We are so thankful for this pregnancy! After sharing our journey through infertilty on the blog, I knew I wanted to log our newfound 40 week journey of pregnancy on the blog as well.Not knowing if I’ll ever be able to experience pregnancy again, I have chosen to log our pregnancy by writing occasional letters to our babies. The letters will keep my readers posted on how we are doing each week, but the letters will also, someday, be something that our little ones can go back and read over, as a reminder of how much he or she was loved from the very beginning of their existence. You can read week 5 here and week 7 here.
This letter
is a few days late, but today is the first day since our last doctor’s
appointment that I’ve actually felt like
sitting down and writing, or doing much of anything for that matter. I had about four days in a row where
pregnancy symptoms made me feel as if I had been wiped out with the flu. Like most women, my first trimester has been
spent feeling sick. Some days are just
worse than others, and then once in a while, I get a good day. Today is a good day, and I’m thankful for that.
On Wednesday,
we went in for our last appointment with our RE! It was a little bitter-sweet to say goodbye
to our fertility doctor and nurses who we have been working with since
January. They have requested pictures of
you once you are born, which we gladly told them we would send. Then we gave hugs, thanked them for all of
their help with getting us pregnant, and left the office for the last time. YAY!
It was another pregnancy milestone for us. My doctor told me that it appeared the
problem was simply getting me pregnant, because now that I am pregnant, things
could not possibly be looking any better than what they are! He is beyond
trilled with my progress and how well the two of you are doing, considering the
fact that we were labeled a high-risk pregnancy from the very beginning. It was such a relief to hear him say those
words. From the very first time we saw those two pink lines on a HPT , things have gone smoothly for us
and without any complications. We couldn’t
be happier about that! We were told it
would be a high-risk first trimester, and they have kept us under close care
from the beginning. Thankfully, every
checkup has indicated a normal, healthy first trimester. After experiencing such disappointment with
our infertility, this whole pregnancy process has been more than we could have
ever asked for! Each checkup is just a
reminder of how blessed we really are.
One of the
good things about being under such close care in my first trimester is that we
have to have ultrasounds around 6, 9 and 12 weeks. Most people don’t get to actually see their
babies on a screen that often and as early as we have. It has probably been the biggest perk of this
whole process for me. I think I may
actually go through ultrasound withdrawals once we enter the second trimester,
as I won’t get another ultrasound until we find out your genders. It has been the neatest thing to see how
much you are growing and developing this early in our pregnancy. I knew that you were LIFE from conception, but if anyone has doubts
that you are life even this early, I just point to my ultrasound pictures. I point to your little hearts that were
clearly beating at our six week ultrasound and to your little bodies that were
clearly formed by our nine week ultrasound.
You were life from the very beginning, and don’t let anyone ever tell
you differently. You will be born into a
world where the life of the unborn is not valued by many. The earliest lesson I can teach you is that whether
you were planned or unplanned…..it doesn’t really matter…..you are not just a
nine week old fetus…..you are two precious LIVES growing inside of me.
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| At nine weeks Baby B is blurry due to constant movement, while Baby A is calm and relaxed. |
It was
surreal to see the two of you in our first ultrasound. That was, of course, the first time we were
officially told we were having twins. In
our second ultrasound, it was crazy to see how much you have already
grown. I’m told you are the size of an
olive at nine weeks. Even at that size,
your little heads, arms, legs, round bellies and umbilical cords were clearly
seen in the ultrasound. When you first appeared on the screen, the
first words out of our doctor’s mouth were, “Wow they are really growing and
getting big!” This might also explain why I am already starting to show so
early in my pregnancy. The nine week ultrasound may have also given
us our first glimpse into your individual personalities. Baby A was very still in all of our pictures
and seemed to be calm, cool and relaxed.
In fact, Baby A had a perfect pose for the 3D ultrasound picture. I’ll be curious to see if you stay this way,
and if you do indeed have your father’s low-key personality. Baby B, on the other hand, seemed less
content. You moved around the entire
time they were probing me and trying to get some pictures. You are blurry in every single one of your
pictures, because you were moving so much! In your 3D ultrasound, you look like
a gummy bear rather than a baby, due to your constant movement! I’ll be curious to see if you were just
active during the ultrasound, or if your personality is just busier than Baby A
and a little less content. If so, you
take after your mother.
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| Baby A 9 week 3D ultrasound |
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| Baby B 9 week 3D ultrasound |
After our
ultrasound with the RE, we had to go to the hospital where we will be delivering
you, to sit down with a nurse to go over paper work, basic pregnancy health
with multiples and my basic first trimester blood work. Rather than taking my over the counter
vitamins, the nurse is making me switch to a prescription prenatal, folic acid
and vitamin B6 in hopes of it all helping my nausea. She
also prescribed something to help with my pregnancy digestion issues, in hopes
that I would be less bloated and have more of an appetite. She believes much of my nausea is blood sugar
related, since I was hypoglycemic prior to pregnancy. With some of her tips for eating and the new
prescriptions, I’m hanging on to hope that I feel a little better in the last
few weeks of this trimester than I did in the first few weeks.
Less than
three weeks until our first appointment with our OB and another ultrasound. I’m anxiously waiting to see your growth and am
excited to know that we are very close to finishing out the first trimester of
this pregnancy.
Love,
Mommy