My babies are here!

Presley and Noah were born yesterday Friday May 25th by c section at 10:46 and 10:47 am. Because my water broke around 3am on the 25th. I carried the twins for 33 weeks 1 day. They are simply beautiful. They are happily in the Nicu for now and are doing well. Presley is 4lbs 5 ounces and Noah is 4lbs 8 ounces.

I am doing well also!

I will post their full birth story later. Currently blogging from my iPhone and hospital bed!

Ful of love Heather!

33 Weeks Today!

33 weeks pregnant with twins today!

Baby A is 4lbs 8 oz and Baby B is 4lbs 10oz.

We are still growing :)

Xoxo,
Heather, Presley, and Noah

May 22nd Dr appointment

Yesterday I had a doctor appointment (I was 32weeks5days) that included biophysical profiling, growth scan, and a Non Stress Test. But my babies passed the biophysical, practicing breathing the whole nine yards. The twins had some trouble with their Non Stress Test. They both passed. But both had to get buzzed with the buzzer since they appeared to be sleeping during the first half of the test.

The growth scan is a rough estimate since the twins are so crammed and the tech had a hard time getting all measurements… but the babies weighted in at Presley, Baby A 4lbs 8 ounces, Noah, Baby B 4lbs 10 ounces. Presley is super low in my pelvic and inner right thigh the tech had to go under my underwear to get the measurement of her head. Noah was so high his feet are basically in my breasts. Noah is no longer breech but is also not head down, he is now in a diangle making my tummy hang a little to the left.

The ultrasound tech (at the specialist’s office) sees twins all the time and was amazed at how low Presley was and how high Noah was. She said, “how do you walk, how do you eat?”  

I said… “Well I thought I waddled 10 weeks ago but it has taken on a new meaning now, and I have a lot of throbbing in my vagin. I can eat but there is lots of heartburn.”

            The last few days I have felt like my body has exploded.

I am carrying all out front and hang a little to the left. I have got so many comments from nurses, doctors, and techs about how high and how far out front I am carrying these twins.

            With the rapid growth of my stomach has come loads of discomfort. I have talked about discomfort for weeks now… but it has entered a new level. I really can barely walk, it’s a weird shuffle, and I throw my head back for balance. I have a hard time getting out of bed and standing from sitting.

            I am carrying around 9.2lbs of babies and that doesn’t include the weight of two placentas, two cords, and two sacs and their fluid. The average uterus can hold only about 12lbs. Key word average, I am taller than average so my uterus can probably hold a little more. But the point is I am carrying around a lot of weight and it is hard work. I am feeling changes in my body and thinking I don’t know how much longer I have!

            I have another doctor appointment on Friday, then one on Tuesday, and then again on Thursday. So basically I will be at the doctor a lot!

            I will stop the contracting slowing pills on next Thursday May 31^st.  And am thinking if they are not here before that then they will be here shortly after.

            At the specialist’s office, they went ahead and scheduled my appointments for the next month which made me laugh. I currently have an appointment for June 12^th and June 19^th. I told the appointment lady I don’t need to make these appointments they will be here before then! She made them anyway.

            Mike asked the doctor, “so what’s the plan?” The doctor said “well everything looks good so…38 weeks.” I about died at that answer. How in the world will I feel pain and discomfort wise 5 weeks from now?!?

            I have read that after taking so many pills and treatments to slow and stop contractions the body does get a chance to probably prepare for labor and the mother ends up having to be induced.

            Of course I want my twins to be nice and healthy when they get here… but if I have to be induced at 38 weeks. That is like so cruel my whole life stopped at 26 weeks because of the fear of them coming to early.

Speechless at the thought!

Xoxo,

Heather

Mind Over Body

Last Thursday May 17^th, 2012 after a 13 day stay I got discharged from the hospital for the second time… My doctor determined me to be stable and I had reached the doctors’ goal of 32 weeks gestation. I was first admitted to the hospital and started bed rest at 26 weeks. So my doctors were quite happy about the success I had while on bed rest, being able to cook the babies to 32 weeks is good.

So when my doctor went to discharge me I told her I was scared to go home. She told me “you will do fine and you have received all the treatment available, so no point for you to be here, and even if your babies come today we have them at a point that we feel confident that they will thrive. Of course every day you can keep them inside is 2-3 less days they will have to spend in the NICU.”

My doctor explained to me that I would have doctors’ visits twice a week to continue to monitor our progress.

So this week I go to the doctor tomorrow and Friday. I am freaking out about tomorrow. Since I left the hospital I have been unable to get comfortable…everything hurts, it hurts a lot to walk because I have a heavy pressure in my vagina.

So I am nervous to what the doctor is going to say… how is my cervix doing? Am I dilated? How much longer do they think I have? The pressure thing scares me.

I am excited to find out how much the babies weigh and how many weeks gestation the babies are measuring for the most of my pregnancy they have been a little ahead.

The appointment is at 10:30 tomorrow… I am up late because it’s all I can think about. I am not ready for these babies to be born and I am soooooo not ready to be readmitted to the hospital.

I have been trying hard to tell myself and to believe “mind over body”… because when these babies are born, I want to see them and I want to hold them!

If they come to early and have to go to NICU… then I will not get to see them, I will not get to hold them… I will have to wait until they are determined stable and are in NICU… which could be many, many, many long depressing hours. L

Hoping for the best tomorrow! Mind over body, mind over body, mind over body, mind over body!

There is something about 6/6/12

I am putting my money on June 6, 2012. I don’t know -- I have a feeling that something big is going to happen on that day, and that is the birth of my twins. When I first read that the average gestational age of twins is 35 weeks I looked at the calendar and the month of June and something drew me to the date of June 6^th.  I counted the gestational age… 34 weeks and 6 days… and said hmmm June 6^th it is. You know me being a planner and liking to be in control of things I would decide and think I was in control of their birth date. Of course I know I have way more chances of being wrong then right… but I figure just in case I should put it out there… so if it does happen I can say… “I knew it!,” “I told you so!”

            Even when I was put on hospital bed rest at 26 weeks… my gut still told me they aren’t coming until June 6^th at 34 weeks and 6 days!  I also think the twins will weigh 5lbs something… not less than 5 and not more than 5.

            The second date they could be born that would NOT surprise me at all is May 31^st… which is exactly 34 weeks. This would not surprise me at all because it is both my mom and grandma’s birthday.

            At 34 weeks the twins will be healthy and spend little time in the NICU especially considering the precautionary treatment I have already received. So34 weeks it is not a bad goal for twins!

            Dreaming of a June 6^th delivery… but prepared to be totally wrong! (And anything after June 6 is such a blessing!)

But for the record June 6^th it is! J

Xoxo,

Heather

Baby Shower!

My baby shower!

Well not exactly as planned… since it was supposed to be an outdoor cook out, but it was as perfect as it could be! While in the hospital I have seemed to miss everything! I missed two celebration grad school dinners, my grad school graduation and I had already missed two planned baby showers that were canceled due to me being on hospital bed rest and I was really afraid I was going to miss by biggest one given my cousin and two close girlfriends. This was really depressing me. I am stuck in the hospital, no longer earning my income, with a long list of things I need for babies before they get here, and most importantly I have little to no human interaction.

            My cousin called the hospital and my doctor and got a room rented at the hospital and got my doctor to approve me to attend the baby shower. I was excited when she told me that there would still be a shower for me on Saturday!

            Friday night I had a little freak out I have been on bed rest for over a month… and have very little clothes that fit me… I mean I didn’t want to go a baby shower in yoga pants! So my sweet dear husband…. went on a shopping trip for me, it should have been easy for him… I went online and picked out four different dresses and said get one of these. Of course the store didn’t have ANY of the dresses, so he kept sending me text message pictures of dresses, saying “What about this one.” I was not in the mood… saying “forget it I don’t want any of them!” He knew not to listen to me and just got a dress he thought would do the job, and it was pretty. I have to say hubby earned some points by ignoring me and getting me a dress!

            The shower was exactly what I needed. I was so happy to see all the people who came to support Mike and I. I had friends I felt like I hadn’t seen since high school come to the party! Before the shower I was literally hanging on a thread mentally and emotionally. I know as soon as I let go of everything on the mental and emotional aspect of things… my physical well-being will not be too far behind. The shower lifted my spirits so much and I cannot thank everyone enough for being a part of it!

Now for pictures!!

The onesies my mom made :)

I let Mike open somethings!

Me excited about my baby carrier!

Going back to my room with lots of ballons!

Our car full of goodies after the shower. We are blessed!

xoxo,
Heather

Baby's Head is blocking my Cervix...

My baby A’s head is blocking my cervix. My FMS told me this at an appointment when trying to check my cervix, there was a whole lot of pressure, pain, and discomfort. When I let out a scream to express my discomfort he said, “sorry I had to go around the babies’ head to get to your cervix.”

WHAT?!?!?

At the time I was in such discomfort I did not ask for an explanation. I got home and was so confused about this. I tried researching how this could be possible and didn’t find anything that explained this to me. So two days later at my next doctor’s appointment it was one of the first things I asked for clarification on.

My doctor explained it well and drew me a very nice picture.

 Basically I do not have a textbook uterus that looks like this…

My uterus looks like this…

So my uterus actually hangs down over my cervix. When the doctor tries to examine the cervix vaginally or by ultrasound the baby’s head blocks the cervix.

However, having the baby’s head hang down pass my cervix is actually a good thing, because my cervix does not have the direct weight of the baby’s head pressing down on it which can work in my favor to delay dilation.

Bed Rest: Wait and See game!

Updating has been so hard, because everything is always, always, always changing… when I cut to the chase you will understand what I mean and how frustrating it can be to be me right now! God is teaching me that I do not always have to be in control and that patience is important.

One of the things that have made this process so confusing is that I have 3 different doctors making decisions in my pregnancy plan and informing me on what is going one. Sometime I hear 3 different things until a decision is “formally” made.

Today I had an ultrasound with the FMS doctor. The ultrasound was to check how my cervix, uterus, and see how the babies were doing after Saturday night’s episodes of contractions 5 minutes apart, the mag iv drip, and most importantly how the Idocin/Idomethican was effecting the babies.

http://www.webmd.com/baby/indomethacin-for-slowing-preterm-labor

I spoke briefly about this in my last post, but I spent the entire day yesterday reading information about this drug and freaking out about being on it because of all the horrible side effects. It’s a hard balance to try to figure out. I understand that I am not a doctor and that I can find horrible things to read on the internet about any drug. Therefore I must trust my doctors are going to do what is best and necessary for my babies and me. At the same time, as a mom, I feel a strong need to protect my babies. It is a balancing act of being educated on the drugs being used, asking the right questions, and ultimately letting my doctor be my doctor and make the right choice for us. It’s all about weighing the pros and cons, because we want these babies to keep cooking as long as possible.

At the ultrasound today everything looked great. The babies are fine and are not showing any of the side effects of the Idocin/Indomethacin. My uterus and cervix also look great.

SO WHY AM AT THE HOSPTIAL?!?

Yeah I think the same thing every time! I am grateful for my non-eventful days and good reports but it definitely causes denial to set in fast.

Basically I can tell you what the doctor told me today. I am showing signs of preterm labor, so the doctors are being cautious with me. The doctor said today, “the thing about preterm labor is most of the time we are wrong about it, you show signs of it and either you go into labor shortly after, 48-72 hours, or you don’t.”

He also said, “you are carrying twins, I could put any expected parent of multiplies on the monitor and they are going to show contractions. The thing you have going for you is your contractions have not been significant, you can not feel them, and your uterus has not dilated.”

The doctor has decided, after consulting with my other doctors, and listening to my concerns, to take me off the indonice and NOT to put me back on the nifedipine. Therefore I will not be on any medications to stop or slow contractions. He wants to see how I will do without them because contractions are to be expected at this point in a multiple pregnancy. If you follow my blog or my updates you know this is totally different from what I was told a few days prior.

So we shall see how I do! I am excited to be off the medications but a little scared at the same time.

30 weeks 5 days

Time for some bump pictures!

This was taken tonight... here is my twin bump at 30 weeks 5 days... holy moly!

Here is my twin bump over time!

Hopefully I will get to keep the twin bump pictures coming!

xoxo,

Heather

I was so scared the babies were about to come.

Yesterday 5/5 was the first day I was scared.

The day started out with me being a little depressed. While on hospital bed rest… and highly drugged I somehow managed to study for and take and pass my comprehensive exam for my graduate school masters degree. I was also able to start and complete my final 10 page research paper for my last required class. It took a lot of inner strengthen to get it together and focus, but I was able to do it and am extremely proud of myself for doing so. It was NOT easy.  

Yesterday 5/5 was my graduation ceremony. I of course was unable to attend due to hospital bed rest. It was depressing because earning this degree was an achievement I worked hard for. It took my extra money to pay for it and it took away my free time and my weekends to complete the work.

I wanted to be there… I wanted to get my diploma and most importantly I wanted my family to celebrate my achievement with me.

My amazing mom did her best to make sure I knew how proud she was of me and to celebrate my achievement! She brought me Congrats Grad posters and balloons to the hospital and made me the cutest and sweetest card… and brought me dinner… homemade lump crab cakes! They were so yummy!  I love you mommy you are the best!

During all this I was having contractions… I didn’t really feel them as contractions but as back pain that was sharp but never went away… so I couldn’t tell they were contractions. I had no idea when one started and when one ended. Just as my mom and brother were leaving the hospital after my little graduation celebration the nurses hooked me up to the monitor.

I was on the monitor earlier in the morning and it was showing contractions 7 minutes a part… when they put me on the monitor after dinner it was showing contractions 5 minutes a part.

The nurse came in my room and said, “alright missy all of these contractions have earned you a trip down to labor and delivery.”

Mike left about 20 minutes prior to take a trip to the house to gather some things for my stay here.

I was all by myself, scared. Scared for the first time that these babies were about to come!

I got down to Labor and Delivery and the hospital doctor checked my cervix (this was not a good experience and I will probably make another post about this later).

Before the doctor checked my cervix he said we have to see if your cervix is dilated before we can decide what to do. If you are already dilated to certain point there is nothing we can do.  Again I was by myself and so scared.

The good news was I was not dilated. They put me on a mag iv drip for the next 14 hours and started me on a new medication Imdomethacin. It took a while but this stopped the contractions all together. I am now taking the Imdomethacin every 6 hours and can take it up until the babies are 32 weeks. After 32 weeks it is no longer safe to take Imdomethacin… so at 32 weeks they will switch me back to the Nifedipine… which I was taking but it was not working to completely stop my contractions.

Right now I am 30 weeks and 3 days. I hope the Idodmethacin will work to keep the contractions away and the babies safe until 32 weeks!

Bed Rest Update

This whole bed rest experience has been a whirl wind to say the least! It has been a total challenge to my type a control freak, plan, and schedule personality. But I am trying to cope, deal, adjust… whatever you want to call it as best as possible.

This blog and updating friends and family about what is going on with me has been crazy… as soon as I think I have an update or I think I know what is going on… everything changes with a snap of the finger!

So I am going to do a quick recap to get everyone up to date and then possibly write some other mini posts about what has been going on with me just in case anyone else out there is in a similar situation and stumbles across my blog one day! It has been so helpful to me to read others’ experiences.

So here we go… Today is day 26 of bed rest. I was originally put on hospital bed rest on April 10^th  (at 26w 5d) due to a shorten cervix (1.4 cm) and a failed ffn test (which ended up being a false positive because I am still pregnant today… over 3 weeks later). I spent 16 days on hospital bed rest and was then sent home because I was testing in normal ranges for everything and my cervix got longer 2.4cm!

I spent 7 days at home on bed rest… which was amazing compared to hospital bed rest. My mom stayed with me and catered to my every need. I rotated from lying in bed and on the sofa and got to snuggle with my sweet Lacey Lou all day long (my cocker spaniel). No one woke me up every 5 minutes and I got to choose what I was going to eat!

I had a doctor’s appointment with the FMS on a Tuesday 5/1 (during my 7 day stay at home)… everything was checked and looking good. He scheduled my check-up appointment for two weeks away. I was seeing the FMS two times a week so I immediately thought it was strange that he would schedule my next appointment so far away. So I asked him… “2 weeks? You don’t think you need to see me before that? I know you are not God but you don’t think they will be born before then?” He replied “It could happen but it is not likely.” This comment made me feel good.

On Thursday 5/3 during my bed rest at home stay. I had a doctor’s appointment with my regular OBGYN. She did another ffn test. Apparently after having a positive test it is possible to later have a negative test. I knew right of the bat I was going to fail this thing (or test positive rather) and I had a feeling if I did fail it she was going to readmit me to the hospital for bed rest. This  drives me crazy since the ffn test is not accurate due to the fact that I am carrying twins. I already tested positive 3 weeks ago and did not go in to labor so how could the doctor rely so heavily on the results of this test. My appointment on Thursday was late in the afternoon so, she sent me home and told me she would call me with the results.

Thursday 5/3 7:00pm… I had a missed call and voicemail from my doctor. She sounded concerned as she told me my ffn test was positive. She told me it was very important that I come in to her office first thing Friday morning for monitoring…and if I felt any contractions I should not wait until morning I should immediately go to labor and delivery she also told me she already let the on call doctor know that they may be expecting me.

                                                                                                            

I listened to the message and was confused. “Why is she freaking out? I am not having contractions. I am not going into labor!” I spent 16 days on hospital bed rest and was monitored for contractions twice a day…. I did not have one contraction after my initial first day.

Friday morning 5/4 I went into my doctor’s office for my monitoring. I spent maybe 10 minutes on the monitor and she picked up a contraction. I didn’t feel anything… she sent me to labor and delivery where the monitoring showed that I was having contractions 5 minutes a part… I did not feel anything! I was still closed and not dilated.

I thought to myself okay people true contractions cause you to dilate… I am not dilated… these are called Braxton hicks and are a totally normal part of pregnancy! Furthermore I knew I had just taken my nifedipine (a pill I take to stop contractions) and thought it has not yet got a chance to get into my system. I was hooked up to the contraction monitor and it continued to show that I was having contractions for roughly the next hour… and then they stopped. About 30 minutes before my next dose of nifedipine was due I started to have contractions again.

My doctor came in to check up on me and said, “I noticed that you have contractions around the time when your nifedipine is due and shortly after it is in your system the contractions stop.” I thought to myself duh! Then she told me she was going to keep me in the hospital for observation.

AHhhhhhhhhh, I freaked out. It went something like this… I don’t want to be in the hospital… nothing is wrong with me these are NOT real contractions they are Braxton hicks and are normal and I don’t feel them and the nifedipine is working… please let me go home I don’t want to be here!!!!

My doctor was able to calm me down by explaining to me… that my contractions are rhythmic which means they are not Braxton hicks… and while my cervix has not YET dilated it is extremely soft and ready to dilate. She said if she sent me home… I could be coming back into the hospital with in the next 72 hours dilated to 3 or 4cm and then there would be nothing she could do to stop them. She also brought up my sweet little babies… and how we do NOT want them to be born at 30 weeks so we need to do everything we can to keep them safe inside momma’s womb. After that there was simply no arguing that could be done. It’s all about keeping my sweet little twins safe. I could never forgive myself for not doing everything to keep them safe. I am not a doctor so I have to trust mine to do what is best for me and the twins and I do believe she has our best interest in mind.

I have no idea how long they are keeping me here… I am going to say until delivery… that is
what they said last time... then I got to go home... so we are just going to take it one day at a time.