6w5d with triplets... Houston, we have heartbeats!

Today's long-awaited ultrasound was a sight to behold. For a realistic infertile, seeing the heartbeats is like the holy grail of realization. This is the moment it all becomes real.

I've read that a baby's heart starts beating around the 20th day after conception, but that usually only becomes visible on va.ginal u/s during the 6th week.

We purposefully scheduled the heartbeat u/s for late in the 6th week, to have the best possible chance of seeing all three heartbeats.

A young but experienced Nurse Practitioner performed the scan. She saw the first heartbeat instantly and didn't hold out on us. (Pointing to a flickering on the grainy black and white image:) There is the baby's heartbeat right there.

She moved the wand to position it so we could see our second baby. "I definitely see the second heartbeat. There."

Then it took some careful scanning to look at baby number 3, who is significantly smaller. "I see the yolk sac and a fetal pole, but no heartbeat... yet." It may not continue to develop, or we might see it next week." I was calm, because I had a feeling that baby 3 is okay, but just a little slower.

She scanned upwards to take another look at the first two and measure them. Then she went back to baby number 3 and there it was. "Oh look! Now I see the heartbeat on baby number 3."

Tears stream down my face. Relief. Hubby grins from ear to ear and squeezes my hand tightly. After all the waiting, this right here is the most amazing, life-changing moment. Three heartbeats. Three live babies. All doing fine so far. How can anyone be so blessed after infertility?

I feel guilty for feeling such overwhelming joy in the face of all my friends who are still in the trenches, fighting Endo, unexplained fertility, male factor, etc. etc. I want a happy ending for everyone.