Ok so there is so much to cover here, I felt the only way to really do it justice was to split it up into parts. First, I'm going to give some backstory about how we got close to delivery and what we went through to get there. We did our final round of IVF in Dec. 2016. Some keys to remember about the rounds before this: 1. We did our embryo transfers in another state, which was a 2.5 hr drive from where we live. 2. One thing they tell you about anything with infertility is keeping your stress and emotions in check (yeah right). 3. On the way back from our second transfer, my car broke down 10 minutes into the drive and we had to be towed the 2.5 hours home. 4. We had only transferred one embryo each previous time but on the final time we did 2 and stayed at a hotel near the office so we could eliminate any potential hazards (again!). After our transfer, we got Chinese (my fave) at P.F. Chang's and my fortune read "A gift from nature will soon be coming your way." Little did I know, that gift would really be 3!
When you go through IVF, you don't get the "surprise your husband with a cute pregnancy announcement" or take a test and wait for the results together. You do blood work and your doctor calls you with the results. I got my results at work and called my husband to tell him the news from a supply closet. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a positive result was the most important thing! When the doctor gave me the results, she mentioned that the numbers were very high, so that could mean twins. Because we transferred two embryos, I knew that this was a possibility. My sister just had twins the previous summer, so I felt like I knew what that looked like and saw how she managed it. When we finally went in for our ultrasound, she told us right away that she saw two sacs and that meant two babies. We were nervous but excited, as it was already kind of expected. As the ultrasound went on, we saw the tech and the doctor look at each other and get quiet. When you go through the fertility process, quiet is never a good sign. I was getting so worried that something was wrong. Then we heard the words "there's another one…" I looked at my husband and said "holy s..." They explained that one of the embryos divided so we would be having a set of identical twins and a singleton. Basically every question or statement that ever existed about having multiples came out of my mouth- How are we going to afford this? What are we going to do with them? What does that mean for delivery? How are we going to take care of them? How safe is this pregnancy? There are only two of us, not three!! The doctor also wanted to speak with us about selective reduction- basically eliminating one or two of the babies so the pregnancy would be safer. After all of our trying we just absolutely couldn't think of doing that. So we took the information we had, set up our next appointments, and started freaking out.
To be continued in Pt 2!