So when this happened June 26, I was surprised but happy.
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| Foreshadowing |
We handled this news much better than the first time, when we spent the first couple weeks in all-out panic mode. But, we were experienced this time and knew what to expect and what we had to do regarding insurance and all that other grown up stuff that goes along with this sort of thing. Plus, I didn't really have much time to ponder on it since I still had a rowdy two year old to deal with and he had no idea what was going on.
That first day, I told Will and JAAG (friends forever) the news. Then we told our families in person when we went to Louisiana for July 4th. Everyone was happy!
As far as pregnancy yuckiness goes, I definitely felt much worse this time than with Liam. I was more emotionally unstable that time rather than physically ill. But this time I had the all day stomach-ache that occasionally turned into nausea and extreme tiredness. It still wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of women have it, and I was still able to function pretty well as a mother...until Will got home from work. Then I needed to lay down for a while!
The midwife I had with Liam left the office where she was working, so we had a decision to make regarding who I would see this pregnancy. After some research, we decided to go with the newer midwife at the same practice and deliver at the same hospital where Liam was born. We like the familiar. So on July 19th, all three of us headed into Dallas for my first appointment with the midwife and confirmation ultrasound.
We had to wait 30 minutes past our scheduled appointment time, but thankfully Liam did not completely lose it even though he was strapped in his stroller. The ultrasound was up first, and since we were pros at this now, we were pretty calm. We were expecting to see one little baby blob with a beating heart on the screen with the news that "Everything looks great!" Well, we certainly did see that.
In fact, we saw two of them. Twins.
That's when the crying and subdued freaking out started. Sure enough, there were two tiny wiggly babies with beating hearts on the screen. Shocked is an understatement. Twins do not run on either side of our family. We never even considered twins were a possibility. I was shaking and had tears running down my face as the ultrasound continued. They appeared to be in the same chorionic sac (I know you probably don't know what that means), but were thankfully separated by a membrane into their own amniotic sacs. So not only were we having twins, but they appeared to be identical twins! And identical twins are a random (God) event not caused by genetics, so everyone pretty much has an equal shot at identical twins.
After the ultrasound, they took my blood pressure. (Really? My hands were literally shaking.) It was up, but thankfully not too high. Then I was told I could no longer be a midwife patient since I was expecting multiples. Bummer. Since I obviously didn't have an appointment with a doctor that day, I briefly talked to the midwife. Then I had to choose a doctor to see for the remainder of the pregnancy. Since Liam's midwife had been out of town the day he was born (literally her one day off for the month), Liam had been delivered by the backup doctor from the same office. I didn't know her at all really, since she showed up about five minutes before Liam was born, caught him, and told me, "Great job!" I saw her the next day, though, and I remembered her being very nice. So I chose her. At least my kids would be delivered by the same doctor that way! As it turns out, she has boy/girls twins!
*The previous part was written before today's appointment.*
Today I had my first visit with my doctor. We talked some about twins and she answered some questions I had. Then she used a small, portable ultrasound machine to see the heartbeats. She said it's still kind of difficult to distinguish between two heartbeats just with doppler this early. I'm 13 weeks. The bonus of this was that I got to see the babies again! They had certainly grown a lot since 9 weeks. Both measured at 13w3d and had heartbeats around 160. They looked great and perfect! However, the doctor was not able to see a membrane between the two babies. They were very close to each other stacked liked a yin yang. They are definitely identical twins and sharing one placenta. This is fine...as long as they have their own amniotic sacs. Of course, this no membrane news was very disheartening. This kind of twins are called mono-mono, which means one placenta and one sac. Since there's nothing dividing them, their cords can get tangled and, as you can imagine, that's bad news all around.
However, there's still a chance the membrane actually is there. In my emotional state, I'm trying to remember these four things:
1. The membrane was there at 9 weeks. The sonographer easily found it and marked that there was one on the chart. Unless is wasn't really a membrane in the first place or it somehow disappeared, then it should still be there.
2. The ultrasound machine used today was low resolution, and it didn't provide a clear picture of the babies. It's a portable one used mostly for just finding heartbeats.
3. My doctor is not a sonographer, and does not spend all day looking at ultrasounds of babies.
4. When she and a different sonographer reviewed my 9 weeks pictures, they agreed there was a chance there was a membrane there.
I'm definitely scared and thinking of the what-ifs. If the babies are still trucking along at 24 weeks and are definitely mono-mono, I will have to move into the hospital for constant monitoring until (hopefully) 32 weeks, when the babies will be delivered. There will be NICU time. I have no idea how Will and Liam would handle me not being at home for at least two months. I can't imagine not being at home for two whole months. But if it's what I end up having to do for these babies, then I will obviously do it. If you pray, please pray the membrane is actually there and separating them. If that's the case, then the pregnancy will be business as usual, at least as much as twins can be.
