Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

What does it look like to be pregnant with twins at 15 weeks? Here... I will show you:

Not impressed?

Recent cravings:

Meat (this isn't recent but it's what I like) Mostly... beef and bacon...some venison. Not very much chicken unless it's with honey mustard or it's bdubs...or chinese.

Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter spoonfuls in it (this is just recently as of last week)

Salad that I can make myself (mostly just restaurant style...I am too lazy to have all those ingredients just chilling in my fridge waiting for me to eat a salad)

Fried egg sandwiches with cheese and miracle whip on toasted bread

Bacon and/or sausage- dipped in syrup (also toast dipped in syrup)

Sausage and cheese kolaches (this had been a must from the beginning)

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting

Pizza and garlic planks (from a local place)

Taco meat (I could care less about the rest of the toppings) and cheese

Bagels and cream cheese (strawberry on plain or plain on cinnimon raisin)

Split pea soup (I haven't had any yet but I want some) I tried to eat this today and I opened the can and about puked so... nope.


Dislikes:

Most any candy- I just don't have the urge to eat candy really

The smell of Gavin's milk cups or the kitchen sink

Prints' dog food...yuck. Smells gross

Mac and Cheese... (Velveeta)

Chicken in all other forms than listed above

Poptarts

Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches

The list goes on...

The PLAN

Yesterday, I received a phone call from my OB with "the plan." He told us at our last appointment that he would get on the phone and talk to his perinatal friend (Dr Charlie Brown... funny right?) and come up with the best plan for us for our situation. So here it is:

Dr. Brown suggested that I need an ultrasound every 2 weeks starting now until 24 weeks (viability). This is every 2 weeks at the Texas Perinatal Group (TPG) because their ultrasounds are more hi-tech and can measure cord flow and other things that can let us know if something is wrong.

On top of every 2 weeks seeing the TPG, I will still be going every 2 weeks to my regular OB. I am guessing I should stagger these appointments or that will be 2 doc appointments in the same week every 2 weeks. My OB is still measuring my weight (yuck!) and other things they normally do for a regular pregnancy...along with more ultrasounds (just mostly to check for heartbeats and measurements).

If all is well at 24 weeks, I will be admitted to Breckenridge hospital in downtown Austin until the babies are delivered via c-section. 24 weeks starts April 25th. (HOLY SMOKES! 9 weeks away!) What this means is I will be admitted to the hospital- for the entire duration of the rest of the pregnancy. Technically as I have researched, these momo babies are delivered between 24 weeks and 34 weeks depending on how their vitals are inside. We will welcome our twins between April 25 and July 4th (maybe a day or 2 afterwards).

Breckenridge hospital is where Dr. Brown works and they have a perinatal doctor at the hospital 24 hours a day so it is our safest bet.  If there is any cause for concern that the babies need to be born early (I will be monitored possibly 3 times a day to check their vitals) then the hospital will contact my OB and he will come do a c-section immediately. This could quite possibly be a very long stay in the hospital for me..and probably a long stay for our babies after they are born. Many babies born before 34 weeks measure 4lbs and under. I have read some born at the 24 week mark are only a little over a pound. It is a bit scary but we are going to grow these babies the best we can... they are already measuring a week ahead!

On that note... where is some meat I can eat...?

Momo Babies and what you need to know (or what I know)

Our identical twins are in the same sac which means they are Monoamniotic (Monoamniotic-Monochorionic). Basically, when the egg travels down into the uterus and does it's doubling, the egg split instead of just doubling, giving us 2 babies. Depending on how early the egg splits, you get 2 babies each in their own sacs- attached to the same placenta, 2 babies in the same sac- attached to the same placenta, or 2 babies conjoined together and attached to the same placenta. This all happens in the matter of days. The first stage is the first 3 days, the next the following few days and the last at the very last moment before attaching to the uterine wall. Monoamniotic twins are rare, with an occurrence of 1 in 35,000 to 1 in 60,000 pregnancies, corresponding to about 1% of twin pregnancies. 


The dangers of this pregnancy are: cord compression and entanglement or also the Twin to Twin Syndrome. Cord entanglement happens when the babies are able to move around without any boundaries between them and the cords are wrapping around each others cords and making knots and twists. This can cause restrictions in the cord, cutting off nutrients and blood supply to one or both babies. (Let me just say right now, I got to see a ball of umbilical cords inside at our last ultrasound and it made me ill) Twin to Twin Syndrome is when one twin gets more blood and nutrients than the other twin. One twin can become much larger than the other twin while the other twin remains the same because it isn't getting what it needs to grow. It can be dangerous for both twins getting too much blood or not enough. If one twin dies at this point, the toxins from the baby will be released into the amniotic fluid and can cause mental retardation in the living baby (this is only the case after the baby is around 20 weeks or more).  


Right now, we wait. We go into the doctor next Monday at 13 weeks, 5 days. We get ultrasounds every doctors appointment. We visit our OB again on February 27th (we go every 2 weeks). We return to the specialist (in Austin) on March 1st at which point we are 16 weeks. The specialist will look again at the babies and check to make sure they are both doing well. From that point on it is either a weekly or bi-weekly visit to both my OB and the specialist (separately). At 23 or 24 weeks they will determine when the babies are viable- which means one or both would likely survive being born if they had to be. Depending on what we decide, I can be admitted to the hospital from 24 weeks on to have the babies monitored a few times a day- OR- I could do outpatient monitoring, in which case I would have to drive to Austin every day and be monitored for a few hours and go home and return...every day until 34 weeks or whenever they decide to deliver. Momo babies are ALWAYS delivered early because of restricted space. We have to think that we might have these babies as early as April 25th (24 weeks) and as late as July 4th (34 weeks). 


That's about all the info I have for you now. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any and I will try to get them answered as best as I know.