Scan 25 wks and 5 days!

We had the most amazing scan today! Babies happy and healthy and my cervix is holding.. YAY!! Little Angel's growth is slowing a bit, but baby is doing well! The blood flow is great and the brain development looks great. The tummy is shrinking (only measuring at 22 weeks) but she said we can feed that up on the outside! Blessing is growing at almost the same rate as if he/she was a single baby! Angel was 620 grams this week and Blessing was 860 grams. On average a single baby grows at 150 grams per week at this stage so the fact that Blessing is growing at 140 grams is amazing.

They started giving me Celestone shots today to speed up the babies' lung development. Even though my cervix is holding they are worried about the slowing growth of Angel. Because of the marginal cord insertion it'll continue to get harder for Angel to get enough nutrients, etc so they are predicting that we'll get to a point where it'll make more sense to take them out and feed Angel on the outside. Dr. Morris said if I make it to 32 weeks I'll be doing REALLY well, but that she wouldn't be surprised if they come much earlier. Our next scan on June 10th will be very telling! I'm really hoping I can keep them in much longer than 32 weeks and am thinking very positive thoughts. I also keep telling the babies that it's cold outside so they need to stay in as long as they can!!

I'll upload the scan pics as soon as I can!! It's a bit tough from bed so I have to wait until Andrew has a sec to do it :)

25 Weeks Pregos!

I've now been on bedrest for 4 weeks! It's so crazy how fast time flies. Bedrest hasn't been easy by any means, but it's totally worth it if it means I get 2 healthy babies out of the deal :) We are officially out of the danger zone for laser surgery this week and so excited about that! At this point if anything happens they'll deliver the babies!

My belly is still growing each day which means the babies are too!! We go back to the hospital tomorrow for both a growth scan and to start getting Celestone injections. Because my cervix is so short they want to start speeding up the babies lung development so that if they come here soon they'll hopefully be able to breathe on their own. The Celestone helps with that! From this coming Monday (26 weeks) they say the babies have a very good chance of survival if they have to be delivered. Even though that's the case, I'm really hoping I can keep them in for several more weeks!! A friend just told me that she learned that for every day they stay in my belly, that's 3 days less they have to spend in ICU!!

They are suspecting our babies will come quite early because of my premature labor and short cervix, but also because of little Angel's marginal cord insertion. They said it's very likely that we'll get to the point where Angel isn't able to get enough of what he/she needs to grow properly and therefore it might be beneficial to deliver so Angel can be given enough nutrients! Also, the risks of TTTS increase as I get further along so they'll be monitoring very closely for that. I'm confident that if I keep laying on my back (well really on my side) like I have been that I'll be able to keep going for much longer!! Andrew tells me almost every day to "keep my legs crossed"! Now how many husbands do you know of that tell their wives to CROSS their legs? Hee hee!!

23.5 Week Belly Pics

Everyone keeps saying I'm small for having twins in my belly, but boy am I ever feeling big :) I stopped fitting into my clothes AGES ago (at about 19 weeks) and swear I can see my belly grow each day! The babies are sooo busy and I am so in love. You can now see my whole stomach move when they do! I had a book sitting on my tummy today while I was reading and Blessing decided that he/she didn't want it there so started kicking it. The whole book moved up and down.. it was hysterical! Since I've been on bedrest for 2 weeks now we haven't been taking many pictures, but we're going to try and be better about that! Even though being on bedrest has it's challenges.. I still feel so lucky to have been given my 2 little ones and am just loving being pregnant!

Pheew!! Labor Stopped, but Bestrest Continues...

I got to get out of the house today to go to the Dr. It's only been 4 days, but my body is sore from laying still and I'm SO happy to get outside!

I cried the whole way to the Dr's office. I don't know if it's all these extra hormones or if I was just really worried about that the Dr was going tell us, but I couldn't stop! Poor Andrew didn't know what to do with me so he just drove.

The Dr gave us some very good news today. The drugs and bedrest were working! My contractions had stopped and my cervix was short, but holding! Back to bed I was sent! Dr said it was highly unlikely that I'd be taken off bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I'm just starting my 22nd week so there's a chance I'll be in bed for up to 15 weeks! What am I ever going to do with myself?? :)

Dr. Hulme also suggested that we take a short tour of the ICU since it's looking like we'll end up spending a significant amount of time there. The nurses were so friendly and you can see that they care so much about those babies, but the babies were SO tiny. There was a 4 day old little girl in there who only weighed 600g. She could fit in the palm of my hand and was hooked up to a million machines. One of the nurses walked us through what everything was, how they handle the babies, what life's like for parents with babies in the ICU, how the babies go up and down, etc. I'm really glad we did it, but it was very emotional for me. I started crying again while we were there and am tearing up just writing this. I know they'll be in good hands, but the thought of them on all those tubes isn't nice.

21 wks & 5 days - Scan & Surprise Labor

We went for our routine scan today and got quite the surprise. In the middle of the scan our Dr stopped suddenly and asked "Are you in labor???" I promptly answered with "I dont think so, but it's not like I've done this before so I can say for sure!" She then proceeded to ask me about back pain, pressure in my lower abdomen, and any pain of which I said yes to all. I now feel a bit silly, but I really thought all of those things were just normal in pregnancy and apparently they can be. She did a more thorough exam on me and found that not only was I in labor, but my Cervix was funneling and spreading wide open when she gently pushed on my stomach. YIKES. The amniotic sack was pushing into the gap in my cervix and Baby Blessing's head was RIGHT there too!

I don't think I really realized the severity of it until she rushed off to call my OBGYN. I could then hear the panic in her voice and the discussing putting me into the hospital. She cam back into the room, told me to get dressed, and that I needed to go and see my OBGYN immediately being very clear to say that we mustn't stop anywhere or do anything else! She didn't even finish the scan or give me pictures of the babies because she just wanted me to get to the Dr asap.

Dr Hulme also got a very nervous look on his face as he looked at the scans. He discussed putting me in hospital, but said that I could go home as long as I promised to stay in bed. Of course, I had to get some clarification on this so I started asking him questions like can I shower, make tea, etc to which his answer to all was a big fat NO! I was allowed to stand up to use the bathroom and that's it! If we couldn't manage the he would admit me, but Andrew was fantastic and agreed to look after me! He put me on extra progesterone and another drug to relax my uterus too! As we were leaving he said that he didn't want to scare us, but that we needed to realize the seriousness of our situation and that basically any babies delivered before 26 weeks were considered a miscarriage. I have to say that this comment really hit home! I teared up immediately at the thought of possibly losing our babies and of course agreed to stay in bed with everything, especially my legs, crossed!

Just when we got little Angel growing again they now want to come out. Not easy, but bedrest will be a small price to pay for healthy babies!