My Last and Final appt with Dr Veille was today. Thank goodness. I went in there really taking his opinion with a grain of salt. I cannot help but get skeptical when his ultrasound takes 15 min vs UCSF's 2 hr ultrasound that measures all the same things. I can see that he did not measure things he said were "fine." I asked if the DVP was good and he said yes but I never saw the sonographer measure it. I just luckily can see for myself that there is fluid in both babies sacs and that they have good looking size bladders. This tells me that they have fluid even without the Dr. measuring. However, I still think he should be more thorough. The office received a new ultrasound machine and the sonographer was having a difficult time trying to figure out how to use it. This made the ultrasound appt longer than usual. Half way through the appt I hear Dr. Veille say to the sonographer "the next pt is here" REALLY???? How unprofessional. She can friggin wait until my appt is complete. That really ticked me off. He also seemed genuinely concerned about my BP when I said it had been as high as 160/101. My shins are pretty swollen too. I had told him we were having a C- section this Friday. He said "well I am going to call Dr. Juhn about your BP." I informed him it was only that high once and it has since come down with the Nifedipene I am taking. He was still concerned and said "well I really think I need to call Dr. Juhn and you should be delivered this week. I said "well I told you about 10 minutes ago I have a C-section scheduled for THIS Friday." He replied "oh, OK good, you should be good till this friday then." I'm like seriously??? He is so confusing. He seemed like he wanted me to walk myself to L&D and deliver right now and then a second later he seemed like oh, you are fine. I am at a loss for words about that man. Another weird thing was when I was about to leave he said "If you are interested call the office after the girls are born next week because I am working on a project with my wife and I would like to take pictures of your girls for a photography project." ummm WEIRD. At first I thought he was going to come to the hospital and do it which I wouldn't be opposed to if it was for research but when he said his wife was involved and it was out of the office I thought it was a little weird. needless to say I don't think we will be doing that.
Sorry for the Debbie Downer I am when it comes to Dr. Veille. I really should just be happy that we got great news and that the girls are doing great. The Doppler's look good, bladders are good, fluid looks present as far as I can tell. HR looks and sounds good and is reaffirmed by my NST's. Also, we have some big babies for Twins which I am thrilled about. Baby A appears to be 7 lbs 2 oz and Baby B is 6 lbs 3 ozs. Which is almost 13 1/2 lbs of baby!!!!! HOLY MOLY. Cannot get much better than that. So, I just need to keep them in for a few more days. I am excited but nervous and apprehensive at the same time. I am ready to meet my miracle babes but they are still going to be 1 month early and I worry about their respiratory status. I pray they can breath on their own and will spend little to no NICU time. I am worried about how Cole will adjust so I had a sibling kit put together for him by my mom that is a gift from his sisters when he comes to visit in the hospital. It is a Thomas backpack with some coloring books, crayons, tractors, cars, etc. for some entertainment and so he feels special as well.
I am not sure I will be doing anything for my favorite Holiday tomorrow. I was going to try to sit in a chair and watch fireworks in my moms court but I may have to skip out and stay in bed to keep my BP down. I don't have a BP cuff to take my BP so I get nervous it may be high from all the piccolo petes I hate so much. lol. I really want to see Cole's face when all the fireworks are going off. That's what makes Holidays so much more fun when you have kids. Seeing it through their eyes makes it that much more special. Ill play it by ear and see how I am feeling.
One last NST on Thurday and my C- section is scheduled for Friday July 6, 2012 at 7:30 am. I have to be at the hospital at 5:30am. No eating or drinking after 11:30 pm. It cannot come soon enough. I am ready to get off this couch and start being able to be mom again.
Hope all is well with everyone and have a safe and sane 4th of July.....
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Our amateur maternity photo with I phone :)
this of Cole and thought we needed one of the girls as well.
The 34th Week events with L&D stay
It never fails that being pregnant with twins at 2 weeks before delivery that your doctor has to go out of the country for a week right?? And during that week what are the odds that something will make you need to be seen or visit L&D? 100% for this girl! I saw Dr. Juhn and things were ok but she informed me that she would be in Korea until this Friday June 29. She told me to be good and that I better be pregnant when she gets back. Ha!! I said I would do my best but the girls may have other plans.
It seems as though every time I go to an NST I plan for not coming home afterwards. My BP is always high and this results in a call to the on call doc. Dr. Juhn did warn me that any other physician will be concerned about me if I go in the week she is gone and my BP is high. Luckily my nurse who does my NST is usually always the same. We both know that my initial BP will be high and that if we wait a few minutes and I tilt to my left side that it will come down. So we just wait and then she can let the doc know it was initially high but it has come down and this is normal for me. Since I have had a few 24 hour urine tests and quite a bit of PIH bloodwork (pregnancy induced hypertension) that they seem to be okay with sending me home.
On Sunday night however, my contractions decided to pick up in intensity and frequency. I was having about 6-8 per hour and they were rather strong. Not painful but my medication didn't seem to be affecting my contractions anymore. I was taking it every 6 hours but I was told by my Dr. I could take it as often as every 4 hours. I started to do this and it was not working so we thought I should go in. Sure enough I was having more contractions than even I could feel. My BP was high (shocker I know) Dr. Scates who was on call came in and talked to me and said he wanted to check me because of how many contractions I was having. I was surprised to find out I was dilated to 2 already. Surprised because 3 days earlier on my US my cervix was long, thick, and closed. Needless to say I was admitted because they thought I was going into labor. They had the NICU team come and talk to me because if I was in labor the twins would have to go to NICU because they would be delivered prior to 35 weeks. All babies < 5lbs or <35 weeks gestation must go to NICU for observation at least. This of course scared the crap out of me as I was not anticipating delivery this day. In turn, my BP was High due to this event. They gave me more Nifedipene and kept me on a consistent every 4 hour regimen. They also gave me 3 liters of fluid which in turn made me swell up like a wood tick. It has been 4 days since I was discharged and I still am more swollen than when I arrived Sunday night. They actually did not want me to leave but really they were doing the same things I could do at home with the Nifedipene and monitoring my BP. I probably slept 3 hours that night and I was incredibly uncomfortable. So I thought if I went home and slept I would feel a lot better. My contractions had slowed considerably. I think the nurse talked the Dr. into letting me come home because she said I was pretty in tune to my body and she felt confident I would know when to return. She said most of their patients don't quite know when they should come in and be seen and this results in either Pts coming in too late or when they do not need to.
Since my Discharge I have had 1 NST and 1 Dr. appt. My NST was surprisingly uneventful and was super duper quick. I was in and out in 45 min. Record time for me. The girls stayed on the monitor and both had 2 accels in the 20 min period. My BP was initially high but we used our method I discussed before and it worked well. So I was off to home in no time at all.
I was supposed to see Dr. Scates on Wednesday as Dr. Juhn is out of the country. However, he was out (not surprisingly) delivering a baby when I showed up for my appt. He apparently tries to be at all his pts. deliveries even though it really inconveniences his pre natal pts. I was able to see Dr. Khwong and she was great. She actually has Mono -di twins herself so she was on the up n up. She also seems to have read my chart before she came into the room because she already knew about my stint in L&D. This made me happy and impressed. This appt ended up being long because my BP was (you guessed it ) high. So I had to sit for 3 repeat blood pressures every 10 minutes to be sure it came down. It did but not much. I finally told her assistant "Thats about as good as you are going to get" and she then told Dr. Khwong and she said I could go.
That brings us to today.....So far things are uneventful at home and my symptoms that would signal a trip to L&D have subsided or have not showed up yet. Im hoping we can make it another week. I am so amazed we have made it this far and I know we are in a good place if delivery is today but as they say...1 extra day inside of me is 3 days less in NICU if need be. So, 1 week of pregnancy could prevent 21 days in NICU potentially. I just sit and try to pass the time. I am trying to enjoy my last few days of peace and quiet but the anticipation is getting to me. We will see how my NST goes tomorrow. I have a pre-op appt on Monday for my C-section. I see the perinatologist on Tuesday as part of my last 2 week growth check. Wednesday is the 4th, Thursday is my last NST and Friday is BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
It seems as though every time I go to an NST I plan for not coming home afterwards. My BP is always high and this results in a call to the on call doc. Dr. Juhn did warn me that any other physician will be concerned about me if I go in the week she is gone and my BP is high. Luckily my nurse who does my NST is usually always the same. We both know that my initial BP will be high and that if we wait a few minutes and I tilt to my left side that it will come down. So we just wait and then she can let the doc know it was initially high but it has come down and this is normal for me. Since I have had a few 24 hour urine tests and quite a bit of PIH bloodwork (pregnancy induced hypertension) that they seem to be okay with sending me home.
On Sunday night however, my contractions decided to pick up in intensity and frequency. I was having about 6-8 per hour and they were rather strong. Not painful but my medication didn't seem to be affecting my contractions anymore. I was taking it every 6 hours but I was told by my Dr. I could take it as often as every 4 hours. I started to do this and it was not working so we thought I should go in. Sure enough I was having more contractions than even I could feel. My BP was high (shocker I know) Dr. Scates who was on call came in and talked to me and said he wanted to check me because of how many contractions I was having. I was surprised to find out I was dilated to 2 already. Surprised because 3 days earlier on my US my cervix was long, thick, and closed. Needless to say I was admitted because they thought I was going into labor. They had the NICU team come and talk to me because if I was in labor the twins would have to go to NICU because they would be delivered prior to 35 weeks. All babies < 5lbs or <35 weeks gestation must go to NICU for observation at least. This of course scared the crap out of me as I was not anticipating delivery this day. In turn, my BP was High due to this event. They gave me more Nifedipene and kept me on a consistent every 4 hour regimen. They also gave me 3 liters of fluid which in turn made me swell up like a wood tick. It has been 4 days since I was discharged and I still am more swollen than when I arrived Sunday night. They actually did not want me to leave but really they were doing the same things I could do at home with the Nifedipene and monitoring my BP. I probably slept 3 hours that night and I was incredibly uncomfortable. So I thought if I went home and slept I would feel a lot better. My contractions had slowed considerably. I think the nurse talked the Dr. into letting me come home because she said I was pretty in tune to my body and she felt confident I would know when to return. She said most of their patients don't quite know when they should come in and be seen and this results in either Pts coming in too late or when they do not need to.
Since my Discharge I have had 1 NST and 1 Dr. appt. My NST was surprisingly uneventful and was super duper quick. I was in and out in 45 min. Record time for me. The girls stayed on the monitor and both had 2 accels in the 20 min period. My BP was initially high but we used our method I discussed before and it worked well. So I was off to home in no time at all.
I was supposed to see Dr. Scates on Wednesday as Dr. Juhn is out of the country. However, he was out (not surprisingly) delivering a baby when I showed up for my appt. He apparently tries to be at all his pts. deliveries even though it really inconveniences his pre natal pts. I was able to see Dr. Khwong and she was great. She actually has Mono -di twins herself so she was on the up n up. She also seems to have read my chart before she came into the room because she already knew about my stint in L&D. This made me happy and impressed. This appt ended up being long because my BP was (you guessed it ) high. So I had to sit for 3 repeat blood pressures every 10 minutes to be sure it came down. It did but not much. I finally told her assistant "Thats about as good as you are going to get" and she then told Dr. Khwong and she said I could go.
That brings us to today.....So far things are uneventful at home and my symptoms that would signal a trip to L&D have subsided or have not showed up yet. Im hoping we can make it another week. I am so amazed we have made it this far and I know we are in a good place if delivery is today but as they say...1 extra day inside of me is 3 days less in NICU if need be. So, 1 week of pregnancy could prevent 21 days in NICU potentially. I just sit and try to pass the time. I am trying to enjoy my last few days of peace and quiet but the anticipation is getting to me. We will see how my NST goes tomorrow. I have a pre-op appt on Monday for my C-section. I see the perinatologist on Tuesday as part of my last 2 week growth check. Wednesday is the 4th, Thursday is my last NST and Friday is BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
33 weeks 6 days and our final UCSF trip
We made it through our last trip down to UCSF. It has gotten much more difficult to travel down there at this point in my pregnancy. I set myself up in the way back of our car with the seat in front of me folded down so that I can put my feet up and hopefully not swell too much. This tactic seemed to work well and I was pretty comfortable.
This was actually the first time out of our many visits to S.F. that we were late. We have always arrived with time to spare but today there was extra traffic in Sacramento because of a mattress that flew off someones car and caused 7 cars to crash. So, Scott decided to "take a short cut". Im sure you all know what that means? We got lost in a subdivision. I had to pull out the GPS and get us back to the freeway. I realized about 9:30 when we hadn't quite yet crossed the bay bridge that we were not going to make our 10 am appt. I called and they said no problem. Luckily, they were running behind and it was not an issue that we were late. We only ended up about 15-20 min late so not bad at all. I would have been pretty upset if they had to reschedule after traveling all the way down there. As always, they seem to come through.
Our girls were giving the sonographer a run for her money and making life a little difficult to get all the measurements. The sonographer even told us that she wanted to cry because she was having such a hard time getting the measurements. I felt really bad that she was having such a difficult time. At least she skipped the measurements she was unable to get instead of just "guessing" like our sacramento sonographer seems to do. She went and consulted with the radiologist and came back to try again. This time they were more cooperative but I think she earned her salary that morning.
We then needed to wait for Dr. Rand to arrive at 1:00 so we went to lunch and enjoyed a burrito at the taqueria near the fetal treatment center. They have yummy burritos!! We then met with the staff and Dr. Rand who basically told us everything looked great. Of course I was thrilled to hear this and I was thinking things were ok as well but I felt I needed to hear from them to really put my mind at ease. I actually feel a little selfish even asking them to see me because I know most of their patients are in much worst places than I am but I feel with how tumoltuous everything has been that I must get their blessing to move forward and lower my stress level. If it even helps keep my BP down for one more week it will have been worth it. I also think they like to have the "success" stories come through because I assume they deal with a lot of doom and gloom situations, so to see a family really graduate and have healthy babies makes what they do worth it. I am trying to figure out how to thank them for the immense emotional, physical, and psychological support they have been throughout this process. Im not sure what will be good enough to cover all that. A basket of fruit or cookies doesn't seem to do justice for what they have given me. They have wonderful baskets of wines as well but can you send wine to a hospital for doctors? I don't even know if they drink? Ill have to think a bit more and send them pics of the girls along with a special gift I have yet to determine.
So we left with a huge sigh of relief and a smile on my face. Scott even said how much happier I seem when we leave S.F vs. Sacramento perinatology. The babies are 6 pounds 2 ounces and 4 lbs 14 ounces as of Thursday June 21, 2012. So if we can make it to July 6 we may have 6 and 7 lb babies. woo hoo!!!! Im not sure if I can fit that with how little room I feel I have left but I welcome it for the girls health :)
So I continue my NST twice a week and seeing my Dr. once a week until the big day......
This was actually the first time out of our many visits to S.F. that we were late. We have always arrived with time to spare but today there was extra traffic in Sacramento because of a mattress that flew off someones car and caused 7 cars to crash. So, Scott decided to "take a short cut". Im sure you all know what that means? We got lost in a subdivision. I had to pull out the GPS and get us back to the freeway. I realized about 9:30 when we hadn't quite yet crossed the bay bridge that we were not going to make our 10 am appt. I called and they said no problem. Luckily, they were running behind and it was not an issue that we were late. We only ended up about 15-20 min late so not bad at all. I would have been pretty upset if they had to reschedule after traveling all the way down there. As always, they seem to come through.
Our girls were giving the sonographer a run for her money and making life a little difficult to get all the measurements. The sonographer even told us that she wanted to cry because she was having such a hard time getting the measurements. I felt really bad that she was having such a difficult time. At least she skipped the measurements she was unable to get instead of just "guessing" like our sacramento sonographer seems to do. She went and consulted with the radiologist and came back to try again. This time they were more cooperative but I think she earned her salary that morning.
We then needed to wait for Dr. Rand to arrive at 1:00 so we went to lunch and enjoyed a burrito at the taqueria near the fetal treatment center. They have yummy burritos!! We then met with the staff and Dr. Rand who basically told us everything looked great. Of course I was thrilled to hear this and I was thinking things were ok as well but I felt I needed to hear from them to really put my mind at ease. I actually feel a little selfish even asking them to see me because I know most of their patients are in much worst places than I am but I feel with how tumoltuous everything has been that I must get their blessing to move forward and lower my stress level. If it even helps keep my BP down for one more week it will have been worth it. I also think they like to have the "success" stories come through because I assume they deal with a lot of doom and gloom situations, so to see a family really graduate and have healthy babies makes what they do worth it. I am trying to figure out how to thank them for the immense emotional, physical, and psychological support they have been throughout this process. Im not sure what will be good enough to cover all that. A basket of fruit or cookies doesn't seem to do justice for what they have given me. They have wonderful baskets of wines as well but can you send wine to a hospital for doctors? I don't even know if they drink? Ill have to think a bit more and send them pics of the girls along with a special gift I have yet to determine.
So we left with a huge sigh of relief and a smile on my face. Scott even said how much happier I seem when we leave S.F vs. Sacramento perinatology. The babies are 6 pounds 2 ounces and 4 lbs 14 ounces as of Thursday June 21, 2012. So if we can make it to July 6 we may have 6 and 7 lb babies. woo hoo!!!! Im not sure if I can fit that with how little room I feel I have left but I welcome it for the girls health :)
So I continue my NST twice a week and seeing my Dr. once a week until the big day......
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
33 weeks 5 days
Just a quick update on my weekly check up from today. I received the c-section packet with my surgery scheduled for July 6,2012 @ 7:30 am with a 5:30 am check in time. CRAZY!! Seems so surreal. I can't believe it is almost here.
I also got the results of my bloodwork and 24 hr urine test which was done because my BP has been high. It seems I have mild pre-eclampsia. I have high protein but my liver enzymes and kidney function look great. So my doctor feels that if I really stick to bed rest I can push through 2 more weeks. My doctor is going out of the country next week and she really pushed the fact that I do strict bed rest because if I go to the doctor and my BP is high then another doctor may see that and want to admit me or deliver me. I don't want that. Every NST I go to I always have high BP the first time they take it and then after I relax and rest it always goes down to the normal range. So hopefully we can make it to my scheduled c-sec and my DR. will be here.
We talked to UCSF and decided for peace of mind that we will travel down there tomorrow. This will give us a little more accurate assessment of how the girls are doing growth wise because I know they will thoroughly and accurately measure them more precisely than the perinatal doctor we see. My regular OB gave me her pager number to give to UCSF so she can get an update on how to proceed since she leaves the country the next day. I'm glad she is concerned and wants to get my status evaluated to help take care of me rather than leaving me high n dry when she goes to Korea for a week. She's been really wonderful.
We are off to UCSF in the morning and I have an NST on Friday. Hopefully next week I can get through my 2 NST,s with no problems since my doc is out of town. I'll update after our appt tomorrow with UCSF.
Monday, June 18, 2012
33 weeks 3 days
I seriously want to punch my Dr. sometimes. I was really hoping to go to the perinatilogist today and get good news that made me feel confident that things were going well and then I could cancel my appt in S.F. and continue on the current path for the next 3 weeks until delivery.
It didn't exactly go that way. I am grateful however that things are going well and the girls appear to be doing fine. What bothers me is the nonchalant half assed assessment I get on ultrasound and the conflicting answers I get week to week from this particular Dr. I feel I have been around enough, learned enough, and researched enough to know when a Dr. is not being thorough on an ultrasound I have had almost weekly for 15 weeks. This first issue today was the sonographer finishing the ultrasound without doing any measurements of the babies. I said to her "umm, aren't we doing a growth check today?" She responds "not that Im aware of, I think this is just a follow up. We just did a growth check 2 weeks ago." to which I follow with "yes, we have been doing a growth check every 2 weeks for the last15 weeks." She states that she will "go find out." This makes me a bit irate because this is the second time they have done this to me and I have explained and discussed why we have been doing these check bi weekly and UCSF recommends this and they have agreed it is a good idea. So why now all of the sudden are we not doing it??? So, I wait and the Dr. walks in and he's all excited and says things are great the fluid looks good, bladders look good, and dopplers look good. All of which I am extremely happy to hear and this is great. My concern and anger of course is because of the growth check mainly because this is what is of extreme concern at this point especially for Baby B because she has such a small share of the placenta. We need to make sure she is growing to determine that life in utero should continue. This is what UCSF has told me and makes complete sense to me. Now maybe I am completely out of touch but Im obviously upset. So I explain to the Dr. that we are supposed to be doing growth checks every 2 weeks as UCSF has explained and we have discussed previously. He says, "Well we don't need to do a growth check every two week because it won't be accurate." "Its not like putting a baby on a scale and weighing them." "Its variable up to 10% both ways." Are you F'in kidding me????? So, why in world have we been doing it for 15 weeks then???? HMMMMM. So when we discussed this being a good idea months ago you were lying to me??? I didn't phrase my next question exactly this way but I said " So why exactly is it inaccurate if we have been doing it this way? Are the babies too big to get as accurate as in the past?" He says "ya"but Ill do it anyway." Meaning he do the growth check for me. With no other explanation or further explanation. I really just feel at this point he's making things up to appease me. I know I am not a Dr. or have near the expertise that he does but if you feel strongly we don't need a growth check EXPLAIN it to me so I understand because you have been telling me for months as does UCSF that we do indeed need it???
So, He does the growth check begrudgingly it seems and measures the babies heads and leg bones. He says that Baby A is 5lbs and Baby B is 4 lbs 13 ozs. So Now I get concerned because Baby A was 5 lbs 3 oz 2 weeks ago. So, does this mean she is not growing? Baby B on the other hand has grown 10 ozs which is good. The thing that upsets me about this is that in S.F. and at other growth checks here in Roseville you measure head, abdomen, leg, and arm to get an accurate measurement of size. He half -assed it and just did head and leg??? So, to me this seems not as accurate. Had he measured all maybe Baby A would be a bit bigger? Just a theory. I just feel completely brushed off and unimportant to this practice. Maybe I am overly worried or we are asking too much but if this is the case they are not explaining to me WHY my concerns are invalid. They just say "ok we we will just do it."I'm all for not needing unnecessary procedures and exams if you can give me a good reason for it. They just never seem to come up with a good reason.
So, at this point I am torn because although all things seem really good regardless of my concerns with the Dr.s lack of thoroughness I still am debating on traveling down to S.F. on Thursday to get a more accurate and thorough ultrasound. Obviously the girls are getting great blood flow on doppler, they have good size bladders, are moving around well, and Baby B seems to be growing. These I can all see for myself on the us. The other thing I am slightly worried about is that the fluid levels are 10cm for baby b and 8 cm for baby A. Although we have had worse and better fluid levels before I was worried that 10 CM was getting on the high side. We have had 12 cm on Baby A sack in the past and they were discussing amnio reduction and stating that she had polyhydramnios in the past. So 10cm is getting closer to that mark. The Dr. today explained to me that 10cm was perfect and that excessive fluid would be 20cm? 20? really? Not according to textbooks. Textbook is >8cm. So I just don't know what to do? Everything seems fine so going to S.F. is not necessary but it would put my mind more at ease.
Scott decided to call UCSF and see if they could take a look at my chart from today in Roseville and see how they feel about us coming down there. I would feel confident that if they read the findings from today and still felt I would do ok without traveling down there then I would feel better. I just want the experts who have been guiding me this whole time about how important growth checks were every 2 weeks to let me know Im doing ok. I would just really beat myself up if things don't go well and I didn't consult UCSF after everything I went through today.
It is very difficult to go from a point where we were monitored so closely for so long and were told that things did not look good and this would be a very difficult pregnancy etc. to now where we have made it this far to be told oh you are fine we will see you in a month. It just doesn't make sense to me or feel right in my heart.
We are waiting to hear back from S.F. to determine if we will travel down there on Thursday. If we do it will be our last appt in S.F. as we are planning to deliver July6, 2012 by C Section. I hope we don't have to go though.
I will continue my NST appointments 2x weekly and go see my regular OB weekly as well. Hopefully we can make it another 19 days with no issues. I am hoping to get these girls closer to 6 lbs in the next 3 weeks. My ob says if I can get them up to 5.5lbs that would be a great weight. I'd prefer bit chubbier but Healthy I will take no matter what the weight.
On a side note, Baby B who has been Breech for sometime now has flipped. So both girls are in the vertex (head down) position. Which by the way when she flipped I could tell and it was pretty painful. So I suppose they are getting prepared to enter this world and meet mom, dad, and their big brother Cole very soon. Cole will be excited to meet his sissies as he calls them.
It didn't exactly go that way. I am grateful however that things are going well and the girls appear to be doing fine. What bothers me is the nonchalant half assed assessment I get on ultrasound and the conflicting answers I get week to week from this particular Dr. I feel I have been around enough, learned enough, and researched enough to know when a Dr. is not being thorough on an ultrasound I have had almost weekly for 15 weeks. This first issue today was the sonographer finishing the ultrasound without doing any measurements of the babies. I said to her "umm, aren't we doing a growth check today?" She responds "not that Im aware of, I think this is just a follow up. We just did a growth check 2 weeks ago." to which I follow with "yes, we have been doing a growth check every 2 weeks for the last15 weeks." She states that she will "go find out." This makes me a bit irate because this is the second time they have done this to me and I have explained and discussed why we have been doing these check bi weekly and UCSF recommends this and they have agreed it is a good idea. So why now all of the sudden are we not doing it??? So, I wait and the Dr. walks in and he's all excited and says things are great the fluid looks good, bladders look good, and dopplers look good. All of which I am extremely happy to hear and this is great. My concern and anger of course is because of the growth check mainly because this is what is of extreme concern at this point especially for Baby B because she has such a small share of the placenta. We need to make sure she is growing to determine that life in utero should continue. This is what UCSF has told me and makes complete sense to me. Now maybe I am completely out of touch but Im obviously upset. So I explain to the Dr. that we are supposed to be doing growth checks every 2 weeks as UCSF has explained and we have discussed previously. He says, "Well we don't need to do a growth check every two week because it won't be accurate." "Its not like putting a baby on a scale and weighing them." "Its variable up to 10% both ways." Are you F'in kidding me????? So, why in world have we been doing it for 15 weeks then???? HMMMMM. So when we discussed this being a good idea months ago you were lying to me??? I didn't phrase my next question exactly this way but I said " So why exactly is it inaccurate if we have been doing it this way? Are the babies too big to get as accurate as in the past?" He says "ya"but Ill do it anyway." Meaning he do the growth check for me. With no other explanation or further explanation. I really just feel at this point he's making things up to appease me. I know I am not a Dr. or have near the expertise that he does but if you feel strongly we don't need a growth check EXPLAIN it to me so I understand because you have been telling me for months as does UCSF that we do indeed need it???
So, He does the growth check begrudgingly it seems and measures the babies heads and leg bones. He says that Baby A is 5lbs and Baby B is 4 lbs 13 ozs. So Now I get concerned because Baby A was 5 lbs 3 oz 2 weeks ago. So, does this mean she is not growing? Baby B on the other hand has grown 10 ozs which is good. The thing that upsets me about this is that in S.F. and at other growth checks here in Roseville you measure head, abdomen, leg, and arm to get an accurate measurement of size. He half -assed it and just did head and leg??? So, to me this seems not as accurate. Had he measured all maybe Baby A would be a bit bigger? Just a theory. I just feel completely brushed off and unimportant to this practice. Maybe I am overly worried or we are asking too much but if this is the case they are not explaining to me WHY my concerns are invalid. They just say "ok we we will just do it."I'm all for not needing unnecessary procedures and exams if you can give me a good reason for it. They just never seem to come up with a good reason.
So, at this point I am torn because although all things seem really good regardless of my concerns with the Dr.s lack of thoroughness I still am debating on traveling down to S.F. on Thursday to get a more accurate and thorough ultrasound. Obviously the girls are getting great blood flow on doppler, they have good size bladders, are moving around well, and Baby B seems to be growing. These I can all see for myself on the us. The other thing I am slightly worried about is that the fluid levels are 10cm for baby b and 8 cm for baby A. Although we have had worse and better fluid levels before I was worried that 10 CM was getting on the high side. We have had 12 cm on Baby A sack in the past and they were discussing amnio reduction and stating that she had polyhydramnios in the past. So 10cm is getting closer to that mark. The Dr. today explained to me that 10cm was perfect and that excessive fluid would be 20cm? 20? really? Not according to textbooks. Textbook is >8cm. So I just don't know what to do? Everything seems fine so going to S.F. is not necessary but it would put my mind more at ease.
Scott decided to call UCSF and see if they could take a look at my chart from today in Roseville and see how they feel about us coming down there. I would feel confident that if they read the findings from today and still felt I would do ok without traveling down there then I would feel better. I just want the experts who have been guiding me this whole time about how important growth checks were every 2 weeks to let me know Im doing ok. I would just really beat myself up if things don't go well and I didn't consult UCSF after everything I went through today.
It is very difficult to go from a point where we were monitored so closely for so long and were told that things did not look good and this would be a very difficult pregnancy etc. to now where we have made it this far to be told oh you are fine we will see you in a month. It just doesn't make sense to me or feel right in my heart.
We are waiting to hear back from S.F. to determine if we will travel down there on Thursday. If we do it will be our last appt in S.F. as we are planning to deliver July6, 2012 by C Section. I hope we don't have to go though.
I will continue my NST appointments 2x weekly and go see my regular OB weekly as well. Hopefully we can make it another 19 days with no issues. I am hoping to get these girls closer to 6 lbs in the next 3 weeks. My ob says if I can get them up to 5.5lbs that would be a great weight. I'd prefer bit chubbier but Healthy I will take no matter what the weight.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
33 weeks 2 days
19 days and counting until we meet the girls..... CRAZY!!! We have been doing our NST 2x weekly and going to the Dr. at least once a week as well. My last two NST ended up in L&D visits as well due to high BP and contractions. I am always prepared to stay for a few hours when I go for my NST's which take a mom with a singleton and no issues about 20 minutes to pass. My twins are a little sassy and never want to stay on the monitors. They are supposed to get 2 Accelerations in heart rate from resting hr 15 BPM(beats per min) for 15 Sec. Their resting HR is about 140 so they need 2 accels with a Hr of 155 for 15 sec simultaneously. So to get both babies to do this in a 20 min period is nearly impossible. And even after 2 hrs and the babies passing I always end up with several contractions and or high bp which turns into blood work and urine tests etc. I really need to learn to eat more before I go in because if I end up staying till 2pm like I do they won't let me eat. I am STARVING by the time I leave. I have to do the 24 hr urine test again. I had to do that 2 weeks or so ago and it was not fun and I am not looking forward to doing it again but I was spilling a little bit of protein in my urine last week when I was there so they want to make sure I am not getting pre eclamptic.
We have a appt tomorrow with the perinatologist to do a growth check and make sure the girls are growing. I hope they are getting big and able to join us healthy pretty soon. I can feel hiccups very often so that is good. I know they are practicing their breathing in there. I hope that after tomorrow I feel confident that the Dr. is being thorough because we have an appt in SF on Thursday that I would like to cancel if I feel we are getting good care here with the perinatologist. SF doesn't feel we need to be seen by them anymore but are more than willing if we feel we need it. I hope to be able to cancel it after our appt. tomorrow. Traveling to SF has not been a problem top until last time we were there and it was quite uncomfortable. I know I am not going to enjoy a 2 hr car ride at this point. I can't even sit in a restaurant booth for 1 hr to eat without being incredibly uncomfy.
After our appt tomorrow we have NST's Tues/Fri and an appt with my reg OB Wednesday. I am pretty much at the Dr. or hospital everyday next week. Which is totally ok with me because it gives me something to do and I get reassurance the girls are doing ok.
We have been really lucky lately for some wonderful moms for PC moms of multiples for bringing our family dinner recently. I want to thank Joy, Debbie, Lacey, and Jenni for the wonderful meals. Also, Michelle form SFD and Colleen from my mommy group with Cole who have all brought us yummy food. I feel so blessed and this has been a tremendous help for not only me but the stress Scott has been under as well. Thanks to all and Ill update next week after our appt.
nn
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