The start of our journey
So the start of our journey was when we lost our previous baby through an ectopic pregnancy, it was scary and horrifying, I was told the original symptoms were IBS but in fact it was not. I nearly lost my life through this, my husband and I had to really consider another child ( we have two daughters already), then the delights of covid hit. We were both working in hospitality ( Him as a head chef and me as a front of house manager) Our income dropped rapidly. I took a job in the care sector to provide for my family. This was a very rewarding job but during the testing times of covid and a care staff shortage it was manic to say the least, long hours and the obvious risk of contracting covid and passing it on to my family. We found out we were pregnant in early November 2020, we assumed I was very early on in pregnancy due to me still running about at home and at work in size 8 jeans!! We decided to get checked straight away due to our previous experience and pregnancy loss. The thought of going to a hospital was so scary to us, as not only was Covid still very high in our area at this time but also the fear of it happening again, the fear of knowing the child we already loved was not to be, and could also endanger my life. The prospect of this was awful, I am not a person who usually suffers from any form of anxiety and for this I have always thanked by lucky stars, but walking in to that hospital I was almost hyperventilating with fear. Sat in the waiting room were quite a few women with similar looks on their faces, the fear of what being in this area with people you didn't know, people who you didn't know if they were testing for covid as regularly as they should, and who may have had their own personal fears as I did, this was evident behind the hospital issue covid masks and the noise of the TV in the background. My husband had been sent to a separate waiting room that was just for the partners of the expectant mums, this was so difficult my husband was not sat holding my hand while the tears silently fell down my face.
We eventually was called through to the sonographer, I laid on the bed and silently prayed for my little bean to be okay. The sonographer was concentrating so hard on the screen, the silence was almost deafening, I just wanted to scream please just tell me, but I couldn't, as secretly I didn't want to know. Another sonographer appeared at the door to ask a random question that I can't fully remember now what it was, the sonographer asked her to come and look at the screen, by this point I was starting to really worry. They both looked at the screen for what seemed like an hour but was more like 2 minutes., Eventually the words
'I'm sorry to tell you this'
Came out of her mouth, I grabbed my husbands hand not sure if I wanted to scream or sob, while my husband did the male thing of rubbing his thumb over my knuckles (I'm not sure whether this was to calm me or him) she continued with;
'It's twins and you are a lot further on than you suspected, you are measuring at exactly 24 weeks today!!