We’re home!

Now I have even less to update. We are all home. The boys came home on Saturday after a 25 day NICU stay. The stay was pretty uneventful. I did have some stress after the neonatologist decided that she needed to send out chromosomes on V. His feedings were progressing more slowly than M’s and she thought she “saw something in his eyes”. I tried to explain to her that our donor was 1/2 Japanese but she still wanted to send out chromosomes, especially when she learned about the 1:16 odds from the nuchal. The FISH was negative and the initial reading of the genotype was 46XY so the stress was all for nothing.

They both gained weight at their 1st ped appointment on Monday so we’re doing well. V is now 5lb 14 oz and M is 5lb 4oz. I was so scared that they were going to lose weight. They’re increasing their feeds. V was up to 79mL at his last feed. His minimum in the NICU was 31mL and sometimes it was a fight to get him to take that so he’s come a long way. He’s turning into quite the chunk and is already into newborn clothes. M is not too far behind him. He’s had some reflux and issues with constipation (why does every TTC blog turn to poop talk as soon as the babies show up?) so he’s not eating as much as his brother.

They are sleeping well and eating well. We’re blissfully happy. I’ll post more photos soon and the password will be the same.

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Our Sons

Baby A (V) was born at 9:11pm. He weighed 4lb 11.3oz and is 17.9 in long. Baby B (M) was born at 9:12pm. He weighed 3lb 12.8oz and was 17.3 in long. They are both over their birth weights now and are doing very well. They’re still in the intermediate nursery which is the less critical area of the NICU. They need to learn to eat and then they can come home. They’re nippling about 25% of their feeds. Once they’re at 100% for a few days they’ll be released.

 

I’m going to password protect a post with their names and photos. Email me for the password.

Loooooong Overdue Update

I do apologize. I’m terrible at this blogging thing. I had way too much going on to keep up. Let’s see where did we leave off? March?! Seriously? I can’t believe that. I’ll do a monthly synopsis for the one person that may still be reading.

April: R traded morning sickness for night sickness. Severe reflux had her puking every night. Nothing helped, aside from sleeping while sitting in a chair. We had another scan & they still couldn’t find any soft markers.

May: The first bit of May was uneventful. The boys had fetal echoes and what they were able to see looked great. They didn’t cooperate enough to see their aortas so we had to have a 2nd appointment. They didn’t see any of the heart conditions associated with T 2 1 so we were happy. May 24th we went for an anatomy scan. The tech measured R’s cervix and thought it was short (it wasn’t, her cervix is curved and she wasn’t measuring along the curve) so the MFM (a new one) did a manual exam and pulled back a handful of blood. Then R started contracting and we were taken to L&D in an ambulance. 2 days later, when she started bleeding again, R was diagnosed with a partial abruption. She was placed on hospital bed rest for a week and then home for strict bed rest.

June: R’s restrictions were lifted and she was placed on modified bed rest.  The boys had fetal echoes and what they were able to see looked great. They didn’t cooperate enough to see their aortas so we had to have a 2nd appointment. On June 21st she started having some spotting again. We had a regularly scheduled US, NST & OB appt. Since the bleeding was light, she wasn’t dilated and not contracting they weren’t too concerned. They did note that her urine was concentrated and told her to drink plenty of water. On June 22nd she woke up with a backache. She hadn’t had any appetite for 2 days and only wanted to sleep. By 10 or 11am the backache was joined by pelvic pain. Around lunchtime the pelvic pain developed a pattern. She called the OB & they told her to come into the office. We saw a nurse practitioner around 5pm who examined her (still not dilated but contractions every 6 min) diagnosed a UTI & sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics. Around 6:30pm the pain was so bad that R couldn’t talk through the contractions. At 7pm I convinced her to call the nurse at the OBs office; this wasn’t a UTI. The nurse sent us to L&D triage. At 7:30, only 2 1/2 hours after her last exam where she wasn’t dilated, R was 5cm dilated. At 7:45pm when our OB arrived (our favorite one was on call) she was 6cm dilated. We were rushed into the OR and at 32w5d our sons were born. They’re doing very well. They’re in the NICU but only so they can work on feeding. They’re in cribs and on room air. They’re beautiful and perfect and I will post photos later.

The Belly Thus Far

Weeks 6-20

Momma’s Boys

The ultrasound was great. My dad came along and cried like a baby. It was really sweet. We are having two boys! We are so excited. I love to watch them. The long ultrasounds at least once a month is the only great thing about all of our scares and high risk status. I could watch them all day. It’s so strange to me that they are already developing their own little personalities. A is very laid back and perfectly content that his brother is sitting on his head. He was so squished that we didn’t get a good image of him at all. Sadly, the only clear image of A from yesterday is of his pen!s. He was so proud of it. They were both wide legged and showing themselves off. I guess that is just the start of their infatuation with their boy bits.  I promise that there’s a baby in this photo. He is laying on his right ear and looking forward.

Baby A at 19 weeks and 6 days

B is a goof ball and has been bouncing off the walls every time we’ve seen him. We didn’t know that the tech was going to switch on the crazy 4D part of the machine. It took us completely by surprise and made R cry.

Baby A at 19 weeks and 6 days

We’ve have names picked out for a while now. R has actually had one of the names picked out for nearly 10 years. We aren’t sure which boy matches up with which name and have decided to meet them before we decide who’s who. This will not make our families happy at all! They can’t stand that we’re not sharing names before they’re born and won’t want to wait for us to get to know them before we name them.

The MFM didn’t see any s0ft markers. I was so relieved. He still didn’t reduce A’s risk of D0wn’s but did say that everything looks great. He thanked us for the opportunity to say that because, in his line of work, he doesn’t get to deliver good news very often. A’s heart is still a concern. They will both have fetal echoes in May. I’m going to try to forget about this until then and remember that the MFM told us that many multiples have echoes, not just ones with high nuchal measurements and histories of congenital heart defects.

A’s placenta is still very low and almost completely covers R’s cervix. The MFM was hoping that it would “move up” but it didn’t. They will recheck it at next month’s ultrasound but it looks like we may be stuck with the previa for the rest of this roller coaster ride. It means no attempts of the usual exit route. R didn’t want to even attempt that anyway because of her heart. The other possible complications scare the shit out of me but so does most of the things that have been happening since November 29th. We’ll get through this and hopefully will have 2 healthy moms and 2 healthy sons this summer.

Just a Few More Hours

We have the second part of the Level II ultrasound at 1:45 this afternoon. My dad’s coming along and is incredibly excited to see his grandkids for the first time. He can be excited for the both of us. I’m mostly worried (aren’t I always). Dad’s not worried because he thinks that the purpose of the ultrasound is to find out the sexes. We haven’t told any of our family about the scares we’ve had. They don’t even know that there were once three. There’s no need to get them all worried until we know they have something to worry about. We’re hoping to get my dad out of the room before the MFM & genetic counselor come in to talk with us. The perfect opportunity will be when they switch from a pants on ultrasound to a pants off ultrasound. I bet you thought that we’d be done with pants off ultrasounds by now but no such luck! She has placenta previa and the d!ldocam is their preferred method to check on it. They’re hoping that A’s placenta will “move up” as her uterus grows. We’ll see today if that’s happening. If it doesn’t, it means c-section which is our plan anyway (because of R’s heart).

Five and a half hours to go. Soon I’ll know if we’re having sons, daughters, or one of each. Hopefully we’ll see healthy hearts and no soft markers too.

Operation Protein

R has been feeling light-headed, short of breath, and like she’s going to pass out for about the first 4 hours of each day for the past week. She had a checkup with her cardiologist yesterday to rule out the reoccurence of her heart defects that were surgically repaired in almost 7 years ago. There is nothing wrong with her heart so something else is going on. The OB wants her to up her protein intake for a few days and see if that helps. If she shows no improvement they want to see her Friday. Operation Protein started last night and so far gets a big fat F. She was dizzy and faint again this morning. We’ll see what the rest of the week holds.

9 more days until I get to see my babies again. Barring shyness or unfortunate cord placement we will be finding out their sexes. Any guesses?

Good News (Not Great but Good)

First off, the appointment took forever! We were supposed to be there at 8:50am and didn’t go back until almost 10. The place was really nice. They even had an waiting room assistant and her sole purpose was to check on you and get you drinks, etc. We had to take a mid ultrasound break 45 minutes in to the ultrasound because R started to pass out. They got all through measuring Baby A & had just gotten started on B when her speech slurred, her body started to go numb & her face turned white. After elevating her head and pumping her full of soda and cookies she felt better. One good thing about the appointment was that we just stayed in the same room and the US tech (US), doctor (MFM) and genetic counselor (GC) came to us. It was nice not to feel shuffled around even if the room had a revolving door. We were there a little over 4 hours. It was US, break, US, GC, US, GC, US, GC, MFM, GC if I remember correctly. The MFM kept asking for more measurements so that’s why US was in there over and over. A’s placenta is still over R’s cervix but they’re not worried about that yet. Speaking of cervix, hers looks great (but I have no objective data to back that up).

The US & MSM are not sure that the nuchal was even that high because of the perspective at which the tech took the measurement (not a perfect profile) and it was taken on the last possible day for a nuchal. The MFM said he would be very worried if the number was 5 or 6mm but that the 3.2mm (not 3.1 like I thought) wasn’t a lot to worry about. He said over and over again that they didn’t see anything on the ultrasound that would suggest T21 but that they wouldn’t decrease the odds we were given. They both have nasal bones. They measured 15w6d which was just right. We go back in 4 weeks to finish the anatomy scan and, if they can decrease the odds then, they will. MFM & GC both suggested an amnio. We decided not to have the amnio until we know more from the 20w scan. Yes, we know what this means. We aren’t going to terminate, no matter what they find. When we told the doc that we wouldn’t terminate for D0wn’s his mood changed completely. He told us that it didn’t matter what was going on with the babies because they had two parents that loved them no matter what. Kinda strange, maybe he doesn’t see many people that say that.  So we’re waiting on the amnio. If the 20w scan does show soft markers for D0wn’s then we will have the amnio later when the miscarriage risk becomes a preterm labor risk.

The MFM is much much more interested in their hearts, especially A’s heart. He thinks that if the nuchal measurement was actually high then it is more likely due to a congenital heart defect. We were kind of expecting this.  Most of R’s immediate family members have murmurs and she had heart surgery to correct 3 heart defects in 2004. The babies will have at least one fetal echo each somewhere between 22 & 26 weeks. The exact timing depends on their development at the next ultrasound. He also told R she needs to get another echo, especially with what happened during the first ultrasound of the day. The GC is very interested in R’s family history. There’s a relative with some cognitive delays and other disabilities that may be genetic and there are a few disorders related to a deletion on the 22nd chromosome that the GC said may be a good fit for her symptoms but couldn’t be sure since the niece isn’t her patient. The GC said that they can test for those if we decide on the amnio.

I can’t promise that I won’t lose my shit again in about 3 1/2 weeks but for now I’m ok, R is OK and so are the babies.

I almost forgot…

Baby A 15w6d

Baby B 15w6d

Another Scan

We’ll have another ultrasound and consultation with a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist on Thursday.

Is it Thursday yet?