Pregnant with Twins? - REALLY get to know your UltraSound Tech

When we discovered I was carrying twins at my 20 week UltraSound, I was immediately informed that I would be returning to the ultrasound department of our medical buidling on a frequent basis. The gal who performed my 20 week ultrasound (the person who discovered and informed us of the twins pregancy) was a very nice woman and appeared to be very capable. However I was quickly informed that my twins and I would be seeing "Mike" every 3 to 4 weeks for our follow up appointments.

It turns out that Mike is THE GUY in the ultrasound department. He's the "go to" person for the more challenging or the higher risk ultrasound work. Not that having the ultrasound was risky. However the challenge of taking ultrasound measurements on tiny twins, and not over looking what would obviously be small changes in dimensions is a very specialized skill. Not to mention the challenge of keeping the twins mom's nervous energy in check. It turns out it takes a very technically capable, and emotionally empathetic, person to do both of those items well. I was very lucky that Mike had both of those skills. He was great!!

Here's a small piece of advice for moms pregnant with twins; make sure you ask (and push for it if need be....) the BEST technician on the ultrasound staff. Your doctor will rely heavily on the ultrasound results to track your progress. Therefore you want to make absolutely sure your doctor is getting the highest quality ultrasound results and data. This will help your doctor and you to ensure everything with your twins is progressing as expected. Plus think about all the great ultrasound photos you'll have to share with everyone who is awaiting the arrival of your twins!!

Hearing the news - IT'S TWINS!!

When I found out I was pregnant, my husband and I were THRILLED. We had been trying for quite a few months and were one more OB/GYN appointment from going on Clomid. Not to mention the fact that I was sick (and tired) of people telling me to just relax.... "You have one child already so clearly you're capable of having a baby. Just relax and it will happen faster than you can imagine." UGH. I heard that so many times it was driving me CRAZY!! In fact, I was so stressed about people telling me to relax, that it's amazing that I did get pregnant.

Anyway, I was half way through my pregnancy when we went in for our 20 week ultrasound. I had been talking with a friend of mine at a neighborhood BBQ the previous day and we were joking about how I was gaining weight so quickly and just still feeling really tired, etc. She casually said, "You sound like I did and I was having twins!!"....Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha we all responded. After that conversation, my object for the ultrasound had changed from "tell me what gender it is" to "confirm for me that there's only one baby in there?!?!?"

The ultrasound tech was very calm and scanned to the right and scanned to the left with basically no comments or expression. Then she very calmly announced, "Looks like your friend was right. It's TWINS!!" She then immediately asked the assistant to call up to my doctors office and let them know I was going to be late for my OB appt which was scheduled for immediately following the ultrasound. The tech looked at me and said, "You're going to be there a while. We have two babies to scan."

That 30 second conversation changed our lives forever..... for the better ofcourse!!