Surviving a Twin Pregnancy

Well as you can probably tell, I got quite busy last year and I stopped writing posts and only posted a few pictures of ultrasounds with not much more.

In June 2011 we had our morphology scan for the twins.  It turns out they are actually MCDA twins (or identical) and not fraternal, and we found out that we were having girls.  If you've ever wondered about the different types of twins, check out this link  Twin Pregnancy Information

Twin A was still getting along perfectly, however Twin B wasn't doing as well.  We were originally told that she may have vasa previa, with a velamentous cord insertion.  It was not something that I'd ever heard of.  Of course I'd heard of placenta previa (blood loss for the mother) but not vasa previa (blood loss for the baby).  We were told we would need further specialist ultrasounds to keep an eye on the condition.

I didn't get upset about this until we got home, as I had no idea what all the medical terminology meant.  But when I started googling (yes, I know it's bad) I came across the International Vasa Previa Organisation.  Vasa Previa Orgnisation  Obviously after reading about it and what possible outcomes we could experience, it made for a very stressful and upsetting couple of weeks and I found it quite difficult to bond with the girls for fear of something terrible happening.

Fortunately, at our next ultrasound we were told that Baby B did not have vasa previa.  I could breathe a sigh of relief over that.  She was however much smaller than her sister, and she had abnormal placental bloodflow.  This basically meant that she wasn't getting the same amount of nutrients or oxygen through her umbilical cord, and was therefore not growing as well as Baby A.

So the 2nd half of my twin pregnancy really wasn't much fun.  I was constantly worried about the girls, and we had a detailed specialist ultrasound and follow-up doctor's appointment at least every fortnight.  We were very lucky that Baby B did keep growing and didn't experience reverse flow through the umbilical cord, but even at birth she was 610 grams smaller than her sister.

Then there were the 'normal' issues surrounding a twin pregnancy...  My stomach got so HUGE that it was equivalent to someone 5 weeks overdue, and I was only just over 34 weeks when the girls were delivered.  It's easy now to forget just how uncomfortable I was, but at the time it was a real struggle.  The skin was stretched so tightly that it was super shiny, and I ached just moving around.  As for my belly button, well we won't go there...

One of the more annoying things was knowing that I needed to get as much rest as possible before the girls arrived, but not being able to.  The simplest things like rolling over or changing position in bed felt like a huge effort.  I'd have to heave this big stomach over with me... which ultimately lead to having to get up and go pee because of the massive amount of pressure and weight being put on my bladder.  The slightest little kick from a teeny tiny foot and I'd be off again...  I did however, manage to evade stretch marks once again.  I got one above my belly button about a week before the girls were born, and thankfully it's all but disappeared now.

Having already had 1 premature birth though, I knew that I wouldn't come even close to full term with the girls.  I can only imagine (and shudder) how difficult it would have been with a few extra weeks worth of growth !!  All you mums out there who did, or who had triplets or more.. well you deserve a big pat on the back !!  You definitely have my respect !! :)