I really never thought I was going to get to write this post. Sometimes I would let my mind wander and wondered how exactly I would word it and for the photographer, what image would I use 🙂 Sooooo here it goes – my husband and I are expecting identical twins!!!! Yep, we were shocked as well 🙂 A little back story…..we have been trying to have children since we were married 8.5 years ago. It has always been a desire for myself to have children and when I met my kid loving husband it seemed perfect. Friends would joke that we were going to be the family with the 15 passenger van and a basketball team, but as the years went on the jokes faded. We tried on our own for quite awhile before having some tests run. The normal gynecologist didn’t see any red flags and told us just relax and it would happen. So we did and yet still we remained childless. About 5 years ago I saw another doctor and we started exploring further testing and other options. I am so incredibly thankful that we finally found Shady Grove Fertility and more specifically my nurse Mary and Dr. Saffan. Both of these people listened to me, put up with constant questions, and more importantly were willing to look at our specific case and not just put us into a box based on age and blood work. I don’t know that I will ever know how to say thank you enough. Our journey was not an easy one and we were patients much longer than anyone expected, but here we are. We have made it to 12 weeks with high risk identical twins and they are healthy. The doctor told us we had a 1.5% chance of this happening when they saw them on ultrasound and Brandon and I just looked at each other and said “We knew they were miracles!”. We are very excited, but would also covet your prayers. Identical twins comes with a whole laundry list of potential complications and such. I am seeing a high risk doctor (in addition to my normal OB) every 2-3 weeks and the twins will be under regular monitoring to make sure everyone stays healthy.
Throughout this process I have discovered what a silent world infertility is. The statistic is that 1 in every 8 couples struggles with infertility at some point. 1 in every 8 – that means friends of yours have probably struggled. It is something that people do not like to talk about though and frankly can be uncomfortable. The reason I share a glimpse into our journey is that it would help someone out there who is struggling to know that they are not alone and that there are others. I would not have survived the last 2.5 years without a group of women that I became friends with (a lot of them online) that were also going through this journey. I can thankfully say that in that group almost all of us are pregnant now or have multiple children. These women were invaluable to me and to my husband. If you are going through this – reach out to friends. Talk about it. It might be uncomfortable at first but the support is worth it! I have a close group of non-infertility related friends as well that just listened. They didn’t know what to say, but they cheered me on. So helpful.
On the business front there will be some changes this year due to my pregnancy 🙂 I will be photographing only a handful of weddings this year and will be concentrating more on portrait sessions since we do not know if bed rest is in my future (and can you imagine being on your feet 12 hours in the heat of August 8 months pregnant with twins…..yeah not me 🙂 ). I will be offering Spring mini-sessions this year on April 26th (location TBD). I still might offer them in the Fall but it will depend on how I am healing and the babies health. Thank you for the support and I can’t wait to show these precious babies to you 🙂
Here is how we announced on Facebook today 🙂
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