Vanishing Twin Syndrome

bhobson64

based on my LMP, I am 8w1d and yesterday I went for my first ultrasound. I had 1 gestational sac with a baby with a heartbeat of 178 measuring 8w4d. The ultrasound tech then moved the probe and started writing "baby B" on something else. When I asked her why she was writing baby B she said there were 2, but I saw the second one had no heartbeat. That one was measuring 7w4d, but it looked different. It didn't have the wide open black space around it that the healthy baby did. The doctor came in and said this is very common and that they will never know what happened with the second baby. 
In a way, I'm sad about the second baby, but I'm so glad one is healthy. Does anyone have any experience with this? Did your healthy baby turn out okay? Is there any chance of the second one making it? 
Fraternal run in my family- my mom is a twin and she also has a set of twin brothers. Do I have a higher chance of having twins since I conceived twins even though one didn't make it?

plumpous

TW: In my first pregnancy I went into the first ultrasound on week 9 and jokingly said, just one, right? And the technician smiled and told me to look at the screen. I had 2. It was the happiest moment of my life. I couldn't wait any longer and shared with my family. 2 weeks later, on my birthday no less, I come in again and twin A stopped developing two days after week 9. That was the saddest day of my life. Fast forward, twin B was totally fine throughout the pregnancy. I have a perfect, gorgeous girl who's 14 months old. Vanishing twins are very common. At the very least it seems you didn't have the experience of imagining the two. Sad as it is, it's a lot easier to handle babies one at a time, so with the pain, I also felt a bit of a relief. 

armywifelifeJEN

I'm 6w6d and both of my di/di twins have heartbeats, but I was told by the doctor that there is a 20-30% chance of vanishing twin syndrome. What To Expect also confirmed this same statistic. I don't know when you're "in the clear" for both babies staying on board, but we are praying that both of ours do. I'm sorry for your loss, but relish in that one perfect baby growing inside of you!  

StacyH0507

I don't have any experience with vanishing twin but my first pregnancy was di/di twins and my OB let me know that it's more common than people realize. He did say that most of the time the remaining twin ends up continuing on to a healthy pregnancy but he didn't tell his twin patients they were in the clear of vanishing twin until 12-13 weeks. Lots of positive thoughts to continue a happy and healthy pregnancy!

chamomile-2

I'm in a similar position now after transferring 2 blasts except nothing ever developed in the second gestational sac. The healthy fetus looks great on ultrasound but I can't help but worry that it will be affected accidentally as my body tries to reabsorb the vanished twin. Both my RE and OBs office though have said that they're not worried and everything will be fine!

plumpous

Chamomile said:

I'm in a similar position now after transferring 2 blasts except nothing ever developed in the second gestational sac. The healthy fetus looks great on ultrasound but I can't help but worry that it will be affected accidentally as my body tries to reabsorb the vanished twin. Both my RE and OBs office though have said that they're not worried and everything will be fine!

It's so early that it's really small. I never felt anything. Vanishing is a key word. 

Lolo427

FWIW I was baby B of a vanishing twin pregnancy. My mom found out at 9ish weeks I think in a similar fashion to you. She said it was a fairly 'a-typical' pregnancy and I developed at a normal rate.

GoogleMD

Vanishing twin is actually fairly commen. People are just aware of it more now because early US are becoming much more common. The other baby is not at any increased risk of mc. I am sure it is bitter sweet seeing a helathy baby but knowing there coukd have been a second.

mama2stepmama

Sometimes the vanishing twin can be found in the placenta of the living twin. I've seen it a couple of times, it's pretty incredible.