fraternal vs identical

We get a lot of people asking us if the girls are identical or fraternal.  Truth: we have no idea!  And the reason we don't know is:

When I got pregnant, there were a lot of ifs', and whys', if I would be able to keep baby B, why one baby was doing great and one wasn't, if I conceived them a two different times.  From the looks of it, my midwife, and doctor said fraternal twins.  We kept it all 9 months as fraternal twins.

Well, the day of my delivery came.  When the girls were born and they looked at the placentas, and babies.  They changed their mind.  They said the girls were identical.

Between the midwife, OB doctor, neonatologists, and one of the best pediatricians in the state, they all are pretty sure the girls were identical.  It is very rare, but you can have identical twins in one sac, and then they can split into two sacs, and another placenta can develop. We had all the doctors explain this to us.  Crazy right?!?

Why we don't know for sure:  Zoey's placenta stopped working so they could not test it.  Because her placenta did not work, they would have to do a blood test.  Our insurance did not cover the blood test and it would have cost us 300 dollars.

So yes, we do not know.  Are there days where we would love to know?  yes, but no matter if they are identical or not, we will love them just as much.  There is nothing to really tell them apart.  They look alike, there is nothing significant.  They each have their own personalities though.  The good thing is, we could always tell them apart, because one had more hair than the other.  So it was nice, we never had to put anything on them.  Now, there are definitely times we mix them up, then we will look at them for a minute and be like, " no wonder you weren't listening to us, we were calling the wrong name!"

We don't really care about finding out because we will treat them the same, we will never compare them to each other, we will let them be their own unique individual person. And most important, we will always love them no matter what!

we love giving each other kisses and hugs!

Mia and Emma...wait?!?!

You always have your dream family growing up.  Ian and I talked a lot about children.  We both wanted 3 boys and 1 girl, but obviously this did not happen.  That is ok because I wouldn't change it, I love my life and we love our girls!
We always said if we have a girl, we would name it Mia.  When we found out we were having twin girls, we picked Emma for one of them.  My whole pregnancy we were set on Mia and Emma until two weeks before I delivered them.
Ian came home and said both names were on the top 10 charts for popular names.  We both wanted names that were not popular.  Ian came up with Zoey and I fell in love with it.  We could not think of another name that we both agreed on.  One night I opened the name book, closed my eyes, and pointed to a name.  It was Harly and we both loved it.

Who gets what name?
Baby B was so active my whole pregnancy.  She beat my ribs up and her sister.  She could never sit still.  To this day, she is still my energizer bunny!
Zoey Paige means "young life"- that was definitely baby B and when we saw her, that name just looked like her.
Baby A is our mellow, laid back child.  She is very chill, especially when she sucks her thumb.  She was calm during the whole pregnancy because her sister would be sprawled out!
Harly Mae means "may meadow"- A meadow reminds Ian and I of a peaceful place.  That name fit baby A.

To this day Zoey is our active child and Harly is our reserved child.  They do switch roles every couple weeks when we just get accustomed to the previous roles, but they pretty much are the meanings of their names!

my loves part 2!

May 23, 2010 is the day our girls were brought into our lives!  I went in Friday at 1pm.  I was in labor for 35 1/2 hours.  I got my epidural placed on friday, incase I had a emergency c-section.  When I asked to use my epidural on Saturday evening, they gave me the test dose, and then the pump broke.  By the time they fixed it, it was to late to get the medicine, I was 10cm and ready to push.  I was wheeled into the operating room at 10:30pm.  I pushed and pushed and pushed.  I delivered Baby A at 1:08am.  I was not allowed to have her placed on my chest, she was sent to the nicu doctor behind me.  My husband had tears in his eyes!  He got to cut the cord.  He asked me if I was ok and then asked if he could go see her.  He would come back and tell me how beautiful she was, make sure I was ok, and then go back to see her.  He has never been comfortable holding newborns, but once they were done checking her out, they picked her up and handed her to him.  He looked like a natural, like he did this a million times!  He brought her to me and I got to hold her (with help because I had some complications after she was delivered).  They then whisked her off for some more testing.  After I delivered her, I went back down to 7cm. Baby B was still high so I had to wait, and this is where th back labor started.  It was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced.  I only pushed for an hour.  At 2:40am Baby B was born.  Chaos took over the room, our baby girl was not breathing.  Being a nurse, you know what they are doing and I was a mess.  Ian was so scared, but didn't show it because he was keeping me calm.  Once they got her breathing, he got to go over there and cut her cord.  Ian got to hold her for a couple seconds and I got to stroke her head and give her a kiss, then she was taken to get checked out and be with her sister.
We didn't want to name them without seeing them together.  We got to see baby A at 5am, they brought baby B to us at 8am.  From that point on they stayed with us the entire time! 
I was stuck on bedrest due to some complications for the next 3 days, during that time Ian was "mommy and daddy" to all three of us.  He was amazing.  He changed their diapers, got me set up every time to nurse, and made sure all the tubings were ready to finger/tube feed.  We couldn't have asked for a better daddy/husband!!!



1:08am *Harly Mae* 5lb 10oz 19 1/4 inches long




2:40am *Zoey Paige* 6lb 3oz 19 inches long


We left the hospital Wednesday afternoon, girls were jaundice and only weighing 4lbs, this would be the beginning of going to the doctors every week for the next 4 weeks for weight checks!

my loves!

Ian and I have been together for almost 7 years!  We will be married for 2 years on September 19th.  We wanted to wait at least a year before we got pregnant.  Well, obviously that did not happen.  We got pregnant on our honeymoon.  We found out at the beginning October that we were pregnant.  I found out a couple days before I got my menstrual cycle, because I was so sick.  I wanted to make sure that I wasn't pregnant and just had the flu.  Well four + pregnancy tests later said I was pregnant.  Ian was so excited, I was very scared.  November 8th, Ian could not make it to the doctor's appointment so it was a little nerve wrecking to go by myself. 
Once all information was answered, an ultrasound was done.  I got to see our little miracle!  After about 10 minutes, my midwife was about to remove the probe when, out popped the second baby.  And at that point I lost it.  I was shocked and so scared, but happy.  Then I got the news that I needed a more detailed ultrasound because baby B didn't look like it was going to make it. I cried for about an hour, and my midwife wouldn't let me drive til it sank in.  I called Ian and told him that I needed to see him asap.  So I met him at work.  I showed him the ultrasound pictures than told him there were two.  Ian always wanted twins, so his reaction was expected- he was sooo excited!!!  Then to inform him of the other news :(. 
The next day I went to the hospital for a more detailed ultrasound.  Everything looked great.  Baby B was pretty far behind on growing.  So I would be going to the doctors every week to week and a half.  I really liked going not just because I got to hear their heartbeats, but because I got an ultrasound every appointment!  Once baby B caught up around the 16th week, I started going to the doctor's every 2 weeks (still getting an ultrasound at every one, til the end of my pregnancy!)
We found out we were having two girls at the end of February.  We both were in shock, Ian knew they were girls, but I was so sure they were boys.
At 25 weeks, I was in a serious car accident, ( I will post my note at another time)  I was at Metro for a night, and of course the next day was my baby shower.  I was so blessed I was able to keep them in, even though at one point during the night they wanted to come out.
36 weeks, I went in for a detailed ultrasound to find out baby B's placenta stopped working and that, it was the day I would be entering the hospital to deliver our girls.

Stay tuned, the rest tomorrow night!!!