Whoa Baby!

This is the story of how Kelly and I found out I was pregnant with one baby.....and then two!

This wild ride all started on Friday, October 2, 2009. Flu season was in full swing with this new Swine Flu making rounds all around the country - and right in my office. There was a case of Swine Flu diagnosed to someone at work and after hearing this news, I was convinced I had it too. I had a major headache and was told that was one of the first signs. So after lunch I headed home to rest and Google symptoms and cures. On my way home I called Kelly to tell him the bad news and he immediately did the Google search for me. He confirmed that a headache was a sign and there was a shot you could get. Problem was that you had to be a child or be pregnant to get the shot. A lightbulb went off in my head. Oh crap - could I be pregnant? Surely not. I wasn't nauseous, I just didn't feel myself. My mind started going 90 miles a minute and I did some math and realized it could be possible. Knowing it would freak Kelly out - I asked if he could Google the symptoms of pregnancy. You could hear a pin drop as he quietly did what I asked. Come to find out, headaches were first signs of pregnancy. Well - it could be either one.

So I decided that before I went to the Minute Clinic to get tested for Swine Flu I would perform the embarrassing task of buying a pregnancy test. So off to Kroger I went. When I got there, I got a small hand basket and went straight to the magazine isle to get something to hide the dreaded item I had to buy (Better Home and Gardens). All I had to do was a quick "drive by", grab a test, hide it under the magazine and bolt to the self checkout. I don't know why I was so embarrassed. I was married after all. I searched all over the pharmacy section for the tests and then my heart dropped when I saw them locked up next to the prescription pick-up desk. So I stood in line and asked to have the dreaded glass cabinet unlocked. The woman didn't unlock it and walk away like I hoped. She stood next to me and asked what I needed. Well, crap. I glanced real quick and bought the most expensive test thinking that I was only going to go through this once. It turned out not to be as big of a deal as I thought. She didn't ask questions, just rang up the test and my magazine and sent me on my way.

When I got home I was too nervous to take the test, so I sat on the couch and read through the Better Home and Gardens, taking note of the cute fall and Halloween decorations. I finally mustered up the courage to just take the darn test. I read the directions carefully, not wanting to screw it up and go back to the store and buy another one! So I took this fancy digital test and waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally I got an answer....and it was a freaking question mark. "?" Seriously? After all that, all I get is a question mark? Luckily there were two in the box, so I had a backup. I waited several hours until Kelly got home and took the second one. It was the same response! What a waste of $20! I had never felt so ripped off in my life! So over the weekend while grocery shopping (NOT at Kroger), I went back to the basics. One line or two lines. Simple as that. After taking the simple test later that evening, there it was. Two lines. I read the directions for the second time just to make sure. Two lines = pregnant. I remember yelling, "Kelly, you might want to come look at this! Does this look like two lines to you?" Just to make sure, I took another one. Looked like two lines again. Well, that's that. I'm pregnant. Didn't think I was ready for this. But, hey, if not now, when? After the initial shock, I got excited. Really excited!

Monday morning I called my girl doctor and found out that she no longer delivered babies anymore and was given information on an office to call and schedule an appointment, so I did that. It would be two weeks until I could get in, so I took what I could get and I was assigned to a random doctor.

All the while, my cousin John Michael was in the hospital in Oklahoma City. I really didn't understand what was wrong with him, but I believed it had something to do with his kidneys and liver. While in Oklahoma in mid-September, my sister and I visited him and was given an optimistic view for recovery for him. Well, it was the weekend following my exciting new discovery that JM started going downhill fast. I got a call from my mom very early the morning of Sunday, October 11 that his body couldn't take it anymore and he had passed. I tried my very hardest not to break down because I knew (although nobody else did) that I had a baby inside of me and I had to be strong or else things could get even worse. I hopped on a plane to Oklahoma City for a week of spending as much time with my family as possible. Although it was a horrible situation, my family is amazing and still managed to laugh and smile a lot amongst all the tears and sadness. I really feel that God pulled me through that week. I have never felt more strong in my life. I was even able to dig through pictures, write his obituary and sing at the service which is something I never would have been able to do on my own. I managed to keep my secret a secret the whole time, even though I wondered if a little bit of good news could somehow take a little bit of the sadness away.

So now it was Monday, October 19, the day of my first OB appointment to see if those pesky pregnancy tests were accurate or not. So I'm waiting in the examination room forever for a confirmation and finally walks in the lady I'm going to spend A LOT of time with over the next several months. She was a red head

and fiesty and I liked her! The first thing she said was "Well, we think you're about 9 weeks along". Wow - that's over 2 months! Some things were starting to make sense now. I had bought a new shower gel a couple of weeks back and absolutely despised it. The smell made me want to throw up. I had to quit using it immediately. I was also incredibly sleepy every night after I got home from work. I'd eat dinner, sit on the couch and fall asleep by 8:00.

Back to the doctors office - Dr. George told me that insurance usually only paid for one ultrasound throughout pregnancy and it was usually done at 20 weeks to determine the sex of the baby. But, since I was clearly unaware I was pregnant and apparently the test I had just taken at the doctor wasn't that accurate in determining the age of the fetus, I could schedule an ultrasound and insurance might pick it up. Knowing it wasn't necessary, I scheduled one just because I was so excited to actually see this baby! Oh well if the insurance wouldn't pick it up (I didn't tell Kelly this - he would freak out!).

Two weeks later, on the morning of November 2, I ventured into Nashville to go to the ultrasound. I had planned on goofing off around town after the ultrasound because we had tickets to see Patty Loveless at the Ryman that night. Kelly met me at the doctor and we patiently waited our turn in the lobby along with some sketchy looking people. We were finally directed to a very dark room. I laid down on the table and Kelly sat next to me in a chair while the tech turned the machine on and squirted the heated gel on my stomach. While moving the wand around on my stomach, she said, "Look at the tv on the wall to see your baby. Wait - babies. There's two!" I looked to my left at Kelly and shouted "Kelly Henderson!", like he did this to me on purpose. Like his usual self, he just giggled. We just stared at the screen. She confirmed that by this point, I was 11 weeks along. We even saw one move it's little bitty nub legs! This is how they looked at 11 weeks (Ryder on top, Knox on bottom):

After we left, we went to Arby's to grab some lunch and just sat quietly and stared at the ultrasound pictures and looked up every once in awhile and just laughed. I don't think anything could wipe the big grins off our faces.

Two weeks later, we went back to get another ultrasound to run tests and this is what they looked like: