Orlando Health doctor to have double the joy on Mother's Day

Going into her fetal ultrasound, Dr. Xiomara Ruiz-Baez was ready to prank her husband, Mark Chacon, by telling him they were having twins. 

Twins don’t run in either of their families and would have been a surprise to the soon-to-be-first-time parents.

She laughed as the ultrasound showed twins. 

She thought the tables had turned and the office staff were pranking her. 

“I’m like, Oh my God, these people are so cool, they’re pranking us! That’s so cool,” Ruiz-Baez said. “My husband is doing this nervous laugh, like he couldn’t believe it. He was between happy and nervous and excited and anxious. I just stepped out like a zombie from the ultrasound, and I kept looking at everybody else’s ultrasound because obviously it’s the plan that they’re pranking everybody.”

As the doctor wrote twins on her medical files, it finally hit her. They can’t lie on medical files. It must be true. 

She actually was having twins. 

Ruiz-Baez and Chacon will celebrate their first Mother’s Day with their 10-month-old twins, Alex Gustavo Chacon and Gustavo Rafael Chacon. 

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Ruiz-Baez said Mother’s Day always has been a big occasion. 

“It’s almost like Christmas for women back in the Dominican Republic,” she said. 

She’s thrilled to finally have the day to celebrate her and her boys, and she already has given her husband a to-do list of celebratory activities so she can treasure her time with her sons. She’s expecting breakfast to be ready and for songs to be sung. 

“I know the infant time is the shortest, so I am very conscious of enjoying every moment of it,” she said. 

As an internal medicine physician, Ruiz-Baez said she knew from the moment the pregnancy test was positive how vital it was to take care of herself physically, mentally and emotionally. She was prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. 

She had a support system at home and at work at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital. 

When she told her colleagues at the hospital, which she said is a community of friends, “it was a party.” 

“Being a first-time mom, you don’t really know what you’re doing, and whatever it is, right or wrong, you’re doing it twice,” she said. “So having that support from my work family has been a true blessing.”

Ruiz-Baez said she likes to joke that she’s God’s favorite. She said He’s always brought her to the best places in life. 

“Having the colleagues I have and working in the community I work, it’s a testament that I’m truly God’s favorite,” she said with a laugh. 

The timing of finding out she was pregnant was further proof to her joke that she indeed is God’s favorite. 

Ruiz-Baez and Mark Chacon were celebrating their first wedding anniversary in 2024. 

She thought, why not take a pregnancy test? It’ll be fun. 

The couple hadn’t been trying for long and had their doubts.

But the test was positive. 

They were having a baby. 

“I just couldn’t believe it, because it was so early on,” she said. “We were like, OK, I guess I’m not drinking wine tonight. It was a joy and celebration and honestly of disbelief a little bit. I was like, yes, we’re pregnant, but are we really? Could it happen this fast? Are we really having this amazing anniversary gift? We were so excited so much that we couldn’t believe our luck. This is too good to be true.”

Courtesy photo

During delivery, Ruiz-Baez recalled lying on the table for a C-section talking to the doctor and anesthesiologist and waiting in anticipation to meet her sons. Her only hope was her boys were healthy and safe once they were born. Hearing their cries gave her assurance. 

“This is a perfect baby, and they are completely healthy and they’re OK,” she said of hearing their cries. “It was super special when they put both of them next to me, and (I saw) both of them so healthy, so strong.”

Since the birth of her boys, who are fraternal twins, Ruiz-Baez has been overjoyed watching them grow and develop their personalities. 

Despite being twins, she said they’re vastly different from each other, reacting differently, having different tastes and preferences. They’re almost the same size, and the similarities end there. 

Axel has Ruiz-Baez’s personality: talkative and outgoing. Gustavo has Chacon’s: chill and joyful. Yet, the boys look like the other parent, giving the parents a fun combination that keeps them on their toes. 

Now the bundles of joy are interacting with each other, and Ruiz-Baez is watching with amusement as they yell and babble at each other. 

Having children has made Ruiz-Baez a better doctor and mother, she said. She’s more patient with and has more empathy for her patients and values the little time she has with both her patients and her sons. 

Ruiz-Baez said being a working mom has its challenges. She encourages mothers to trust their instincts and although that feeling of “wanting it all” and being perfect won’t dissipate, it’s OK to accept there are days mothers can’t spend as much time with their kids as they’d like.

“That time you don’t have with them makes the time you do even more meaningful, and you’re more mindful of the time,” she said.