personal goal

Thirteenth Update – Wise/Williams Twins – 9th February 2014

Posted on by bjwilliams2014

Week 30

YAY!!! We have reached the golden number – 30 weeks and it is a bit of a relief to finally get here and still have the bubs baking in the oven I have going on here. But to tell you the truth, I am so un-comfy, that I don’t really think I could have gone to full term with these two little buggers. Not the way they are trying to claw out the belly. Worst but best feeling ever!

So the scan on Tuesday saw the first one that Rohan couldn’t be there for and had my support peeps of Aunty Lorna and Lee with me. With the Professor away we had Doctor scanning us and also another lady Dr that learning to do these types of scans for the next two years. Now with the Prof, she explains and goes through everything that she does and makes the experience worthwhile, but with Doctor, he is like in a hurry to get things down and doesn’t really talk the way through it until the very end or a quick rundown as he goes from one twin to the other. Plus there was a bit of flirting going on between the two Drs that made Doctor be a bit more energetic with the scan at least, and talk a bit more, or it could have been Lee and Aunty Lorna.

Tuesday Scan on Twin 1 saw the heartbeat at 153bpm and 2cm of fluid round, which is a bit low but had a very full bladder. The heart walls were still thick and also the valve was still a little leaky but the overall functioning is fine. The bub wants to stay in the belly for a bit longer and is looking ok. But just has not been as active to me as it usually would be. So was told if it continues to slow down even more to ring up and would have another scan to make sure everything is fine.

Twin 2 heart beat was 124 bpm and 4.1 cm of fluid round, and everything seems to be fine. This one has been the more active of the two, and that clawing I talked about earlier, well that was this one. Couldn’t really tell what position it was in but I think it has come out of the pike position and into a position that we cannot even tell. All we see now is arms, then legs, then head and brain and then body with spine. Definitely doesn’t help when trying to get measurements with the Dopplers that’s for sure.

The scan on Friday had a bit of a different feel to it for me at least, it was just Rohan, myself, Doctor and Midwife Teresa and it was like he was trying to get through this as fast as possible because they were running behind. There was no talking or anything throughout it and only when Teresa spoke to Doctor about something’s that he actually spoke. Best to say that this had me in tears because of it, I think I was just really missing the prof and her friendly nature more than anything. Plus with the stress on wondering when they make the decision on when to deliver them is probably getting as bit too much.

So the scan saw Twin 1 with a heartbeat of 129 bpm and fluid of 3.8 cm and even with a full bladder. With all the Dopplers good and still the issues with the heart and when we asked the Dr about what this may bring, he said that it may correct itself when they are born or it may stay around for a bit afterwards, they just couldn’t give is a defiant on what might come of this. Which is fair enough, best not give us an answer and say this is what goes and it ends up the other way.

With Twin 2, it seems that it is starting now to go backwards, the heartbeat when he first done it was round 169bpm, which is a bit high and 2.4cm of fluid round. So it is like they did a swap on the fluid there. When Teresa spoke about the heartbeat, Dr did a couple more and some came up as the same 160 + and then one came up as 145bpm so we don’t really know what to take with that. The main concern now is the cord forward flow, which was the problem we had from when we had the laser surgery for the 3 weeks until it got better. When you look at the screen and they have the correct spot, the monitor looks like round hills with a bit of a cliff on one side. This means good forward flow

This is sort of what they have looked like for the last 10 weeks or so. But now the hills are getting sharper peaks on the top and more of a valley in between them you can say and this means not good/or no forward flow.

Once I saw this, I just knew we were now going backwards and the end is going to be very near, and the Dr was concerned about this and it is something that is going to be monitored very closely, but they don’t want to deliver the bubs until this does really start to fail. Both bubs are happy and content inside the oven and it isn’t until the Dopplers really start to fail then they will deliver them. But what they can’t say is when that will happen. Could be this Tuesday, could be Friday, or it could be next week. But they seem to think that it will be in the next week or two, for this Doppler to do this over 2/3 days or could be soon.

Well, Monday night was also a bit of fun for Aunty Lorna and I as we went to a multiple birth class, and whilst we dodged the fire that was out this way, were worried for the families that it was effecting, off we went to the hospital again. Let’s just say Aunty Lorna learnt a lot about birthing and breast feeding that night. Wish Rohan was there as they got out the pregnant belly and one of the partners put it on for half the course and if Rohan was there I would have been putting his hand up to do it for sure. Only problem was it was only a singleton belly not a multiple belly. But the pictures would of been priceless :o) It was a good course, but a lot of it was repeated from the courses that we did a couple of weeks back and a lot of research that we have done on the internet, but one thing for sure is that there is going to be a lot of twins born in the next couple of months at King Eddy. There was round 9 couples there all over 30 weeks, even the two that were at the courses earlier in the year.

Well time to head off and put this belly to rest, if the kids settle down. I don’t think it has anything to do with the chocolate that I just ate. (Kylie – they are going down a treat!!!) If we have time I will do one next Sunday, if not then it will be from the flip side of pregnancy and onto parenthood.

Thank you also to everyone for the well wishes and love, we really do appreciate it and if you send an email and I don’t reply, it isn’t that I don’t read it, I do, it is just I cannot email on my phone and my internet is limited with pre-paid. I take everything you type to heart and is saying a big thank you from all of us!

Lot of love Bobbi-Jo, Rohan and the Ninjas

xoxoxoxo

Twelveth Update – Wise/Williams Twins – 2nd February 2014

Posted on by bjwilliams2014

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 3rd 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

Eleventh Update – Wise/Williams Twins – 20th January 2014

Posted on by bjwilliams2014

27 Weeks

I have returned home for the next 5 days, to get everything all in order before finally relocating to Perth and being ready for these bubs to come. I have been feeling very stretched and pulled and like I have a defence team going on in my belly with arm bars and knees poking each and every way. The ninjas have really stepped up their game this week and are really moving round. I saw a post of Facebook or somewhere that unborn children sleep 90% of the time that they are in the womb – I think our two forgot that memo and just do what they want.

Rohan made it a bit of fun going into Friday when we went through for the scan and all we could see was Doctor round and Prof Jan was nowhere to be seen or that her name was not on the board next to the door, so I went off to do my tests that I do every time I come in and when I returned, Rohan was shaking his head. To me, this meant that we had to deal with Doctor for the scan and it was a bit of a bummer going into the room. Then it was like the heaven lights shone upon us (well the lights in the room were all on, which was something different, usually they are all off) and there was the Professor and this gave me the instant reaction of giving Rohan a little punch to the ribs, for teasing me like that. But I could see where he was coming at firstly. So onto the scans and the measurements that was done.

In the red corner – weighing in at a massive 923gm, (that is a 242 gram weight gain in the last two weeks) and a heart beat of 151 bpm is Twin 1. This little fighter will be a trouble maker as no other measurements could be made, due to position and also it having ADHD or something because it would not settle down. Even with the Prof poking my belly did not help it at all, I suppose it didn’t help that I kept on laughing when Prof was doing it, it was the Prof was slapping its hand and saying stop that now! The only thing that came up was a spot on the heart that showed that a little bit of non oxygenated blood was going backwards which meant a leaky valve, but the Prof doesn’t seem all that concerned about it at this point as these things do have a way of fixing itself. We are still also confused on whether this was the twin that had the problems in the first place also.

In the blue corner – weighing in at (drumroll please) 601gms (The ninja made it – it was a surprise but it made it! 156 gram weight gain!) and heart beat 147 bpm. All the Dopplers and other measurements for this one were fine, the Prof was very happy with its progress and were it had come from.

So this Friday sees the magical 28 week mark and these little ninjas may be born any time after that. We are still hoping to get to the 30 week mark but fingers cross we can make it further! I will also be having steroid injections Friday and 24 hours afterwards to help their organs mature, so if the time comes earlier then they are in with a fighting chance.  I am just hoping that no facial hair or chest hair starts popping up on me then I will be giving Rohan a run for his money

Well, I think that is all I need to put in there, for the people that have been asking, here is a belly shot I took this morning. Thank you also to the people with the encouraging words of wisdom with the C-section and I will be keeping them all in my mind when it comes to it. Also Joan, I will be awake for C-section and Rohan will be right there also holding my hand. But I think they still do put mums to sleep if it is more serious or complicated.

Til next week…..

27 weeks

Lot of love Bobbi-Jo, Rohan and the Ninjas

xoxoxoxo