We had our first "OB" appointment on Tuesday. By OB I mean that we saw a regular doctor for the first time instead of a fertility doctor since we have officially been released by the fertility clinic. But, we didn't actually see an OB, it was a midwife. The insurance requires that everyone sees a midwife first, even though with twins you always get referred from there to a doctor, or even perinatologist (high risk pregnancy doctor). We requested a referral to the perinatologist since it is twins but their standard practice it seemed was that a regular doctor was enough if the only risk factor was twins. Since the midwife wasn't sure if the peri would see us, she scheduled our next appointment with a regular OB and put in a referral for the peri at the same time. That way, if we get turned down for the peri, we just show up for the OB appointment. If we don't get turned down, we cancel that appointment and go to the peri. The assumption is that whomever we see at the next appointment will be the doctor we'll see for the rest of the pregnancy, which is exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing someone consistently. (Though I guess there is a possibility that we'll see the peri and then we'll get referred back to an OB.)
Either way, we have the official ultrasound to confirm the twins for insurance purposes on July 7. They did an ultrasound this week on a really low grade machine that was really fuzzy. We got pictures but they weren't very good. The next ultrasound will be with a technician (I don't think we even see a doctor that day) and will be on a better, high quality machine so the insurance has documentation for their files of the twins directly (they don't want our fertility clinic files). We'll be 14 weeks at that point and I have seen a few people find out genders that early...I'm very much hoping we get lucky like that because we're dying to know!
We did see the babies moving all around on this ultrasound. Both of them were very active and moving all over the place, more than ever! Plus, we saw the little heartbeats pounding. (Our other doctor never showed us the heartbeats, we just heard them.)
One last thing - we found out that I will be classified as "advanced maternal age"! I'm 32!! Normally you get that label (which equates with "high risk" treatment and attention) if you are 35 or older and pregnant. But, if it is twins, they lower the age to 32 and I just turned 32 last week. It doesn't increase your chance of a baby being chromosomally abnormal if he/she is one of two, but with two babies, there is of course a higher likelihood that one could have a problem - about the same likelihood as a 35+ year old with one baby, hence the label (The chances are all still very low.) We turned down the genetic counseling appointment since we wouldn't terminate no matter what. But even after J explained this to them, they have called her multiple times because they feel so strongly given the circumstances (32 and twins) that we "understand the risks"!!! It's really strange to me that they would press so much after we said we're not interested. I'm guessing they just don't see a lot of twins come through. Oh well, I'll look on the bright side: with them classifying us as higher risk, we'll get more prenatal attention. And on the brightest side, I'm just so grateful that J's insurance covers this, that I'll do just about anything they want. :)
Next ultrasound: July 7
Next doctor appointment: July 9 (unless we get the peri referral)
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Oh, they only pressed for the genetic counseling because they felt you should formally be aware of the "risks" involved with advanced maternal age. I think they also thought it was weird that we requested the information and then decided to cancel for no apparent reason.
At any rate, we are almost to 12 weeks, yippie!
Yeah, but once we said we didn't want it, you would have thought they wouldn't have kept pressing!
Clarification to post: We initially asked for a special scan they can do to detect possible chromosomal issues, but the timing didn't work out because we are going to be out of town during the required time to do it. They said we needed to do an additional appointment with it (genetic counseling) and we didn't want to do that, even with the scan. So once J told them we didn't want the scan anymore, they still want us to do the counseling appointment and that's what we never had interest in from the beginning! LOL So, if I had kept my big mouth closed about being interested in the scan, they never would have even mentioned this whole counseling thing, and now they are emphatic about it. It's one big circle. :)
I have never heard that 32 and twins = advanced maternal age. That's ridiculous. Besides, unless you get an amnio, the nuchal fold tests aren't really that reliable in twins (b/c the blood test you get can't tell what's being produced by which baby). Can't wait to see your 14 week u/s pics. And I hope you get referred to a peri. Twins are high risk, no matter what they say. :)
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