From three...to four...TO FIVE!

...

After our 3rd round of IUI for baby number 2, we got a positive pregnancy test on December 29th. We were beyond excited, but as always, living in protective joy. My beta HCG came back as a 70. A great starting number, but it didn't quite double the way they like, so we had lots of repeat bloodwork. The 3rd and 4th betas came back more than doubling, so we felt much more confident to start thinking we really were pregnant. Our first sono was 2 weeks after our IUI. We were hoping to hear the heartbeat again, as we did with Grey, and see all the "important" parts- fetal pole, embryo, yolk sac. We also were a little anxious to see how many of the 4 mature follicles I had were fertilized. Although I felt pretty confident there was only one. (Grey's starting beta was 499! And they thought I was carrying triplets...so anything is/was possible). We saw just one sweet sac with all the important ingredients for a viable pregnancy. We didn't hear the heartbeat this time, but were able to see it flickering on the screen. Although, when our nurse asked if I could see it, and I confidently could and said yes, she then moved her mouse to another part of the screen and pointed at something completely different. Who knows what I was looking at...

As it turns out, I was looking at our twin. After our 6 week sono with the fertility doctor, we were released to my OB and got to have another sono the following week (7 weeks). I immediately saw two yolk sacs, but thought it might have just been a shadow or something crazy, because while I'm pretty good with what I'm looking at and for with sonos, I'm no tech! The sonographer saw the heartbeat right away and pointed it out and we got so excited that our baby was still looking good. She then said, "and here is another heartbeat!" OH MY GOODNESS. It's one thing to expect multiples at your first sono, but once you're thinking your having one baby, there are no words to describe the emotions we felt. Excitement, shock, fear...I asked right away if they were both measuring okay, and they were both right on target and had strong heartbeats. I just kept saying. "oh my goodness", with my hands on my head (what else could a girl do when legs are up in stirrups), while Jared was trying to hold, or not really hold, back tears (joyful tears, mind you). I immediately knew they had to be identical, as they were in the same sac. I kept thinking, and saying things out loud, how could we end up with identical twins? Jared had no idea there were so many types of twins, so I quickly explained to him that these babies were not the result of our fertility treatment but God's sweet and unexplained blessing...with some of that scientific stuff thrown in.

We went back to the waiting room to wait to be called back to speak with the doctor. We were both in shock and trying to digest the exciting news. I immediately emailed my fertility dr./nurse to let them know. My fertility dr. and OB are friends, so my OB was also calling them at the same time, giving them a hard time for missing the "extra" baby.

Eventually we got back to meet with the  OB (this was our new OB- same practice- my old one had retired). This OB had actually delivered Grey though, so we already had a relationship with him. We exchanged hugs and pleasantries and then got down to business. He explained the different types of identical twins and which one he thought we were having, but he couldn't be sure yet. We quickly learned that  the type of twins he thought I was having (mono-mono)- which he explained is incredibly high risk with high mortality rates and he basically scared us half to death talking about spending a lot of time in the hospital for fetal monitoring, and that there would likely be lots of NICU time for our babies. While we didn't/don't want any of that,  we want these babies and we love them so much, we will be so thankful to get to those moments because that means our pregnancy is progressing. In meeting with the OB, we were still very excited, feeling blessed, but also completely overwhelmed and scared by all we didn't know. I'd say we are still excitedly overwhelmed, We are waiting until next week to find out more about our twins...whether they are sharing a placenta and amniotic sac, which are praying against, and praying they each have their own. Our doctor reminded us that while yes, that's what we want to pray for, we first pray for God's will. What a great reminder. We all held hands at the end and our doctor prayed for all 5 of us before we left. We feel like we are in great hands with him and will pray for his wisdom and discernment as we make decisions going forward!

And that's the quick version of how our family grew from 3, to 4, to 5!!!

*The following week, at our 8 week sono, we saw a membrane separating the babies! They're sharing a placenta, but have separate amniotic sacs, making them mono-di identical twins. Our OB said we can expect a pretty normal twin pregnancy because of this. He also said he would've put money on it that our babies were mono-mono... We attribute this entirely to God. We had many people praying for a membrane, and not only did one appear, it was the first thing we saw when we had that sono. I never thought a little white line would mean so much to us!