The Blessing of Many

There is a reason why most women don't announce their pregnancies until after 12 weeks. It's because things can change quickly, and if you are going to experience pregnancy loss, this is the most common time for it to happen.

It was very exciting when we finally found out we were pregnant. It has taken over two years trying to conceive our second. It's been a long road with many disappointments.

So I was very anxious when I went for an early ultrasound a number of weeks ago. I was hoping to see one live baby. Just one. One would have been beautiful. What we found was very different.  We found a set of identical twins, and then a single baby. 3 heartbeats. 3 babies. Oh my goodness.

For some reason, I took the news very calmly. I had been secretly hoping for two because I thought this might be my last shot of having children. Husband was happy with just Phoenix, but I wanted her to have a sibling or two to grow up with. I had about a 20 minute wait after the tech was done while I waited for the doctor on site to review the pictures, so I called Husband. Husband was also very calm when I told him bout it. He was at home taking care of Phoenix, so I just went to the appointment on my own.

Of course, I went into research mode. The stats aren't wonderful for triplet pregnancies. There is a 25% loss rate for the entire pregnancy. 1 in 4. That sounds so high to me.

The doc and the tech weren't sure if baby number 3 was going to viable. There was a heartbeat, but it wasn't the same as the other two and the baby wasn't as developed as the twins. So we waited for two weeks and went back for another peak to see how they are all doing. And through my research I found that having a 'disappearing triplet' is quite common. Like 50% of triplet pregnancies common. So it wasn't a total shock that we ended up with 2 after all. Two is still fabulous, even though we would have gladly welcomed all three to the family.

Of course, the twins are high risk as well. They share a placenta (mo), but thankfully are in their own separate sacks (di). This type of twin set is referred to as mo/di. They are identical. Because I am carrying mo/di twins I get to see the high risk maternal fetal medicine clinic in my city. I'm psyched for my first appointment in three weeks. And I get ultrasounds every 2-3 weeks to check on the babies progress! I'm psyched for that too. I love seeing their growth and development and seeing them on the screen makes it all the more real.

That's it for now. I have more story to tell, but I'll save it for another day. Here is my beautiful baby A and baby B. In all their 12 week glory.