Much Anticipated News...

To say the past few weeks/months have been a whirlwind is an understatement. We’ve gone through a lot and had a lot of different emotions running through our heads.

July 10^th we transferred two of our embryos. Two little boys. Everything with transfer went very smooth and then all we had left to do was wait. We were supposed to not take a home pregnancy test (HPT) until after we did blood work (7 and 9 days after transfer) but I was impatient and started taking HPTs 3 days after transfer. On day three it was negative…to be expected. But then on day 4 there was a very faint positive! From that point on the positive got darker and darker! We were officially pregnant!!!

Seven days past transfer (July 17^th) I went in to get my blood drawn to measure the HCG (pregnancy hormone) in my blood. My levels came back at 106.6! They considered anything over 5 to be considered pregnant. Then I went back in on 9 days past transfer (July 19^th) to check to see if it doubled (they expect it to double every 48 hours). My levels came back 244.6. It had more than doubled! 

On July 27^th we went in to have our first ultrasound. I was very nervous since I had been having cramps pretty badly for the past week. I was sure something was wrong. At this point I was 5 weeks and 1 day pregnant. At 5 weeks they expect to see a gestational sac and a yolk sac. We did a transvaginal ultrasound and we saw both gestational sacs and yolk sacs! Our doctor also said she saw a very small start to Baby A and Baby B. Baby A was measuring at 5 weeks and 4 days (so ahead of where we were) and Baby B was a bit small, but right on track at 5 weeks and 1 day. Fraternal twins! We were very excited!

From this point we go back to do ultrasounds every week for the next 5 or so weeks until we are released to my primary OBGYN. 

Baby A

On August 3^rd we went in for my second ultrasound. This time I was 6 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Around 5.5-6.5 weeks you are able to hear the heartbeat…so we were really hoping that we’d be able to hear both heart beats! We went in and were met with some good and bad news. Good news was that Baby A looked great. He was measuring 6 weeks and 4 days and had a strong heartbeat of 124! That heartbeat was so amazing to hear! The other news was that Baby B wasn’t looking so good.

Baby B had actually started to split into identical twins but it didn’t look like he was strong enough. At that point I had 3 gestational sacs. Baby A’s sac was measuring 6w4d, then Baby B had split into

Left to Right: Baby B, Empty Sac C, Baby A

two sacs. One was measuring 5 weeks 3 days but it was empty. It did not have a yolk sac or a baby inside. The doctor said it looked like that baby never fully developed. The other sac was measuring 5 weeks 2 days and Baby B was inside that one. So in the week since our last appointment Baby B only grew one day. We were able to find his little heartbeat but it only measured 71 beats per minute (they want to hear over 100 if not 120+). So we were told that we’d likely lose Baby B. Since we were still so early in the pregnancy chances are we’d experience Vanishing Twin Syndrome and Baby B, and what would have been Baby C, would absorb into Baby A’s sac. 

We went into IVF transfer knowing that there was a chance of twins if we put in two, but we always said we wanted at least 1 healthy baby to come from it. But after seeing two sacs and hearing two little heartbeats it’s really hard to not want both babies to make it! While we were told we had one healthy pregnancy, we were also told that we’d miscarry/lose one of our babies (technically two since Baby B split) at the same time. This appointment was so exciting since we got to hear our babies’ heartbeats for the first time, but also so incredibly upsetting to know that one of those beautiful heartbeats might not be there for the next ultrasound. 

Baby A

Today (August 10th) we had our third ultrasound. Baby A is measuring right on track at 7 weeks 1 day and is now over 1cm big! His heart rate was 155bpm! So he is looking great! Baby B is still hanging on but he is still a week behind measuring around 6weeks1day and his heart rate was so slow that we couldn’t hear it. We anticipate that by our 8 week appointment he will probably be gone. 

Left to Right: Baby A, Empty Sac C, Baby B

We are VERY happy that we have one healthy baby growing and we look forward to meeting him in March 2018!

Baby A's Heart Beat (155bmp)