When We Found Out We Were Expecting Twins!

We found out we were pregnant with twins at an early 6 week ultrasound! Everything involving twins is a whirlwind of an experience and how we found out we were pregnant was no exception!

Finding out we were pregnant

I found out I was pregnant at 2am on October 10, 2018. We had been trying for 6 months and like many people trying, I was a serial tester. A few days earlier, I was having weird cramping and spotting. I had an ectopic pregnancy in March 2018. The chances of having another ectopic pregnancy are high if there is history of this, causing my doctor to order a blood test. The blood test came back negative. This spotting must have been implantation bleeding, very common.

It was 2am. My toddler was going through a really rough patch in her sleeping, thus I was up. I needed to go to the bathroom so why not test? I told myself that I wouldn’t test at night because what if it’s positive? If it’s positive I’m going to be too excited and not be able to sleep! Of course, I had no self-control and tested anyways. It was an extremely faint positive. So faint (and probably lack of sleep) that I was actually able to fall back asleep. That morning I took another one, still faint but noticeable and asked my daughter to bring it to my husband. He was super surprised and excited but cautiously optimistic, due to what happened with our last pregnancy. Thankfully, the pregnancy tests were getting darker daily so all there was left to do was wait.

HCG levels

Many blood tests were ordered to make sure that the HCG levels were progressing normally. It was such a weird limbo period. We didn’t know how to feel. We wanted to be excited but we didn’t want to get our hopes up. A few days went by and so far the HCG were progressing. The HCG numbers are supposed to at least double every 48 hours and mine were tripling. Very exciting. This is when I started to take notice that maybe there is more than one baby growing inside of me. I, of course, googled like crazy if anyone who had this experience ended up having twins. Everything came up 50/50. It’s possible, but it’s also not abnormal. Our OB nurse didn’t seem too excited about it, so we waited.

Ectopic pregnancy scare

A week later I started to feel sick. I had bad stomach cramping and my doctor told me to go to the ER. The doctor wanted me to get an emergency ultrasound to make sure I didn’t have another ectopic pregnancy. I was about 4 weeks pregnant at this time and we were expected to go to Florida with our family the next day. The ultrasound was inconclusive because of how early it was. Usually, you have to be at least 6 weeks along to see if a pregnancy is located in the uterus. The doctor could see something in my uterus but not enough to be conclusive of a healthy pregnancy. I had to have two days of blood tests before going to Florida. Again, the numbers tripled so off to Florida we went. This was really when we started thinking something was up…

While in Florida I dreamed we had twins and so did my husband. We were in line for It’s a Small World when I asked my daughter if she thought we were having a boy or a girl. My mother in law said, “Or maybe one of each!” Another funny moment happened where my husband would not stop talking about how much he wanted to get a Mini Van. I was reluctant because I didn’t think we needed a Mini Van for 2 kids. I said, “Fine! If we have twins, we can get a Mini Van!”

I remembered feeling so nervous that this pregnancy wasn’t healthy because I wasn’t feeling consistently sick or tired. When I was pregnant with my first I felt sick on and off from the beginning, causing me to take a test. It wasn’t like that this time around. The morning we flew home from Florida, the morning sickness hit me like a semi-truck (and I would continue to feel this way until 17 weeks pregnant).

The Ultrasound

My doctor wanted an ultrasound as soon as I got home to confirm if the pregnancy was healthy. I was roughly 6 weeks pregnant when we had our ultrasound appointment. My husband and I were anxiously waiting in the OB lobby and feeling all the feels from reliving the last time when this happened with our ectopic pregnancy. I looked over to my husband and asked, “What do you think it is?” He said, “I really think it’s twins.” I said, “No, that happens to other people, not us.”

We walked into the ultrasound room, got onto the table and were just getting situated and chatting with the u/s tech. It literally wasn’t two minutes from when we walked into the room when she interrupted me and said, “So how do you feel about twins?” very calm and nonchalant. My husband yelled, “I KNEW IT! Now we can get a Mini Van!” I looked up at the screen in disbelief and said “WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Sure enough, safely in my uterus were two separate sacks with two little babies, one inside each one. I started shaking. Immediately, I started replaying the scene in Parks and Rec when Ben and Leslie find out they are having triples. I was totally channeling Ben, “But like how? What? What do we do?!”

The ultrasound tech finished completing her measurements but said we needed to come back again at 8 weeks. Twins have a higher risk of miscarriage so we needed to go back to confirm they were healthy. They passed all tests and ultrasounds with flying colors moving forward.

It may be very cliché, but we just had a feeling we were having twins. My husband was certain from the start we were having twins but I didn’t want to believe it until it was confirmed. I was guarding my heart. The signs were there though: the family history of twins, the implantation bleeding, the early positive pregnancy test, the cramping and early ultrasound detection, the tripling HCG levels, the dreams and intuitions. Life is such a crazy ride and we were so blessed with these miracles that God trusted us with. I guess twins do happen to people like us!

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