Research, Research, Research....

We stopped at M&S on the way home to pick up something J could have for lunch at his desk and a sandwich for my friend Mel and me.
I stood in front of the refrigerated cabinet staring blankly at the packets in front of me.
"Two babies, twins!"

At home I put the kettle on and told Mel about the scan. We looked at the pictures and marvelled.

That evening was the first PTA meeting of term, I'm Vice-Chair. I have absolutely no clue what we discussed at that meeting.
Other than Mel we decided that until we'd had the nuchal scan at least we wouldn't tell people yet that we were having another baby, or rather two more babies. We needed time to get our own heads around the idea. Having a fourth baby was one thing, and we'd spent a fair amount of time deciding if that wasn't a crazy idea. Having a fifth? Well, clearly that was indeed the way madness lay.

At home I turned on the laptop, searching for all the information I could find.
The twin mums on a forum I'm part of were fabulously helpful, explaining the differences between monochorionic and dichorionic twins, mono and diamniotic twins, the pleasures and pitfalls.
But information wasn't easy to come by through other means.

Next day I tried the bookshops in our town. St Peter Port isn't big but we have a few booksellers. None of them had anything on twins.
"Never mind, I'm on Jersey next week, I'll look there" J tried to stem my frustration.
"When next week?" I asked.
Yes, that's right, the day of the nuchal scan.

The night before the scan we booked an early dinner out and arranged a babysitter, we were still in that strange "otherworldly" place where we weren't entirely sure this was happening to us and some time out seemed like a good idea.
We had a lovely evening and a great dinner, but of course true to the form of the previous few weeks, within five minutes of getting home I had thrown up. The babysitter, a good friend gave me a knowing look, "Hmmm" she said.

The nuchal scan was at the same clinic, on the same machine but done by another consultant. He wasn't chatty, in fact he scanned one twin and then moved on to the other before saying: "Oh twin one looks fine by the way."
Twin two's results were good too.  This was a huge relief, after all life with 3 young boys, plus two newborns was going to be challenging enough without either one of them having special needs.

The consultant confirmed that there were two separate sacs and placentas and confirmed what I'd been told, that they were probably, but not definitely fraternal twins.

He confirmed that I was 13 weeks pregnant according to the size and development of both babies and he worked out that 40 weeks (normal "full term" for pregnancy) would be Easter Sunday. This was what I'd thought and given that all 3 of our older boys had been born a week "late" at 41 weeks I'd calculated that his meant our fourth child would have his birthday in the same week as his Granddad, and his cousin I, and his cousin K.
But the consultant went on, "37 weeks is term for twins though so that's mid-March" (Grandma's birthday week) "We'll aim for that and get you as far along as we can. We don't want them born before Christmas, and if it's before the end of January you'll need to be taken to Southampton"

Suddenly they were talking not just about when my baby (sorry, babies!) would be born but about a very real chance that they would be early, and they were saying this in a very matter of fact way. Gulp.

I sent J a text knowing he'd be struggling to concentrate on his meeting until he knew all was well  sent another two to friends in the UK, and went to collect Ben from another friend who had looked after him while I'd been for the scan.

"Is everything all right?" She asked, inviting me in for a cup of tea, she knew I'd had scans in 2 consecutive weeks and had looked ropey for some time and was concerned.
When I told her she nearly dropped the teapot!