"Are you sure it's not twins?"

So, a question I got a lot after the babies were born was, "Did you really not know you were having twins?"  I wasn't keeping anything secret the whole time; I was as surprised as everyone else!  

I didn't have more morning sickness than normal.

I only gained about ten pounds more than I usually do.

Even though I never got ultrasounds, only one heartbeat was ever detected.

My fundal height (uterus size) always measured normal.  At my twenty week check, I was even measuring a week too small, which is how I always measure at twenty weeks.

I (mostly) never felt unusual movement.  (More on this in a minute.)

Even though people made comments like, "Are you sure there's only one in there," people have said that literally every single pregnancy and, before now, they've always been wrong. It's hard to put any stock in comments like that.

When my neighbor (mom of five) found out after the birth that I had had twins, she said, "You never looked Twin Big."  And my milk farmer has nine kids of her own, and when she commented about how big I was a week or two before the birth, I joked and said maybe it was twins, and she said, "You're big, but you're not that big."  I think that was a perfect, succinct way of saying how I felt all through the pregnancy when my size made me wonder about twins: "I'm big, but not that big."  I wasn't Twin Big.

Except.  There were things that were different through the pregnancy that made me at least wonder at times.

I started putting on weight and showing a bump earlier in the pregnancy than I normally do.  Because we waited to tell people until we were about 18 weeks along, it made it more challenging to keep the secret than I'd anticipated - usually I don't start showing until after twenty weeks.

My belly ended up getting so big, and it was heavy.  I felt like the weight was balanced much farther forward than normal, and my skin and muscles were stretched so low under my belly.  I was constantly asking my midwife if I was growing at a normal pace, and if she could tell how big the baby was.  I felt like I could feel my muscles and new stretch marks actually ripping!

I felt unwell for a lot of it.  I had no energy at times; it was like my legs were filled with water.  I had a hard time with my protein and glucose readings - every time we measured up until the very end, my protein and glucose would show up so wonky, even though I was eating (though I also struggled against almost zero appetite and tons of heartburn).  My upper back killed me - I wonder now if this had to do with the positioning of the back baby.  I almost passed out at the chiropractor when asked to stand too long.  Just strange/unusual pain and weakness that I hadn't experienced in previous pregnancies, at least as far as I remember.

I felt more concerned than I ever have before about the size and positioning of the baby for birth.  I spent a lot of time praying about this, which I'm really glad for because I do believe those prayers were answered.  The babies weren't a single ten-pounder like I was worried about, but they also weren't too small.  And their positioning was beautiful - each baby was out with just a few pushes.  Neither was breech.  It was perfect positioning.

I think there were a few days where I felt both babies.  My midwife, Carolyn, was unavailable that week, and after months of knowing exactly how the baby was positioned - I could feel exactly where the head, bottom, feet, hands, etc were located and moving - all of a sudden the positioning changed.  Instead of a single baby curled along my right side, I could feel a hard spot on either side of my stomach, and all the movement was in the center.  I was worried the baby had turned sideways and I was feeling a head on one side and a bottom on the other side, and feet and hands were moving across the center.  By the time Carolyn had gotten back, movements and positioning felt normal again - except this time the single baby was curled along my left side.  It makes me wonder if somehow I felt both babies at once, or if they even switched positions during that time.  I can't know for sure!

I had heard the Purely Parsons story about the gal who had been surprised by twins at her home birth, even though she had had an ultrasound the day before (due to her unusually large pregnancy growth) and only one baby had been detected.  Babies get missed sometimes!  It was in the back of my mind, and it would come to mind when I was feeling especially big!  

Todd took this photo the night before the babies were born because, "There is just so much belly!"

But those things from above never changed!  Still only one heartbeat, only one set of movements, a uterus that was measuring normal and a baby that seemed to be average sized.

So, yes, to answer the original question, I was genuinely surprised it was twins!  ...Mostly.