“Do you see that?”
The first ultrasound of a pregnancy is surrounded by so many emotions. From excitement, to almost shitting yourself because you are so nervous to see this little human growing inside of you. Here is how my first ultrasound went…
Somehow I was able to get in for my first ultrasound at 6 weeks and I will never forget the conversation with the doctor.
Being that it was so early in my pregnancy, my doctor said we couldn’t do a stomach ultrasound and had to do an internal one. She warned me that since it was so early there was almost no way we would hear the heartbeat and would just see a little dot. Our main objective is to confirm the pregnancy, how many babies, and that it is viable.
When she started the ultrasound as I was laying on the table, my husband to my side about even with my abdomen, and a nurse behind the doctor just barely in my view. As she was going about the ultrasound she is explaining what things are and then turns the small screen and says “Here that way you can see. This is your uterus, this is your amniotic sac.” I freeze… tears start to flood my eyes and I am holding back a laugh. She looks at me and says “Do you see that?" The nurse peaks her head around the doctor to see me, (she later tells us that she had never seen someones first reaction to finding out they were having twins and didn’t want to miss mine) I responded to the doctor “umm please just tell me what it is..” looking at my husband. She says “there are two, you are having twins, congratulations!”. There was no way! My husband was in full shock. The nurse brings me a tissue to wipe the tears and snot from my face. Now the doctor was performing the ultrasound as normal, snapping a few photos, labeling each baby, and then she was able to find both heartbeats. BOTH of them were strong enough for us to hear them loud and clear! It all was even more real in that moment. She was in awe that at a mere 6 weeks we were able to get both heartbeats to pick up that good. After she finishes up the ultrasound she explains that since I was having twins that is why my nauseas was so bad and that there was a good chance it would continue to last a little longer than a singleton pregnancy. She asks if I want a prescription for nausea medicine and my husband chimes in and says “can you prescribe me some of that?”. Everyone laughs and then we are given all the papers and sent to the next department for this appointment.
Once the doctor and nurse leave the room for me to get ready, my husband and I look at each other, still in utter shock. THERE IS TWO!! A nervous, scared, and excited feeling flood my body. How was I going to carry twins? I am a 5 foot nothing person. How were we going to do this? We are moving 3 hours further away from family to a new city in a month. Also, where the heck did they come from?!
As we are walking out of the doctors office, I try to remain calm, holding back tears and trying to gauge how my husband was feeling. We make it to our cars, he gives me a huge hug, kiss on the forehead, and says “we are having twins, I love you so much! Two of them, Kendra!” I am trying my best to breathe, reply “yeah, two!! I can’t believe it. I love you too!” I got in my car and sent a picture of one of the ultrasound photos we got to my mom. Before she had a chance to look at the photo I called her and asked her; “where do they come from?” She laughed and started to tell me where all the twins in my family are at and how they skipped generations perfectly to bless us!
We both head back to work where nothing productive comes from either one of our work days. Honestly, it felt like that for about a week. I was in such a shock and couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was having twins. Randomly I would catch myself looking at the ultrasound pictures over and over again.
Honestly, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I have twins and we randomly will say to each other “We have twins. I still cant believe we have two kids.”
From then on, we had double everyting! Double the exciting news, double the changes, and double the blessings headed our way.
No matter how you are feeling right before, during, or after your first ultrasound; Just know, that you are not alone and it is completely normal to feel all of those things. Your body is doing the dang thing and is making a tiny human(s). You dont have to be smiley and happy all the time, you can feel everyting else too. No one is judging you and would rather hear you say how you honestly feel than faking it. Doctors and ultrasound techs probably expect you to feel those emotions, especially at your first one, its a lot! Each ultrasound gets easier and more exciting, but also comes with its own set of worries. All of those worries are all for a different post though.
Stay strong, keep the ginger candies nearby, and get ready for the next time you get to see that little baby(ies) on that screen or hear the heartbeat that will bring you to happy tears!
