IVF: Seven Week Ultrasound, From 1 to 2

Leading up to the ultrasound I was getting really worried that there wasn't going to be a baby in there, and no way that both embryos had worked, because I wasn't feeling any symptoms and had some differences in pregnancy tests that had made me wonder. I had been feeling sick by that point in my last pregnancy, but a good friend told me every one of her pregnancies were different and not to worry since that could be normal for me.

We had our 7 week ultrasound the day before we were leaving for our last trip to Europe, and since we were flying out of Vegas and spending the night in St. George the night before, we had our appointment down in St. George at our clinic's satellite facility.

At the start of the ultrasound the nurse practitioner kept adjusting the machine and making small talk, seemingly to stall, so I was really worried that something was wrong since all I could see on the machine was a black circle in the middle of my uterus. But then she got things together and moved the wand to show a little baby blob in the circle! I had been so worried it had been a blighted ovum (where the sac grows eve though there isn't a baby).

She immediately could see the heartbeat (I always struggle to see it) and pointed it out before letting us hear it. Baby heartbeats will always be one of the most amazing sounds I'll ever hear. She measured the heart rate, and it was perfect, and then measured the baby and it was also right on track.

After about five minutes of checking things out and saying how cute it was (even though I was like, uhhh, it's a blob), she started moving the wand around and said, "And here's baby B!"

We were understandably shocked and a little confused since she had spent so much time on the one baby, nonchalantly making us think that there was just the one. I mean, isn't two babies something you tell people straight away?? I had totally thought just one baby stuck and honestly, I was thrilled--we were finally pregnant again so who cared how many were in there? But hearing that there were two was crazy and exciting once we wrapped our brains around it.

We heard the heartbeat of baby B and got the measurements, which were also on track, then got all the pictures printed out, and were on our way to run errands for our trip.

But twins! It felt so weird to think that there were two little babies growing inside me! We were still only just cautiously optimistic since it is totally reasonable to miscarry within the first few weeks just like in any pregnancy, even if you use fertility treatment. Unless you test your embryos (which we did not), you have the regular chances of miscarriage. And since 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, we weren't banking on both babies making it quite yet. We were hopeful, but realistic.

And all we could do was wait. Luckily we could do some waiting in Europe until our nine week ultrasound.