Hey Mommas!

Heather and family (twins were still cooking)

My name is Heather. I am a 26-year-old mom of three beautiful daughters, 2 years old and younger. Yikes! Lillian Rose is 2 ½. And most recently Natalie Marie and Sophia Lea joined the fun. They are my 10 week old twins. I have been married to my husband Jeremy for a little over 5 ½ years. We live in St. Louis, MO. I like to refer to our lives as magical chaos!

The beginning of our story isn’t very out of the ordinary. My husband and I met in high school. We worked together at a local tool store. We were friends first for almost 2 years before we began dating. We even dabbled with a long distance relationship for a year when I went away for college but it was too much for us. I chose him. I moved back home, transferred to a local night school and soon after we were engaged and planning our wedding!

It was a long break. For the next year, we tried to move on but there were a lot of emotional scars. I was in a bad place mentally and my husband had a hard time understanding my feelings. We discussed separation and even divorce but in a shocking surprise, I ended up pregnant. We like to say that this truly saved our marriage. It gave us a reminder of why we loved each other and what we had to fight for. It was a difficult pregnancy for the first 24 weeks. I suffered Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Once I began feeling human again, I loved being pregnant and we were blessed with our first daughter, born just shy of 37 weeks.

Oh, I forgot to mention. I’m a working mom (or at least I was…) I’ve worked in branch banking for 8 years now. I’ve been a teller, a supervisor, a call center representative, and most recently a personal banker. I love what I do. Budgeting and finance are truly two of my favorite topics (other than writing about my kids of course!) I began my current position in September 2008. I found out I was pregnant in October. Oops. I was very lucky to have such an understand boss. I started working full time but after getting so sick in the beginning of my pregnancy, I dropped down to a part time position. I worked 30 hours a week through the end of my pregnancy and continued doing so Lily’s entire first 2 years.

Natalie (left) and Sophia (right) – 10 weeks old

Now let’s fast forward to the part I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for. Yes, I am the mom of twins. Yes, I’m very tired. No, it’s not quite the blessing everyone describes. But no, I wouldn’t change it for the world! Let’s talk about that story.

After running into so many problems pre-Lillian, we started trying to get pregnant again April 2011. We assumed it would take months so we guarded our hearts  and just tried to stay positive. I found out I was pregnant in May. And on June 20th, I saw my doctor (who does a 1st trimester ultrasound for all patients to determine gestational age). I can still remember that moment vividly. The ultrasound tech seemed to really be moving that wand around, wasn’t saying anything. Then the words came out of her mouth, “Well, for starters there’s two.” I definitely used profanity. I stopped looking at the screen. I held my husband’s hand so tight, I likely could have broken his fingers. I started bawling. Hyperventilating. Even once the ultrasound was completed, we went back to the OB’s waiting room. I almost couldn’t walk. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I kept repeating over and over through gasps of air, “Two? Two! Oh my God. Two.” Not what you pictured from the movies is it?

Pregnancy itself had its own ups and downs. At 24 weeks, it was determined that I was in pre-term labor. I was given steroids for the girls in hopes that I would make it just 48 more hours. I was admitted to the hospital with 24 hour monitoring, IV fluids, etc. 8 weeks later, I was still pregnant. I spent that entire time on the antepartum floor on hospital bed rest. Finally, in my 31st week, my doctors were going to send me home to finish out my pregnancy. I was scheduled to go home at 32 weeks. The day before, at 31 weeks, 6 days my daughters were born via emergency c-section after 5 hours of active labor. The girls were admitted straight to the NICU and stayed there for 30 days.