Pre-babies happenings

I guess it's about time I update this thing!

Let's start back at week 20 of the pregnancy, because I think that's about where we left off.

WOW! Twins! Can you believe it?? I didn't really wrap my head around it until I could start distinguishing their kicks. Stella was first (baby A) head way down in my pelvis but her long little legs stretched all the way up to my ribs and kicked away as she pleased! Elsie was on my left side of my pelvis head down with her feet kicking away at my right side and at her sisters legs. On the ultrasounds we would watch them have little wars with their feet and all I could think was... "God, is this payback??" 

I wasn't a bad child. I actually like to think that I was pretty good... but I had my moments. Moments that I wouldn't take back if I could because I learned lots of lessons from them. They taught me how much my parents loved me, even if I screamed at them or rolled my eyes with a terrible attitude. They taught me that I wouldn't get my way by being an angry teenager! 

So now all I could think was two little Lindsay's running around torturing their parents... oooh dear. 

The first torture they didn't know they were ensuing was gestational diabetes. We found out I had that at 24 weeks. The Dr's told me that it was fairly common with twins and that I shouldn't worry. They did put me on insulin right away because my only bad blood sugar in the day was my fasting blood sugars in the morning and I couldn't really use my diet to control that. Every night before I would attempt to sleep (I was already getting pretty uncomfortable at this point and didn't sleep well) Ryan would inject insulin into me. Fun. 

At this point I thought... well if this is as bad as it gets that's not so bad. Night sickness for the first 20 weeks or so and now diabetes... I can handle this. 

At this point we are going to ultrasounds once every 2 weeks. With our type of twins, mono-di (one placenta, two sacs), they like to make sure the twins are growing at the same rate. This is due to a condition called twin to twin transfusion (where one twin would take more blood and nutrients than the other and grow more leaving the other twin behind). Our girls looked GREAT! Never more than 2% different in size according to the ultrasounds. We were sitting pretty until gestational week 26.

The Perinatologist went to a conference on twin to twin and learned of a new way to scan to see if one baby was possibly anemic. So here I am at my first ultrasound that I ever had to go to on my own and bam they find that Elsie was possibly anemic. She wasn't anemic enough to be concerned yet but they wanted to keep a close eye on her so we went to ultrasounds twice a week. 

Ugh, now I'm a little worried! I hope I can keep these babes in me!! My personal goal was to be working (not on bedrest) until April 23 (my brothers birthday). And then to keep them in me until May 12 (my mom's birthday). It felt nice to have some goals to strive for. Well, one day while going to an ultrasound (the 2nd one I went to alone) the nurse noted that I looked rather swollen and asked to take my blood pressure. The perinatologist deemed my BP too high to go back to work so off I went to bed rest.

Now, remember, I was working 8 hour days prior to these people putting me on "bed rest" and what exactly is "bed rest" anyway (remember I told you I was a stubborn teenager...?)?? I didn't know! so I would lay on the couch for a few more hours than normal but I still needed to eat and get water and whatnot so I was up... and of course I wanted to go out to eat with my friends before I would never have the freedom to again! That was my bad. They put me on bed rest on a Thursday and by the next Tuesday I had another appointment with my Dr's. They took my blood pressures again, discussed them and sent me straight to the Hospital.

I was informed that I would be spending the night to do a urine test and some blood work then was going to be able to go home and be on STRICT bed rest until the babies decided to come. Well that all fell apart when I sat up to eat some lunch one afternoon and the nurse took my blood pressure. I don't know if I was excited to eat or really had that high of pressures when I was sitting up but those blood pressures landed me in the hospital until the birth of the girls. And I bawled. and bawled.

So nurses took care of me for 8 days. One week after I was admitted I had a few phone calls that rose my pressures sky high and they just never went down! 24 hours later my Dr. walked in and asked how noon sounded? Ryan asked noon on what day? and she said, "today!" So I quick got to calling our parents and Ryan wanted to run home quick to change and shower... that is when the nurses came flying in and asked him where he was going?! "Oh no, Dad, you aren't going anywhere. Noon doesn't work for us. You guys are going to have these babies right NOW!" 

It was a good thing I didn't have time to think took long about what was happening! (I'm sure it would have made my blood pressure go up! ;)

More to come... stay tuned...

-L

Surprise! Surprise!

Today, instead of Lindsay, I (Ryan) am blogging. 

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound, but before I go too far let's start this story a few weeks earlier. 

Lindsay had been getting sick. Not just feeling sick, but she would almost instantly vomit at certain triggers, mostly smells. She was getting sick every single day for a solid 10 weeks, and off and on since then. Last week she had a few episodes of high blood pressure and a few other small issues. So, the doctor had Lindsay get a few blood tests and a urine sample. The only results from these are minor, except her Iron levels were pretty low. 

Ok, back to today's ultrasound. 

Lindsay and I were hesitant about today's exam because so many of our friends, family, and co workers had been asking the typical question "Are you going to find out what [gender] you are going to have?" So we went into the exam room with an open mind that we would ask the technologist to NOT tell us the gender, but also to not avoid it. So basically if we could see for ourselves, then we will see. If we miss it, we will find out at delivery. 

Getting start with the ultrasound was what we expected, exposed belly, cold Ultrasound jelly...lights...camera...action!!! 

Now, with both Lindsay and I in the Medical Imaging field, we have a better-than-a-beginners-idea of what an ultrasound looks like. KAPOWY!!! As soon as the first images pop up I see something is just different. I swear I saw two baby heads on the screen!!!!! Wouldn't you know the tech stops to ask us a few questions. She asked if we had prior ultrasounds and when our due date was. Two questions that she could clearly get out of our chart. But the thing that raised my eyebrows, was that she seemed confused when she asked these questions. So after she flips to the chart, back to some old images, back to the chart again and finally back to the images she says..."Well I guess I've got a surprise for you guys!" and Lindsay shrieks "There are twins in there!!!!" 

This is a photo showing two heads! This changes EVERYTHING!!! Now we want to know the sex of the babies IF we can find out both! NO MORE SURPRISES! The ultrasound continues as normal, with the exception that the tech has to measure everything twice! Both are girls!!!  

The Neonatologist was unable to tell us if they are going to be identical for sure. She said it has be determined earlier in the pregnancy and she herself was very shocked that no one found we had twins until this late in pregnancy. She did say that them being identical has to do with thickness of the membranes of the fetal sac and some other technical factors. And... they are fairly confident that the placenta shows signs of them being identical!! 

After leaving the ultrasound and neonatologist we had an appointment with our OB doctor. She doesn't know about our ultrasound yet so we shock her with the news. She says this completely explains Lindsay's prior symptoms!!! Twins will deprive the mother of Iron much faster than just one baby would. She did the 8 week ultrasound so she too is shocked that there are two babies in Lindsay! Both prior scans (6 and 8 weeks) did not show more than one heart beat!! One is a little shy!! Both the OB and the neonatologist said its very rare to not know this late (20 weeks) in the pregnancy!!!

So that is all. WE'RE HAVING TWINS!!!! *cue the dance music*