A journey (part 14) It's Twins! Weeks 7-13 Ultrasounds

 I just wanted to thank you all so much for the prayers and support you have shown us! We are so excited to share that we are expecting twins Nov/Dec 2014! We are absolutely thrilled! This truly is a miracle, and we are so thankful that our prayers have been answered- doubly answered!

As always.... I'm going to copy and paste another piece of our journey towards expanding our family below. If you haven't read the previous parts, you can do so HERE.

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May 5, 2014- We went in for my 7 week ultrasound this morning. I was so nervous, I was literally crying  As soon as I saw the ultrasound screen, I thought I saw two little sacs, but one of them looked empty, and the other I thought I saw a tiny little blurb but it didn't look like a baby, so I panicked a little. My doctor, who was also in the room, said "I think I know why you've been feeling extra nauseous this time around...I see two sacs! Now there isn't always a baby in both, so we'll check."

The ultrasound technician tried for 30 seconds to find a baby in the first sac, and said "I think I just saw a flicker for a second there, but let me look at the other sac first, this one is hard to see, because it is behind the first one. Then we saw it- our baby!! It was measuring right on schedule and we got to hear it's heartbeat! Heart rate of 153. Perfect. Instantly my tears of fear turned into tears of joy!! We've been waiting years to hear a baby heartbeat! Jared and I looked at each other- pure happiness!

The ultrasound technician, went back to the first sac, zoomed in...and BOOM!! Baby B!! Measuring the exact same size as Baby A. Then we heard Baby B's heartbeat too, and it was 153 also! My doctor said "Awww that's cute! Their heartbeats are in sync!" I agreed, it was cute, and couldn't believe what I was hearing and seeing... she zoomed out and this is what we saw:

Two sacs and our two babies! We're having twins!! I was still bawling my eyes out at this point, it was one of the happiest moments of my life! Surreal.

If this were a singleton pregnancy, I would be due mid December, but because it's twins, Doc said they would realistically be here closer to Thanksgiving or possibly the first of December. We couldn't be happier. Our prayers have been answered. DOUBLY answered. Heavenly Father really does answer prayers, and these miracles are proof!

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May 21, 2014- I had my 9 week checkup yesterday with my OB. I went in expecting to have an ultrasound, because my fertility specialist told me I could expect to have ultrasounds at every appointment (because its twins). So when my doctor told me I couldn't have an ultrasound for another month, I was pretty upset. I was 9 weeks pregnant. It was during week 9 with my last pregnancy that we lost our baby (although we didn't find out until later). What if the same thing happened again with this pregnancy? I have to wait another month to find out?

So now you can see why I had a slight meltdown, okay, it was a pretty big meltdown. I started bawling my eyes out during the office visit. I think the tears made Doc a little nervous because he awkwardly patted my shoulder and darted out of the room as quickly as he could. A few minutes later he came back and said "Come on!" and led us to an ultrasound room. Muahhaha. These pregnancy hormones come in handy as useful tools sometimes! I cry? I get what I want!

I was 9 weeks 1 day and Baby A measured 9W4days with a heart rate of 173 and Baby B measured 9W3days with a heart rate of 178. So they are both measuring a little ahead which is great news!  Twins are seriously my dream come true, and I am so thankful for these two little blessings!

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June 11, 2013- We just had our NT scan. This is a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for Down syndrome, trisomy 21, 18, 13, and heart defects. They access the baby's risk by a combination of blood work (a finger prick from the mother) and an ultrasound (where they measure how much fluid is at the base of baby's neck).

We were so happy to see that both babies are doing great! All measurements and vitals were perfect! They looked so much bigger this time- less like gummy bears and more like humans! Baby A measured 13 weeks 1 day, and Baby B is measured 12 weeks 6 days.

We also received the great news that our twins are not at risk- according to the ultrasound (still waiting on the blood work results). Fetuses who are at risk have little or no nasal bone, and more than 3.5mm fluid at the base of their necks. Baby A's fluid measured 1.6mm and Baby B's measured 1.8mm, and they both have nasal bones. 

It was so fun seeing the twins! Baby A was sucking his/her thumb and was relaxed...and Baby B kept kicking Baby A, and didn't want to hold still for pictures/measurements. You can see in the picture below how they are positioned:

The ultrasound tech thought they could have come from the same follicle (identical), but then thought they looked like different genders (fraternal), and then changed her mind all over again and said they looked like the same gender. It's still too early to tell. So we don't know if they are identical or fraternal, but we do know that they are healthy! 

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Current day Char here- I'm so happy that our journey is now up to date! We're now 13-14 weeks pregnant with twins and couldn't be happier!