The big news...

February 25, 2010: Surprising news

Today we went to UCSF for a "confirmation ultrasound". After two positive blood tests, we had to wait two weeks for this appointment, and I've been on pins and needles the whole time, trying not to get my hopes up. Joe, on the other hand, is totally positive I'm completely pregnant - mostly based on the fact that I fall asleep on the couch at 6:30 or so each night.

Dr. Rosen came in to do the ultrasound. I settled in to the chair and "assumed the position", and Joe held my hand. A nurse (or someone) stepped to the computer in the back of the room and Dr. Rosen set up the ultrasound machine. After a moment of poking around, he said, "We've got a heartbeat", and my heart skipped a beat. Then he said, "We've got two," and I held my breath. And then...., "We've got three." He looked a few more times to verify what he saw, and then printed a picture to convince us:

That's right - three heartbeats, three babies. We were told, before the procedure, that there was a 50% chance of IVF working at all in any given cycle. Because we were transferring two embryos, there would be a 40% chance of both of them implanting successfully (40% of that initial 50% = a 20% overall chance of twins). We're told now that there was about a 3% chance of one of those two embryos splitting - I'm not sure if that's 3% overall, or 3% OF that 20% (0.6%), but either way, this isn't what was supposed to happen. I'm still in shock.

After we finished at UCSF, we walked to Kaiser to get our H1N1 vaccines, since I am now officially at "high risk" as a pregnant woman. While I waited, my mother called to see how the ultrasound went. I told her there were three heartbeats and waited through a moment of silence before she said, in true Mama fashion, "Fuckadoodle". Definitely the first thing that's going in the baby book!

March 8, 2010: More confirmation

We went to Kaiser today where Dr. Huang repeated the ultrasound to verify that all three hearts are still pumping away. They are. He will be referring us to perinatology (also known as the "High Risk Clinic") for a consultation about the triplets and risks. Still in shock.

This afternoon we got a call from the perinatology department and they set up two appointments for the middle and end of the month. Thank goodness this is all considered "preventative" and there's no co-pay!