Wednesday, January 10, 2007 "The Last Trimester!"

I was a little over 17 weeks pregnant when we got the ultrasound and the BIG NEWS, which meant I was about halfway through the pregnancy. We obviously, immediately took back the cute little stroller and carseat, and bought what we call "The Limo". Our double stroller, and got 2 matching carseats. I think that purchase really brought it all home for me, and put me in full panic mode! :)

We ended up also immediately trading in our little Dodge Dakota for a much bigger Dodge Ram Quad Cab (we still needed a pick up truck, and I was NOT ready for a mini-van!!!). We also really, really needed to confirm the sex(es) of these babies too, so that we could better prepare while we still had 2 incomes! It was pretty obvious by then that even if I wanted to go back to work (I didn't really want to), that there was no way we could afford it! I started pricing daycare costs "just to see", and they all cost more than what I made. My health insurance however didn't cover the cost of more than the one ultrasound (since it was deemed there were no problems, no need for further monitoring), so we found one of those "for entertainment purposes only" places.

So, on November 15, 2003 my friend Tina & I went to Ultrasound Babies to see what we could see! By then I was about 24 weeks pregnant, so we had a good shot of getting 100% confirmation! The tech. knew immediately the sex of both babies, before she even turned on the screen for me to see the babies! It was that fast! We knew then, we were having 2 girls! We had 2 girls names and 1 boy name picked out just in case. If they were boy/girl twins, it was going to be Sarah Elizabeth and Andrew Michael. But since it was girl/girl twins their names were going to be Emily Nicole and Sarah Elizabeth. We went alphabetical, and Baby A is Emily and Baby B is Sarah. And since we wouldn't know for sure until birth whether they were identical or not, I assigned them colors alphabetically as well. Pink for Emily, Purple for Sarah.

Here's a picture of me taken on November 15, 2003 just hours after we learned the twins were girls!

By this point in the pregnancy, I was already tired and having contractions like crazy. I was so ready to be done, but was also scared out of my mind to be done...being done meant having TWO babies here!! I wasn't at all sure I was ready for this! I read every book, website, bulletin board, everything I could get my hands on! I learned a lot and am very thankful I did all the reading I could. I prepared myself for every worst case scenario, including the very real possibility of NICU time.

I left no stone unturned when it came to educating myself about the risks involved in a multiple pregnancy, so it really wasn't any surprise when I got put on "modified" bedrest at about 28 weeks. "Modified" bedrest meant I was to lay on my left side twice a day for 2 hours each time. I had pretty high blood pressure, and edema (swelling of the ankles and wrists). I had the early signs of pre-eclampsia, which I was completely prepared for thanks to all my reading, and also from watching every birth show out there on Discovery, The Learning Channel, and Discovery Health Channel! :)

December 5, 2003 was my last day of work and it was bittersweet for me. I would miss my co-workers, friends, and customer's, but I wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn anymore! Ha ha! I actually kept pretty busy for that month due to the holidays. I also had my OB appointments to go to, which I had 4 of them in the month of December. Everything was going along quite well, my blood pressure had dropped a little, my swelling had gone down some, and I was resting pretty well. I was also bored out of my mind, but knew I needed to enjoy these last quiet days as much as possible!

In January, everything changed, and we had a pretty bad scare. At one of my regular OB appointments, my blood pressure had shot up pretty bad again. I was just over 7 months pregnant by then, and still needed to keep these babies in as long as I possibly could. My doctor sent me over to the hospital for a Non-Stress Test (NST), to check the babies and make sure all was well. This was something I wasn't prepared for. I had read a bit about NST's but didn't really look into it that much because things had calmed down so much for me, I thought it would be smooth sailing until delivery.

At the hospital, they hooked me up to two fetal monitors to watch each baby's heartbeats, and they took my blood pressure several times. The good news was that my blood pressure had gone back down to just about normal. The bad news, Baby A (Emily) failed the NST. Her heartrate did not respond to movements like it should have, and she wasn't moving much at all. The nurse called my OB to ask him what he wanted done at that point. He had me come back to his office to get a referral for an appointment with a Perinatologist (fancy word for High Risk OB/GYN).

At the perinatologists the next day, they started out with a level II ultrasound, and checked out everyone's organs, hearts, hands, feet, you name it. The dr. was very happy with those results, and said all looked great. He also said that both babies were head down, so we had a good shot at trying for a vaginal birth. He wanted me to go ahead and do another NST in his office as well to check baby A again. They also did some blood and urine tests which all came back fine. My blood pressure was also only a little high.

Then the dr. called me in to discuss the findings of his NST. Turns out, baby A is fine...just a little lazy! (I wish I knew then how prophetic that was to be!!) I felt so relieved! He wanted to see me in a week just to confirm all was well. From here on out, I had 2 NST's per week, my OB once a week, and my Perinatologist once a week. Some bedrest this was turning out to be! After a week, my Peri said he didn't need to see me anymore, so I was down to 3 appointments per week, for the next few weeks until delivery.

I was prepared for a vaginal delivery sometime after 37 weeks which was fast approaching. Of course though, Baby B had other plans....