A Warrior at Heart: 25 Down, 7 To Go

Every week that I am in the hospital my babies odds of survival goes up, while the odds of having disabilities from premature birth are decreasd. Tuesdays are a big deal for me because that's the day I get to mark another week down!

I have been in the hospital for one week now and am so well taken care of. My mom has come to get laundry, bring snacks and treats and visit everyday so far (except for the one day she wasn't in town, but everybody needs a break sometime). My mom has been so great. My dad has also made a new route home from work to visit me most days. Zeds mom and sister even drove down one day to bring my boys to visit me. And I've gotten lots of calls and texts from more family and friends. This last week I was so so tired I didnt even want company. The little babes are still too small and active to monitor continuously with the monitors that strap to my belly, so I kept up with dopplers every hour. I've been tired. On Sunday one of the other Drs from my doctor's office was on rounds. He had sympathy and switched me to a 4 hour watch, since the babies heart rates have been consistently good for so long. We will keep up with the 4 hour monitors while still trying the continuous monitors a few times every day.

I asked my doctor today how many mono-mono cases he's had in his career. It is rare enough to be 1 in every 10,000 pregnancies, so not every doctor will deal with it. My doctor told me that he has delivered around 27,000 babies in his career and has had about a half dozen mono-mono cases. He's a parinatologist, he only deals with high risk, hard to handle pregnancies. He's been practicing for the majority of my life. And he's had about 6. That just shows how rare this is.

I forget a lot of times how high risky and uncommon my condition is. I just feel fine-at least as fine as I can while being pregnant; the babies are growing; the babies are active. I dont feel like things are risky. But the doctor helps me remember that so many things can happen so fast in this situation. Today he even reminded me that I was very likely HOURS away from these two boys being conjoined. I forget how close I was to being even more high risk.

HOWEVER, right now we are doing great. My nurses are all amazing! Like, I seriously just love them! The housekeeper for my room is the sweetest lady. The food service people are so nice. I will say that it is pretty standard hospital food, so snacks and treats are more than welcome in my room!

So today I am finally at 25 weeks, and just need to keep these boys nice and calm for 7 more weeks. They are still turning a lot. I get a few ultrasounds each week. Last week they started out breech then moved to head down by the end of the week, but yesterday were both breech again. Some days we can find them in the same spot with tbe doppler several times in a row, then suddenly the baby will be in a totally different spot. It's great that they are moving so much- it indicates that they are healthy and strong. Howevet, this is also what we need to avoid. I'm on bed rest because the more calm I stay, the less adrenalin the babies get and the calmer they can be. Right now we need them calmer to reduce the amount of pressure the can apply to their cords or less the can continue to tie thdm up.

With the information that I have from my dr as well as the NICU dr here, my hope and goal is to have these babies, and myself, back at home at the end of September. So hopefully everyone will be excited for our return in another 3 months!