29 Weeks

Apologies for not writing this last week, it has been a pretty full on 2 weeks with everything that has happened and I just didn’t really get the time to write one up. You could say that we had so much fun celebrating Australia Day the day before that the twins really wanted to be a part of it as well.

So for 28 weeks, the scan went well, Twin 1 heart beats were at 148 bpm and 4.7cm fluid around, all the Dopplers were good, even the brain one as it shows that the leaky valve in the heart is not affecting the baby at all. Twin 2 heart beat was at 163 bpm and 3.9cm of fluid round and all the Dopplers were also good. We think this one will be very flexible on the outside world. Currently in a position of breech – so bum first – well it is sitting on the face of the other one and the feet well they are up round the head also. We had the Professor jabbing the belly in order to get it to move, after a couple of goes, it moved its foot! Poor thing might have to get it into diving or something later on in life. It is already learnt the pike position at least.

Also got the jab in the hip for the first lot of steroid injections, man they hurt like hell! But the second one 24 hours later, even worst! And it wasn’t even in the same side! Apparently the more you get the more they hurt, but lucky no facial hair or chest hair has popped up so I think I am in the clear there.

So the saga of Saturday night – as all pregnant women know the indigestion that you get is horrendous, for me it has been waking me up at night and bout 2 Mylanta tablets later it may of settled down, well this night, it did a little but then heart palpitations and real shortness of breath came straight after it as well. This went on for round an hour, mainly because Rohan was taking my pulse as well and it was fine, so we couldn’t figure it out and what it was causing it. Then Twin 2 moved, right up under my ribs and down the side. It was like it was moving out of that position. That had put me in tears and Rohan was then ‘we are off to hospital’. I went straight through emergency at Armadale and had ecg and bloods and blood pressure and so forth taken and all of that was coming back fine. It was only my heart that was beating a bit fast. I don’t know how to spell the name but starts with T – I will call it the T-word. I had one of the midwives come and see me and the babies were doing well and regular heart beats, it was that they were moving so much that it was really hurting. I think also talking to the nurses and all of that, it helped take my mind of the heart and shortness of breath. The ED doc was thinking that I may have a clot on the lung which comes with pregnancy as the blood does become ‘sticky’ or thick due to supply a fair share to the babies and this may mean that one has become stuck in one of the arteries in the lungs. I needed to have a lung test to do this and this could only be done at Royal Perth as Armadale does not have that equipment. The midwife was still round at this time and was feeling my belly and she also seemed to think that I was having Braxton hick’s contractions as well. After she left, then I had a contraction (Well I think it was, it was only in the belly area and not in the back) but these kids were moving and causing me a lot of pain!

From that they took me up to the maternity ward, I was having proper contractions, every 5 minutes apart and after having a test done to see if I was in labour, I was. I just was not dilated or anything. The pains in the chest and shortness of breath had calmed down now and I was being shipped off to King Eddy as the Dr on the ward at Armadale (with less personality then the cupboard that was next to the bed) said that the clot may have passed now, and with the contractions being so often and so early in the pregnancy, I am better off at King Eddy. We were like yes we are better off there. I had 3 doses of stop labour pills as well throughout this, so if they wore off and I started contracting again, then these babies were coming out now. The worry part was after the first two, they were not stopping, still staying 5 minutes apart, but by the 3^rd one, they slowly moved further apart and in the ambulance to King Eddy they were now 14 minutes apart. But these babies were still moving the most I have ever felt! I must say Rohan was so on to all the timing and being so calm and everything, at least I know he would be the best support person ever with this. It was also lucky that both he and my parents were at Aunty Lorna’s and hadn’t left yet, as we know have an action plan for Aunty Lorna when everyone isn’t here.

So at King Eddy’s, I was monitored for a bit and was told the golden words that these babies are not coming out today! I was moved to a ward bed and had a lovely Dr come and see me in the afternoon and it was the first time that I had someone actually examine me, and just me. He ruled out the clot in the lung but we still had to go off and do the test for it to really rule it out, but from all that we just went through, with the heart palpitations and shortness of breath, I had, we he calls it, pre-clinical pre eclampsia. He calls it that due to me having all the symptoms of it, but I am not showing it at the moment. So it could hit in 3 days or 3 weeks, I just have to be really monitored for it. So any shortness of breath or heart palpitations, then I have to tell people that I am having it. Plus it is all caused, for me at least, by the indigestion as well. But I still only had to take Mylanta. So 3 nights in hospital, and the lung test coming back negative for clots, I was released from hospital, mainly due to now being scanned twice a week; I will be monitored that way.

So enough of that, onto the scan on Friday just gone.

The scan this week was a very busy one you can say, we had Doctor doing the scan with the Professor watching and Doctor is just so fast with the scan, that we didn’t really catch much. We also had the midwives come and talk to us throughout as well, so we weren’t really paying attention, until Rohan got out the note book and wrote most of it down.

Twin 1 is now over a kilo with 1120 grams and heartbeat of 155 bpm. The walls of its heart are thickening but it is not interrupting the function of the heart at all, so they are not concern about it. There was 2.3cm of fluid round it, so either it’s growing or there is a full bladder.

Twin 2 is 740 grams and heartbeat was not taken, for some reason may be the position, even though you couldn’t even see what position it was in. The Dr just said it was in a better position than some of the singleton babies he had scanned that morning. There was also 2.1cm of fluid round. Bit all the Dopplers and blood flow were good for both of them

And then the news came that we may be having these babies at 30 weeks. (which is next week) Mainly due the Professor liking more weight behind Twin 2, but it may start to decline anytime soon and they want to be able to catch it beforehand. Also it doesn’t help that my body is now failing as well, but that means that we have got to our personal goal of 30 weeks and had the jabs, and we knew that this was coming, it is just a bit more of a shock now that it is becoming a reality. We just need to sort out our lives now, so that Rohan can be here with me at that time.

We also saw a paediatrician that explained what will be happening after the babies are born and what they will be doing through until they are ready to come home. To keep it short, a lot of test to ensure there is no infections in the stomach or gut, the lungs to be functioning well as they will be stiff when they are born due to not being developed enough, and also the brain and whether it was damaged at all from the delivery, being premature or the whole TTTS disease. They will be having tests every day for about 6-8 weeks, a lot of tubes will be coming out of them and also breathing masks will be attached to help with the breathing. This will be hard to take, but so we have them in the end, it is going to be worth it.

So another scan on Tuesday and it will be the first one without Rohan, So Aunty Lorna and Lee will be coming with me to be my support and information sponge, as lately I haven’t been taking anything in. Blame it on the mummy brain.

So til next weekend, as I will still only do the one update.

Lot of love Bobbi-Jo, Rohan and the Ninjas

xoxoxoxo