Our Family is Growing by Four Feet

If you read that and thought, "They are getting a bigger boat!" you would be wrong.  If you read that and thought "They are getting a crew member of the canine variety!" you would also be wrong.  If you read the title of this post, however, and thought, "They are pregnant!" DING DING DING! You would be correct.

But then, what's that about FOUR feet??

Well, there's a catch.  We are pregnant with not one, but two babies.

That's right.  TWINS.

I assure you, no one is more shocked at this news than we are.  No one.

Let me back up a little...

We've known I was pregnant for a while.  Since St. Lucia, in fact, when - being the impatient person I am - I took a pregnancy test while at a fuel dock at Rodney Bay Marina.  It was positive.  Isla brought the stick to Scott after he came back from paying for said fuel, and we celebrated with the fuel dock attendants.  High fives all around.  It was really romantic in a fuel dock kind of way.

Anyway, ten weeks later in Grenada I still hadn't gone to the doctor to "confirm" things.  But I knew for certain I was pregnant, there was no mistaking that.  I was sick as as a dog.  Like, so miserably sick it was hard to function and do normal things like get out of bed or go to the bathroom.  A few of you read between the lines, picked up on this and guessed my state... but suffice it to say, I had a VERY rough few weeks and it was VERY hard to contain that fact.  You might remember this post, or perhaps this post - and maybe this rant?  Well, chalk those puppies up to the pregnancy and associated hormones.  I was moody, I was irritable and I was really, really sick.  Times two, as it were, though I didn't know it at the time.

So anyway, Scott's like "shouldn't you go to the doctor?" and I thought, "yeah, I guess I should."  We were over 10 weeks pregnant and I figured it was time.  So off we went to one of two OBGYNs on the island.  They don't take appointments at the office we went to here in Grenada because too many people skipped them or were late ("island time") so now the doctor sees patients on a strict first come/first serve basis.  This is highly inconvenient for someone from the incredibly efficient US of A.  Add some pregnancy hormones to the mix, some ninety-something degree heat and a toddler who skipped her nap (because of said waiting) and it is REALLY annoying.  Anyway, we waited for four hours to be seen by the doctor.  Got there at 7am, walked into his office at noon.  Kinda nuts.

He decided to give me an ultrasound to check things out.  He squeezed the clear jelly stuff on my belly, put the wand on my abdomen and that's when I saw them... two babies in two sacks.  Clear as day.  The doctor didn't even have to say anything.  I gasped.  My mouth went agape.  I let out a slow and purposeful "holy s**t" and then... I started crying.  Tears of fear.  Before you say "you are so blessed how could you possibly curse/cry at such a joyful moment?" I want to ask you: have YOU ever been told you have two spontaneous fetuses in your womb?  If not, please save it.  It is incredibly shocking and surprisingly scary.

So I cried.  Then I laughed.  Then I gasped.  And laughed.  And cried some more.  This is how it went for the next twenty minutes or so while the doctor tried to tell a zombified saucer-eyed me about twin pregnancies.  By the end of the twenty minutes, I was mostly laughing.  Scott, of course, was totally ecstatic with a small side of shell-shocked.

Long story short, we are thrilled.  It IS a blessing.  A huge one.  We have been selected to have twins.  We've been reading every book on the subject of raising twins and we're preparing ourselves as best we can.  This is an insane and totally unexpected turn of events, and we're still trying to digest it - but isn't this what life is all about?  A series of plans we make combined with plans the Universe has for us?  Isn't it stuff like this that makes life really, really interesting?  I think so.  Just when you make a plan and think you've got it all figured out... BLAMO!  Life throws you a "guess again" curve ball.  It's exciting, life-altering and, to be honest, a little scary.  You know what else makes life a little scary?  Three kids under two.  Yeah.  We've got our work cut out for us for the next decade or so.

I will write more about our plans and what is going to happen in the coming weeks because we're still trying to figure things out and there is a lot up in the air - but suffice it to say, this is a game-changer.  The adventure isn't going to end, it's just going to look a little different (okay, a lot different) for a while and include one hell of a lot of diapers.

In the meantime, we'd love your support.  We're elated that our family is getting super-sized and we hope you are too.