Our Twins

So, on Wednesday, the 9th, I had an appointment to get our babies measured and to find out for sure exactly what the sex is of the one we were unsure about. As it turns out we will be getting our wish: one boy and one girl! Lily will have a brother and a sister which is fantastic!!!

Baby A is our boy, Killian Orion. He is on the bottom and weighs about 1 pound. He was extremely active when the ultrasound technician started. Punching out both arms and legs, we think he was fighting for "his side" of my womb. By the time we were almost done, he was putting all his fingers in his mouth and falling asleep.

Baby B is our girl, Piper Wren. She is on the top and weighs about 14 ounces. She too was active in the beginning, but I think that had something to do with her brother kicking and punching her. A girl's gotta stand up for herself and it seems to be starting very early! By the time we were almost done, she was fast asleep as well. The technician was using my stomach as a sorta punching bag trying to get her to wake up and turn over. That didn't feel good at all and it didn't work.

The technician had me lay down on the chair flat. About 20 minutes in I couldn't take it anymore. My sciatic nerve pain in my back was KILLING ME!!!! I asked how much longer and she raised the chair up a bit so I wasn't laying flat any longer. It helped a little. Then she had me get up to empty my bladder so she could do an intrauterine ultrasound to measure my cervix. I could barely walk to the bathroom which was two doors down. I was in so much pain.

Once in the bathroom, I needed to give a sample so they could check my glucose levels. Let me just tell you that when you are pregnant and have a huge belly which is unmovable, getting that little collection cup in line with your "stream" is extremely difficult! That's all I'll say about that.

When everything was measured and I was done, Dan and I met with the doctor. This was a new doctor in the office, not the regular ones I normally see. Everything seemed to be OK. Both babies are at a good weight and I was given my next appointment date in four weeks for the gestational diabetes test.

Thursday, the 10th, I got a call from one of the regular doctors I see. He said that the babies looked good but that my cervix was a little shortened. Meaning I could go into preterm labor more easily because my cervix is not at a normal length. Since I didn't have my cervix measured when I was pregnant with Lily, I don't know if this is a pre-existing condition or if it's just this pregnancy. My doctor seems to think I could've had a shortened cervix with Lily since she came at 37 weeks, but we'll never know for sure. He said it is common for twins to come early anyway, but he prescribed Crinone (progesterone) to try to help prolong the pregnancy. I took Crinone in the 1st trimester to help keep the pregnancy and prevent miscarriage.

Anyway, I'll be taking the Crinone for the rest of the pregnancy and instead of waiting four weeks to go back, I have to go back in two weeks so they can check my cervix again. He said I wasn't dilated or anything so that is a good thing. I'm just hoping I don't have to go on bed rest. Or if I do, I hope it's just to limit my activities like not lifting anything heavy, aka: Lily, and no strenuous activity. I've already told Dan I'm putting myself on  limited activity so as to not make this a bigger problem than it is.

So, that's that. On a lighter note, Lily said her name for the 1st time on Wednesday. When we had asked her what her name was previously, she would always say, "Me." Now she says, "Leelee." Too cute!

Bye Bye Midwife, Hello OB

It seems that the price of having twins is not being able to have the one on one interactions and help from my midwife. Unfortunately it seems that having twins means high risk and my midwife is not legally able to help deliver high risk babies. When she told me, I cried. It was truly upsetting that the woman who helped me through the most difficult and painful experience I have ever known, was unable to do it again. I begged her to recommend an OB she trusted and possibly worked with before. She recommended Dr. Granoff and Dr. Lee whose office is in East Northport, but they deliver out of NUMC (my 1st choice hospital). Needless to say, she recommended great doctors!

Having had really bad experiences with OB's in the past, I was pleasantly surprised by how supportive these two doctors are of my birth choices. Dr. Lee said it best, "We are like midwives with a medical degree." FYI: My midwife with Lily did have a degree, but it was for nursing (she is a Certified Nurse Midwife - CNM).
I never feel rushed when I'm in the office. I always have plenty of time to ask questions and have them answered completely and honestly. I trust that they have only good intentions for a happy and healthy pregnancy and labor. The other OB's I have been to seem to only care about what's best and convenient for them, so these two are a welcomed change.

It seems like I did so much research when I was pregnant with Lily as to how I wanted my birth experience to be. Well all that research is half down the drain now that I'm carrying twins. It's a whole different ball game here and I'm a little more than slightly terrified. I'm 16 weeks along tomorrow and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there are two babies in my ever growing belly. It seems as though time is just flying by because I look, and feel, so much farther along than what I am. I'm trying to get all the information I can on delivering twins naturally. Yup, I'm THAT crazy to want to deliver naturally again AND with twins! But that's me. I had all these really great reasons for not wanting any drugs with Lily's birth and they have stuck with me with this pregnancy. Unfortunately with twins, I'm less likely to have the birth experience I'm hoping for. So collecting any and all information I can is a good thing, although quite difficult. There aren't a lot of resources that offer info on multiple births. It's weird because many women these days are having more and more multiple births due to infertility issues and IVF.

On a bit of a different note, I am sleeping on the couch again. I did it while pregnant with Lily because I just couldn't get comfortable in the bed. This time is slightly different. I've been having really bad sciatic pain in my lower left side/hip area. Sleeping in bed was making the pain worse. When I woke up, I had so much trouble moving even the tiniest bit because the pain was too unbearable. So, the couch. I am thankful for our couch. We have one with fairly large cushions and it's deep so laying on it is very comfortable. Also, my back/hip is thankful because the pain has subsided dramatically! Awesome!! I just wish our bed was more like the couch because I hate being in the living room all night. Oh well. Just gotta stick it out another 20-24 more weeks.

Lily can't wait to be a Big Sister!

Testing the Tube: A New Journey

As many of you know by now, we are pregnant with babies #2 & 3! That's right, TWINS!! EEEKKKK! This more than makes up for our 5 failed attempts at conceiving last year. For those of you who are interested, this post is the story of how we got pregnant.

We started the IVF (in-vitro fertilization) process January 8th. It was quite different from doing IUI's (intro-uterine insemination) which we had done to get our Lily. I had a thought the other day that Lily, even though we had to do an IUI to have her, she still was conceived "inside" of me. Meaning, the sperm found my egg and the whole fertilization process was done inside my body as if I actually got pregnant by having sex. TMI? Sorry. But baby #2 will be a "test tube baby." I don't like that title, but that's basically what he or she will be. My egg floats around in a petri dish and Dan's sperm will be placed in the dish to find it's way to the egg OR the sperm will be ejected directly into the egg with a process called ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection). Once fertilization happens, the now embryo, will be placed back inside of me to hopefully implant itself into my uterine wall. How amazing is it that we live in an age where this is a new normal for people who can't conceive naturally?

All together, it took 9 weeks from the start of the process to the end when we found out that we were pregnant. What a long journey but definitely worth it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was on 10 medications with the IVF process:

Medication #1: The Pill - Started 1/10/14 ... Ended 1/30/14

True that the pill is used to prevent pregnancy, but it also has a greater function for those who will be doing IVF. The Pill will stop my follicles from growing eggs. This is important because we need a lot of eggs to grow all at once for the best chance of egg retrieval.

Side effects? A little moodiness.

Medication #2: Lupron - Started 1/26/14 ... Ended 2/24/14

Lupron (leuprolide acetate) prevents ovulation in order to control the timing of IVF or artificial insemination. I started taking Lupron 2 1/2 weeks after the start of my cycle. It is taken as an injection in my abdomen.

Side effects? It has been giving me major headaches at night and upset stomach. Luckily, once I started the next 2 meds on my list, I went down in the dosage amount of Lupron...which helped ease the headaches and stomach issues.

Medication #3: Menopur - Started 2/9/14 ... Ended 2/23/14

 This is used to stimulate the development of multiple eggs and is injected in my abdomen.

Side effects? Well, besides the horrible burning sensation I get from injecting it into my stomach, I would say moodiness is a major side effect.

Medication #4: Gonal-F - Started 2/9/14 ... Ended 2/24/14

This is a human follicle stimulating hormone that gets injected in my abdomen. I take this in conjunction with the Lupron and Menopur. 

Side effects? Moodiness.

Medication #5: Ovidrel - Started 2/25/14 ... one dose only

Another injection in my abdomen, Ovidrel stimulates the release of the egg during ovulation. I only take this once.

Medication #6: Dostinex - Started 2/27/14...Ended 3/4/14

This was used to prevent Ovarian Hyper-Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). I had a lot of follicles so they didn't want to take any chances.

Medication #7: Doxycycline - Started 2/26/14...Ended 3/4/14

This antibiotic pill will be taken 2 times a day for 7 days starting the night before they retrieve my eggs. We don't want an infection!

Medication #8: Methylprednisolone - Started 2/27/14...Ended 3/4/14

I take this pill once a day for 6 days the night of the egg retrieval. It is used to relieve inflammation.

Medication #9: Crinone - Started 3/1/14...Ended 4/24/14

This coats the vaginal tissues to provide long-lasting release of progesterone. I'll be taking this once a day. I will continue to take this for the 2 week wait and if I am pregnant, I keep taking it until week 10 of my pregnancy.

Medication #10: Estradiol - Started 3/8/14...Ended 3/17/14

Making sure the estrogen levels are where they need to be, I will be taking this pill 2 times a day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you may have guessed from reading all the injectables I needed to take, my abdomen looked like a drug addicts arm with all the puncture marks and bruises. Not pretty.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Retrieval Process

On 2/27/14 I went in to my fertility doctor's office at 7:30 am. I was put under local anesthesia for this procedure.

I had a total of 16 eggs retrieved. Out of those eggs, 9 were able to be fertilized. 2 were chosen to be placed back inside of me. Out of the 7 remaining embryos, 3 survived to the freezing process for that just in case we need them scenario.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Transfer Process

On 3/4/14 I went in to my fertility doctor's office at 8:45 am. I went in with a full bladder, the 2 embryos got injected inside of my uterus at precisely the spot where they will need to implant themselves, I stayed laying down for 30 minutes, I went home to wait.

I was a 5-day transfer, meaning the 2 embryos that were placed inside of me already made it to the blastocyst stage. This is a good thing because it means that they were stronger and more likely to survive. Now they just need to attach to my uterine lining.

Here's an outline of what is happening when everything goes according to plan.

5-Day Transfer

Days Past Transfer (DPT)	Embryo Development
One	The blastocyst begins to hatch out of its shell
Two	The blastocyst continues to hatch out of its shell and begins to attach itself to the uterus
Three	The blastocyst attaches deeper into the uterine lining, beginning implantation
Four	Implantation continues
Five	Implantation is complete, cells that will eventually become the placenta and fetus have begun to develop
Six	Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) starts to enter the blood stream
Seven	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Eight	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Nine	Levels of hCG are now high enough to detect a pregnancy

                                                                                                                                                           Taken from nyufertilitycenter.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2 Week Wait

Once I got home, I was put on strict bed rest for 48 hours.  After that I was on restricted activity for the dreaded 2 week wait. That meant no lifting heavy objects. Hmm? What about Lily? Yes, she is a heavy object and I was very limited by how I could lift her if needed (in and out of the crib only).

The 2 week waiting period to find out if all the work to get pregnant was a success was so dreadful. I just wanted to know already!!!! During that time I was going in for blood work to make sure my hormone levels looked good.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Wait Is Over

On 3/12/14 we got our answer to whether this whole lengthy process worked. We didn't have to wait the full 2 weeks to get the call that informed us of our future... We are pregnant!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our 1st Ultrasound

On 3/19/14 Dan and I went in for our 1st ultrasound to make sure everything was looking good. We were very curious to find out if just one embryo made it or both. We got our answer - BOTH took and we are having twins. Wow. The first thought was, "We need a bigger car." Oh boy. We are going to be a family of 5!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our 2nd Ultrasound

On 3/27/14 Dan and I went back to our fertility doctor to hear the heartbeats. This was nerve racking. With everything that we have been through from our very first pregnancy back in 2009 to now, we have always been very cautious...or at least I have been. No need to worry right now though, we heard two healthy heartbeats!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our 3rd & Final Ultrasound With Our Fertility Doctor

On 4/3/14 I went in for my last ultrasound with our fertility doctor. This time, my sister Kristene came along to videotape so Dan could see when he got home from work. Again, we heard two beautiful, healthy heartbeats! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now our journey to being a family of 5 really begins. Stay tuned!