I had both of my 30 week appointments in the last day or so. Both went okay, but not fully as expected.
My OB appointment started with my introduction to nurse practitioner #2 (for those of you keeping...yes, I know that is just me...that is 4 doctors, 2 nurse practitioners, and 4 ultrasound techs that I have had this pregnancy not including my fertility doctor). I was a little annoyed that at 30 weeks I was again being seen by someone who knew nothing about me or my history. I had even sat down before this appointment to write a list of questions for my doctor, and I realized that none of them were going to be answered. I don't know if I have just been spoiled up to now, but at my previous two OB's, the only time I ever saw a nurse practitioner during my pregnancy was at my first appointment with Gabriel to get information and a pre-natal prescription. The rest of my appointment went quickly and smoothly. I am measuring 41 weeks now. Jason was finally able to make it to one of my appointments, but of course didn't get to meet my doctor. He doesn't have a good track record. He met the OB that delivered Gabriel only once right before he was born. He met the OB that delivered Nathaniel that day after he was born, and he never met the OB who delivered Kade (Roanin delivered himself). And yes, each of my children so far has been delivered by a different doctor. I am assuming we will break that trend finally since I believe that one doctor will deliver both of these girls.
I also had my last regularly scheduled appointment at my high-risk doctor. The babies both looked fine. Baby A is measuring 3lb 5oz and Baby B is measuring 3lb 8oz. Baby A is still transverse, and Baby B is now breech. I told my sister a long time ago that I hoped my decision for a VBAC would be very clear with future pregnancies. The twins are living up to that. They are making a C-section the clear choice. The one issue with my scan today was my cervix. It has now shortened to under 2, and it is showing some funneling at the internal os. My high-risk doctor is asking my OB to think about running another fetal fibronectin test. I am hoping that I will her from my OB about it on Monday.
Mostly right now I am struggling with how to prepare myself. I basically see this pregnancy ending now in one of four ways:
1. The babies are born mature. My hospital stay is fairly normal with the babies in the room with me. We are able to come home together.
2. The babies are born premature. They will spend time in the NICU before they come home, and they will possibly have problems with breathing and/or feeding, along with other potential health problems.
3. I will lose the babies.
4. A combination of the three above.
I now this options are not exclusive to me, and really every pregnancy faces these options. But, many women dismiss the last three, and proceed as if option 1 will happen every time. I felt that way largely with Gabriel. Being pregnant with multiples though has made option 2 much more real to me, and the death of the triplets make me face option 3. It is hard to believe that the next seven to eight weeks can hold such a vast array of possibilities. I just pray that I will trust and rely on the Lord no matter which one comes.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Pregnancy with Multiples
I always hesitate to say anything about pregnancy. I always think that I am not qualified to say anything definitive on the topic even though this pregnancy is my third. Yes, I will soon be delivering my fifth and sixth child, but I still wonder if I have had enough "normal" pregnancy to say anything. They say every pregnancy is different, but I have taken that to extremes. I have been pregnant with a singleton, twins, and triplets. I have either been pregnant with only boys or with only girls (apparently we don't do mixed multiples). I have been overdue, induced, and C-sectioned, but I have also labored and delivered pre-term. Having been pregnant with two sets of multiples, I do feel like I can at least comment there.
Congestion- Although every pregnant mother increases her blood supply, women pregnant with multiples do it to the extreme. With twins, the blood supply is doubled, and it goes up even more with other higher-order multiples. This increased blood supply helps create congestion. With the triplets, the congestion was annoying mostly. I would need to blow my nose constantly during the first trimester. I would get coughing in the morning in the shower so hard that I would get sick. Most of these symptoms subsided by my second trimester which was good, because I had bigger issues to deal with by that point. With the twins, the congestion has never really seemed to let up that much. Twice, it has flared into a full-blown infection. The first time took my about a month to fully get over, and at its worse, I was barely able to walk because my muscles were so overstretched from coughing. This time, I have been dealing with it about two weeks now. It seems to be getting better, but I have pulled a muscle in my side. As long as a cough in a very specific hunched-over position, I am good. I have been coughing so much lately that I should have great abs, but I looked down and that does not look anything like a six-pack. I am just hoping that I will be done with the cough before I deliver. I had a cold when I had my C-section with Gabriel. Not fun.
Movement- Singleton moms have it easy here. Once you are feeling the baby move, you count your movements twice a day. You can be relatively sure that the baby is doing okay. With multiples, it is not so simple. The babies unfortunately will not respond to a roll call. I have tried to talk to them about the sensibility of this proposition, but they aren't buying in. In some instances, it is very easy to determine who's who, but if they shift positions, it becomes impossible. Then, you are left wondering if they are both okay.
Size- Imagine on the day that you are due, that the doctor came in and told you that they were going to keep the baby inside fro another 8-10 weeks. The baby would roughly double again in size. When that time was over, it would be safe for you to come back and deliver. This is how many moms of multiples feel. I am currently measuring full term. If you added up all the baby/placenta/fluid weight that I am carrying, it would match a singleton mom at full-term. I still have 8 weeks at least for my babies to be born healthy from the start.
I don't want people to read this as if I am complaining. I will go through anything I need to get to healthy babies. I just thought I would give you some insight to pregnancy with multiples.
Congestion- Although every pregnant mother increases her blood supply, women pregnant with multiples do it to the extreme. With twins, the blood supply is doubled, and it goes up even more with other higher-order multiples. This increased blood supply helps create congestion. With the triplets, the congestion was annoying mostly. I would need to blow my nose constantly during the first trimester. I would get coughing in the morning in the shower so hard that I would get sick. Most of these symptoms subsided by my second trimester which was good, because I had bigger issues to deal with by that point. With the twins, the congestion has never really seemed to let up that much. Twice, it has flared into a full-blown infection. The first time took my about a month to fully get over, and at its worse, I was barely able to walk because my muscles were so overstretched from coughing. This time, I have been dealing with it about two weeks now. It seems to be getting better, but I have pulled a muscle in my side. As long as a cough in a very specific hunched-over position, I am good. I have been coughing so much lately that I should have great abs, but I looked down and that does not look anything like a six-pack. I am just hoping that I will be done with the cough before I deliver. I had a cold when I had my C-section with Gabriel. Not fun.
Movement- Singleton moms have it easy here. Once you are feeling the baby move, you count your movements twice a day. You can be relatively sure that the baby is doing okay. With multiples, it is not so simple. The babies unfortunately will not respond to a roll call. I have tried to talk to them about the sensibility of this proposition, but they aren't buying in. In some instances, it is very easy to determine who's who, but if they shift positions, it becomes impossible. Then, you are left wondering if they are both okay.
Size- Imagine on the day that you are due, that the doctor came in and told you that they were going to keep the baby inside fro another 8-10 weeks. The baby would roughly double again in size. When that time was over, it would be safe for you to come back and deliver. This is how many moms of multiples feel. I am currently measuring full term. If you added up all the baby/placenta/fluid weight that I am carrying, it would match a singleton mom at full-term. I still have 8 weeks at least for my babies to be born healthy from the start.
I don't want people to read this as if I am complaining. I will go through anything I need to get to healthy babies. I just thought I would give you some insight to pregnancy with multiples.
Monday, May 2, 2011
28 Weeks
A hospital trip, bed rest orders, and hitting 28 weeks, and I still don't update the blog for a week so what else is new. I have been busy..well sort of. If you count staring at my belly wondering if I am going to have contractions this hour busy, then I have been very busy.
It all started last Wednesday at lunch time. It was a B-day (my least favorite of the school days). My only break for the day is my 30 minute lunch period. I was already a few minutes late getting down to the lunch room. I sent my lunch down and went to the restroom first. There, I noticed some mucus, but not much. Now, I have to mention here that a woman on a forum that I follow started passing some mucus and ended up giving birth to her twins a couple of days later. She never called her doctor until the day she delivered. I sat back at the lunch table trying to figure out what I was going to do. You hate to call the doctor's office for something small and look ridiculous...especially as a third-time pregnant mom. I decided to call, but when. By the time I walked to my room after lunch, it was only a couple of minutes until the office closed for their lunch, and I had 30 students on the way to my room. I had also forgotten my cell phone at home that morning, and I didn't want to talk to the nurse with students in my room. Normally, there is another teacher at school who I know well that has prep that period. She would of covered my class while I called, but she was off that day. I decided to teach the next two periods. I was starting to regret my decision as I was feeling a few more contractions than I was used to during my afternoons. They were becoming frequent, but still irregular. After my last class left, I tried to call my doctor's office, but I was going to have to leave a message. I hung up. I had no cell phone number for them to call me back on during my drive home. I hurried to my car and drove home as fast as I could. After calling from home, I was brought into the office and eventually sent to the hospital for monitoring. I had to stay the night because at one point I was contracting every 3-4 minutes. I was given a few shots of terbutaline, and I was put on the oral medication procardia. The contractions subsided, but now I have earned myself bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy.
My cervix is still holding at greater than 2.5 and my test to check for the likelihood of pre-term labor was negative so I still considered low-risk for delivering early for twins.
It all started last Wednesday at lunch time. It was a B-day (my least favorite of the school days). My only break for the day is my 30 minute lunch period. I was already a few minutes late getting down to the lunch room. I sent my lunch down and went to the restroom first. There, I noticed some mucus, but not much. Now, I have to mention here that a woman on a forum that I follow started passing some mucus and ended up giving birth to her twins a couple of days later. She never called her doctor until the day she delivered. I sat back at the lunch table trying to figure out what I was going to do. You hate to call the doctor's office for something small and look ridiculous...especially as a third-time pregnant mom. I decided to call, but when. By the time I walked to my room after lunch, it was only a couple of minutes until the office closed for their lunch, and I had 30 students on the way to my room. I had also forgotten my cell phone at home that morning, and I didn't want to talk to the nurse with students in my room. Normally, there is another teacher at school who I know well that has prep that period. She would of covered my class while I called, but she was off that day. I decided to teach the next two periods. I was starting to regret my decision as I was feeling a few more contractions than I was used to during my afternoons. They were becoming frequent, but still irregular. After my last class left, I tried to call my doctor's office, but I was going to have to leave a message. I hung up. I had no cell phone number for them to call me back on during my drive home. I hurried to my car and drove home as fast as I could. After calling from home, I was brought into the office and eventually sent to the hospital for monitoring. I had to stay the night because at one point I was contracting every 3-4 minutes. I was given a few shots of terbutaline, and I was put on the oral medication procardia. The contractions subsided, but now I have earned myself bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy.
My cervix is still holding at greater than 2.5 and my test to check for the likelihood of pre-term labor was negative so I still considered low-risk for delivering early for twins.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)