I am going to start at the beginning of the RouseHouse. Before Ty and I decided to tie the knot we had dreams. Big dreams of a big happy family. Id be lying if I said we didn't want the American dream. We wanted the perfect cliche of a life: married, our first child right away, a happy little family with a stay at home wife that Ty gets to come home to every night after work. But the one thing we wanted more than anything in the world was a baby. After marrying the love of my life, we immediately started trying to get pregnant. A couple months went by, but we kept our hopes high and enjoyed our happy little life. After 6 months passed with no sign of a little bean we started to get a little frustrated. As everyone around us continued to pop out kids like no bodies business, we kept on trying. Each month slowly turned to more and more heartache and more and more negative pregnancy tests. I even got to the point of telling myself that "maybe that was just a bad test" or "maybe it's just not showing up yet.". But as the trash can continued to fill with "bad" pregnancy tests our hearts started grieving for the child we longed for so badly. After 15 months of trying we decided to seek the help of a fertility specialist through our OB. We each went through rounds of tests to determine that we had a slim chance of getting pregnant on our own. We were completely heartbroken but willing to do whatever it takes. We did our first IUI (interuterine insemination) and were even more heartbroken when we saw yet another negative pregnancy test. We continued to pray for a baby and did two more heart wrenching failed IUIs. After the 3rd one we made the decision that would change our lives, financially and physically. We decided to try IVF, something we had never thought in a million years we would do. After almost a month of injections, we were yet again devastated when my surgery had to be cancelled due to dangerously high hormone levels. We had amazing doctors that explained that it's rare to have it cancelled and helped us out a bit so we could try one more time. Another month of injections and one surgery later, all we had to do was wait to see if it took. The longest 8 days of our lives! The morning of April 4th, just two months shy of our 2nd wedding anniversary, I went in for a blood draw and was told they would call in a few hours to let us know if we were pregnant. The call came and my heart was beating out of my chest, with sweaty hands and a shaky voice, I answered my phone. The words "congratulations, you are pregnant" seemed like a complete dream. It took so long to set in, I sat on the ground and stared at Chevy (my Boston terrier) with tears in my eyes and kept repeating the words "I'm gonna be a mama!". Since they called hours earlier than we had expected, Ty was not home yet. I couldn't bring myself to do anything until he got home, my mind was in a complete daze. How am I going to tell Ty?! I immediately started trying to think of things but my mind was so blank! Soon, I hear the garage door open, "thank God he is home sooner than expected, I can't take it anymore!". I sat on the stairs and waited for the door to open. The minute it opened I burst into tears and could barely talk. Ty's bag and items from worm dropped from his hands as well as his face. I finally fought through the tears and blurted out "you're gonna be a daddy!". Instantly his face changed and he realized I wasn't crying because I was sad, I was crying because I was happy. He too, started crying, we sat there for a minute to let it set in and enjoy the moment. The phone calls to family came shortly after, we finally got to tell people we were pregnant, something we had dreamed about for so long. We had our first ultrasound when we were 7 weeks pregnant, it was the most amazing thing we had ever seen. Seeing our BABY was a dream come true. At 8 weeks we went back to get our last ultrasound through our fertility specialist. After this we would be sent to our regular OB. Before the ultrasound, Ty and I sat and prayed and thanked God for our little miracle and for the health of our BABY. We stepped into the ultrasound room anxious to see our little one for the second time, praying that everything still looked okay. As he started to scan I noticed something else next to our baby. For what seemed like an hour, the nurse, dr, Ty and myself were completely silent. It looked like another baby to me but I couldn't justify it in my mind, we had only put in one egg- there was NO way that could be another baby. No way. Seriously, we had less than a 1/2% chance of having twins from one egg. Finally our dr, with his face smashed against the screen in shock, said "are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?!". I immediately burst into tears and nervous hysterical laugh ( sort of sounded like a seal) and Ty was also doing this strange laugh thing. ANOTHER baby?!! The doctor couldn't believe what he was seeing either, he said this was the second time in 20 years that this has happened to him and was very quick to say that this had NOTHING to do with infertility drugs. He stated, "this was all you guys and God.". And that right there is exactly what it was, it was all God, going above and beyond to answer our prayers. We are going to have identical twins!!! After walking around the house aimlessly not really knowing what to do, we finally called Joey and Kilee ( my brother and sister in law) of course their first reaction was that we were kidding, there was no way we were having twins! We had to keep our secret for an entire day, you see, my mom was coming up the very next day to spend the weekend and we decided to surprise her. The minute she got to the house Ty shoved a beer in her hand and asked if she wanted to see our newest ultrasound pictures. She was excited but had no idea what she was in store for. We put them on the tv to make the. Bigger and said nothing as we clicked to the first photo. She was smiling and excited until she noticed the words "baby A" in the upper right hand corner, she immediately looked confused but said nothing until we came to the next photo. This one had "baby B" on it. She then looked at both of us and started crying and started asking if we were serious ( and a few other words of excitement, if you know my mom you know these excited words well :). So began our journey to parenthood.
Skip ahead a few months to 16 weeks, this week was something we looked forward to since we found out we were pregnant. The week we got to find out if we were having boys or girls. To us, it didn't matter, we finally are going to have a baby-x2!! Finding out that we were having daughters was amazing, we already had names for either sex and it was so fun to finally call our babies by a name! Emma and Nora were already our entire world. As the weeks passed and my morning sickness finally faded we dove into buying and decorating, unaware that we had only just begun our journey.
The day I turned 20 weeks, we went in for a routine ultrasound. After seeing or beautiful girls and hearing how perfect and healthy they looked, they checked my cervical length ( something they had been checking for weeks now since we were having twins) immediately I knew something was wrong. My cervix had been measuring 4 cm in the weeks before which is perfect, on this day it measured 2.1 cm. Within 5 minutes we were upstairs in a hospital room. They told us they wanted to monitor me over night to check for contractions and told us to prepare for hospital bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. Stunned and scared we immediately did what we know best in any situation, we prayed. God had taken care of us through everything we had been through and we would take care of us now. The next morning, after showing no contractions let allowed us to go home on strict bed rest, only trips to the bathroom and a 10 minute shower very other day, only sitting up when nessicary. At our checkup appointment only a week later, our nightmare continued to worsen, my cervix was measuring only .9 cm. Back up to the hospital room we went, only this time we wouldn't be leaving the next day, this time we were here until our girls came. At only 21 weeks it didn't look good for our baby girls, so we prayed. We got the word out and more people prayed. Soon we had more people praying for us than we ever imagined. Ty and I spent the next day getting our thoughts in order. My mom told Ty and I words that we would live by, " we don't have a lot of control over much in this situation, we can not stress and worry about what we can not control. We are doing everything that we can and we have to leave the rest to God. Have faith in him and he will provide.". We kept a positive attitude and focused on our goal: 24 weeks, viability, meaning our girls would have a fighting chance of surviving. Every morning and every evening they monitored the girls heartbeats and me for contractions for an hour each time. At the next weeks appointment we had a different specialist dr, she measured my cervix at 2.12cm. We were so blessed! We continued to thank God for taking care of us. Onward we trudged and another week went by, at our 23 week appointment I measured at 2.9.!! The drs were stunned at our improvement and how positive our attitudes have been through the whole process. At 23 1/2 weeks I was given two rounds of steroid shots to kick start the girls lungs just in case they were born soon. 24 weeks came along, our goal!! We went cheerfully to our appointment, prayer on our minds, as always before each appointment. They scanned the girls and they looked beautiful and healthy, Emma tipping the scales at 1 lb 6 oz and Nora 1 lb 5 oz. we were more than thrilled. Then came the cervical length, .4 cm. We were crushed. The next day I was put on an iv to try some different options to make my cervix stop thinning so quickly. They told us they would no longer do cervical length checks, it gets us no where and it's a complete roller coaster ride for Ty and I. We continued to focus on the fact that our girls were healthy and happy and for all they know everything is perfectly fine. The drs were not sure ow much longer we would make it but prepared us and told us that I would start contracting probably sooner than later. What did we do?? We prayed. We thanked God for everything he had done for us so far and how he had taken care of us. I am proud to say that we are now 26 weeks and 2 days, and much to the drs surprise, still contraction free :). We thank God for every day that our girls are inside. Every movement and sharp kick to my ribs or bladder ( or both at the same time) is amazing to me. I will miss feeling them move when they do come out, its such an amazing miracle. Laying in a hospital bed, fighting to keep our girls inside is the hardest thing we have ever experienced. Being positive and having faith in God is one of the most important things I have learned. Both of those things have such great power, it's indescribable. Remember that it is impossible to worry and hope at the same time. God is greater than anything in this world and through him you can overcome anything. So for now, I lay here with a smile on my face, my girls are healthy and still inside, I have the most amazing husband in the entire world that I wouldn't be who I am without his love. He is so in love with his daughters already, it melts my heart to see him talk to them. I have an amazing family that continues to do so much for us, especially my mama. She is the person whom instilled strength in me. She is the strongest woman I know. So today, is a good day, as will be tomorrow and the day after. Only God knows what the future holds, as for me I only focus on today :)
