"Wow! A girl and a boy - you are so lucky!" Seems the assumption is, whew!, you don't have to keep trying for the gender you haven't yet had. Thank God that you got what you wanted - one of each - on your first two pregnancies.
So, with four kids in my nest already, my turning up pregnant again did not elicit the "Wow! You're so lucky!" comments. No, I had been promoted to "What? Are you crazy? You're done having kids now, right? This is ridiculous!"
My OB assumed that when I delivered this fifth baby, surely my last baby, I would want to have my tubes tied. Do something permanent to prevent this from happening again.
But I wasn't ready.
"I feel like someone is missing," I explained.
When you are a mom of a bunch of kids, you spend a lot of time counting heads. "1-2-3-4," I checked off my list. Yep, all present and accounted for. At the grocery store. At church. At the park. At the zoo. Seems I was always counting. And I wasn't at ease until everyone had been counted and I knew that all my chickens were with their mama hen.
So, with this fifth pregnancy, I had a vague sense that someone was missing. I was afraid that when I started counting "1-2-3-4-5," there would be the great uneasiness that comes from knowing I had missed someone.
About five or six months into the pregnancy, my doctor ordered an ultrasound. By this point, after several pregnancies, I could read the black and white ultrasound monitor just about as well as the technician.
The tech placed the ultrasound scope on my swollen belly. Immediately, I recognized the white ring that was the baby's skull. "This is your baby's head," she began, then slid the device across my abdomen, "and here is your baby's...."
Well, it was obvious to me: that white circle was the baby's other head.
"Hang on a minute." The technician went back to her starting point. "Here is your baby's head." She slid the device across my belly again. "And here is..."
She sat back in her seat and looked hard at the screen a moment. I was biting my lip, trying not to giggle.
"Well," the tech finally continued, "did you know you are having twins?" She looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"I do now!" I laughed.
And so I was right: there was someone missing. Only that someone wasn't missing at all. She was right there all along: 1-2-3-4-5-6. (Which still wasn't a full nest. Where was #7?)
My fifth pregnancy resulted in these two cutie-patooties. A boy and a girl. One of each. Wow! I certainly AM a lucky mama, don't you think?
Happy birthday, beautiful babies!
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