Weeks Two through Four

Weeks two and three have been pretty boring (which is a very good thing).  I go on monitors daily to check on how the babies are doing.  They have both looked great everyday.  The nurses and doctors like to see variability in their heart rates, meaning their heart rates have increases for ten seconds at a time. The nurses have been very impressed with the increases they have shown between the 25 and 27 week mark.  The nurses have also mentioned how hard it usually is to find both babies on the monitors and also how hard it is to keep them on the monitors, but the babies have been doing great in both aspects and have really surprised the nurses!

I have also been on ibuprofen every six hours to help calm down my uterus and to help prevent contractions. Ibuprofen can mess with the fluid levels for the babies, so I have been getting weekly ultrasounds to monitor this.  If they were to notice the fluid levels decreasing, they would take me off the ibuprofen, but so far the fluid levels have been great!  At each ultrasound they were also doing a cervix check.  The 25 week cervix check showed no change from the week before, but during the 26 week check they saw a slight difference so they wanted to check to see if I had dilated.  To my surprise, I had dilated to a 3cm.  They weren't too concerned about me going into labor, so they just wanted me to keep track of contractions and let them know if they got more intense or more frequent. I was checked for dilation two more times over the next two weeks and there was no change!  At this point, I just have to let them know if I feel any different or if my contractions change otherwise they are going to assume nothing has changed.

On Monday, December 2nd we had a formal ultrasound to measure the babies growth.  Baby A is 2lbs 4oz and considered in the 45th percentile for that gestational age and Baby B is 2lbs 10oz and considered in the 67th percentile.  This is great news as twins tend to be a little smaller.  From the measurements they could determine that baby A has a bigger head than baby B and Baby B has a bigger abdomen than Baby A.  They told us that Baby B's abdomen is about a week ahead in growth than is what expected.  The doctors seemed very encouraged by these measurements which definitely helps with our worries as well.

I have had a lot of visitors which helps take up some of the time here so that is very helpful.  My mom has been staying here during the week and on the weeks Dillon is not on call he has come for the weekend.  It has been difficult being here so far from home, but we know that we are in the best place possible and it is just a short amount of time in our life.  Whatever is best for our babies is what we are going to do.  We want to thank everyone for their prayers, kind words and little gifts over the last few weeks, they have given me a lot of encouragement!

This should bring us up to where we are currently at the 28 week mark!

First Week in Hospital

We checked into the hospital (UW medical clinic) on November 11th. They immediately took us to a Labor and Delivery room for further ultrasounds and cervix checks.  The babies both looked good on their ultrasound and non stress test and my cervix had not changed from earlier that day so they felt that I was stable enough to move out of a delivery room to an antepartum room. We were very excited to hear this because at that point, they did not think I would go into labor right away.  They got me moved to an antepartum room,  Dillon got me all situated, and then he headed home so he could go back to work on Tuesday.

I was able to get some sleep that night and then my mom came down Tuesday morning to spend the rest of the week with me.  They took me for another ultrasound and cervix check that afternoon and determined that my cervix had now shortened to 0.4 cm.  Things got pretty scary after that.  Even though I was not having many contractions, they were concerned that I might go into labor within the next week or two so they wanted to get the first set of steroid shots in me to help develop the babies lungs should they come early.  I got back to my room and had a lot of nurses and doctors in there.  The nurses were busy getting my IV in to issue the magnesium sulfate.  The magnesium sulfate is used to help control contractions and also help prevent brain bleeds in the babies.  They got my IV in and started the magnesium and then gave me my first steroid shot.  I had been getting progesterone shots weekly so I was used to shots, but this one was definitely a lot more painful!  Once all that was taken care of, the doctors needed to go over a birth plan with me and needed me to sign C-section consent forms just in case I went in labor and they did not have time for me to sign.  The babies needed to be on monitors while I was getting the magnesium so the next day and a half  was very uncomfortable.  Wednesday afternoon the doctors came back to check on me and they felt that both the babies and myself were tolerating the magnesium very well so i was able to come off the monitoring. I was then given my second steroid shot and was able to get a good night sleep.  From there on things started to get a little quieter and I was able to get a little more settled in and into a routine.

From the Beginning

Here is a little background on how we got to where we are today. Dillon and I were married on June 24, 2011.  Shortly after we got married we found out we were pregnant with a boy!  Everything was going great up until 23 weeks and 2 days into our pregnancy when I woke up at 3:30 that morning in labor.  We got to the hospital and I was already dilated to 8 cm. At that point, we got the most devastating news that there was nothing they could do to stop the labor and we were going to have our baby boy that day. Traysen Tobias Lanksbury was born at 11:22 am weighing 1lb 9oz and 12 inches long. We got to hold him in our arms for just an hour until he was called to his forever home in heaven at 12:20.  Not a day goes by that we do not think about and miss Traysen.  He will forever be our first child.

Shortly after we lost Traysen, Dillon and I decided we wanted to try for another kid.  This time it was not as easy to get pregnant.  We struggled for about a year and a half with many many months of tears.  We were definitely losing hope and started to think about other options, but God answered our prayers on June 26th just two days after our 2nd anniversary with a positive pregnancy test!  A little scare in the beginning of our pregnancy led to an early ultrasound on July 10th when we found out we were having twins!  God is Good! Dillon and I were both shocked, but extremely excited when we saw on the ultrasound the two little blobs! We knew that my experience with preterm labor would consider us high risk, but adding twins to the equation made this an extremely high risk pregnancy.  We would soon find out that this pregnancy would be a long hard road. We had been seeing a specialist in Everett for a couple weeks and everything was looking really good until our September 19th (16 week mark) visit.  After doing a cervix check and finding that my cervix was shortening, they decided to put me on bedrest.  I had to quit my job and hang out on the couch at home. We had weekly follow up appointments in Everett and every time they would check my cervix.  Some weeks it had shortened more than others, but most of the time it held pretty stable which was very encouraging.  At my 21, 22, and 23 week appointments my cervix measured at 1.5 cm.  They told me as soon at it got below 1 cm, I would be admitted to UW.  We headed down to our 24 week appointment and as soon as they started the exam, I knew things weren't good.  The ultrasound tech and Dillon were watching the measurements and not saying anything.  I could tell that that was the day I was going to go to UW. My cervix had gone down to 0.8 cm.  The drive to UW was hard, but I knew that I was going to be in the best place possible if these babies decided to come early.  This brings us up to my stay in the hospital.