"Baby B's" footprint - 30 weeks
Monday morning of week 30, Paul and I drive to our ultrasound appointment. The babies are still doing great and continue to grow beyond their benchmarks. Each baby is a little over 3 ½ pounds, which is still about ½ pound above a “normal” singleton pregnancy and way over the benchmark for twins. Above is a cute picture, again in 3-D (which Paul and I have decided we still don’t like), of “Baby B’s” foot (the face ones didn’t come out too well. “A” looks like she has a black eye and “B’s” cord is in front of her face which makes her look like she’s got a huge lower lip. Perhaps they’ve been duking it out while the cameras are off?!). All functions look good and things are great. I asked them to check on my cervix as the last week and a half or so, I’ve been feeling that my contractions may be more than normal and I want to make sure there are no signs of pre-term labor. Good thing I asked…
The perinatologist (doctor who specializes in high-risk or troubled pregnancies) comes in after the ultrasound to say that he’s already paged my OB doctor and that they want to keep me for a couple more tests. The ultrasound shows that my cervix has shortened from 3 cm to 1 ½ cm in the few weeks between appointments. The good news, he says, is that when they put pressure on my uterus, it doesn’t shorten further. However, it looks as though I’ve been having pre-term contractions mixed in with my Braxton-Hicks. He says that, although they can handle the birth of these babies now, it’s very stressful on everyone and he hopes with managing my activities, he can keep them in at least 2 weeks longer, or his goal, 4 weeks more. The rest above that, he says is “gravy.” Wow! Not what Paul and I were expecting.
After meeting with my doctor’s colleague, I’m told to check into OB emergency at the hospital for some tests and monitoring. They want to measure the number and severity of my contractions as well as watch the babies’ heart beats. They put an elastic “girdle” around my belly and stick 3 sensors under it – one for each baby to measure their heart rates and the other to measure contractions. They will watch for an hour total. After about ½ hour, the nurse comes in and says that it looks like I have an irritable uterus (which she says is common for twins) and more contractions than what she’d like to see. After talking to my OB doctor, she gives me a shot of a drug called terbutaline which, although is supposed to make my heart race and make me feel jittery - like I've drunk 2 cups of coffee, is supposed to calm down my uterus and lessen contractions. She says that if the drug is effective on me, I will probably only have to be on bed-rest at home. If it’s not, I’ll be checked into the hospital right away. Oh, gosh! I hope it works.
Fortunately, my body liked the terbutaline and my contractions go down. I can go home as long as I continue taking the drug every 4 hours around the clock. I have to go in tomorrow for another test, called fetal fibronectin, which will try to determine, based on proteins in the birth canal, the likelihood I’ll give birth within the next 2 weeks. If no proteins are present, it means I’ll have a 99% chance of not giving birth within 2 weeks (5 weeks early for twins and 8 weeks before their June due date). If the proteins are present, I have a 25% of birthing within 2 weeks. We are, of course, hoping for a negative result which would decrease my chances of having to go to the hospital or stay on strict bed-rest. We should get the results on Wednesday.
