Book Review: What Happens Next

      Now that I'm pregnant and about to pop (or at least feel that way!), I've being doing a lot more reading. I finally got a library card for my "new" city (just 2 years after I moved here), and it has definitely been well used already! 

     However, this month, I also received a novel to review. This book is titled What Happens Next and is written by Christina Suzann Nelson. This book is about podcaster Faith Byrne, who agrees to spotlight the missing persons case of her childhood friend, Heather, on her podcast one summer. Dora Crane, the mother of Heather, has never moved on from the loss of her youngest child, and refuses to accept the possibility that her daughter is dead. Together, Faith and Dora make strides to come to terms with what happened all those years ago, and each starts their path to healing.

     I did enjoy this book, although it wasn't a particularly fast paced novel (not that there is anything wrong with that, I just generally prefer faster, high tension novels). There were, of course, the aspects that weren't very realistic, and it had a general predictability to it. The characters were just those -characters. I can't say I was particularly attached to any of them emotionally, but I did cry a bit near the end (I blame that on pregnancy hormones, though!). The book is written through the perspective of three people- Faith, Dora, and through flashbacks, you slowly learn what happened through 10 year old Heather's perspective. I generally found the Heather sections the most interesting, since that was where it was revealed what happened, although there were a few revealing snippets during the present day sections as well (ones that I predicted long before they happened).

     At the end of the day, I read this book in probably 2 or 3 days, although I never felt compelled to keep reading if I didn't have to. However, because I'm 7 months pregnant with twins, I have a lot of free time (having been ordered to do as little as possible), so reading it quickly was quite easy for me.

     If you like a light, easy, slightly predictable read, this one is for you!

      *** Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. ***

Life Changes

     2022 has been over for over a month now, and it was the year that we learned the news that would ultimately change our lives forever. Which will come to fruition in 2023, meaning that this year is going to come with a steep learning curve for us, and a heck of a lot of change.

     In August of 2022, we went to Ontario for a 2 week visit with my family, which was absolutely lovely. When we returned to Alberta, I found that I was constantly feeling sick, waking up once a night to use that bathroom, and, eventually, I started to really not like my daily cup of coffee. My lifeblood.

     So I took a pregnancy test on September 13, and sure enough, it came back positive. We were both thrilled, albeit slightly scared because we've never had a baby before. I've babysat more times than I can count -most weekends throughout high school and even college- and worked in a daycare. I went to school for Early Childhood Education. Yet I still don't feel prepared to have my very own little human to take care of!

     There were a flurry of doctor's appointments and blood tests to confirm the pregnancy, and then, a few days after my 30th birthday, we had our first ultrasound.

     I was nervous. My instinct has always been to expect the worst, that way if it isn't that, you'll be pleasantly surprised, and if it is, well, it hopefully won't be as crushing. Unhealthy, I know, but that's my default setting. So going into this ultrasound, I was prepared to hear the horrible words "There is no heartbeat."

     We got there, my bladder ready to explode, and the ultrasound began. Raymond was sitting in a chair near my feet, so he could see the screen while I couldn't.  About a minute or two into the ultrasound, the tech paused, turned the screen so that I could see it, and said "I know your husband can see and has probably figured it out, so I'm just going to put it out there before we continue." And she proceeded to show me not one, but TWO babies.

     Not quite the news that my brain had prepared my heart for! Twins. September 27, 2022 was the day that we found out that we were expecting twins, and that our lives were going to change even more than we thought!

     It took awhile for it to really sink in. I think for the first month after, Raymond and I would just look at each other, shake our heads with shock, and say "TWINS?!" multiple times a day. We were -are- going to jump into parenthood with not just one baby, but two at once.

     Since then it has been a whirlwind, though also time seems to crawl for me. Twin pregnancies are automatically considered higher risk, although the risk level depends on what type of twins they are (I've learned a lot about twin pregnancies, let me tell you!). The most common twin pregnancy, and the lowest on the risk scale, is di/di twins. This means that they each have their own placenta, and they each have their own amniotic sac. All fraternal twins are di/di, but they can also be identical. The next type of twin pregnancy is mono/di -also the next step up on the risk scale. This is the twin type that we are having. Mono/di twins share one placenta, but each have their own sac. Finally, there is the highest risk twin pregnancy- mono/mono. Here, the babies share not just a placenta, but also the amniotic sac.

     So because our twins are mono/di, we know that they are identical. And because we are having 2, we decided to find out the gender, and learned that we are going to be the parents of two girls! Because it's higher risk, we also are monitored much more closely than a single pregnancy. My doctor had me quit my job at the beginning of October, because he didn't want me doing physical work anymore. Ever since the end of November, we have had an ultrasound at least every other week -most of December was weekly because of a growth discrepancy between the babies that they wanted to keep an eye on, so we've now had at least 10 ultrasounds, plus 2 ultrasounds just specifically of their hearts. 

     Tomorrow, I will be 30 weeks pregnant. At our last ultrasound, Baby A was about 2 pounds, 11 ounces, while Baby B was about 2 pounds, 6 ounces, but that was almost 2 weeks ago, so they're probably each about 6oz bigger now. And at our OB appointment this week, she said that we need to be prepared for it to be Go Time literally any day- not that she necessarily expects them to come sooner, but twins are more likely to come early. And the absolute latest they will let them go is 37 weeks (which we hit on April 1). So anytime between now and the end of March, these girls could come. We're definitely hoping for the end of March! 

     So yeah, sometime in the next month and a half, our lives are going to change drastically (I can't believe we're already down to the last month and a half max!). They already have -especially mine, since I'm the one carrying these babies- but not nearly as much as it will change once the girls are out of me and in the world.

     We are still both slightly terrified, and delightfully excited.

     Life is crazy. So crazy. And God is so, so good.