1+1=4

January 31, 2013 was the day I had a positive pregnancy test.  I was thrilled.  A few months prior, we were pregnant and unfortunately miscarried.  So this was exciting, but I was not getting my hopes up too high on this pregnancy.  

February 26, 2103 I had my first OB appointment to see the baby and make sure all was well.  During the month of February, I was extremely sick.  I was not sick like this at all with my first pregnancy.  So I did a lot of research on morning sickness and a lot of people would say how you can get pretty sick when carrying multiples.  I remember having this feeling that I did have 2 babies inside of me.  The week before my appointment, Marc said that he hopes the egg split and we have twins so we can have our kids in one pregnancy and be done.  Ha!  (He wasn't enjoying my morning sickness) and he only wanted 2 kids.  We also always joked since the beginning of our marriage that we were going to be the "lucky" ones and have twins.

Little did we know, that day when we went in for our appointment and got an ultrasound, not only did we see one heartbeat, but we saw two!  I got super excited, so did Marc.  I had a feeling before the ultrasound that I would see two babies, but I think I was, in a way, hoping that due to my morning sickness.  LOL!  We went home in all smiles!  Sure enough, that egg did split.  We were indeed lucky.

| click here for all of my pregnancy posts |

Pregnancy felt very long to me.  I went into preterm labor July 25, 2013 and had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days.  After that, I was on bed rest.  I did my best to carry those boys as long as I could.  I also had preeclampsia and swelled up like crazy, so that was a blast.

August 24, 2103, my water broke at home around 11AM.  I remember feeling calm and so excited and all of these other emotions!  Instead of rushing to the hospital, I took a shower.  :)  We left for the hospital around noon.  On my way, I started feeling some small contractions, but I was still feeling pretty calm.  After getting checked in, the contractions came on real heavy and fast. Chase was transverse, so my best option was to have a c-section.  While they were prepping the OR, I went from a 2cm dilated to a 10 within 45 minutes!  Nope, they did not give me a epidural or anything. So, that was fun and painful.  ;)

We welcomed Brandon (2:15PM) and Chase (2:17PM) into the world and our lives changed forever.  But in thee best way!  Brandon & Chase came early at 33 weeks with Brandon weighing 4 pounds 4 ounces and Chase weight 3 pounds 10 ounces, but they came healthy.  That's all we wanted was healthy, happy babies and happy babies they were.  All the NICU nurses would always tell us how they would never cry and they just seemed happy.

| click here to read the birth story |
| click here for the day after birth |

Brandon was in the NICU for 16 days and Chase was in the NICU for 33 days.  Those felt like thee longest days of my life to me.  Having babies in the NICU is so hard, but it could have been worse and they could have stayed in there for a lot longer than they did. 

| click here for all of my nicu posts |

Raising twins is a joy to me.  It has it's challenges, but if I could do this all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.  :)

Here is a picture slideshow of the day we welcomed Chase & Brandon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here is a video highlight from their first year of life. :)