We're Having TWINS!

Well, the news is finally out: Robby and I are pregnant with IDENTICAL TWIN GIRLS!!

Robby and I had known for three weeks before we were able to announce it. We'd booked an ultrasound, solely for the purpose of finding out baby's sex, months ahead of time. The day of the appointment we drove 1.5 hours north to Springfield, MO. We arrived, had a semi-lengthy wait, and then it was our turn. I walked into the sonogram room, laid down on the table, the tech put the wand up to my stomach and as an image appeared on the screen, my first reaction was, "Something is different." She immediately proclaimed, "Do you see what I'm seeing??" I said, "What?" She replied, "There are two!" I said, "Oh my gosh... there are two! Those are TWINS! I'm having TWINS!" I started bawling- I couldn't help it. She left the room to "give me a minute" and I continued to cry and then laugh hysterically! My husband was in quiet shock. haha

We'd told the tech prior to the sonogram that we wanted her to write down the gender and put it into the envelope we'd given to her, then we'd open it later at home. We've done this with every child at every sonogram. She had us cover our eyes while she determined the sexes, then we resumed watching the babies on screen. I started questioning her about how techs can tell if twins are identical or fraternal... then I realized I shouldn't ask that so that I didn't get any clues. But she went ahead and pointed out the membrane on screen and said, "Do you see this? See how it's wispy? That's a good indicator that the twins are identical." So, of course, at that point I knew that both babies were the same sex. Right after this, my son Jasper said, "I bet they're both boys". Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the tech smile really big. In my mind, that confirmed to me that I was carrying two boys. I was a little sad, but how can one truly be disappointed when having two babies!

When we got home that evening, Robby and I were sitting on the couch and I told him I was opening the envelope that contained the babies' genders because I couldn't stand it anymore. I slipped out the folded piece of paper and this is what it said:

Talk about the most insanely glorious shock of my entire life! I am having twin girls! This is a fairy tale even I couldn't have conjured up on my own. I knew all along that this pregnancy was different (I even told Robby multiple times during the early weeks that we were having twins; I didn't know why I felt that way, but I just did), I knew it was assigned by God specifically at the time we conceived, and I knew this had been in His plan since the beginning. It just felt special somehow.

It was hard keeping my mouth closed and not telling the majority of our family and friends until we knew we'd see them in person, but I did it! I successfully kept it under wraps until we drove down to Little Rock the weekend of my birthday. My sister threw me a 30th birthday party at her house and that's when I shared the news with mostly friends in a very cute, creative way. It was so fun!

I want to share the video of how we told friends and a couple family members on Saturday night that, after three boys in a row, we're having TWIN GIRLS. It was so exciting and turned out beautifully! Each person chose a pink or blue balloon for whatever they thought the sex was. Inside the balloons were folded up pieces of paper. In the pink balloons were copies of the ultrasound photos of each twin, with either a pink or purple tiny tiara sticker on her head (it was SO cute!). In the boy balloons were slips of paper that said various things like, "Wrong!" or a simple sad face.

The following is the link to the video of everyone's reaction to our reveal:

Our Gender Reveal Surprise!

Robby and I are both so incredibly excited to meet these little Irish princesses. I'm 22 weeks pregnant today and feeling pretty good. At my last prenatal I was measuring 5 weeks ahead! I'm definitely feeling a lot more pregnant then I normally do at this point, along with being quite a bit bigger in the belly. It's already getting difficult to bend over and I cannot pick up my three year old anymore. My ribs are sore and sometimes it's hard to breathe, which typically doesn't happen to me until around 30 weeks. My how things change with multiples! But overall, I'm happy and cannot complain. I am blessed and highly favored and so are these little girls growing inside me. :)