Hospital Highlights

Doctors talk about odd things sometimes, particularly when things are going well, which for the moment, they seem to be. I'm still on modified bedrest, but if things still look good next week, I might be allowed to slowly start increasing my activity level! For now though, here are my favorite quotes from my recent medical encounters:

• She did fantastic! She didn't even need any narcotics!

• I think we spilled 200 ml or so on the floor. We need to make sure to keep track of that. 

• No, her cervix is right there and it looks great. That there? That's poop.

• Look at that beautiful bladder! I'm just going to stare at that picture for a minute.

• Do eat foods you do like. Don't eat foods you don't like. Avoid certain gassy combinations like beans and brussel sprouts, because that's just unpleasant.

• Yay for being normal! We love normal! 

• She's moving around a lot, which is awesome, but it makes my job hard. 

• Your bladder is very full. You might want to empty it soon.  

If I have to spend a lot of time in the hospital, at least the company is good. Everything going well is a big plus too.

Post-Op

In case you've ever thought otherwise, I am not a happy pregnant person. Any time I've been pregnant or had pregnant-like hormones (ie: regular birth control) I cycle erratically between anger, depression, and panicked anxiety. Unfortunately, double the babies this go 'round has meant double the hormones. It's not been pretty, especially these last couple weeks as my back and belly grew beyond what they were when I delivered Paige.

After a bad night's sleep, I went grumpily to the hospital for my 2-week check up on Tuesday. The tech did a couple measurements with the sonogram, then went to go get the doctor without finishing--not a good sign. He looked things over, we finished the sonogram, took extra measurements, and he gave me the bad news: the babies had developed TTTS, a condition where identical twins' blood vessels get linked through the placenta and they share unequally. One twin had tons of blood and amniotic fluid, while the other was stuck in a corner with very little fluid or blood. Luckily, neither had experienced heart or brain failure yet, so we might be a candidate for a laser surgery which would cauterize the blood vessels and split the systems.

My charts were faxed to UMMC, where they specialize in this surgery and condition. They got me in the next morning, confirmed the diagnosis, and prepped me for surgery. Being awake during surgery is an odd experience. It was cool to hear him explaining everything he was doing to the student doctors, but I couldn't see anything and being the exhibit, I was trying to be bored and detached so they could, you know, laser my body.

The first 24 hours were really stressful, while we hoped the babies survived the surgery and I wouldn't go into preterm labor. Thursday morning, the sonographer cheered when she saw two heartbeats: they both survived!! More than that, pressures were equalizing, heartbeats were strong, and both babies were active. Today, things still looked good. Pressures were continuing to equalize, little donor-baby was making amniotic fluid, and I hadn't had any contractions in almost a day.

I'm surprisingly calm about everything right now. I feel optimistic, I haven't had any anxiety issues, and I can connect to the babies as people--my family--rather than pain. The doctors cautioned us a lot that we're not really out of the woods until the babies are born and in our arms. There are still a million things that could go wrong at any moment. But for this moment, we're okay. And for the first time in this pregnancy, I'm okay too.

Off the Ball

Paige got invited to her first Valentine's exchange party this year! We tried making the valentines, we really did. But being without a printer, and limited by the fact that I didn't really want to spend money on them, we were left at the mercy of Paige's attention span and my stamina, which didn't get us very far. After our second attempt the morning before the party failed, I gave in and decided we could get something at Walmart on the way. It didn't occur to me that Wally's was where every other desperate parent would have gone the night before. There was nothing. Not even the weird, misprinted animal ones with psychedelic tattoos and sayings like, "I can BEARLY stand you, Valentine."

I almost just took Paige home, saying we'd make cookies and do all the pink laundry instead, but we decided to still go, hoping no one would notice our shabbily-decorated wipes container and lack of gifts.

Luckily, 3-year-olds are very forgiving--or unperceptive--especially when hopped up on sugar. We played games, ate treats, and Paige happily colored Daddy a card, which she cut into a million pieces when she discovered the safety scissors...oops.  My favorite part was her singing this song, followed by a kiss for each of us.

I'll try to get my act together before she gets into school and actually cares about Valentine's.  Overall though, I think it was a good day, in spite of my parenting fails. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

Not Much to See

Paige started crying during naptime the other day, and when I went in to see what was wrong, she we standing naked, her top half trapped in an upside-down onesie, size 3-6 months. There were baby booties hanging off her toes and a small, inside-out sleeper on the ground next to her. I'm sad that I missed taking a picture.

Other than that, there's not much to report from Fort Tucker. School is going well and the babies are growing well. My exciting news of the week was officially hearing that, while they want me to bake these babies as long as possible, they won't let me go past 38 weeks. I think I'm going to make a paper chain.