Ultrasound photo of our twins
I’m still a bit in shock! I knew I was pregnant and I also knew there was a higher chance of twins. I just didn’t think it would really be my new reality. It is my new reality. I am expecting twin boys. They are fraternal twins.
Fraternal twins, what does that mean? That means they each have their own sack/placenta and won’t be identical in appearance. If they were identical, they would share the same placenta, have the same DNA and look exactly like each other. Since they are fraternal and not identical they will have their own look and have shared DNA, but it won’t be an exact match. Our hope is that they will grow up best friends, but be individuals with their own interests, hobbies, and friends.
Fraternal twins run in my family. I am a fraternal twin (brother) and my Mom was a fraternal twin (also a brother). We will have three generations of fraternal twins in our family. Our twins were almost designed to be twins and will be the first boy fraternal twins, but I’m still really happy to be carrying on the twins tradition in our family.
Being pregnant with twins brings about all kinds of new risks and other things that I hadn’t really thought of. We saw our OBGYN doctor who will be delivering the twins recently, and she had to tell us all of the risks of my pregnancy. I thought I had known all of the risks, but there were a few that I hadn’t heard before or the fertility center didn’t tell us. The main risk is my age (49) and keeping the twins inside of me until they are developed enough. I am also a chronic high blood pressure sufferer, so that brings about other risks such as Preeclampsia and pregnancy onset diabetes or Gestational diabetes. I don’t want either of these conditions. My blood pressure has been high already and I’m only 12 weeks pregnant yet. I am monitoring it twice a day and at my next doctor’s visit, we will most likely adjust my blood pressure meds. I am on a safe during pregnancy BP med, but it doesn’t seem to work as well as the one I was on before we started our fertility treatments
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I have to be honest, when I got home from the very long first visit with our new OBGYN, I was a bit overwhelmed. I had a couple of hours of panic and thinking the worst case scenario. I then talked to my husband, Steve, about everything that we heard and he said, “She has to give us all of the risks or she wouldn’t be doing her job well.” She also suggested some additional testing that we are going to have done and then if there is anything that we need to know or plan for, we will be prepared in advance, and not blindsided by it. I feel like you can handle anything if you have all of the information and are prepared. After talking to Steve about it and checking in with my heart, I am excited again about our future with our twins. We are so blessed to be able to start our family, not with one baby but two! So even though there may be some additional risks with carrying two babies instead of just one, I’m going to love both of these babies and take such good care of myself for the rest of my pregnancy. I will do everything in my power to make sure that they both have every opportunity for a healthy and thriving life!