25 Weeks

Cue music – Cue Johnny Nash – “We can see clearly now the rain has gone, we can see all obstacles in our way” Yes you read right and singing the whole song now, I bet. We have some answers to our questions and now know what is going to be happening in the next month or so, and it is the best feeling ever after the last two weeks. Positive feelings and emotions are now coming through instead of tears and worry.

So we have now worked out the system of when the Prof is going to be doing the scan with the ladies at the front desk. If our file is there with them, the Dr is going to be doing the scan. If the file isn’t there, than we have the Prof and this week, the file wasn’t there, we had the Prof and hopefully the answers we needed. It was also measurement day as well, so we also get to see how the babies are progressing and if they have put some fat on.

When the Prof Jan put the scanner on our belly, all you could see was babies’ arms and legs and bodies, it is hard to believe that they have grown so much and you don’t notice it until you really look at it. But onto the measurements;

Twin 1 is still progressing nicely, weighing in at 681 grams and a heart rate of 147bpm with 3.5cm of fluid around it and also a nice full bladder and fluid on the stomach. We also got to see glimpses of the kidney and other organs, which didn’t look like much to us, but the Prof said that they look good and in the right spots. So this little ninja is still growing along nicely having put on 179 grams in the last two weeks, now within the percentile range but only just.

Twin 2 – the biggest fighter of all, weighing in at 445 grams, with a heart rate of 135 bpm and 3.4cm of fluid around it also with a nice full bladder and fluid on the stomach. Falling a little bit more outside the percentile range, but they are both moving along on their own graph line. This also means that not much weight has been put on, with only 60 grams been put on in the last 2 weeks. The Dopplers are still the same, they haven’t gotten worse and they haven’t gotten better, so the Prof would like to see this little fighter at 600 grams before they will be delivered. But they would like for us to get to 28 weeks before they will deliver them. Hopefully we can bake them a little bit longer. Fingers crossed.

So at least we now have a time line to work towards and they have also told me to slow down on the work front and look at going on maternity leave next week. I am staying in Perth for this week and passing on the work to the lady who will be reliving me for this time. I have been told to rest and keep my feet up and lie on my sides to help with the blood flow to the babies and placenta, and also keep on drinking the lovely tasty protein shake to help with that also. Just waiting on now, is when we will be having to do the scans twice a week and if not next week, I will be going back home to say bye to Kalgoorlie for probably the next 3-4 months whilst the babies are born and in nicu and the special nursery for the however long they will be in there for and can come home with us. I meet up with a friend, before coming to Perth, who also had a premmie baby and the information she gave me is golden! We need to be ready to be scared and emotional and also demanding. It’s great to have that heads up and we will now be having a tour of the nicu and meeting with one of the paediatricians beforehand.

So Rohan has now gone home in our new bigger family car, a 2010 Ford Territory, (still thinking of a name for it, I like “twin terror”) so he can now tinker with it however he likes and also has a reliable car to drive up and back in. We didn’t trade in the other car, so I have that here with me.

Well another scan next Friday at 1.30pm and hopefully know even more from then. With all of this time off, it will give me time to rest and make up two little memory boxes. I also want to look into a good blog site, so that I can put these updates (taking out the nasties about the doctors) and everything else to this point to help other couples and families with what we have and will go through due to TTTS. A lot of stories that we have read so far is just like an essay on the whole TTTS journey on a page, instead of really getting into the emotional rollercoaster and week by week blow on how things are. When we were first diagnose with this and asked about it on facebook on alot of the twin pages, a lot of the ladies just commented and said a friend of mine had that and the babies turned out fine, or they had it, and it was all good. For me personally, I need to know more and not knowing these people, I didn’t want to dive into their personal life and ask “was it really?” I would have been happy with comments like, “we had that and the babies are fine, but get ready for the emotional/bumpy roller coaster.” But with this blog I am thinking of doing, hopefully it will give people more insight to the disease and let people know it is alright to be scared s**tless and have the unknown week to week confuse the hell out of you, but it also tests your relationships with partners, family and friends and make you want to see your babies each week and hope that there are still two heartbeats every single time.

Well time to go and find something to eat! I am starving!

“It’s going to be a bright, bright, bright sun-shiny day!”

Lot of love Bobbi-Jo, Rohan and the Ninjas

xoxoxoxo