My First Prenatal Appointment

I had scheduled my first prenatal appointment on the exact day that would mark Week 10 of being pregnant. Both Jeremy and I were so excited and we didn’t want to wait one extra day to get things rolling! Our doctor had been the one who had helped us in the beginning stages of diagnosing our infertility but he then referred us to a specialist so it had been a while since we had seen him. He is such a great doctor, an all-around nice guy and was so great with us when we were going through the difficult part of this journey. He has delivered many of our friends babies and he reassured us that when we did get pregnant that he would love to be our doctor. I couldn’t wait to share with him our story and have him as our doctor!

The appointment seemed to go just as I had expected. Dr. C was excited to see us there and answered all of my questions. One of the questions I asked was how he recommended preparing for labor and if there was a particular method he recommended. I just told him that I wanted to avoid a C-Section at all costs (surgery freaks me out!) He reassured me that only 20% of labors result in a C-Section and that we shouldn’t have anything to worry about at this point.

Then we moved on to the Doppler and ultrasound. Dr. C said he would start by listening for the baby’s heart beat and then we’d do the ultrasound to actually see what was going on inside! I couldn’t wait! This was the part that we both felt would really finally confirm that YES, we are pregnant! But once I laid back he changed his mind and went straight for the ultrasound. Jeremy picked up on this little switcheroo and thought it was odd but I was so anxious I don’t think I was hearing a word anyone said. He turned the ultrasound screen on and moved that wand around a few times but didn’t say anything at all. It seemed like 15 minutes of silence but it was probably only a matter of seconds. I just wanted to hear that confirmation that there was a healthy baby in there! All the sudden he said in a surprisingly calm voice, “Oh my goodness.” followed by more silence.

Not what I was expecting, nor what I wanted! Jeremy was holding my hand and I just squeezed it. Just tell me there is a healthy baby in there!!

He moved the wand over to the left side of my stomach and said “Are you guys seeing this?!” I actually wasn’t seeing it very well since I was laying back and of course I had never looked at an ultrasound before so I had no idea what I was looking for! Then he pointed to the screen and said, “Well, here is a baby. Can you see the heart beating?” Jeremy got excited and confirmed that he saw it. I couldn’t really tell. Then he moved the wand over to the right side of my stomach and said “And here is another baby and it’s heart beating!” Ummm, what?!

OH.MY.GOSH! We’re having twins! SHOCK.OF.MY.LIFE!

As shocked as I was, I do feel like there was a small part of me that knew that all along! My Grammy Carol is an identical twin and there was always conversation about whether there was a “twin gene” passed down in our family when I was growing up. My sister and I even talked about it and wondered if either one of us would ever have twins. There are also a few sets of fraternal twins on the Sanchez side. To some extent I think feeling like you might be having twins probably normal. The idea of twins seems so amazing and what could possibly be more adorable then a newborn baby… well, two newborn babies of course! But then there was that drawing in the book of the mother nursing twins that I pointed out to Suzie or the joke that I made to Jeremy about twins being the only explanation for how sick I felt. I even prayed one time when we were waiting on the Lord to bless us with a baby that He would use this circumstance in our life to clearly show himself strong so that when we finally did get pregnant it would be so obvious the work He did in our lives, even if that means twins! Really, I should have known all along. Even the title of this blog that I named back in December seems even more perfect now! When the Lord blesses, He blesses big!

So then came another round of phone calls. It was like announcing we were pregnant all over again, but this time with even more shocked reactions, screams and a lot of laughter! We couldn’t be more excited about our “double blessing”! I’m the most scared and yet the most excited I think I’ve ever been in my whole life. Turns out the doctor skipped the Doppler and went straight to the ultrasound because my stomach seemed a little larger then normal for 10 Weeks! I think he was silent at first because he was checking for both heartbeats to confirm that both babies were healthy before saying anything. I’m glad he did it that way! Dr. C also informed me as we finished up our first appointment that carrying twins means my chances of a C-Section just increased dramatically. But now I just don’t seem to care about that as much. He did have to refer us to a specialist since twin pregnancy (and higher order multiples) is considered high risk. I’m bummed to lose the doctor we were so excited to have in the first place, but the good news is, he’s a family practitioner, so once the babies (that is weird to say!) are born, he’ll be their pediatrician!

After this post I will officially be caught up to "real time" so I promise I'll start adding pictures, some non-baby related posts and I do my best to make them shorter! :)