Just a Little Hiccup...

Well, these girls certainly leave their mother on her toes. We ran into a little complication on Monday evening during my last monitoring session right before I went to bed. 

The heart rates of both babies dropped below a "normal" fetal heart rate, but came back up on their own probably within a minute. When the nurse came in to what I thought was to disconnect my monitors, she had informed me of what had happened and had already let the Dr. know. The Dr. wanted to monitor me an extra hour that night just to make sure it wasn't going to happen again. Well, it did, a couple of times, so he then wanted to monitor me all night long. He also wanted to give me the steroid shots that help develop the babies' lungs in case I needed to deliver earlier than expected. That was not fun, but I just had to keep those girls in the back of my head. Needless to say, I did NOT sleep very well Monday night. I suppose it was God's way of preparing me for sleepless nights with my daughters already. I did notice the rates dropping a few times as I sat and listened to them and my heart started pounding. There was one point in the night that my nurse and a couple of other nurses rushed into my room (nothing like scaring the crap out of me!) while one of the babies' heart rates was low. I am guessing they came in to adjust the doppler on me to make sure it was one of the babies' hearts and it wasn't picking mine up. It was definitely a baby.  I find it very reassuring that the nurses caught that this was happening, and I now know that I am in the hospital for a reason, and that is to keep these precious babies of mine safe.

Because of everything that happened Monday night, I was the first on the list to get my ultrasound done yesterday, which didn't bother me at all. It was a chance to finally get out of bed! As far as the ultrasound went, everything looked good. The girls were active and the blood flow throughout the umbilical cords looked great. She did notice that "Baby B's" cord (she was the one having most of the complications Monday night) came straight down out of her belly and kind of wrapped around her butt, so she wasn't sure if maybe at certain times, like when her heart rate was dropping, if she was sitting on it and compressing it making it difficult for blood to get to her heart. We did get some good pictures yesterday, though. I have been told that these are fun to look at, so here they are!

This one is neat because you can see Baby A's rib cage on the left. And Baby B is kind of sucking on her wrist. It almost looks like Baby A is giving her sister a hug!

This is Baby A's face. The black circle thing on the right of photo is Baby B's head, so you can imagine how cramped they are already in there!

After my ultrasound yesterday, I was able to talk to the Dr. I asked him why he thought this was happening and he told me it was most likely because of he cord entanglement. With all of the babies' movements, the knot probably tightens up and loosens, causing one or both of the babies' heart rates to drop momentarily. As a precaution, and to monitor the babies more closely, he ordered me to be stuck on the monitors ALL day yesterday. I went about 36 hours on those dang things.  BUT, by doing so, we were able to see that the babies were doing just fine, so I was finally able to get off of them this morning. Thank goodness. I'm sure the nurses were happy, too, since I could finally shower! :)

Along with being monitored all day yesterday, I was prescribed a 12 hour drip of magnesium sulfate through an IV. Magnesium is sometimes used to help reduce the stress on a baby who has a low heart.  It is also used to help develop the brain vessels in case of early delivery. Mind you, I have never really been in a hospital, except for the ER maybe a couple of times, so this IV thing was also new to me.  The nurse was trying to get all of this done and in me as quick as she could so I didn't have to get up at 2 in the morning while the night nurse was disconnecting it all, which was nice on her part.  She was mentioning all of the side effects that the magnesium could cause, which was a little scary. I have learned in my pharmacy experience, sometimes the less the patient knows about the side effects, the better. Because if they know what could happen, sometimes it gets caught up in their head and then they experience ALL of the side effects.  Luckily, I think I only experienced one. The magnesium made me extremely thirsty, as it is basically a salt. All went well with the drip and I was able to get off of it last night around midnight. I also had to get my second dose of steroids last night, so I should be all set with that.

Just remember, it's all for the babies! I'm sure all of this is nothing compared to what motherhood is about to bring me! :)

Today's Update
Last night went much smoother and the babies behaved. I'm sure it had nothing to do with my scolding them...but they are probably scared to come out now! :) The Dr. was satisfied with how the babies looked and let me go back to monitoring just the three times a day as I had been doing.  I am also completely off of the IV drip, so I don't even have to have that thing stuck in my hand! I am very pleased at how well my babies and myself have been taken care of this last week and a half. And I am also VERY pleased to have my walking privileges back! I can't imagine being on constant bedrest, so these girls better not do anything like this again!! Or else! :)

Pool Therapy
On a side note, I had mentioned the other day that I was able to participate in some pool therapy. This was really nice to get out of the room and to socialize a little bit with the other Mono-Mono mom. Unfortunately (for me, not for her) she is set to deliver her babies on Saturday, so this will be the only week I will get to do this with her. I had imagined it as more of an aquacise class, but it was very less evasive than that. First of all, when I walked into the pool, I was amazed with how light my belly felt. I don't really feel that it is heavy when I'm not in the water, but it was pretty neat to feel it kind of float up. It was also really nice to be able to stretch in the pool in ways I know I would not be able to do outside of the water.

Please continue to pray for these little ones, as I am convinced that is what turned everything around so quickly. Thanks again for all of your support!

Just a little peek from the ultrasound today. It about makes me cry seeing how perfect she already looks! :)