Photographing Newborn Twins at dacia vu photography Studio | Preston, CT Newborn Photographer

I've been so excited to share this dreamy newborn session with you all! This session was held in my studio. Leila (mom), Evan and Ellie (babies) arrived on one of December's coldest days, after a snow squall had left the Preston Connecticut countryside a serene winter wonderland. I heated up the studio to a balmy 85 degrees Fahrenheit and set up my miniature space heater so it would be nice and toasty to encourage sweet slumber for the babes. Mom had asked for some wintery themed photos, so I put together a snowflake "chandelier" of sorts, as seen below.

I asked Leila to share some of her pregnancy and birth experience with us. See some of her (and her husband, Ian's, too!) amazing responses below:

1.) How/when did you find out you were expecting?

Leila: I found out I was expecting at about 10 pm on April 17, four days before my birthday. I'd decided to take a pregnancy test since I had cramps but nothing else... When I saw the pink plus sign I kind of went into denial. I just stared at it for a while, then immediately took another pregnancy test because the first one I took was kind of old and I thought maybe it was just a fluke, but sure enough, the next one came back positive too! Ian was asleep when I found out and left for a business trip early the next day, so I waited until he got home to tell him in person (and took two more pregnancy tests during that time... just to be extra sure...). I bought a tiny dinosaur onesie and put it in a gift bag with the pregnancy tests, then told Ian that even though it was my birthday, I had a gift for him.

Ian: April 20. after the business trip to Washington D.C., with a " birthday present for me on Leila s birthday". The bag had a dinosaur onesie and 4 pregnancy tests. I somehow missed the onesie on top, so I wound up grabbing a handful of tests...

2.) What was your initial reaction to the news? And when you discovered you were having twins?

Leila: When we found out I was pregnant we were really surprised and excited. I'd gone off my birth control nearly a year before that, but I'd found out about 6 months later that I wasn't ovulating at all, which was pretty disheartening. I took two 10 day rounds of oral progesterone in December 2016 and March 2017 to get my body working correctly, but we hadn't really been actively "trying" and I expected it to take a lot longer before I actually got pregnant, so it was a pretty big shock!

I went to see my OB when I was just 6 weeks pregnant, so when he did the ultrasound he told me it was possible I was carrying twins, but it was too early to tell for sure and that it could just be a fluid sac. My gut told me it was twins, but they don't run in my family and oral progesterone does not increase the likelihood of twins, so I was in total denial and said "Nope, must be a fluid sac!" When we went back a couple of weeks later and my OB said, "Well, my friend, you're having twins!" I went into a total daze. I could barely speak and we were both really shocked and overwhelmed. I kept saying "How did this happen? How did this happen?!" We shared in some maniacal laughter once we got out to the car. It took us a few weeks to really come to grips with the reality of having twins and then we just got more and more excited every day!

Ian: Stunned silence (turns out it was too much silence). To twins - I had to sit down in the OB's office, hysterical laughter in the rain in the car after leaving the appointment. Nothing but excitement since.

3.) What was your pregnancy and birth experience like? What was the best part of your pregnancy? Worst?

Leila: My pregnancy wasn't too bad, but I didn't love being pregnant either. I got lucky during the first trimester and didn't have any morning sickness, in fact, I actually had very few early symptoms at all, which on one hand was good but on the other was kind of anxiety-inducing because I couldn't tell that I was pregnant and I worried a lot about losing the babies. I was really relieved to hit 13 weeks and enter the "safe zone" of pregnancy. During the second trimester my ulcerative colitis flared for about a month which was pretty unpleasant, but thankfully we were able to get it back into remission with medication. My two favorite parts of the pregnancy were feeling the babies kicking and telling people I was pregnant with twins. People LOVE twins and would get SO excited, which always made me happy. The worst part was definitely my final week of pregnancy. I was super swollen, could barely walk, had terrible heartburn, was feeling nauseous, and was just in pain the majority of the time. I had my babies 6 weeks early which was pretty stressful, but at the same time I was very glad to have them out of me!

Ian: Pregnancy wasn't too bad all things considered if you think about possible symptoms. Your poor ankles at the end.... best part was you were just excited to be a mommy! And the birth experience didn't look fun but guys have no perspective on what it's like for women.

4.) What were your first thoughts when you found out the sex of your babies?