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.