(13) A Scare and a Secret

It’s June 2^nd and I’m now 12 weeks pregnant.  It’s time for another doctor appointment.  Only this time, I don’t get to see my usual fun-loving Dr. Winkler.  Instead, I see Dr. Merrill.  He turns out to be awesome too, but I guess I was looking forward to having Dr. Winkler the whole time.  Dr. Merrill is one of about 6 regular doctors at this facility.  Anyway, a quick check shows my blood pressure is elevated again, so he was somewhat concerned (even though it went down again when he checked later).  Something to keep an eye on.  The scale says I’ve gained about 10 pounds in my first 12 weeks of pregnancy.  They say that with twins, if you are of normal weight to start (which I was) then you should gain only about 4-6 pounds the first trimester.  Ooops!  And I still have two weeks of the first trimester to go… But then it also says “weight gain is especially important between weeks 20-24 of pregnancy.  If a mother of twins gains 24lbs by week 24 of pregnancy, she reduces her chance of preterm labor.”  If I gained a pound a week for the first 24 weeks, I would be right on track, right?  So I’m not really worried.  I am eating super healthy foods, drinking plenty of water, and exercising regularly.  I think the only “bad” thing I eat too much of is peanut butter, and it’s not that bad!

Fast-forward to June 10^th, four days after my final Progesterone shot.  I’m very worried.  In fact, I’m pretty close to freaking out.  Despite being assured that stopping Progesterone “cold turkey” (and not tapering off) would be OK, I’ve started to bleed.  Please please please don’t let this be a sign of an impending miscarriage.  Please!  Close to panic, I send Tom a text at work, and then call the MFM office.  They advise me to come in immediately to get checked out.  I decide not to tell Holly or Darren yet, because I don’t want to stress them out for no reason if everything is OK.  Tom offers to go with me, but I told him I could handle it.  Be positive.  Be positive.  When I get to the office, it’s just like a regular appointment, starting with a pee sample and a weigh-in.  Soon, the triage nurse comes in with the portable sonogram machine.  She asks about my symptoms, and takes my blood pressure (which is really high now, because I’m stressed!).   I tell her that I stopped the PIO injections last Friday, and I woke up to blood this morning.  Calmly, she tells me to lay back so we can check out the twins.  I lay back and she hits me with the cold gel.  Brrrrr.  She starts panning around and says everything looks fine.  They are both wiggling around and their water levels are great!  She checks their heart rates, which are perfect (unlike mine).  Excellent!  Now I’m starting to calm down.  I knew this could happen but when it’s reality, it’s hard not to freak out.

Then she asks me if I want to know the sex of each one.  I say “of course!”  She informs me that at 13 weeks, it’s a little early to tell, but reveals that one baby definitely looks like a boy.  The other baby was a little shy and didn’t want to show “the goods” to the camera.   She checked my BP again, and it has dropped (compared to before), but is still elevated.  She’s concerned, so she puts in an order to the pharmacy for a home blood pressure monitoring machine, and asks me to start recording my BP three times per day – and bring the results to my next appointment in two weeks.  Oh joy!  I thought this was an overreaction to my stressful situation today, but I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we deal with elevated blood pressure.

Baby A on top (facing back)  Baby B on bottom (facing forward)

Baby B profile

I waited until the afternoon to call Holly and Darren.  They were happy everything looked good, and appreciated the fact that I waited to tell them.  Holly loved the fact that she only had to worry for about a minute.  I know Holly is particularly sensitive about any and all things that can go wrong.  We both shed a few tears because "life" is fragile especially at this stage.  I want to protect her from the bad as much as I can.  I even thought not telling her would be best but these little babies are hers and she has a right to know.  However, I didn’t mention that I found out one baby is a boy.  That will be my little secret for now.  BTW, Holly thinks I’m carrying 2 girls, hehehe.