A Bit More to the Story, But Still "2 Be Determined"

So, if you checked in yesterday, you read the attached letter. I received a couple excited grandmother calls, comments and a some URGENT private emails.  And believe me, I was in shock when I myself read the letter.  Of course, the nurse practitioner had already told me what it sounded like and even I could hear two different-sounding heartbeats.  But when I requested a quick ultrasound to know for sure, she wrote up this letter and handed it to me.  There was something hilarious and outrageous about seeing this huge possibility in print.  I immediately drove over to Balmertown to find Kendall in his office just because it was so much fun to simply hand him the following letter:

There is more to the story and I will blame my husband that only part of it was posted yesterday. 

I agree with the people who contacted me that it is all rather astonishing.  Except, that Kendall and I snuck a peek and it really looked like there's only 1 in there.  The ultrasound is scheduled for this coming Monday.  But Kendall has been wanting to sneak me into the hospital to try the new ultrasound machine.  The suspense behind this letter proved the perfect chance. 

Tuesday evening we were on the way home from some friends' house.  We stopped by the hospital for Kendall to pick something up.  Then he came back out to the van and said the coast was clear and snuck me and the boys into the Emergency Room through the empty ambulance garage.  I don't know who was more embarrassed by all of this- me or our easily embarrassed son, Eli.  (Actually, Kendall assured me that it was all totally fine to do and the hospital was just really quiet with an empty ER.  He wasn't sneaking, that was just me and Eli.)

A bored nurse joined us with the ultrasound machine.  Neither she nor Kendall knew too much about it and the first view we tried didn't show much.  But we did see a tiny little heart pulsing so happily!  The second view was much better.  There was our baby!  She was waving her little hands at us.  He seemed to have hiccups.  Even Eli and Evan could clearly see what was going on.  Unfortunately, none of us could figure out for sure how to look for a second baby.  "It's only one," we decided.  Then the other nurse said, "No, wait!  That's not the abdomen!  I think we're looking at the top of the second head!"  (Eli and Evan didn't know we were looking for twins and I think that exclamation freaked them out!  2 heads!)  Well, we kept trying and finally got a good profile of the entire baby. 

Around that time a stranger stuck his head around the corner.  The visiting doctor from the big city!  We were caught!  He must have been confused to find a nurse and an entire family gathered around the ultrasound machine with the patient herself holding the wand on her belly!  Introductions were made.  (He surely wondered what kind of small-town hospital he was at!)  We asked him if he knew anything about ultrasounds.  "A little."  He looked at the screen and seemed confident that there was only one baby, but declined to take a guess on the sex. 

We were disappointed.  (I was also quite relieved.)  But I guess we'll find out for sure in a few days!  I think I would like to have twins.  I've never wanted twins before, but at age 35 and with Kendall and me hoping for at least 2 more kiddos, I say, "Bring it on!  Let's get this done!"  So if you want, you can pray that Baby #2 was hiding behind his sister.

But, oh my, would we actually survive the first year or two?  Would this middle-aged body even survive pregnancy and delivery of two?  It feels so much older than it did 6 years ago when Evan was born. 

Well, good thing we can't choose for ourselves.  I would never know which way to go.

Stay tuned for more news Monday night...

Oh, by the way, I apologize to those of you who nearly had heart attacks yesterday.  Like I said, I am blaming this on Kendall who peer-pressured me into posting only the letter.  I had this post already written and ready to publish.  Kendall read it and convinced me to leave out the rest of the story.  It's his fault.