Finding out you're having twins......

At our 12 week scan, the sonographer said the words that we will never forget:

"I can see two babies"

WOW.

I laughed until I cried, and my husband became slightly hysterical until told firmly by me to calm down.  The news that they were non-identical therefore low risk and both seemingly perfect and healthy was a great relief.  Now all we had to do was tell the family and try and adjust to what was on the horizon.

With an 11 month old at home, we had fallen pregnant more quickly than anticipated, and the news that it was two made us feel doubly blessed.  Breaking the news to people was lots of fun - mostly people thought that we were having them on!

Typically, my Mum was unsurprised. "Well darling, you are already so huge, I thought it had to be twins."  Things only your mother can say.....

My Dad, just said "No, no, no, no no" and then "Idiots".  I think he's still in shock.

The Mother-In-Law had a similar reaction to her son and laughed hysterically on the brink of tears for some time.

The news did help to explain the extreme nausea and fatigue that I'd been experiencing, along with other wonderful pregnancy symptoms such as over-salivation (really hard to deal with whilst you are also trying to teach your 11 month old that spitting is naughty)

Processing what two babies would mean took a while - not least that we would need to give up our city centre flat and lifestyle, purchase a car big enough for three car seats, and generally face the future with zero surplus funds for anything fun. 

Luckily there's heaps of information available on the internet and we were at least able to gen up on what we could expect from the pregnancy and birth, and how we might be able to cope at the beginning with two newborns.

We also read a heap of books and did the "Twins Preparation Class" at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester where we'll be having the babies - all of which really helped us to understand how this experience would be different to what we had found when we had our son.

Being able to be well informed about the possible risks and complications has made it all a lot easier to deal with and understand, and we've been incredibly lucky all the way through.  Having the extra scans and tests has also been really reassuring.

As we are poised to have these babies in the next few weeks, I'd say we are logistically, if not emotionally prepared, and very grateful to everyone who has helped us on this journey - carrying twins.