Family of ....5!!!

I am just as shocked to write that as you are reading it (for those of you who don't know yet!)

We went in for our free ultrasound from a friend to find out the sex of baby #2 and came to find out that it's not just a Baby #2, but a Baby #3 as well!!!! Crazy! I wanted to document that day just so I didn't forget :) 

I can't promise you my blogging will get better...wish I could.

Here's our Christmas Card that has yet to go out, but I just love it. Jolaura Bell took our Christmas photographs and we actually had #1 and #2 written on the chalkboards and then she went back in with her photoshop magic and changed the numbers. Here's Jolaura's website!

So, let me just start by saying that both Grant and I thought I looked bigger than when I had Maks :)

Here is a picture when I was like 6 weeks or something early like that...at that point, most people don't even show, and I hadn't been overeating like I did with Maks! That's what I contributed it to, but now it makes sense. Glad I saved the pic. See Maks' baby bathtub in the way :)

Anyways, so here's the story of the day we found out. The many details are for me to read later and for you to enjoy now. 

So, we took at trip to Mississippi to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early with The Brewer's- Grant's sister and brother-in-law...mine too...I guess I will claim them :) So, Amanda has a BFF who gave us a few free ultrasounds with Maksim (notice I keep saying FREE because it's a big deal that she did this. These puppies are EXPE-R-NSIVE!!!) So, we just planned to take a day off work and head to MS and get an ultrasound on Friday incase she couldn't see then we could come back Saturday. Grant, myself and Grant's Mom, Debbie, and of course, Maksim, rode along early Friday morning (mind you, I had been to the 12:02 a.m. showing that morning for Twilight's Breaking Dawn: Part 1...just thought I would throw that out there) to get there about lunch time. We ate at a cute little place that put mayonnaise on my sandwich, but I didn't ask for it not to be on there, I just assumed that no good restaurant would put that montrocity on a sandwich....anyways...too many details. So, after I drank a few big ole glasses of tea to get Baby #2 riled up, we headed down the street to Amanda's BFF's work (we'll call her BFF since I don't want her to get in trouble in the ultrasound world for giving me a free ultrasound)...man, I am in rare form right now :) So, we met BFF at her doctor's office and headed into the ultrasound room...this is where the fun begins. 

At this point, ultrasounds are kind of routine to me. Wait, back up... Let me put this picture up:

My good friend, Lauren B, made these ornaments for me. I wanted Grant's and my parents to have something fun to open so we could tell them the sex of Baby #2. I figured that two of these ornaments would just have to be trashed, but she charged me kindly, so I didn't mind having her do these. Funny how this is a reminder of God's humor. My parents were in TN and couldn't come to the ultrasound because both of them had to work, so, I left them with two boxes. The box with a "#1" on the outside was the boy ornament and the box with the "#2" on the outside was the girl box. I brought the boxes with us in the ultrasound room for Debbie to open after we found out the sex. Our plan had been to excuse Amanda and Debbie when she was ready to find out the sex and then have them come back in to open the box with the girl or boy ornament. Oh, the reason I did the ornaments was since Christmas was soon, I figured these ornaments would be something they could remember this by. Little did I know....

Nick (Grant's Dad) was coming to MS later, so I left him, along with a few friends, a set of envelopes with these pictures in them. Again, the #1 envelope had the picture of the "It's a BOY" in it and #2 had the "It's a GIRL" picture. 

So....back to the ultrasound room. Like I said, ultrasounds at this point were routine...or at least revealing my belly. Another good thing to note at this point is that I had not had an ultrasound from my doctor. I had had the doppler to hear the heart beat twice, but no ultrasounds. And, today, I had the doppler done with the doctor's office knowing I had twins and seeing how the nurse did the doppler explained why they didn't hear two heartbeats. One was on the left side of my belly and one on the right...so if they didn't have a reason to fish around my belly, I can see how they didn't hear both heartbeats.  

Anyway, my doctor's reasoning was that since there were no signs of any problems, they typically didn't do ultrasounds until the 20 week gender reveal ultrasound. I just went with it. Although, I would have LOVED an ultrasound, I thought for my million dollar deductible, this really benefited Grant and I. 

I laid on the table and revealed my "larger-than-I-thought-it-should-be-but-not-by-a-ton" belly to BFF. Grant, Maks, Debbie, and Amanda were in the room and just kind of chatting. The ultrasound room and machine were super high tech and there was a HUGE tv mounted so you could see the ultrasound along with a smaller tv by me to see the ultrasound. So, BFF takes her little machine thing and puts it on my belly and then I look at the screen and see two different areas. Now, at this point, the others are kind of still getting settled in and not paying a whole lot of attention to the TV.  I kind of looked twice b/c it didn't look normal. Then BFF yanks the machine thing off and kind of looks at me and at this point I can imagine her trying to talk to me from her brain. I think she was trying to tell me "Hey, I see something and am wondering if you want me to get everyone but you and Grant out' ...but of course, I couldn't read her brain, so she puts the machine thing back on and then grabs my arm and looks at me with wide eyes. Now, remember that a second ago I saw two of something...or two areas....obviously a not normal ultrasound. So, back to BFF's big eyes. She grabs my arm and I look at her and say "It's twins, isn't it" and she said "YES". Ok...this is my favorite part....

So, like I said earlier, Grant, Amanda and Debbie are just kind of getting situated, talking, working to keep Maks occupied and I hear Grant go "WHAT?! Are you SER-I-OUS?" and BFF goes "Yep, IT'S TWINS!" and this is when Grant starts pacing back and forth with his hands on his head, looking at the huge TV and saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU SERIOUS?" and I remember thinking: "I am sooo happy that he is smiling and excited right now :)" 

Remember that as I am finding out, Grant is finding out, but also Amanda and Debbie. So, I am CRACKING UP laying on the table...my belly is bouncing so much and I am just dying laughing and Debbie and Amanda start screaming and jumping up and down...that leaves Maks. Poor baby was scared out of his sweet little mind. He starts crying and screaming. Now, just imagine being in his shoes! Poor baby is in a dark room and everyone starts screaming and he sees his Mommy laying on a table pretty much confined. So, after that, he wouldn't let anyone console him. So, as we tried to continue the ultrasound, he sat on my left side the entire time :)

BFF then asks if we want to find out the sex and if we wanted Debbie and Amanda to leave and at that point, finding out the sexes of the babies...now BABIES...was the last thing on my mind. So, I said that I didn't care...there went my ornament idea...at least with Debbie. But, who cares at this point! 

So, BFF starts with Baby A and tell us that those three little white lines mean that "Baby A" is a GIRL!!! I am sooooo excited! And, my next thought is "This could be twin girls! WHAT will we do!!!" I later find out that that was Grant's thought too :) BFF goes to "Baby B" and tells us that we should recognize the parts there because Baby B is a BOY!!! 

Let me rewind to a few minutes ago in the waiting room with Grant and I. I asked him what he thought it was and he said my thoughts exactly which were: "I think it would be fun to have a girl, but I think it's going to be a boy". What I had been telling whoever that asked was that kind of selfishly, I wanted it to be a girl b/c it's different BUT for Maks sake, I wanted it to be a boy. And, look at how AMAZING our God is! We got both!!!! I get to finally buy the BIG bows and tutu's AND I get another boy! Having Maks has been the most exciting thing and having another boy can only be double the fun!!! 

So, BFF goes through the measurements and says from what she can tell, everything looks great. They are fraternal...our first indicator of that is that they are opposite sexes. They have two placentas-that also goes along with them being opposite sexes. I read in a book that TECHNICALLY with fraternal twins, they could be from different Dads and have been conceived on different dates. Good thing I just have Grant as my only option for a Dad, right? Honestly, I don't remember much about the ultrasound b/c it was so crazy. BFF was shocked too and said that the video she did might be pretty shaky since I was laughing through most of it. 

So, after the ultrasound and pictures were printed, we called Nick, Grant's Dad, and had him pull out his two envelopes and it was pretty funny how this happened. We are all FREAKING out and he was driving so he had to pull over to the side of the road...meanwhile we are all dying for him to just pull over and open the envelopes :) He opens the boy one and says "Oh, what do you know? Another boy! Great!" and then he opens the second one and goes "Oh, a girl! How great!" but it took a second for it to register that we were having BOTH! I think he was pretty used to surprises considering Grant and Drew were twins and they were a surprise at their birth!

Then, we got to tell my parents! BFF let us stay in the ultrasound room and I called my Mom. She was all ready with her boxes. She was in the break room at Target where she's an executive and she had a few friends around her and someone video taping her. So, I call her, ask her to get her boxes and then tell her to open #1-IT'S A BOY! She's excited...there was a hint that she was hoping she would be able to dress up this 2nd baby in dresses, but she was excited!!! Here is her "excited for Baby Boy face": 

Then, after she calmed down, I asked her to open the second box. She is really confused and says "What?...I just opened #1, is it a boy?!" and I tell her to just open up #2 and she's really confused and asking questions and I ask her if she has it there and she opens it and goes "WHAT? This says a girl! Is it TWINS?" and I tell her yes and then here is her face :

I thought these pictures were PRICELESS! Thank you, Mom's friend for taking these! Carrie, I think :)

Then, we call my Dad and put him on 3 way. He's excited. I think it took all he could to not start talking about the logistics of having twins...he's an engineer and I knew his brain was working overtime, but he was excited! 

Here's some proof for those that can't believe it. Top is Baby B, the boy, and bottom is Baby A, the girl (names to be revealed in another post. They aren't a secret, but I can't put EVERYTHING in this post or I might be left with nothing to talk about...right...ha!)!: 

The rest of the day was filled with us calling some of our friends and telling them to open their envelopes or telling them "What do you think it is?" They would answer and we would say "Yes...BUT, it's also a boy"...or whatever the opposite of what they said was. I had one of my close friends tell me she was getting nauseous for me! 

Here's Maks' "I'm ready, World!" face :)

Here's another of my favorites that Jolaura took of Big Brother, Maksim!

So, over the past few weeks (about 3 weeks), we have been overwhelmingly excited and trying to not get ahead of ourselves with trying to plan things. One neat thing that I experienced was that as soon as BFF said "Yes" to my question of "Is it TWINS?" I had an immediate peace. I know the Lord knew my analytical brain would start thinking about money and things we have no control over and I think he wanted me to enjoy this brand new news, so he gave me a peace. 

Now, I am not going to say I haven't had a few minutes of freaking out, because they have been there, but one of my favorite things Grant said was that the day we found this out was right there on the top of his list of exciting days-along with our wedding and the birth of Maks. I have had some worries over how Maks will be and that transition time of him maybe having to wait for my attention, but I know he will be fine because in the long run, he will love having the brother and sister and love being so close in age. My fear that I had to give over to the Lord was the fear that Maks wouldn't get the attention he is used to from me and that I would be shortening him of something. But, I have to remember that it's not all about me and that we will have overwhelming support and Maks will not have a lack of people caring about him. I just want to make sure that I am there for him. 

We are feeling so privileged to have this INCREDIBLE blessing and couldn't be happier. I am not blind to the fact that it will be hard, but I know we can handle it with God. 

Did I mention that if I carry these twins full term (which my doctor guaranteed me today would NOT happen) then Maks will be 19 month-ish old. So, we will have three kids in under 2 years! 

And, I will leave you with that thought....