My husband and I found out I was pregnant only a few hours after returning from our Honeymoon in Disney World. I’ll never forget waiting for the results of the test considering everything in our lives that would change if it read positive and, sure enough, our lives have certainly changed. Fortunately, I had a fairly uneventful pregnancy. I never experienced the crippling morning sickness I’d heard about from many other women, not many foods made me sick, and vice versa, I hardly craved anything at all. In fact, there were many times I didn’t feel as if I was pregnant (at least in the first two trimesters).
Everything about my pregnancy was progressing along as expected. My routine well visits were typically quick and uneventful. The OB/GYN office I visited at the time was not technologically advanced and lacked ultrasound equipment. In my case, a heartbeat was found at each visit as expected and there was nothing medically necessitating an ultrasound prior to the routine anatomy scan.
“Are you certain the dates you initially provided are correct?” This was the kind of question that makes your heart rate jump a bit while the doctor has a tape measurer above your belly button. My immediate response to this question was, “yes, absolutely.” There was no doubt in my mind. The doctor began explaining to my husband and I that my fundal height was much higher than expected. I could see my husband sitting on the chair across from me with a confused expression. He was clearly lost in the pregnancy lingo but knew enough to understand where this might be headed.
We were given the following explanation for the unusual measurements. Either we had one giant baby or there was more than one baby. I’m sure you can imagine our complete shock at this point. This was quite the curveball nearly halfway through my pregnancy. Our insurance company didn’t find the results from this visit concerning enough to cover an ultrasound until I was at least 18 weeks and a day.
On our drive home, we convinced ourselves that it was just an extra large baby. After all, the doctor only found one strong heartbeat, despite repeated attempts to find two, so it couldn’t be more than one, right? Wrong.
It took less than 24 hours to find and schedule a visit to the nearest elective ultrasound location. Once we were at the appointment, it took hardly a few seconds for the tech to declare we were in fact having twins. She could tell us right away Baby A was a girl. And within another minute, we knew baby B was also a girl. So began the barrage of questions about whether or not twins run in our family. No they do not, but maybe now they do?
There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: twins.
Josh Billing
