My Surrogate Life: my perception of a miracle part 13

The wedding was only a few days away so I went to the shop and tried my dress on to see exactly how much they would need to expand it!!! It fit....just barely..... but it fit!!! The wedding was awesome.....with one exception.....actually 2.....my  big, FAT arms. You see, the dress was strapless and had these crystal things all around the top.....which is great...for people without arm fat!!! By the time the reception started it felt like shards of glass slashing my arms every time I moved....so I got napkins and stuck them in both sides of my dress to alleviate the torture....SO CLASSY!!

The next day Missy and Dave flew in for the next doctors appointment. This was when we would find out if  both twins still there or not. We went in the ultrasound room wordlessly. Sheila began the ultrasound and all of us were holding our breath.....and then up on the screen was the most beautiful sight EVER......THERE WERE 2 ......2 healthy babies that were were the same size (even the sac were the same)!! They were moving and squirming around!!!! I looked at Mis through my tear filled eyes and just smiled.....again, no words were needed because I knew that this unearthly joy that I felt was coming straight from Missy's soul!!!!

So now it was time to start tapering me off the meds!!!! I was ECSTATIC! I was just about over the whole human pin cushion role and it couldn't happen quick enough. I was so OVER those horse shots!!!! As I was weaned from the meds, I was feeling really, really  bad and was wondering if I was going to be able to go back to work when school started backed!!!! And then it happened....

I woke up about a week before school was suppose to start and I felt SOOOOO much better!!! I was shocked!!!! It was like a switch was clicked and I felt good! I realized that my first trimester was over and apparently so did my body!!! I realized that I was gonna be ok...in fact I was actually ready to go back to work and be in the land of the living again!!!!

So, I went back to work and everything was great! I had a parent meeting and told them what I was doing (in case they were the few in the town that didn't know). I told them that I was not going to tell the kids themselves because they were only 5 years old and wouldn't understand. If their parents wanted to tell them I was fine with it, but it was the parent's call. School was going well and time kept on tick tick ticking and I was grow grow growing with each tick!

Missy and Dave continued to fly down every 2 weeks for the doctors appointments (except for 1 or 2) and everything was perfect! it wasn't long before I was waddling down the hall ways....and I do mean WADDLE!

I really haven't gone in to much detail about this part but for those of you that have never carried twins....let me just say that I was in no way prepared for what it would really be like. I thought it would be very similar to one just a little "fuller" ....WRONG, YET AGAIN!!!

These babies were the most active things ever. There was rarely a moment in a 24 hour cycle that at least 1 was not moving and most times both were. I would call Missy at ALL hours and share this with her so she too could experience it all!!!!

At the end of September me, Chris and the boys flew up to Michigan. Missy and Dave had a party so we could meet her friends and co-workers who were living this adventure with them and they wanted to put a face (and fat body) with the my name. A lot of our friends from Ohio came up too and we had a great time!

October and November passed quickly. I would come home from school and get right in bed. Now, before this experience I was not a country fan AT ALL. However, since I was in bed by 3:30ish each day I discovered that I was NOT a fan of daytime TV. What I became obsessed with was CMT. They would have country music videos on all afternoon. What I learned was that these videos were all about love and losing love and oddly enough, rain. I would get all caught up and sing along with them with tears streaming down my face!!! They were worse than Hallmark commercials!!!

Missy had read somewhere that in order for the babies to recognize Missy and Dave's voice that they should record themselves reading a book. Then they sent me the tape and I put the headphones on my ever expanding belly and play the tape. A first it was a little odd seeing the headphones hugging my fat belly but like everything else it became second nature. My kids would even remind me that is was time for the babies to hear their mamma!!!

It was getting harder and harder  to be mobile because I was the size of a HOUlSE!!! I was running out of room and I learned that a rib cage can stretch.....and stretch it did!!! Sometime it felt like I was having a heart attack....but they assured me it was ONLY my ribs stretching.....ONLY??????

Missy and Jill  and Missy's mom flew down at the beginning of December and decorated my Christmas tree and house since it was getting more and more difficult to move!!! A few weeks later as I continued to expand at an unearthly rate, Peyton(4) came in my room and said, " Mommy I don't to EVER want to eat that kind of food you ate that made "Squirt" and "Crush" grow in your tummy....NEVER EVER!!! (My boys loved the new movie that year Finding Nemo.....and decided that babies should be named Crush and Squirt.....so that's what we called them).

As it got closer to Christmas and I was having a problem of finding clothes that would still fit......(and I am talking about the XL maternity clothes getting to small!!!!)..... and taking more than 5 steps in a row required me to stop to catch my breath (because my lungs didn't have enough room to expand) .....and I CONSTANTLY felt the need to use the restroom because my bladder was being compressed.....  my mantra was "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!!!" The last day of school before Christmas break was December 19...... JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!!! And I DID!!! I made it!!!! I was 33 and 1/2 weeks and now I could rest....as much as a person can with 2 babies in constant motion!!!! BUT it was worth every second.....especially when my boys came and cuddled up with me and we watched the Christmas specials on TV....tears wold trickle down my cheeks...because I knew next Christmas, Missy would be cuddling with her very own babies!!!!