TWINS!! That’s the exciting news my husband, Danny, and I (Lauren Struzick) found out at one of our doctor’s appointments. Can you believe it? The thought of being a mother of twins never crossed my mind when I took my home pregnancy test and saw the positive sign staring right at me.
Twins do not run in our families, and being naïve in all things twins, I didn’t even think it was a possibility! But low and behold, it is! We also found out during our mind-blowing appointment that we are expecting identical twin boys!
When my doctor delivered this double dose of exciting news, my husband and I weren’t sure how to react. We were speechless! We cried, laughed and truly were in shock. We already have a 2-year-old daughter, Molly, so we know how wonderful – and let’s be honest – how hard the newborn stage can be. So, naturally, along with the excitement, we’re a little bit nervous about the thought of taking care of two infants at the same time!
Identical twins are not genetic. It’s really just an anomaly when one embryo splits into two. Since I work in the Marketing Department at Texas Children’s, I see all the collateral we produce, and I know that the main risk of having my type of identical twins (monochorionic diamniotic) is twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a serious medical condition where blood flows unequally between twins who share a placenta. My twins share a placenta but are in two different sacs separated by a really thin membrane. Luckily, we haven’t run into any complications, and it helps that I have a wonderful team of physicians and nurses at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women who have taken exceptional care of me throughout my pregnancy.
Now, I have to say that telling our families about the twins was my favorite part. We captured everything on camera – from the initial shock on their faces to when they burst into laughter and tears! Both of our families think they’re going to find out the gender of our baby, but as you’ll see they were stunned and overjoyed, just as much as we were!
Mitchell family surprise! (click image)
Struzick family surprise! (click image)
While we’ve had some time for the twin shock to dwindle down (although sometimes I still freak out), we are super excited for many reasons. Excited to see how our twin boys interact and share that special bond as identicals. Excited to see our daughter, Molly, assume the big sister role to two babies at once. And, just excited in general and blessed to have more kiddos in the Struzick household.
Our twin sons are scheduled to make their grand debut next month. As we count down to the home stretch, we’d appreciate it if you can send some positive thoughts our way! We can’t wait to begin 2015 as a family of five!