Things are coming along

We keep getting nothing but great news.  Spent several hours with the girls this morning.  We got them out of the incubators and were able to change their diapers, feed them and hold them.  Best morning I've had since Ryley was born.

The news on their conditions has been great.  Zoey is a champ.  She has been doing great since minute one.  She is up to eating 30ml at a time which given her weight is perfect.  Nikki is doing almost as well.  They had her on a breathing mask, so she hadnt been able to eat.  They took that off last night and has been breathing just fine on her own, they also got her to take 5ml of food.  When we were down with them this morning, she took another 10ml and probably would have taken more.  They are going to keep upping their intakes to get their weight up.

Ryley was brought by today and he got to hold Nikki for a little bit.  He was beyond excited, he almost exploded when she opened her eyes and looked at him.  He did really well with them, he's going to make a great big brother.

Went down again for their afternoon feeding, but we missed it.  We were happy to find out that Nikki took 35ml, which is perfect and brings her right up to pace with her sister.  We gave them another feeding a few hours later and both of the took an easy 30ml.

We also had a discussion with the discharge nurse and the girls were discussed in today's briefing.  Assuming we stay on course, the girls should going home sometime between Thursday and the following Thursday which is way better than the five weeks we were originally told.

I've got a lot of pictures to share, but I can't post more than one from my phone and that's all I've had to use the last few days.

The Big Day.

Well.... A day late, but we've been kinda busy.  Ultrasound yesterday didn't go as planned.  Baby A was measuring a healthy 4lb 15oz.  Baby B, however, had fallen into the 9th percentile, measuring at 4lb 9oz.  This is below the 10% percentile that is considered healthy.  She was also showing an elevated SD (systolic/diolic) ratio in the umbilical cord, basically its blood pressure.

Neither of those two conditions were significant enough to suggest that the babies were under any duress, but it was enough to suggest that the placenta is running out of resources to continue the pregnancy much longer.  At this stage of the game the risk of stillborn begins to go up so considering the early signs we were seeing it was time to go. 

The decision was made to move the c-section up to 10/29, today.

To say that Teri and I were a mess last night was an understatement.  Both of us pretty much just walked around like zombies trying to rush our lives into order.  We thought we were prepared, we thought wrong.  We did manage to get some sleep, but were up at 4 this morning and at the hospital at 5:30.  The whole prep experience was pretty routine.  The OR was a mad house.

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the whole procedure, amazing.  Did plenty of bs-ing with the surgeons, they had just as much of a sense of humor as I did.  I'm sure it probably wasnt a good idea to be making sex jokes when two people have their hands in your wife's uturus, but that's how I deal with stress, so whatever. 

Baby A was born first.  She came out with her lungs blazing, screaming something fierce.   I gave Teri a nod, she smiled.  She was cleaned up and put onto a table where a team of nurses stood around and observed. 

Baby B came next.  She did plenty of moving around, but the scream I was waiting for wasn't there.  She was taken to her own table where finally that beautiful scream echoed out.  It was probably only a few seconds, but it seemed like hours.  Teri got a second nod... our girls are here.

It was another 5 or so minutes before both babies were wrapped up and brought over to formally meet their parents.  Unfortunately it wasn't any more that a quick swing in to say 'hi' then 'bye'.  From there they were loaded into incubators a swept away to the NICU.

Next half hour, or however long it was, was spent stitching her up.  Then onto the recovery room.  Where we waited.....and waited.... and waited.   Over 2 hours of waiting.  2 hours of absolute Hell.  One nurse was kind enough to give us the babies weights, so we assumed everything was okay, but we had nothing to go by.  To make matters worse, they eventually wheeled two other moms into the recovery rooms, both had their babies with them.  Not to take their joy away from them, but it was torture for us to be in their hearing them talk to their babies while our were in some far off distant world. 

Our parents had been in the waiting room for over three hours, they were told 'an hour and a half or two'.  Friends and family whom I promised a call were left hanging.  I typed up several text messages and deleted them because no matter how I worded it, it left the answer everyone wanted to know, unanswered.  'How are the babies?'. We just didn't know. 

Finally, at about 11:00am a doctor came in.  The last time we saw our girls was 8:30.  The news we had been waiting for:   Baby A was doing great.  Lungs, heart, body heat.....everything was great, strong little girl.  Baby B, was doing very well.  The lungs weren't functioning as well as they could be so they had her on a breathing mask, but its completely normal and nothing to be worried about.  At that point, I was finally able to go up to the NICU and see them.

Beautiful little girls, button nose, the 'Beatty Toe', and the question everyone has been asking....what appears to be red hair (could be blonde, don't know for sure... For now we are going with red).

Eventually, Teri regained enough feeling in her feet from the spinal that she was able to be wheeled in her bed to meet them.  Its not worth it to describe the joy she had on her face.  Mom, dads, you already know what I'm talking about... X2.... those of you who have never experienced it, you just won't get it.  Didn't get to be a long stay but the nurses all pretty much reaffirmed what we already knew about how they were doing.

Since then its been back in the room.  Family has been in and out.  Ryley finally got to meet his baby sisters and he was beyond excited.  He couldn't contain himself, literally running from incubator to incubator, eyes bugged out of his head, smile ear to ear.  I was beside myself.  I knew he understood what was going on, but I never would have belived that he would have genuinely understood how wonderful of a thing just happened, and he certainly did.

Unfortunately for Teri, she wasn't permitted to see her daughters until she was able to get up and into a wheel chair.  And that just happened about two hours ago, around 8:00pm....nearly 12 hours after they were born.  I'd imagine that was torture for her, but she took it like a boss.

The two of us finally got a chance to see them.  At this visit, we got some great news.  Baby A has been doing phenoninal and will probably be going home fairly soon.  Baby B has been upgraded in her condition.  The decision was made to remove the breathing mask, they did so while we were there, and she is now all on her own.  They will also start feeding her.

When I say, 'fairly soon', I don't really know how long that will be.  When we talked to our specialst when the decision was made yesterday to deliver, he said probably 1-2 weeks.  The nurse in the NICU said they usually wait until full term, which for us would be 5 weeks.  When I told her what our doc said, she that it is absolutely possible especially considering how strong they are.  We were hopeful that they could go hone with us, it doesn't look like that will happen.  But we are certainlt grateful for how well they are doing.

So here we are, Teri is comfortable in her bed watching some TV, and tapping away on her phone.  I'm sprawled out on this reasonably comfortable fold our love seat.  After 8 months of anxiety, we are both finally feeling really good about how things are.  Looks like both of may actually get a couple hours of sleep.

Born at 35 weeks:
Zoey Lynn 3lbs 13oz, 16 1/2" at 8:09am
Nikki Irene 3lbs 15oz, 17 1/2" at 8:10am

I have plenty of pictures to share, but I made Teri a promise I wouldnt post any until we go a good picture of them together.  Hopefully, that won't be long.

Left Handed People, Listen Up

Most people are familiar with the two basic kinds of twins, fraternal (two eggs fertilized at once) and identical (one egg splits into two).  Actually.... I've also had a few discussions in the past few months that have introduced me to a third basic type.... the elusive "paternal twin", but I digress. 

Identical twins can also be split up into 3 different types, di-di, mo-di, and mo-mo which have to do with the number of placentas and amniotic sacs.  I've covered the details in previous blogs, feel free to dig back through the archives if you want a refresher.

There are, however, a few other types of twins which present some pretty interesting circumstances.  The first of which, while rare, is still pretty well known, conjoined twins.  These are sometimes referred to as Siamese Twins.  The term was coined from Eng and Chang Bunker, conjoined twins born in Siam who toured the world as a circus act.  An interesting story in of itself.

A second type of twinning happens later in the development of the egg, usually about 7-10 days after implantation, where the egg splits into a mirror image.  When this happens it results in mirror image identical twins.  With mirror image twins, they are identical in every way except they are mirror images of each other.  If one has a birth mark on the right cheek, the other will have a birth mark on the left cheek.  If one has a cowlick on the right of their head, the other will have one on the left, if one is right handed, the other will be left handed.   Mirror imaging is fairly common happening in about 25% of identical twins.

So why did I direct this post to left handed people?  It has long been assumed that left handedness is a genetic trait.  However, the frequency of left handed people remains pretty consistent across the globe, about 10%.  If it truly was a genetic trait, you would expect to find different frequencies of left handedness in different geographic areas and populations as you do with things like blonde hair, green eyes, and dark skin.  New research is starting to reveal that left handedness may be linked to something completely different.

With the rise in ultrasound use during pregnancy in the past 30 years or so, scientists have discovered an interesting phenomena called Vanishing Twin Syndrome.  Vanishing Twin Syndrome is exactly what it says it is.  A twin pregnancy is discovered via ultrasound early in the pregnancy and weeks or months later at a follow up ultrasound, there is only one, with no trace whatsoever of the other twin.  The body literally absorbs the other twin without the mother ever noticing a thing.

When first discovered it was believed that this was a rare occurrence, but new research says otherwise.

  Many experts now believe that 1 out of every 8 pregnancies begin as a twin pregnancy, even though only 1 in 70 pregnancies result in twins.

Also another interesting fact is that twins, regardless of which type, fraternal or identical (or paternal... I guess) are more than 2x's more likely to be left handed. 10% of the population is left handed, but more than 20% of twins are left handed

Left handed people... see where this is going?

Research is starting to conclude that left handed people have a significantly high chance of having started life as a twin.... and could very well have been a mirror image identical twin.  However, nature stepped in and decided that the world just wasn't ready for two of you.

Great Documentary About Twins

Just stumbled on this today, wish I would have found it months ago.  Its a really good documentary about twins and multiples and how they come to be.  It explains a lot of things we have learned over the past 7 months and in really easy to understand terms.  Be forewarned, its a full fledged documentary, every bit of an hour and a half long so if you really are interested in learning about it, make sure you set aside some time for it.

Just Don't Say It.

All of my blog posts to this point have been from my perspective.... but there has been one subject that's been lingering for my wife since we learned we were having twins.  Since she isn't blogging about our experience, I'm going to chime in and speak on her behalf.

It isn't rocket surgery to know that women tend to be self conscious about their bodies.  They do a lot to look good (to which us men certainly appreciate) and love to be recognized for it.  Having been around for much of Teri's pregnancy, I have bared witness to many discussions. "You look so good".  "Oh my God, you are so tiny" "There is no way you are pregnant with twins"  "I was that big at 3 months, and I only had one".

Teri is a petite woman in the first place, so these types of reactions aren't unexpected.  She was pretty

small when she was pregnant with Ryley, so it makes sense that she would be small with the girls as well.  Maybe some of those comments were sincere, some of them were just being nice.  But herein lies the problem, she is pregnant with twins, and monochronic twins at that.  TOTAL game changer.

I know, you are just trying to be nice or maybe you really are amazed at how tiny she is....but DON'T under ANY circumstance ever tell a woman pregnant with twins, ESPECIALLY mo-di twins, how "great" or "tiny" or how you "can't believe there are twins in there".... .Don't..... just don't.

I would assume you realize that there are additional risks when it comes to twin pregnancies, what you may not realize about twin pregnancies is that nearly all of the those additional risks are diagnosed based off of growth deficiencies and imbalances (this is much more the case with monochronic (one placenta), but still a big concern for dichronic twins).  The biggest worry we have is that one day we are going to go in for an ultrasound and find that one of the babies has suddenly started to lag behind the other significantly or that neither has put on much weight.  If this were to happen, a whole new world of headache is at our front door.

In other words... while common sense would say that Teri wants to hear how good she looks.... pretty much the exact opposite is true.  When she hears how tiny she is, all she can think about is how her babies must not be growing enough.  When she hears how you looked so much bigger so sooner, all she can think about is that she must be neglecting their growth.  When she hears how jealous you are about how she can still wear heels, all she can think about is how she must be malnourishing the babies. 

Just play it safe... do everyone a favor... and think of something else to talk about.  When it comes to a pregnant woman's body, there really is no good way to go about it.  "How is the nursery coming along?"  "Are you excited?"  "Do you have a sitter yet?"  "I bet Ryley is stoked" "Can I give you some money".... put your mind to work, you can think of something.

Nursery Is Done

Nursery has been pretty much done for a few weeks now, but I'm just finally finishing up the final touches.  Even Ryley did a little contribution drawing a picture for his sisters.  Mirrors on the wall were hand made and delivered by Grandma and Grandpa Beatty.  It is hard to tell, but the stripes really are navy blue.

The wall art Teri got a hold of from Etsy.  Yes the middle two pictures have the girls intials and names on them so they have been covered.  We (mostly me) thought it would be fun to keep the names secret since we openly revealed the gender.  The idea was to keep a little bit of excitement for everyone.  Having gotten 7 months into it, I've come to realize that it was a stupid idea.... but we are this far into it so we are going to stick with it.  At most 3 weeks and a few days away, everyone will know the Beatty Ladies names.

I do want to high-lite the shelf Teri had me build.  I wish I could lay claim that it was my idea, because I really like it... but she got the idea off the interwebz.  I wasn't keen on it when I first saw the picture, but now that its up on the wall, I really think its cool.  Still going to hang the anchor between the cleats.

Ultrasound 10/14 Things Are Winding Down

Before I pour my emotions out, I'll cut to the chase.... everything is still going great.  Babies are healthy, mom is healthy, we are hard on course

But I digress.

Things are winding down.  To say that this has been an emotional roller coaster would be a lie. Roller coasters have big ups to go along with the big downs.... This has been more of an emotional bungee jump.  From the day Teri and I stood on the platform and decided Ryley deserved a sibling, to today as the cord started to snug up and keep us from smashing into the pavement below.

This whole experience has been terrifying for us.  Barely a minute of any single day has gone by that we haven't worried of all the things can could go wrong.  Its been much more difficult this time around than it had been when we were expecting Ryley. With twins  the  risks are compounded, the fears are multiplied, and the amount of time we have spent in doctor's offices has increased exponentially.

I envy the generation before us who had twins... but didn't know it until the day they were delivered. I equally envy the infinite generations of moms who gave birth before the internet was available.  I know more about the female anatomy than any beer drinking, duck hunting, computer programmer should ever know.  Google and WebMD has given me more unwarranted stress in the past 6 months than any human should ever have to endure in their entire life.  If you are pregnant and reading this... turn off your computer now, and don't turn it back on until your child is 27.

So enough of the drama, lets get down to business.  As I mentioned, things are great.  The girls are progressing along exactly as they were the last time we had a check up.  They have put on close to a pound measuring at 4lbs and 4lb 1oz.... They are still hovering along the growth curve against singletons in at about the 15th percentile.... Completely normal for mo-di twins.

With that said, there was one very INsignificant issue to point out.  One of the measurements they take is the amount of fluid in the amniotic sacs.  Baby A measured 7mm, Baby B measured 7mm.... which is perfect.  They did remeasure, the second time Baby A measured 7mm, Baby B measured 9mm.  Ideally, they like to see the number under 8mm.  The doctor mentioned that the babies do move around and it could have (probably was) just a fluke that at the time the ultrasound tech clicked the button to take the measurement that Baby B squished some fluid around making the measurement high.  It was stressed that it was nothing to worry about.  But it does play into the following.

As mentioned in my previous post, we have a c-section scheduled for a few days past 36 weeks on November 7th.  This is "best case" scenario.  However, we did have a more detailed conversation with our doctor today about that plan.  We have our next ultrasound scheduled two weeks from today.  He stressed that "unless the next ultrasound comes back as absolutely perfect" he is going to recommend that we deliver sooner.  He mentioned that the discrepancy I mentioned above, where one measurement was completely normal, but a second measurement was slightly high, would constitute as not being "perfect" In other words, if today's (close to perfect) ultrasound were to happen again in two weeks, we would be pushed toward delivering ASAP.

Teri and I had been pretty, "mmm okay?" with pretty much every thing the doctor has had to say up until this point, but this left us concerned.  Without getting into all of the details of the discussion, it played out as such:  At 34 weeks (we are at 32+6days now) with our type of twins, the mortality rate begins to increase.   So unless there is absolutely NOTHING that could POSSIBLY indicate that something MIGHT be wrong, we will be delivering sooner that our scheduled date.  The logic here is that at 34 weeks, the girls are much safer in an NICU being tended to 24-7 than they are in utero where something unexpected could suddenly turn up that could be fatal.  

We did ask about the increased risk of long term health conditions that come from being delivered so premature.  It was stressed by our doctor that those kind of health risks are typical in the babies born at around 24-30 weeks.  Where we are at now, 33 weeks, we are well out of the risk of long term issues.  He pointed out that some studies suggest that we should be delivering now.  But the Dr is confident enough with our progress to let us go the next two weeks to see how things develop.

Well, I hope I didn't bore you and I appreciate that you read this much.  I also have caught wind that there may be one or two of you who are sending a shit load of prayers our way.... you know who  you are.... and you know they have been working, Teri, Ryley, and I thank you!!!!  I will report back in in two weeks.  Until then..... some baby pictures.

CXVII - An Exciting Update

Short but sweet, some exciting (at least to us) news to share.  We've got the c-section scheduled, its in

the books.  We will be delivering on Nov 7th (11/7 aka CXVII... some of you in the family will get it) at 11:30am.

With that said, I do want to stress that this is assuming that everything continues down the best case path we have been on.  This date doesn't mean that there is no chance of going sooner.  With mo-di twins it is still very possible that they will come sooner.  Its all going to depend on how they continue to develop.  As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, with this type of twins they will get to a point to where they simply stop growing.  We are hoping, and on track, for that to happen at the 36 week mark, but it could happen sooner. We will know more at our next ultra sound next week.

I also want to clear something else up that I may have been leaving a little muddy over the past several months.  While I have mentioned that 36 weeks is "best case", this doesn't mean that anything less than 36 is "bad case".  Once we get to 32 weeks, which will officially happen this Thursday, the girls chances of being healthy are equal to if they were to carry to full term.  The only difference is that they would need some extra time in the NICU to provide a nurturing environment to help their bodies develop the rest of the way.  After 32 weeks, they will develop just as well in the NICU as they would still inside.  If they come sooner than 36 weeks, its not "bad" in sense that the girls health is at risk.  Nothing wrong happened, and there weren't any set backs.  Its just that nature kicked in and decided it was time to go.  So when I say "best case", that is how it relates to Teri and I in that we won't have an extended stay in the NICU.  Its an inconvenience for us and a lot of added stress only being able to see them through a pane of glass, but the girls will be fine.   For the rest of you family and friends that can't wait to meet them, in 2 days, the only thing you have to worry about is when they will actually get here.