot.  Another concern is that as babies grow inside me, the more likely they could compress their own or the other babies' cord. This would then cut off oxygen and blood supply to that baby. Scary stuff!

We continued to see doctors in Des Moines and they kept a pretty good eye on the babies.  At the last appointment, we scheduled a day to go into the hospital. And July 1 was the lucky day!