The Ultrasound Reveals All (Part1)

I had planned to have my third pregnancy as low tech as possible, including skipping ultrasounds unless something did not seem right and my midwife wanted to. After Toni found that I was measuring very large for dates she recommended an ultrasound.

When I got to Dr. Rice's office she took me right back for my u/s. Brandon was running late. She put the wand to my belly and immediately we saw two heads pop up. "Well, it's twins," she said! It's hard to describe how I felt at that moment. It was actually mostly relief and excitement. ONLY twins... How hard could that be? Brandon came in just then and saw the two babies on the u/s and smiled! He seemed nervous. Dr. Rice said she thought there were two sacs and two placentas indicating fraternal twins and I was quite relieved. I was an avid birth junkie and knew all about TTTS and how scary it could be. If twins develop TTTS there is an uneven flow of blood through their shared blood vessels (in the placenta) that can kill both of them. Only identical twins who share a placenta can develop this complication.

To be sure the babies were ok (we did not want to know the sex) Dr. Rice recommended we get a more detailed ultrasound at another location.

I asked Dr. Rice if she delivered twins and found out she didn't. I already knew Toni didn't usually so I was going to have to transfer care to an OB. When we left the office that day we had a wonderfully exciting time telling everyone in our family. Everyone was so happy! Many had suspected as much from seeing how big I already was!

Our first look at the babies

Links to the detailed story:

Ultrasound reveals all (Part 1)
High risk here we come (Part 2)
Houston Perinatal Consultants (Part 3)
Texas Fetal Center (Part 4)
The Final Stretch (Part 5)
Jesse and Max's Birth Story (Part 6)

July 2012

Ok here's how it all went down...

After we had our two dear sweet children my husband and I were still deciding if we wanted more children.  We knew if we had more children it would probably mean buying a larger vehicle and a larger house.  I wanted more children in my heart but my head said I wasn't a good idea right now.

I pondered over it for months and had finally made peace with this decision in my heart. We would not have any more children or if finances were favorable have two more 5+ yrs down the road.  I was watching a friend's young baby at my home during they day so it made sense that I would be able to enjoy a little baby and be able to help out in this way for at least until she could go to school and I didn't need to keep her anymore. I was also nursing Ehren day and night and he showed no signs of being ready to wean.

A couple of weeks later at the end of June I was going to take out the trash and I caught a whiff of pizza box smell and it made me feel sick to my stomach. It was the same feeling I remembered from my previous pregnancies.  I knew something was wrong.

I decided that maybe I was just having another health issue because I had not missed a period. I was tired and sick to my stomach so I was thinking it must be the flu. I bought a pregnancy test just to rule out pregnancy before going to the doctor. It turned POSITIVE immediately.  That took me by surprise.  How could I be THAT pregnant?  I consulted my chart (we were using NFP) and the only explanation that made sense is that my last period was really implantation bleeding and I was already 7 weeks pregnant.

Telling Brandon

For each of my other children's births Brandon wore a Superman tee shirt.  I ordered him a new  Superman tee shirt and coincidentally when the shirt came in the mail it seemed a bit small so I picked up an additional shirt at the store. When I gave it to him the shirts I told him he would need it!   When I told Brandon he was surprised but very happy!  I think the kids drive him nuts sometimes but he is proud to be a daddy all the same.

Brandon and Lily 2008

Brandon and Ehren 2010

Preparing

I knew right away for this birth I wanted to have a waterbirth at home.  I had wanted a waterbirth with Ehren but didn't like my bathtub when the big day came.  I was going to splurge with this baby and buy the big fancy birth pool with the handles.  I was going to have a photographer and it was going to be epic. So far I was having a rough pregnancy because I was more tired than usual and actually threw up.  I had never thrown up with my other pregnancies.  Sure I felt nauseated but not thrown up. I attributed this to the fact that I was nursing Ehren and chasing around three little children during the day. I was also losing weight and I thought it was kinda awesome and perhaps getting back into prepregnant shape wouldn't be hard this time around.

I scheduled my first appointment with Toni (my midwife) at 12 weeks.  When I got there she measured me (just for fun since its not very accurate until 20 weeks) and noticed I was measuring ahead a cm or so. She looked all around and found the heartbeat on the top left quadrant.  It was healthy and strong. I was excited to be working with Toni again.


That's ODD

My next scheduled appointment was at 16 weeks. In the meantime the baby had a big growth spurt. I didn't really think anything of it. When I got to Toni's office she took my vitals, drew some blood and went to measure me. I measured 12 cm ahead of what we expected. I was measuring like a 28 week pregnant lady would measure instead of my 16 weeks.  Toni told me she wanted me to have an ultrasound to find out what was going on in there.  We looked all over but still only found one heartbeat in the top left quadrant again. I had still not felt any kicks yet.  She told me dates might be off, I might have fibroids or extra fluid or there was more than one baby. I hoped it was only twins, because my dates were right and I was scared of the alternatives which could be serious.

Beginning of 14 weeks

End of 16 weeks

I called Dr. Rice ( a natural birth friendly Dr. In town and scheduled an ultrasound for the next week. Stay tuned for my next post... The reveal!

I'm BACK

Alright, So after almost a year hiatus I decided I should probably start updating my blog again since we won't be traveling as much because we had TWINS since the last update. I plan to fill in with a couple of stories you might find interesting that happened this past year. Here's an adorable little picture to tide you over.