Monday, June 16, 2014

So many big and expensive changes...

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First, I want to thank you all for your kind responses on my post yesterday. As some of you guessed here and on Facebook, we are expecting twins. And it was really unexpected!

To answer some questions, twins do run in my family. Kind of. My amazing great-grandma gave birth to 16 children, out of them 3 sets of twins. Unfortunately, 4 children died in infancy (including one in each twin set). But the other 12 survived and thrived. Her husband left her soon after the last child was born, so she raised them all on her own. My Grandpa knew how to milk a cow by the time he was 4. She was one heroic woman...

I digress...  So, technically, "twins" were supposed to be in my Mom's generation but the gene skipped all of the kids that came from those original 12. And made a surprise appearance in our ultrasound :) Many of you know that we were trying to get pregnant for a while, for almost two years to be exact. During this period, I discovered that I have hypothyroidism.  It definitely could be the reason why we had problems with fertility. I did not go through any infertility treatment, mainly, because we didn't have the money for it. We decided to leave it all in God's hands. Then, after my devastating miscarriage in January, I started getting desperate. And then somebody told me that it's already great that I could at least GET pregnant, after so many unsuccessful months. There was truth to that. And then came the big surprise :)

Somebody asked me today how long I've known. Honestly, we found out more than two months ago. I already knew for a week or so that I was pregnant but I started bleeding Sunday night and thought I was going through another miscarriage. The bleeding stopped the next day and when we went to the doctor that week we were shocked to find out that, not only everything was OK, but there were two little buns baking in there!

I'm not going to lie, I have a healthy (I hope!) mixture of excitement and feeling absolutely terrified right now. There is a long road ahead of us... Twin pregnancy is not an easy one. I honestly feel like I am discovering the whole pregnancy thing all over again... So many words I didn't even know before - HCG levels, progesterone, mono-mono etc. etc. Our little munchkins are fraternal which makes them a little less high-risk but there is still plenty to be aware of and try to prepare for. Right now my only two prayers are for them to be healthy and for me to make it as far as I can...

There are going to be many changes in our future, that's for sure. Obviously, we won't be able to reach our goal of saving $10000 this year. In fact, we will, probably, deplete our savings quite a bit to cover all kinds of medical bills. But we know our out-of-pocket maximum and we try to prepare the best we can. We are not going to stop saving until we need to start spending... I actually try to pick extra work to bring in more right now....

Also our 1800 sq. foot house suddenly became much smaller... Doubling the amount of kids in the same square footage is no joking matter :) I still think we are lucky to have 4 bedrooms here. We will  keep the room downstairs for my parents (if we ever finish it...Seriously, it's getting ridiculous!). I just cannot bear the idea of my Mom sleeping on the couch somewhere... They will have their own space when they come to visit again. We'll move the boys together in July as we always planned. But the other bedroom is pretty small. It was perfect for one but a little tight for two. We will have to sell all of our furniture there, including the gigantic crib and buy everything much smaller. We will wait with that for a few more weeks but we already started shopping around a bit and pricing everything we might need. It seems like we will mostly have to start from the beginning. Now everything will be in twos :) I'm not too concerned about clothes. Even if we end up having two girls, they will live in mostly blue stuff. We'll just buy a few pink outfits for major outings :) But we will need cribs, car seats, a stroller eventually and many other big, small, and expensive things...

So there will be many adjustments to our regular and long-term budget in the next few months. I don't know what the future holds for us but we will do what we can do and rely on God to help us with the rest... So far I'm just enjoying seeing my belly grow and get rounder and rounder :) And yes, I already look like I'm 5 months along but apparently you measure about 5-6 weeks further with twins. Sounds about right...

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44 comments:

  1. You look great! It's hard to imagine I'm sure how this will all work out but it will.

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  2. Enjoyed reading your update and looking forward to keeping up with your pregnancy here! Congrats again, dear!

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    1. Thank you, Danielle! And I'm so excited for you too, guys!!

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  3. Congratulations! You look beautiful!

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  4. How exciting!!!!!! Have you checked around in your area for a twins or multiable's club? We have one here that is GREAT. They have so many good deals on baby equipment and clothes. Will you be sharing the (flavor) sex of the babies???? PLEASE!!!!

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    1. Funny that you said that. Two of my friends sent me links to one of the groups on Facebook just yesterday :) I'm also a part of "Got twins" group on Babycenter but it's not local. And yes, I'll tell you all about their genders but it's not going to happen for another few weeks :)

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  5. Twins! Luckily, pregnancy takes a while, so you have time to sort everything out before their arrival. I have total confidence that you will figure out all of the details such as budget and space just fine. You are a planner and a good one at that.

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    1. Well, they tell you to have everything ready by 30 weeks because there are just too many risks after that... So I really need to start planning and soon :)

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  6. You look so peaceful and cute sitting on that fence. What happy news! You are smart and thoughtful and will do fine.

    Is your vehicle big enough for 4 children?

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    1. Thank you, Rhonda :) Now we can take a full advantage of our minivan, lol!

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  7. Congratulations! That is wonderful news and exciting about it being twins. You will do amazing, like you always do!

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  8. Holy, talk about coincidences... my older sister (the one with a 3yo and 1yo boys) really wanted a girl. She had an appt yesterday, and YUP! She's getting her girl. She's actually getting TWO of them. Twins too. She's also 4'ish months along, due late Dec or early Jan (or realistically, more like Oct since twins usually come early). You look truly beautiful already. How exciting.

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    1. Wow, congrats to her! And you :) But how does she know their genders already? I'm not going to know until July or even August!

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  9. I LOVE the picture of you. You look glowing and at peace! Congratulations again!

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  10. You look gorgeous and glowing! I think this is the best picture I've seen of you yet, honestly. I can't wait to read about your journey, financial and otherwise! Even though I don't know you, I am so very happy and excited for you.

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    1. Aww, you are too sweet! Everybody is telling me that I'm glowing and I'm just feeling tired and nauseated :)

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  11. Oh.my.gosh!!! Lena!!!! Congrats!! You look FABULOUS!! Give yourself some time to get used to the idea, but oh how cool twins will be! When are you due?

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    1. My official due date is 12/13/14 but I won't make it that far. In fact, I'm praying that I make it all the way to November, preferably end of November. Twins tend to come early...

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  12. Congratulations! You have a special glow:) Though I did not have twins I did have 4 children close together. We stayed in a 1600 back split level home for an additional 6 years so when we went into our "forever" home we had $$ saved for it.
    The back split was like 800 square feet over 800 square feet, no usable basement, too small a crawl space for anything but some storage:)
    The reason I mention is we had car seats and toddler seats and we had a 6 person sedan and a mini van. For bedrooms we moved ourselves into a different room and put three of our kids in our former master and the fourth was with us, we also had a teeny, tiny third bedroom.
    You make do, you are so smart and frugal you weigh the short term gains for the future. My three who were together even after we moved chose for a long time to sleep in the same room every night .
    You will so enjoy yourselves, blessings to you all:)

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words! I know we'll be able to do it. We have to :) We can't afford a new place right now. But it will be tight. It's a 3-level house, with lots of stairs and also no basement. But we have plenty of rooms to grow (even though they are small, even the master). Considering, I lived most of my life in one-bedroom apartment, this house is a luxury :)

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  13. TWINS!!!! Congratulations Lena! How exciting :D

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  14. So exciting! I do have to say though Lena... you look just wonderful!!! :) Excited to follow you through your pregnancy!

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  15. Oh my goodness! Huge, huge congratulations. And, that's a beautiful photo of you. Can't wait to see how things go during your pregnancy - a very exciting time for you & your family.

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  16. Ooooh, congratulations! Twins run in our family too (and triplets), but skipped us. Exciting and terrifying would sum it up for me too. If your parents come for awhile, that will help a lot.

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    1. How cool! Maybe, you'll have multiple grandkids? :)

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  17. Oh.my.gosh!!! So very exciting! Very happy for you Lena, congratulations!! Take care of yourself and your little munchkins,

    Nan

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  18. 1. You look gorgeous.
    2. Such wonderful news!! You guys are wonderful parents and it is right that you share that love with more children.
    3. Children can be expensive, but they are so so worth it. As you already know.
    4. Being a mom of 4 is totally amazing. Believe me. :)
    5. Seriously, you look gorgeous!

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    1. You are too sweet :) And you give me hope that I can do it :)

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  19. Take full advantage of garage sale season! Pack and play (portable cribs) might be a good option to save space in a small room. Weird but hood tip I learned from my daycare lady is if you only have 1 highchair, once a baby can sit up, use the kitchen sink to feed baby in. Good luck and God bless!

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    1. Oh, I will! And that's a cool tip :) I use a sink for baths but I've never thought of feeding the little ones in a sink...

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  20. My mother-in-law had identical twins in the 70's by surprise. Their heartbeats were so close that the doctor only ever heard one heartbeat and they never did a sonogram on her. She didn't know they were having twins until she delivered. Since they only had 1 of everything they shared a crib for months and they were fine :). In fact, she said they slept better when they were together than when they were separate. Congratulations on your twins! I am married to an identical twin and they bond they share is incredible to see.

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  21. I LOVE that picture of you. You look fabulous - pregnancy really suits you. And CONGRATULATIONS! I am so excited for you.

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  22. My parents come from huge families and they grew up in tiny homes. Don't buy into the lie that you need a bigger home, car, everything. God will provide for and guide you. No doubt your grandma had much less than you and she raised 12 kids. My great grandma raised 21 kids and that was on one income. They were poor but everyone survived and thrived.

    You will be fine :)

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  23. Oh Lena - I am beyond thrilled for you and your little ones on the way. If anyone can manage this you can! You look incredible - pregnancy agrees with you so far. Congratulations my dear :)

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  24. Lena, I am so happy for you!! Twins:) You are blessed by 2! You look so cute, you should take monthly progress pictures!!! Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines

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  25. This is such a wonderful blessing. Congrats. I pray you have an uneventful pregnancy.

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  26. So, so, SOO exciting. I'll be praying for you; that you have an excellent pregnancy and are able to find much deserved peace throughout it! And God will provide :)

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