Between the two of us, we had a mix of emotions on Friday morning. Of course, I was hopeful for good news. But as the morning went on, I kept getting more and more scared that we were going to find no babies in the ultrasound. My husband had an interesting dream the night before. In his dream, Dr. Williams found 12 babies just inside of me. And his instant reaction was asking if we could do the "selective reduction" that is done when a woman gets pregnant with too many babies. And I yelled, "NOOOOO! We will make it work." So needless to say, he was more scared that Dr. Williams was going to find a TON of babies. It was interesting to see the survey results coming in. For those of you that guessed that we would have 3 or more, her response was, "What are these people thinking?" I told her it's not necessarily what you all are wishing on us - it's just what you think might happen. ;) The next-door neighbors watched our nephews - so that my sister's husband could come along with us. So the four of us piled into the car and headed on out to ORM.
Ultrasound #1: My ultrasound was first and we were in one of their smaller patient rooms - so it was a bit of a tight fit with the 4 of us and Dr. Williams. He came in and shook all of our hands and gave us a little talk before he started the ultrasound. He explained that we could see one of two things today. If we just saw the yolk sac with no baby, then the chances of miscarriage at this point would be 20-25%. But if we saw a little baby in the yolk sac with a heartbeat - then our miscarriage risk would drop down to 5-10%. At that point, I was VERY nervous that he may not find any babies. We dimmed the lights, he turned the screen towards us, and started the ultrasound. He quickly found the 1st baby - he showed us the darker blob (the yolk sac) with a little baby inside of it. He also said he could see the heartbeat and we had to have him point it out to us - it just looked like a little light flickering inside of the baby. AMAZING! After we were able to see the heartbeat on Baby #1 - he repositioned and said that he found another baby. The yolk sac on this one didn't look as defined to me - but we could still see a little baby inside. And we were able to see a flickering heartbeat within this baby as well. I can't remember exactly what everyone said - but it was actually much calmer than you would probably expect. I think my brother-in-law said, "I'm feeling emotions." And I'm sure there were a couple of "Wows!" And I just remember saying, "Awww...." when I saw one of the heartbeats. (I'll see if the other 3 remember what they said.) Dr. Williams did warn us that sometimes when two babies are found so early on, that the 12 week ultrasound only shows one baby. But as of now we had two babies with heartbeats - with one more ultrasound to go. While I was getting dressed, I was thinking that maybe my |
Ultrasound #2: The four of us anxiously awaited Dr. Williams to come into the room. He came in shortly, with a resident - so we had 6 of us in the room for this one. He told us that the office was all a buzz over our ultrasounds and how everyone kept asking, "Have you done Chrissy's yet?" Since we all heard his little pre-ultrasound spiel, he got right down to business. Just like with me, he quickly found the first baby that was growing inside of my sister. We could see the yolk sac and the heartbeat flickering - we were up to 3!! Then he repositioned and I think we all saw Baby #4 before he had to tell us - we could see the heartbeat flickering. Again, I can't really remember what everyone's reactions were - no screaming or crying or anything. I'm sure there were a few OMGs and looks of shock and disbelief. (I'll see if the other 3 remember what they said.) I just know that I was super-happy and still relieved that we had more than zero babies! And with that, we knew that we had four little babies with heartbeats. :) Dr. Williams congratulated us all and told us to head back to the waiting room - so that he could meet with us one more time. I gave my sister a quick hug and we headed out, so she could get dressed. We saw Penny as we came out of the room and her face was pretty priceless. She congratulated us and we said, "Thank you!" While we were in the back waiting room, there was a lot of laughing among the 4 of us. I know we were all still quite shocked. My husband's mind was racing with the thought of having 4 babies. He kept asking questions like, "What kind of car do you get for 4 |
When Dr. Williams was ready for us, we all headed back to his office. He kinda looked like he was drained from the news. ;) He was holding his handy dandy recorder, so I knew that we were going to get to watch him dictate a letter to Dr. Lindauer. Before he started he said, "Well, I'm probably going to have to do two letters today!" And then he asked, "You two don't have the same doctor do you?" But we told him that we did and that he could just do one letter to Dr. Lindauer. Watching him dictate letters has always been one of my husband's favorite parts and my sister said she enjoyed it as well. He basically filled Dr. Lindauer in our this past cycle and let her know that we were both pregnant with twins. (During the ultrasound he measured each of the babies and they were all about 8mm big and measuring at about 6 weeks and 5 days. So all of them seem to be right around the same size and point of development.) He read off the measurements from the ultrasound as part of his letter. And he handed me the string of photos from my ultrasound and handed my sister the string of photos from her ultrasound. He let Dr. Lindauer know that he wanted me to continue the progesterone shots through 11 weeks and that my sister should continue her estrogen/progesterone regimen through 12 weeks. At the end he said something about how he was sure that she would enjoy treating us. :) After 3 years of treatments with ORM, Dr. Williams was handing us back over to Dr. Lindauer's with 4 developing babies!!
After Dr. Williams was done dictating the letter, he chatted with us a little bit longer. He told us that they've probably only had 3 times in their history where they've transferred embryos from one egg/sperm source into two women. But he did say this was the first time that all embryos took. He also confirmed that the babies are indeed quadruplets - even though they are being carried in separate wombs. He also said they would probably be one of the healthiest sets of quads ever born - since they are being carried as separate sets of twins. He told us that our full-term due date is November 7, 2013 - but that since we're each having twins, they would likely be born in October. He also said that the worrying doesn't stop at this point since before our worries were, "Will I ever get pregnant?" And he said that we've answered that question today and with parenting some different types of worries. He also warned us again of how sometimes early ultrasounds detect two babies and something the next ultrasound doesn't. But he said that we saw 4 heartbeats today and he has a gut feeling that we're going to be getting 4 babies! When we all stood up to head out, my sister handed me her ultrasound pictures and said, "Here you go!" Which made Dr. Williams crack up. ;) He told us to contact them if there was anything else they could do and told us to keep in touch. He gave us all handshakes and hugs and we were on our way with our unbelievable news! The hallways of ORM has huge framed pictures of the babies that have resulted from their work. For years, I've dreamed of sending them a photo of our little ones and last Friday we made it one step closer to that dream. I must admit I was a little bummed that we didn't see Nancy - I'm sure she's so happy for us! :)
During the drive home we tried calling my husband's mom, my mom, and my dad - but nobody picked up! We joked about how we could've called a bunch of friends - who were probably waiting for texts or refreshing the blog as we spoke. Finally we got a hold of my mother-in-law first. Her reaction was "Oh no....." (in a good way, of course) and then she laughed and congratulated us. My sister-in-law's reaction was, "Holy $hit...." then some laugher and congratulations. His brother's reaction was, "Uh-oh..." then the congratulations! When we got a hold of my parents after we got home, my mom just kept asking me questions. "So wait.... how many babies in you?" And then, "And how many in Kuddie?" ;) My dad's response was, "No kidding!" After their initial shock, everyone was very happy for us! We were getting a few texts from curious friends asking us if we had any news to share yet. After most of the immediate family was told the good news, we started leaking the news via text. We decided that I should just post a picture of the number 4 somehow - so that's how most of you probably found out by refreshing the blog on Friday afternoon. When we got home, we went to pick up the nephews from the neighbor's house and told them our happy news. They were also quite shocked and excited for us. The rest of the afternoon, we logged back into work. Needless to say, I was quite distracted and only did what had to be done. I felt like I should be flipping out more than I was - but I honestly was just so relieved that we had received positive baby news. I wasn't worrying about the fact that we were having 4 babies - because my husband was doing enough of that for the both of us that day. Many of you posted cute comments on the blog and sent us sweet text messages of congratulations! We were definitely feeling the love and appreciated all of you sharing in our joy that day. Quite an interesting turn of events in this long baby quest!
On Saturday night we hung out with a group of my high school friends at Elphie's house. It was fun to see them all and catch up. The excitement of our 4 babies definitely took over most of the conversation that evening. On Sunday morning, we shared our good news with one of the pastors that was asking how things went on Friday. We've been asking him to pray for us throughout - so we told him that his prayers definitely worked! It was our nephew's 10th birthday - so we had him, his parents, and his two younger brothers over to hang out in the afternoon. They told them that we were going to have babies- so when they got there, the two younger nephews kept asking us where the babies were. I told them that they weren't quite ready yet. ;) So following our wonderful news on Friday - we had a great weekend of friends and family on Saturday and Sunday!
Well, it's almost 10:30pm - so I should probably get some sleep. We are feeling a little tired, but I'm sure we will get more tired before this trimester is over. Thanks to everyone for your love and support! :) We feel so blessed to have so many little miracles on the way. We also know that like most first-time parents, we most definitely have no idea what we're in store for this fall (times 4). But we are up for the challenge and are lucky to have such a supportive group of family and friends.
In closing, I'd like to wish an official (yet belated) birthday blog wish to the 3/24 birthday kids.... Keenan (the new 10 year old), my OU...Oh Yeah friend, and my cousin, Greg. And I'd like to share a verse that Josclyn, Breann, and Annsley's mama shared with us today... good night!!
Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."