A little back information: on Monday, May 6th I was put on modified bed rest, due to a shortened cervix (no work, don't do much around the house in terms of cleaning, just take it easy) I don't do well with resting! And I really don't do well with resting when the final choir concert of the year is 2 days away. But I did it! I stayed home, I stayed on the recliner, only got up to go to the bathroom or get something to eat.
On Thursday, we went back for another ultrasound at Ahuja to check on the girls - things were still stable at Stage 1! MFM said that my cervix was also looking better, so he wanted to keep me on modified bed rest. Andy and I left the appointment very happy to have good news (or at least no bad news). We had an appointment for first thing Friday morning downtown to check on the girls (they didn't want to wait until Monday.
And that brings us up to date to the 24 hours I'm talking about.
We arrive Friday morning and get taken back right away for our ultrasound (8:30) The tech quickly got all of the measurements they look for on the girls and things seemed to stay stable! When the MFM came in to talk to us she confirmed that the girls were stable at Stage 1, but that she didn't like the way my cervix looked. She wanted me to see another MFM right away to check for signs of pre term labor.
Back out to the waiting room to wait for Dr. Hackney (the MFM up in Madonalds Women's Hospital). Soon, we were called back. We talked with him and found out that I had dilated to 5cm (I was 1 cm on Monday) and that one of the baby's membranes (amniotic sac) was bulging. Obviously, we knew this wasn't good because it meant that my water could break soon.
While there aren't many things left to do to help me and the babies, Dr. Hackney suggested that we do an amniotic fluid reduction of Baby B (our recipient in TTTS) in hopes that taking out fluid would reduce some of the pressure on my cervix. (Dr. also said that this could help us with the TTTS. Amnio reductions were the only option for treating TTTS before laser surgery became available.
Knowing this was our only option (besides sit and wait...) we went forward with the amnio reduction.
Now, I don't mind needles (every time I give blood I WATCH them throughout the whole process!) but I knew this needle would be very, very longggggg. So that, paired with the fact that I would be laying on my back so they could monitor via ultrasound the whole time (and I don't do well with ultrasounds that last longer than 10-15 minutes) and the procedure would take 15-30 minutes, I decided it would be best to keep my eyes closed and simply focus on my breathing!
It was a really strange feeling, first the prick or poke of the needle but then the sort of pressure that never went away. Sometimes, when I was feeling up for it, I'd look over at the ultrasound monitor. Also a strange feeling to SEE a needle on the screen and then to see curious baby girl start moving her hands toward it! (Dr. Hackney had already warned us that the baby may do that, but it won't cause her any harm.) And if I wasn't watching the screen, I was keeping my eyes closed, singing through songs in my head to take my mind off of everything.
The procedure went very well (they took out a good 1.5 liters of fluid!) and wanted me to stay in Labor & Delivery for a few hours to monitor contractions. Because so much fluid was removed, it's natural for contractions to happen. We got checked in to Labor & Delivery (L&D) around 1-1:30pm. The put the contraction monitor on and told us the plan was to keep us there for a few hours, and as soon as the contractions stopped/decreased, they would move us up to Floor 6 (High Risk OB/Antepartum Unit) to be monitored until at least Saturday, with the thought of being sent home if all was well.
While my contractions weren't painful, they were a lot of pressure and they were happening pretty steadily in the beginning. They did begin to slow down eventually, but not enough that they wanted to send us to Floor 6, so we were spending the night in L&D.
Things were going OK, we both finally had dinner and were settling in for the evening when I felt like my water broke. It wasn't a gush of fluid, more like a trickle, but enough to know that something was different. I quickly called the nurse, who then called a Dr. who confirmed that one of the membranes had ruptured. Dr. said an ultrasound would be done soon to figure out which baby's water it was.
Soon the ultrasound technician came. After finding heartbeats on all babies she said she believed it was Baby A. Though, a few minutes later she came back in saying that she thought it was Baby A because Baby A had the smaller amount of fluid. Then she realized that Baby A has always had the smaller amount of fluid.
By this time, it was going on 10pm, I had barely gotten any sleep the night before and was exhausted, yet couldn't get comfortable/fall asleep. With every contraction, I was worried! We both slept on and off throughout the night. With a nurse checking on you every hour and hearing hustle and bustle outside, it wasn't a very restful night's sleep, but it was sleep.
On Saturday morning, when the doctors were making their rounds, we had a long talk with Dr. Hackney about the possible outcomes. At this point, our greatest concern is infection. Should an infection set in, they would have to induce labor. I currently wasn't showing any signs of infection and my contractions had slowed way down, so we were moved to the 6th floor (High Risk OB/Antepartum Unit). We were basically told we sit and wait.
So, we sit and wait...
And we pray...
Give me the strength for the fight and a heart to believe
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