The Odyssey and the mortal Hemp family

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Today we purchased the Honda Odyssey.  Silver with gray interior…yes, we are very daring in our color choices.  Once we figured out what car we wanted, Chris emailed the specs of our ideal minivan to a dozen dealerships across the state and asked for their best offer.  We included all accessories that we wanted installed and asked for an “out the door” quote.  We only heard back from about 6, but it was interesting b/c the quotes really didn’t vary drastically.  A Greenville dealership had the winning quote, but a local dealership here in Raleigh price matched, so we didn’t have to drive.  That was convenient 🙂  However, it still took us 2 hours to get all the paperwork done!  We walked in the door with a car and agreed upon price and it still took forever.  It should have been in and out.  We ended up having to play the pregnant woman with twins really needs to eat some dinner…can we please wrap this up as soon as possible?

I seriously don’t know how they sell so many cars.  If we had just walked in off the street for a test drive and decided to buy, it would have taken more than half the day.  I understand completely that cars are expensive, but from all the test driving we did, salespeople sure did rush to get you to buy a car.  So you spend 30 minutes deciding to buy this super expensive item and then 3 hours to make the decision official.  If I were running a car dealership, I would want that part to be the quickest.  Hurry up…get them to sign before they change their mind!!!!

 

We ended up picking up the car the following Saturday after all the accessories had been installed.   I was out of town, but Grammie and Grandpa helped Chris go over to pick it up. They washed and waxed it that weekend to make it all pretty for me when I got home.  It even had a giant red bow on top 🙂

I see minivan in my future

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Went car shopping today.  Chris and I have been looking at new cars for a long time now but could never commit to making a decision about a vehicle purchase.  The day we found out about the twins, the decision was made for us….Minivan.   I think we are going with a Honda Odyssey, it has lots of nice features and Chris is big into Honda.

 

We have been debating about the car seat configuration.  I talked with a coworker who has 3 of his own in car seats and he recommended 2 in the third row, one in a captain chair leaving the other captain chair able to fold down for easy access.  While I like this idea, I don’t like the idea of not being able to reach the kids if they need something.   Was also thinking about putting all 3 on the second row.  The Odyssey has a center seat between the captain chairs that has LATCH, so in theory we could try and fit all of them.  I think we’ll just have to do a little good ole fashion trial and error once we have the car and the crew.

 

Shockwave

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Today my world turned upside down.  Chris and I found out that our bun in the oven was actually plural…buns…yes…TWINS!!!!  The news was so shocking I literally could not believe it.  So here’s the scene at our first OB appointment and ultrasound:

 

Doctor: OK, let’s have a look at your baby.

Me: Yes please!

Doctor: Caroline, you’re having twins.

Me: haha, that’s funny.

Doctor: Here’s the first one and here’s the second one.

Me: Wait…you’re not joking??

Doctor: No, congratulations!

Me:

Doctor: Caroline…are you OK?

Me:

Nurse: I can’t see her face, is she happy?

Chris: [laughing hysterically]

 

 

My whole body was shaking.  My whole future felt like it was flashing before my eyes.  Of course we were planning the second baby (our family planning consisted of 2 total)…but you never expect to get that kind of news.  We even joked before the appointment; “hopefully we’ll just see one in there.”  I mean, I could clearly see on the monitor that there were two babies, but my mind just would not let me believe it.  I pretty much laid there stunned for the remainder of the appointment.  On reflection, I’m actually a little sad because I barely remember hearing the heartbeats which is the most exciting part…other than finding out there’s two of course.

 

After the appointment, I called Becky.  Here’s how that went:

 

 Me: Hey, so, yeah, I just had my appt.

Becky: How did it go?

Me: Um….good…uuuuhhhh, I have some news.

Becky: ARE YOU HAVING TWINS????

Me: Yup

Becky: (I honestly don’t remember what she said, but I do remember she said this): I knew your appt was soon, but I couldn’t remember the exact date.  When you called me yesterday and didn’t leave a message, I actually thought that you were calling to tell me you were having twins!

 

Scary how she was so accurate…

 

Luckily Chris and I both took the day off work, so we went to Panera and had a nice long lunch where discussed this bombshell just dropped on us.  I was still shaking.  My basic thoughts circled around how in the world am I going to do this?  One baby was hard enough…now two babies at the same time with a 2 year old wild man running around…I will never be super woman.  We continued talking for a long time about everything and confirmed that we were indeed both terrified.  But we concluded with…we’re having twins…that’s that.  A nice gentleman sitting at the table beside us stopped me as we were leaving and says this:

 Nice gentleman: I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation, congratulations!!

Me: Thank you, it was definitely quite a shock though.

Nice gentleman: My daughter has a 5 year old and then she had twins, they’re 2 and half now.  Trust me, God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.

Me: Thank you.

 

Thank you kind sir…more than you know.

 

Still in a state of shock bordering on panic, we called my brother, the only other person who knew about the pregnancy, and told him the news.  He was super excited.  I couldn’t understand it, but he thought it was fantastic news.   I’m so glad he had that kind of reaction because I think it finally got my mind turning in the right direction.  I’m a pessimist by nature, so I always think about the bad stuff first.  He got me thinking about the good stuff and after that it was just a matter of time before the terror started to turn to excitement.  We are having TWINS!!!!