Just us.....: The twins turn 8.......

Sofia and Natalie

My daughters turned 8 years old this Monday the 12^th. It’s usual to hear parents say “I can’t believe my kids are this old!” But really… how has 8 years gone by so fast? I look at my girls and can’t help but wonder what a lucky mom I truly am. I remember 3 wks after having had a miscarriage, redoing my blood work to make sure my HCG levels were going down, I reviewed my results and realized that instead of the levels decreasing they were even higher than before! When you are pregnant, your HCG hormone levels increase and double every 2 days. When you lose a pregnancy your levels should normally decrease.

Two days later I redid my blood work and the results were now 4 times higher!! Two things ran through my head, - 1. I must have a tumor growing like crazy or 2. A multiple pregnancy. Since I had lost my first pregnancy, I ruled that out of the picture completely . I called Rui and told him we needed to see the doctor ASAP! Off we went that night to my doctor (who’s like family to me) and I remember him saying it was going to be ok guys, let’s just do a quick ultrasound to see if everything looks ok.

As he looked at the screen he was quite, and he kept moving the ultrasound wand back and front, side to side and took pictures and would say nothing!!! I was so scared and prepping myself for the worst. He then stopped and called Rui over and pointed to the monitor. “Look guys, this tiny sac holds a little baby…… and now look at this tiny sac, this one also holds a little baby.” What!!!!! I'm sorry, come again..... My mouth dropped and Rui just looked sooo confused. “ Guys, you are pregnant and going to have twins!!!”

Not only were we expecting, but God gave us back the one we lost and we were going to be parents to twin babies!! And that my friend was 8 years ago. I can’t imagine my life now with out them. They bring out the best in me and keep me very grounded. I never imagined how great having twins would be. I remember having people tell me how hard it was going to be and the horror stories they told of screaming babies, tons of diapers and sleepless months. I do admit, the girls were not easy. I think I finally slept a full night sleep ( 6 hours straight) when the girls turned 18 months, but I’ll have to say this, I enjoyed every sleepless night. I’m not sure if it was the increased adrenalin my body was on for the first 2 years, but I was so happy to be a mother to two beautiful healthy twin girls. Sofia was born weighting 5lbs and leaving the hospital at 4lbs, and Natalie was born weighting 3lbs and leaving a little over 2lbs 6oz. They were born at 38 weeks gestation and only had to stay in the hospital for 2wks because they ate very slow. The 2 weeks would have killed me if I was home, but I also had to stay at the hospital for 2 weeks because of the puncture in my spinal cord which was caused by the epidural. So I was always close by. So many memories come to my mind when ever I think back to those first couple of months, I have tons of pictures when they were born, but I have to convert them into digital pics. I’ll post them soon.

So we celebrated there 8^th birthday this Saturday and the weather was perfect. They had all their best friends and family over to enjoy their day. We had arts and craft time, a piñata, and lots of games like pillow sac racing and “simon says”. We defiantly had a wonderful time.