Pregnancy Can Be Scary

As of today, I find myself 4 months pregnant with twins as I try desperately to console my cranky 14 month old twins who are teething, hitting some developmental milestones, and recovering from 3 vaccinations (don’t get me started on that!)

I have read and heard that each subsequent pregnancy can be harder than the previous one on your body, and I have to say that I agree. I am feeling everything sooner this time (as in unpleasant symptoms) and the physical strain of caring for other children adds to it. But this pregnancy there is more to it for me. My last pregnancy I didn’t have any complications except pregnancy induced hyperthyroidism and late term high blood pressure. It was a breeze really. And with no children at home I could nap when I pleased and take good care of myself.

This twin pregnancy, however, brought with it a new scare. Around 8 ½ weeks into this pregnancy I had a sudden gush of blood which led to an ER visit. They did an ultrasound and found a sub chorionic hematoma around twin A, otherwise known as a hemorrhage. Now, when I hear the word hemorrhage I think of blood, the brain, and death. It does not paint nice pictures. Of course the ER doctor couldn’t tell me much at all except that my OB would want to follow up with me and that I should be on bed rest.

Bed rest is kind of hard when you have twins at home! But alas, I did as I was told. Two days later I experienced fresh bright bleeding and went back to the ER. After a 2^nd ultrasound, it was discovered that a new hemorrhage had formed around twin B. Now I had 2 hemorrhages. If you have ever used the internet, you know that looking up an ailment is the worst thing you can do. Search results strike fear into the hearts of all who look upon illness related results. Even scarier, I have a few friends who have lost babies due to these hemorrhages.

To add insult to injury, the new doctor at my OB’s office who saw me last wasn’t even concerned. She didn’t want to see me for a month. A lot can happen in month! It was also found that twin B had half the size of a gestational sac as twin A, which could cause the baby to die.

Yeah, second pregnancy, first trimester; scary! Apparently all women have a 25% chance of miscarriage in the first trimester. Thanks doc for telling me that, very reassuring. So I did what any frightened mom to be would do, I forced my way into an appointment with my perinatologist (high risk pregnancy doctor) and asked his opinion. He said he wasn’t too concerned about the hemorrhages because they were small, but that I shouldn’t lift my kids. And he was more worried about twin B’s gestational sac size, at least until I entered the second trimester.

So I left that appointment feeling a little better. Fast forward and I didn’t have any more bleeding praise the Lord! We, and a lot of friends, sent up an abundance of prayers in the 3 weeks that followed. I even bought an FDA approved medical grade fetal heart Doppler to use at home, just to reassure myself that the babies still had heartbeats. (It is great by the way!)

I want to pause right here to convey the heart of this post; God is so big and so good and so merciful. He always shines through the darkness. My pain is always worth it because it ends up glorifying God and showing the world His mercy and love.

At 12 weeks and 2 days I had an early anatomy scan at the perinatologist’s office. Little did I know, this day would be filled with unbelievable joy. They performed an ultrasound and found that Twin A and Twin B were growing only a few days apart in size! They also found that both hemorrhages had just disappeared! Oh, and they told me that it looks like I am having a BOY and a GIRL again!

I couldn’t have asked for better news. When we learned about the hemorrhages, I had no choice but to trust God. The hemorrhages really gave me the opportunity to trust God and God only. It also showed the love of God as He used people to bless us. We had so many friends step up and into our lives to help on a daily basis.

So thank you to all of you who helped us in any way! Now we just wait and believe that this pregnancy will continue without any other complications.

Gender Reveal

Drumroll please…………..

The doctor thinks that we are having a boy and a girl again! WOO HOO! 

Based on the location on the twins, right next to each other, it is hard to label them A and B. My cervix apparently rests right in the middle of them. Usually baby A is the one closest to the cervix, in this case, it is very hard to decide which one that is. But they decided that baby A is on my left, a GIRL! And baby b is on my right, a BOY! This is exactly as it was last pregnancy. Baby A was a girl and Baby b was a boy. 

Now anatomy at this early gestational age can be tricky; B could be a girl at a later ultrasound. But this doctor is pretty good at early guesses. 

In other great news, my second hemorrhage seems to have also disappeared! Praise the Lord! I have been cleared to lift my children. It is kind of hard to raise twins without lifting them! 

Now for the naming game. We are thinking of sticking with “E” names. We are finding it kind of hard to find boy “E” names we like. Please help us by suggesting some E names you like!

11 1/2 Weeks! And an Update

11 Weeks and 5 days! Yippee! Saturday I will be 12 weeks pregnant, right on the cusp of the second trimester!  Yeah, I’m a little excited about that! 

So, update: I went to see my perinatologist a couple weeks ago. When they did their fancy ultrasound we found that the hemorrhage that was around Baby A was gone!!!! Prayers answered! And the hemorrhage around Baby B was still present, but it is small. The doctor said he wasn’t too concerned about it. He gave me much more detail about how these things can happen and what they are. Very nice to hear since no one has been able to tell us anything until him. Baby B still has less room in their embryonic sac, but they are only measuring 4 days (as of two weeks ago) smaller than Baby A. This is good; it means that they are basically concordant in their growth. But we will be monitoring B’s growth, definitely through the first trimester. 

We actually bought a home Doppler and around 11 weeks I was finally able to hear the horse stampede of baby heartbeats at home. This is so reassuring! Sometimes I check a couple times a day. That bleeding early on was so scary. I want to always be able to check and see that there are two heartbeats without having to go to the ER for an ultrasound. 

I go tomorrow (Friday) for a visit with a new, closer, OB and I hope all goes well. I am seeing their Nurse Practitioner and hopefully they do an ultrasound. The following Monday I go back to see the Peri for my anatomy scan and if they can see they will tell me genders!! 

Get your gender guesses in now. My guess is Baby B is a girl and Baby A is a boy…

10 Weeks Pregnant and a Hemorrhage or Two

To update things, I am 10 weeks pregnant today! Yippee! That means I am only 2 weeks away from the 2nd trimester, or "out of the woods" as some would call it. Everything has been going pretty well, just as it did last time. I have extreme nausea, I pee constantly (6 times a night) I am exhausted. My back side hurts from progesterone shots. I am STARVING every 1.5 hours, which is new this time around. Oh, and I have extremely dry skin and my nails are ripping under the nail bed. Ouch. 

New this time: There is a new extended release nausea medication called Diclegis which works wonder. Oh, and bleeding. I had a gush of light colored bleeding on Thursday January 2nd. I was told to go to the ER, where they found that Baby A had a small hemorrhage. But no one there could tell me much about it. Neither did the new doctor on call at my OB's office. I continued to have light brown bleeding until Saturday morning, when I had bright fresh blood. I again went to the ER and they found another hemorrhage, this time around Baby B. 

Total freak out moments here. I never had bleeding before. Very scary. A girl I know had a hemorrhage, but it was very large, and she miscarried. No one could give me much information. Not what to expect, not our chances of survival, not what is normal. Nada. They also found that Baby B's gestational sac is much smaller than Baby A's. 

 So I called my perinatologist (high risk doctor) from my last pregnancy and they agreed to see me earlier than 12 weeks. But they couldn’t see me for over a week. 

I had that appointment yesterday. Glory to God both babies still had strong heartbeats and were moving around! The hemorrhage on Baby A has disappeared and the second one is very small. The doc wasn't worried about them. He also found that the twins are only 4 days apart in growth which isn’t too bad. He wants to monitor Baby B's growth. But in general things look pretty good. He says once we enter the 2nd trimester we won’t have to worry as much about Baby B.

So prayers please. Pray that the hemorrhage around Baby B gets absorbed safely into my body and that both babies continue to grow and develop as they should.

Beta #2

The results are in! My BHCG went from 424 on Monday to 1,614 Wednesday, today! Yippee! That is almost a quadruple increase. Multiples maybe? Leave your guesses in the comments below :) 

Katie said I would have my instructions for my 6 and 9 week ultrasound by friday, along with my due date :)

Beta: Double or Nothing

Yesterday, Monday, I had my first Beta test. As always, there was drama associated with it. The place I had my appointment with, as it turns out, doesn’t do same day STAT lab work, which is required. So I had to scramble to find a new site, which included calling my insurance, yay. Once I got my blood drawn at our local hospital, I found out that they do the Quant HCG testing there (Beta) but have to send out for my progesterone levels to their sister hospital. Ugh…so of course I had to chase down results and found out that if the NEDC didn’t call to request my results, there was no telling when they would be sent.

So around 3:20 yesterday, I received the call from the NEDC confirming that I am pregnant! Officially! My HCG number is 424 and my progesterone is great at 38!! Yay! When Katie from the NEDC called, she knew I had cheated and POAS, and I admitted to 3 of them! But it was nice to have the blood work confirm it. I go tomorrow, Wednesday, for my second Beta to make sure my HCG numbers are doubling, which is indicative of a progressing pregnancy.

Last time, when I was pregnant with twins, my HCG at my first Beta was in the 600’s and now it’s in the 400’s. I have read that the size of your HCG number isn’t always an indicator of multiples, so we will have to wait until my 6week ultrasound for that news. I will post my results from tomorrow as soon as I can!

How am I feeling? Tired, irritable, and really nauseas.