Well we have posted our good news all over Facebook. Our families have been notified. This is real...we are having twins...here is our story!
In January, I made an appointment to go see a different fertility specialist in St. Louis. We wanted a different opinion. A fresh eye to look at all my records and to see why I miscarried, why we could get pregnant but not hold the pregnancy. We had a lot of questions we wanted answered. I will never forget this appointment. This was the day my outlook changed. She was so positive and so upbeat! She wanted to do tests and get answers. We got started right away! I got a calendar and tests were ordered. We would finally get answers.
So I was test for "Natural Killer Cells". My test came back. My levels were elevated. So, to explain what NKC are...this is where your body thinks the embryo is a disease. Then, your body fights it off and it ends the pregnancy naturally. This was good news in our eyes. It gave us a reason WHY it happened. We wondered how they would treat this? Come to find out it was an easy fix!! Before we started IVF I would get a 2 hour lipids transfusion. Then if I were to get a positive pregnancy result I would get a second transfusion. Thats all. Why wasn't I tested for this before?
So now here we are at the beginning of February. I started all the shots and pills. A few weeks of that and we headed back for a check up on our follicles. I knew from the last few times that I would respond well. I saw on the screen a lot of little follicles. I lost count after 16! How exciting!! We drove back how to stay on the same schedule. Two more check ups and we were ready! I had a total of 31 follicles and a lot of them were mature. I was feeling "full" and at our last ultrasound she said that the follicles looked like cheese wedges! I laughed!! We would get a phone call on when to give the trigger shot. Then we would go back 36 hours later for retrieval.
36 hours later I was prepped and ready I don't remember all that much. ;) I eventually found out that she was able to get all 31 follicles. They were "mixed" and were learned that 18 of them fertilized! We now had to wait to see how many of them made it to day 5. We only hoped that we would get enough to transfer.
Day 5 we would come back to STL I would get to see "babies first picture" two beautiful embryos. One was already hatching! We had hope. They were of good quality. AB and BB! After this...comes the dreaded two week wait. I tried to keep busy and to not think of it. I was very bloated and already felt miserable. I was drinking gatorade and water. Eating salty foods trying to fight off OHSS. This is where, from the meds, that my ovaries would become overstimulated. I believe that I would have a mild case. I gained about 8 pounds of fluid. Then after about 5 days I started to feel better. My stomach wasn't as full and I started to feel normal.
Then 2 days later I ballooned up again! I was so surprised. I was feeling so gross. Then Jeffrey convinced me to take a pregnancy test the night before we go for my first blood test. I did...and then there it was...two pink lines! I was optimistic. My first blood test was 151. My first numbers have NEVER been that high! We wait....the numbers have to double. They almost did. She sent us another order for a third beta. The numbers were in the high 400. She was satisfied with this. So I had to schedule my second lipid infusion and ultrasound. We had to then just wait.
I was 7w4d when we did our first ultrasound. We had never made it this far before!! We just wanted to see a sac and hopefully hear a heart beat. Well so our surprise not only did we see one....we saw TWO! Two sacs....two heartbeats!!! Jeffrey smiled and giggled...I was silent...the thought in my head was CRAP lol. Twins...fraternal twins!!! Both eggs implanted. We couldn't believe it! We scheduled our next ultrasound for a week later.
I was 8w4d at the next one. We saw two sacs and two heart beats...AGAIN!! STRONG heart beats at that! At this appointment this is where my doctor introduced us to our gummy bears. Then she also told us this is where we would "graduate" to my regular OBGYN. It was bitter sweet and sad. She gave us something that my two previous doctors couldn't. A pregnancy that would make it past 8 weeks...
Here we are 9w6d and i'm feeling good. I have not been sick only a little bit of nausea. I have been very tired and I don't have much energy. I do need to sit a lot more than I used to. We thought about not telling people until 12 weeks but we know, by the way my clothes are fitting, that we physically wouldn't make it. I know it is early to announce this but we have come farther than ever. We want to celebrate this victory. Micah is our first child and the love of our lives. She will be a protective big sister. These babies may be growing inside me but Micah grew in my heart. I feel so blessed to get to finally get to experience pregnancy. I'm excited to experience the good and the bad. I will love every minute of it! I won't complain because it is truly a privilege. A privilege that some will never get to experience.
We will keep you all updated on our progress. Until then thank you for all the kind words, prayers, and positive thoughts. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through our next journey....pregnancy!
Baby A and Baby B Finley coming to you this fall! November 14th, 2016!!
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