How to Make a Baby...or Two

Well life with twins, even as a stay at home mom now is BUSY! But it is time to get caught up with the blog.  You would think with all the bed rest I did, I would have kept up, but nope.  So let's go back in time a little and I'll share a little bit about my twin pregnancy and journey.

First off, don't get pregnant with twins at almost 40 years old.  It's not fun. We began our journey to have another child in late 2012- November to be exact.  I am not shy about my journey with infertility.  I figure if it can help someone else, it is worth sharing my story.  Not everyone is so lucky to just automatically get pregnant at first try, or third, or 100th.  Knowing IVF worked for us the first time to have William, we decided this time to go straight for that again and skip all the other painful and expensive treatments we endured the first time. That made life a little less stressful.  I knew what to expect this time.  And while insurance doesn't cover it, we were prepared to start the journey again to grow our family.

So in November 2012, the process started, it can take 4-6 weeks for the entire process, with lots of pills, injections, appointments, ultrasounds and more.  It isn't pleasant and is financially, physically and emotionally taxing.  I take my hat off to anyone who has endured IVF, it isn't for the weak of heart. After managing all the self injections- up to three per night and minor surgery to retrieve eggs, we were ready to implant some embryos.  We decided, given my age (39) and the fact that this would probably be our last shot, that we would put in three embryos.  This isn't recommended for younger patients, but given my age and situation, we went that route. It was scary knowing we could end up with triplets or twins.  The goal with IVF is always a healthy singleton- one child.  They consider that a true success- just one, not two or three.

Yep, two out of the three of these embryos are our little guys! 

We had a Disney trip planned in mid November- so while we had a blast, I felt pretty miserable a lot of the trip due to the medication.  Not ideal, but it is what it is.

So after a grueling two week wait, the blood test revealed I was pregnant on December 14th, 2012.  We were thrilled.  My numbers were high, which aren't necessarily an indication of multiples, but we had an idea maybe it was.  The ultrasound on January 4th at 7 weeks pregnant revealed that in fact, there were two healthy little beans in there.  We were overjoyed! Nervous, but excited. We knew it was a possibility, so it wasn't a total shock.

And then the real fun began....

Knowing I had a miserable pregnancy with William, I was hoping there wouldn't be a repeat performance, but of course I was wrong.  It was a repeat performance x2! Find out just how miserable next post!