TWINS!

Monday night I had some bleeding after doing some moderate activity and it FREAKED me out. It went away within five minutes and was never bright red, but I was crying and scared and didn't sleep much that night. I was scheduled for an US and appt today (wednesday) but Tuesday morning I called my doc to ask if we could bump up my appt one day so I could get some reassurance. My doc and her nurse are great and they got me the first available time that afternoon.

I had initially pondered the possibility of twins because of my quadrupling HCG, but the numbers quickly slowed down to a normal pace and I convinced myself it was more than likely just one baby because I didn't have any twin feelings/mothers intuition, but I did keep the possibility in the back of my mind.

As soon as the US tech turned the machine on, I could see two dark sacs, but I didn't say anything at first and neither did the tech. The top sac on the screen immediately showed a visible fetal pole with a flickering heart beat. She measured the baby and heart beat which was 151. WONDERFUL! Then she was just kind of moving around not saying anything and I finally asked "so what's that other dark sac?" and she said "well that's what I'm trying to figure out. It appears to be another gestational sac but I don't see a baby in that one. I see this little blob/bump which I think might have been the baby but there's no heartbeat so I don't think this one made it." BUMMER. And she went on to justify her thinking saying that the shape of the sac looked a little more "irregular and not as perfectly round as the other one so this probably just wasn't viable". She continued on saying "I'm going to go ahead and measure the sac and call this a "twin pregnancy" because it was at one point but I don't think there's a second baby."

At this point I had such a mix of emotions because I was ELATED that I had one healthy baby which is all I expected or could ask for but then once I saw the two sacs I was excited and then sad that I had lost one. It was weird.

As she was moving to get a measurement, a small flicker flashed on the screen for just a second and I said "wait I think I saw something" and she said "you know I think you're right I did too". She proceeded to really dig with her wand (ugh ) to get a better look and TADA, there was baby B!!!!! Hiding in a far back corner of it's sac with a heartbeat just flickering away! The baby measured right on time with it's twin and had a heartbeat of 128! SOOOO HAPPY!

We were surprised a little but not totally shocked because it's always a possibility with fertility meds.

She continued to try to get better pictures of B but had a heck of a time. She said B is at the top right and back of my uterus and we were doing an internal soon so it was near impossible to get a good look. Baby A is further down and on my left side and we think in the front. She tried hard to get pictures of both of them for us but baby B was practically invisible compared to A. It was very painful to try and get a good look at B at all.

Then the tech continued to try and dig further to look for a third, but thank goodness, it's just the twins!

They are pretty sure they're fraternal because they are in separate sacs with a very thick wall between them. They are "Di Di" twins meaning they each have their own sac and placenta which is PERFECT because sharing either of those things causes risk. Fraternal twins are safer, so I was happy about that. I don't need any more risk to make me worry.

After the US I was a little worried about baby B because she had mentioned an "irregular sac" and it had a lower heartbeat than Baby A, but the doc assured me that everything looked great and as long as the heart rate is over 100 at this point, the baby is healthy. I already knew this because Corynn's heart rate at this exact same gestation was 130, but it just seemed that A's was so much higher and I was comparing them but the doc said "they are two completely different babies, so they're going to have different heart rates, but they're both within range."

And she said the sac was fine. I wonder if the tech was just trying to compile evidence to back up her theory of it not being viable but really it has no significance? When I look at the two sacs, neither one looks "regular" to me.

Baby A was also much closer to the wand and maybe was stimulated by the movement/sound so it had a higher HB? Who knows.

She said they are both nicely attached and measuring perfectly so no need to worry and that my cervix was closed and there was no bleeding so my previous bleeding from monday night was nothing to worry about.

She joked that A is a girl and B is a boy. We shall see :-)

I get weekly US's to look at heartbeats and growth which will be awesome!

I can't believe I'm having twins. I feel so fortunate and happy. It's amazing and wonderful and exciting!!!

I have so much to think about. My biggest fears are less space making umbilical cord accidents more likely (eek) and preterm labor.

I'm just going to keep praying and hope for the best.