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Last Friday evening at bedtime, Dan asked Lucy if she wanted to go out on a date with him the next night. Lucy, not really knowing what a date is, just said "sure"!
So all day Saturday we talked about the date and asked Lucy what she wanted to do with Daddy that night. The only thing we could get her to say was that she wanted a milkshake.
I suggested to Dan that he take her to the mall play area to play. It has been so hot here over the last few weeks that doing anything outside is pretty much out of the question. So, to the mall to play and Steak-n-Shake for dinner was the plan.
They left soon after Lucy woke from her nap and I told her that I needed to do her hair because she wanted to look her best for her Daddy Date. We also made sure to take a picture before they left.
They got back around 6:30pm and Lucy was all excited because Daddy had taken her to the bookstore and bought her a present. She picked out a Dora book with a CD player just like the Elmo one she already has.
She really enjoyed her time with Daddy. I love that my husband will do things like this with her. Daddy's are such an important part of a little girl's life and too often society dismisses the importance of them.
With 2 more little girls on the way...Dan's going to be going on lots of Daddy Dates.
Dan and I got back from our follow-up appointment in Cincinnati last night. One week after our amnio-reduction procedure the babies are looking great! They have equal amounts of fluid and their weights are pretty much the same. The stress on the heart of baby A was gone. Mostly likely the stress is gone because of the medication the doctors put me on.
I am taking Procardia. It's a high blood pressure medication. I don't have any issues with my blood pressure, it's always normal, but for some reason this medicine seems to have a positive effect on the hearts of the babies. So, now I have to be careful cause my blood pressure is low. I feel kinda woozy sometimes.
Because I am not completely out of the woods just yet, I will have to follow-up with the Ohio doctors over the next 6 weeks. We are hopeful that we'll continue to get good results, but there is chance that the the amnio-reduction will stop working and if that happens then I will have to have the laser surgery. But, like I said, we don't think we'll need that. We are confident God is working His miracle in our girls and surgery won't be needed.
This is gonna be hard. Today was so long and boring and it's only the beginning!
Today we had to go in for an ultrasound to make sure everything looked good before they sent us home.
We were very encouraged to see that the fluid levels had balanced out a bit in just 24 hours! Both babies had fluid in the normal range! PTL!!
The doctor that looked over out ultrasound reports said that everything was looking great so far.
So we were very happy to hear that news and be able to come home for a few days. I will be seeing Dr. Kehl at Carle on Monday for another ultrasound and then Wed. evening Dan and I will have to leave again for Ohio. I have an appointment at the Fetal Care Center in Ohio on Thursday. We are continuing to pray that this procedure has fixed the imbalance and that no surgery will be needed.
I have been put on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy, something I was really dreading. The silver lining in it though is that it is not super strict. I just have to stay off me feet as much as possible. That means no cooking or cleaning or really going anywhere during the week other than doctor appointment. I may try going to church though.
As one doctor put it, I have to act like a princess over the next 12 weeks. If a princess wouldn't do it, then I shouldn't either.
Even though I still have 18 weeks left of my pregancy, they told me I will most likely deliver around 32-33 weeks. Normal twin pregnancies usually deliver around 36 weeks and if you have TTTS, then you normally deliver 3-4 weeks earlier than that. 12 weeks doesn't sound so long, but when you say I'll be diong this till October, that sounds like a loooong time!
Day 2
Yesterday we had a little more testing to do. I met with a CNA/midwife at the Fetal Care Center to go over my medical history and do a quick physical. That was easy!
Then we were sent over to Cardiology where they did an ECHO. This is basically a ultrasound that uses high-resloution imaging to look at the hearts of the babies. This is a very important test because even if all the other tests look good, the TTTS diagnosis is really determined on the outcome of this test.
The concern with TTTS is that the baby who is receiving more blood flow will develop heart problems because she is having to pump so much extra blood. If TTTS is left untreated, then the larger baby will go into heart failure because of all the extra stress on her heart.
Once both those tests were complete, we waited to see the doctors. We were in a team meeting with 2 doctors, one a Fetal Care Specialist and the other was a Fetal surgeon. They showed us all the images from the MRI and ultrasounds and explained what was happening and gave us our options.
Because I'm still only 19 weeks along and the TTTS is still fairly mild we have the luxury of time in order to try a safer approach to correcting this problem. We opted to try the Amnio-Reduction procedure. This is basically and amniocentesis but they remove alot of fluid from around the larger baby. This poses the least amount of risk for both babies and in 30-40% of the time, this procedure alone can correct the problem. So we decided that before we jump right to surgery, we'll give this a try.
I was very pleased with all the doctors and nurses and technicians that have been working with us this week. Everyone is so nice and we are definitely in the best care possible.
Day 3
This morning we went in for the amnio-reduction. I was very nervous about having a needle in my belly. And there wasn't going to be an anesthesia either!
Once we were all set up and bout ready to start I covered my face with a towel cause I couldn't bare to watch them stick me. It wasn't extrememly painful, but it was uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to do this on a regular basis. It lasted about 30 minutes and they drained off 1300ml of fluid from baby A. This is about the same as 2/3 of a 2 liter bottle of soda! They told me I lost 3.5 pounds of fluid! I could definitely tell my belly was alot smaller when it was over.
They kept me for about 30 minutes after the procedure and then released me. I have to rest and take it easy. Dan's out looking for a REDBOX so we can watch a movie this afternoon.
We go back for an ultrasound tomorrow and then hopefully we get to go home for about 5 days before coming back here next week.
Today we had to be at the hospital at 8:15am. On the schedule was an MRI and an ultrasound. I've never had an MRI so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Dan had one a few years back and so he was explaining to it to me. I knew it wasn't anything that was going to hurt, but I was a bit worried about having to lay still for so long.
The lady came and took me back and I had to lay on my left side and they strapped this brace around me to hold me in place. With the brace on I was forced to put my arms above my head.
I had picked out a movie to watch while I was in the MRI machine. I picked UP. I wanted a fairly light-hearted movie and I had not yet seen this one.
They put headphones on me and then I watched the movie through a pair of goggles. It did help to pass the time, but after about 45min-an hour into it, my hip started to really hurt. I kept trying to just ignore the pain and how uncomfortable I was getting. I was told that I could holler out at any time and they would stop, take me out and let me move a bit. But, I didn't want to have to stop. As much as I was wanting out of that thing, I didn't want to prolong the testing.
If you've never had an MRI you should know that it's extremely noisy. Dan had warned me, but once your in there, it's really loud. The babies didn't like it. When this really loud buzzing sound would come on, I could feel them moving around. Poor things. I felt bad for them. At the end the tech told me that they were both very active little girls and they didn't like having their picture taken.
After I finally got out of that machine, they rewarded me with a Coke and some graham crackers. I was starving by this time cause I wasn't allowed to eat anything before hand.
I barely had time to finish my crackers though and they were calling me back for the ultrasound.
By this time it was about 11:30 ish and even though I was anxious to see my girls on the ultrasound, I knew this was also going to take awhile. And it did. The baby on the bottom is a wiggle worm and they had such a hard time getting the information they needed. She just would not hold still!
I was so ready to go at this point. I was starving and I was so tired. I think most the fatigue was just from the hunger. Finally about 1:30 the doctor came in, looked at the images and then we were able to leave.
We were encouraged because they could still see the bladder on the littlest baby. As TTTS progresses the bladder will no longer be visible. But, we could see that the fluid is still off balance. So that will most likely be addressed at the meetimg tomorrow.
We were able to enjoy the afternoon though. We went to IKEA (yay!) and drove around a bit to see if there was anything else to do near the hotel.
Tomorrow we go back for a few more tests and then a meeting with the doctors to see what we need to do next.
Yesterday was crazy. I was on the phone most the afternoon with the Fetal Medical Center in Cincinnati, their guest services people and my mom.
I am praising God that we are going to Cincinnati. Their facility is much better than the one in St. Louis and we were afraid that our insurance would make us to to STL.
I still am not sure what's going to happen next week, but this is my understanding of how things are going to go. I have an appt. for Tues. morning and they'll start doing tests. I'm going to have an MRI, an ultrasound, and ECHO something or other, and then a physical and medical history. All this will take us into Wednesday as well. After all that the doctors will sit down with us and explain our options and what to do next. I am preparing myself for surgery on probably Thursday. If they do that, then they'll keep me over night for observation of the babies. If all looks good, they'll release me but I'll have to stay in town over the weekend and get checked again Monday. Then if all looks well, they'll let me come home.
Even if they don't do the surgery right away, they will do an amnio-reduction. That's where they'll drain off some of the extra fluid from the bigger baby.
I am praying that no matter what they do, I will not have to go on bedrest once I get home. I will do what it takes to keep these girls safe and in utero for as long as possible, but the thought of having to lay on my left side for 3-4 months is not appealing to me.
My head is spinning from all the stuff that I need to do in the next day to get ready to leave. I am dreading leaving Lucy. I know she'll be fine and be in good hands, but I've never been away from her for more than one night. I will be a mess when we have to leave.
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