1st OB appt, all is well

I had my first prenatal appointment yesterday, and everyone is doing just fine. My biggest fear was alleviated...the fear of Vanishing Twin Syndrome. Go ahead and google "twin pregnancy" or even just "twins" and you are bound to read something about Vanishing Twins. It's where one of the twins is absorbed by the body and there is no sign that a second baby even existed (except for the early ultrasound that proved there were two). The mother may or may not experience signs of miscarriage. Experts believe that it occurs in approximately 20-30% of all twin pregnancies diagnosed by early ultrasound. Some even believe the rate to be as high as 70%!! As much as I hate math, I've always been a statistics person. So of course those stats scared me. Plus, the fact that this twin pregnancy WAS diagnosed early -- just shy of 8 weeks -- really had me worried that at my next appointment, they would only be able to find one.

BUT, both babies are doing well. The nurse practitioner decided against trying to listen for the heartbeats via doppler since I'm not quite over 10 weeks yet. It's really hard to find the heartbeat till the pregnancy is 10-12 weeks along. Couple that with the fact that she would be trying to track down two heartbeats, she just decided to do a quick ultrasound in the office. It was a pretty grainy picture, but both heartbeats were visible. And one of the babies was doing somersault after somersault after somersault. He/she was just bouncing around like a little ball in a pinball machine!! The NP also reassured me that the chance of Vanishing Twin Syndrome at this point is now very minute. Yay!

My next visit will be in 4 weeks when I meet with the doctor. I can't wait!