Cerclage, done!

Well the cerclage is in. It wasn't the best experience, but could have been worse. I was first sent to triage to get my IV and talk to everyone about the surgery. The nurse told me I would be getting a shot of medicine to help prevent preterm labor, terbutaline, and drink a fluid that calms your stomach, bicitra. The nurse anesthetist (CRNA) came in to speak to me about the spinal and said it can occasionally cause low blood pressure, symptoms being fast heart rate, nausea, not feeling right, so to let her know if I felt that way. Ashley had already warned me this could happen, especially to people like me who's normal blood pressure is already a little low, so to make sure I get a lot of IV fluids pre-op. I let the CRNA know I usually run low. So we get to the OR, and the nurse is unable to get the meds scanned in. The CRNA numbed my back and did the spinal, which was practically painless, and right before laying down the nurse ran me my lovely liquid shot of bicitra. It's very sour and bitter tasting. So my legs start going numb and they get me situated on the table. All of the sudden my heart feels like its going crazy. At first I thought I was just nervous but it just felt like it was pounding out of my chest and got very fast. I heard the CRNA say it was really fast and she was going to give something to slow it down, followed immediately by "oh, I guess not". My heart rate and blood pressure suddenly dropped and I remember my nurse asking if I was ok a couple times... I felt like I couldn't even talk or look at her because of how I felt. The CRNA kept saying to her "shes really not feeling well right now, her blood pressure is very low". The CRNA gave a dose of ephedrine to get my heart rate up and increase my blood pressure while the nurse pushed fluids into my IV. I got bad cold sweats and slowly started feeling better, and was told I would probably feel sick... Yeah, that bicitra just worked itself back out. It's not very fun to get sick on your back with most of your body numbed . At this point they were basically finishing the cerclage- start to end incision time was 7 minutes!! The dr said looking at my cervix, it was absolutely the right thing to do and not to have any reservations about it. We got back to the room and both me and the babies heart rates were pretty fast, but they slowly came back down. The Dr wanted 3 hours of continuous monitoring of the babies heart rates and any contractions. It took the poor nurse 45 minutes just to get both babies picking up. Since they are already so squirmy, I think their high heart rates from the meds and all the excitement really had them all over the place. Spinals usually take around 2 hours to wear off, but mine took closer to 4. The CRNA said to make sure to pass on if I have a spinal for a c section, that I am sensitive to them and I probably don't need as big of a dose as they usually give. While being monitored I had what they call uterine irritability, which is basically cramping/tightening, as well as a few contractions, but nothing that was abnormal. Around 10pm I was finally up walking and could go home. It's been a long few hours trying to rest. I had so many IV fluids I haven't made it more than an hour or so without having to get up. I'm still having tightening and have had a couple contractions, and realized this morning I never had either of the two doses of terbutaline, the meds they use to stop preterm labor while I was there. So I paged my drs group and of course felt terrible when one of them called back half asleep at 7 am, and she said that was fine and I might feel like this for up to 48 hours. The plan is to rest a couple days and I will be back at work Sunday night. Fingers crossed my uterus calms down soon! These poor babies have had too much excitement! :)

Two papayas!

It's been another good week. The babies have continued to grow and get stronger. I am feeling them more often.  We were able to watch them kicking from the outside this week, and just this morning I could see brother moving and shifting around in there! It's such an incredible, strange feeling! He continues to be the wild one. Sister has pretty much stayed same position, head down, and the ultrasound tech said she will probably stay that way with her brother smashing her. During the ultrasound he looked like he was ramming his head into her trying to fight for the "A" position so he could be the first to arrive!!

Unfortunately my cervix has shortened a little more, so we decided to go ahead and schedule a cerclage for this week. I am not positive on the time yet, but her goal was Wednesday at 4pm. I will hopefully be in and out the same day, and them home on bed rest for two more days as long as everything goes well. I am still terrified of the risks, but my Dr feels like this is still the best choice. If we can get through it and have everything go well, it will be a lot less risky than waiting each week to see how much more it has shortened.

We got another couple quick pictures of the babies while the tech checked their heart rates. Sister was still a little shy, but we got a quick side view of her. It's amazing how big and healthy they look on ultrasound, but I've have seen enough 22/23 workers to know that's not the case!  We also finally got a foot shot! :)  How cute is that tiny foot print?!?!

21 weeks and Fridays Appointment

Fridays appointment didn't go as well as I hoped.  My cervix has continued to slowly shorten. Because 24 weeks is the cutoff for placing a cerclage, we are going to recheck next Monday and make a decision then what to do. Some days I feel terrified of the potential complications and not sure I can chose to move forward with it, and other days I realize this may be the best chance we have at keeping these kids in as long as possible. My OB is giving me the option. If we decide not to have one placed I will end up on bedrest probably once my cervix is down to a certain measurement. At what point that is and if it causes preterm labor at that point, we don't know. I know every procedure has its risks, but when the potential risks involve the possibility of your children not surviving or being born severely premature, it's terrifying. We have a lot to think about over the next week.

I am 21 weeks today.... And measured 29 weeks at my appointment! I'm still feeling pretty well and feeling both babies move around every so often.  They've grown about a half inch each and are getting closer to the 1 pound mark!

We got a couple pictures of each baby at the appointment Friday, but little girl was stubborn and didn't want to turn and show her face!

The big 2-0!! :)

Another week down, and I get to celebrate on my birthday! :)  Pretty boring update this week!  Things are still going well.  This is the week they begin to measure babies head to heel, instead of crown to rump.  So this week the babies are a little over 10 inches long...about the size of a banana!!  Something interesting (and a little weird!) that I read was that my amniotic fluid will begin tasting like what I eat, and the babies will begin to develop food preferences based on what I eat.  If that's true, these babies are going to LOVE skittles!! :) Our baby girls movements seem to have caught up in frequency to the boys.  I still have days where I feel them moving much more than others.  When I feel them at the same time I have to wonder if they are fighting for room in there! :) Or maybe just already fighting with eachother.  I'm outgrowing all the things I was "getting by" with and will have to add some maternity clothes to my closet.  Despite getting larger I've really felt better and had more energy the last couple weeks than I have the whole pregnancy so far.  We've started our registries, which was exciting and overwhelming!  I'll definitely need to talk to experienced mothers on what is really necessary!  Our next checkup is Friday!  Hope everyone has a great week!

Two Mangos!

19 weeks! :)  It's probably safe to say I'm halfway, or over halfway there!  It's been another good week.  Still having some ligament pain at night, and Tums are becoming my new friend, otherwise feeling pretty good.  I think I've been pretty lucky so far!  I'm feeling baby A move around a lot more now, but B still seems to be the wild one, or at least in a better position for me to feel it.  Sometimes I have to think, "what are you doing in there?!" :).  According to BabyCenter they are around 6 inches long and 8.5 oz's each, but, we already know they were bigger than that last week! :)  I'm not sure when the next full ultrasound will be, but I have another appointment next Friday afternoon. 

It was fun sharing the genders with my coworkers the other night when I worked and on facebook.  It's always nice to hear people say how exciting it is.  A good friend told me she felt like she was saying it too much, and I hadn't even thought that for a second! :)  We love to hear it!  I think Joe and I have spent so much time being anxious, its fun and a good reminder to hear all the "congrats" and "how exciting".  I think some people have interpreted this as that we aren't excited or we are thinking negatively, and that's a little frustrating to me.  We couldn't be more over the moon about this, and we'd love to just believe in our hearts that I'll carry to close to term and our babies will pop out beautiful, healthy babies, and the ride there will be nothing but smooth.  But we know its a long road, and I work in a place that is a constant reminder of the possible risks involved with carrying multiples.  We will continue to be thankful for every good day we have, and every positive dr's appointment.  It doesn't mean we think anything bad will happen, we just are too nervous to get too far ahead of ourselves!  But we already love these babies more than anything and are patiently waiting till the day we will meet them!

Two baby elephants! :)

For some reason I'm loving all the baby elephant stuff right now... couldn't resist using a couple adorable stuffed elephants to show what we are having :) (Now just hoping that girl doesn't really turn out to be a boy!!) :)

Finally!

The appointment today went great!  Ultrasound showed that both babies are looking good and growing as they are supposed to.  Today I am 18 weeks and 4 days.  Baby A measured 18 weeks and 6 days and around 9 ounces!  And baby B measured 19 weeks 2 days and around 10 ounces! :)  They were both very squirmy during the ultrasound and the tech made a few comments about how wild they were.  I've still been feeling baby B sometimes, but A only a few times here and there.  Its amazing how close together they are in there.  When ones moves, kicks, or stretches its pushing into the other one.  Maybe I'm only feeling B so much because all of A's movement has been aimed at B!  Externally I'm measuring 25 weeks, which is normal to be 6-8 weeks larger for twins.  The cervical measurement was great too... my OB said its fine to just keep measuring every 2 weeks and go from there.  We have until 24 weeks to make a decision on a cerclage. 

Here are a couple pictures of A :)

 And a couple of B! :)

 She tried to get some pictures of their feet, but they just wouldn't sit still long enough!

And oh yeah, A's a girl and B's a boy!!!! :)