My husband and I decided I would go off
birth control in March 1998. He had
lung surgery in May 1998, while he was
in the hospital I started having
morning sickness, but chalked it up to
stress. The week he got out of the
hospital I was 1 week late. I took a
HPT and it was positive!! We were
thrilled. I had a blood test which
confirmed I was pregant. Our first
child!! I had my first OB appt a month
later and found out not only was I
further along than I thought, but I was
having twins. We were ecstatic. We
could hardly wait until our twins got
here.
My pregnancy progressed with no
complications, until I was 17 weeks
along. I came home from work and had
what I thought was a watery discharge.
What did I know, I had never been
pregnant before. It got a little worse
and I wondered if I should call my OB.
I stood up and had a small gush. I ran
up and called my OB's office, and the
doctor on call told me to come into the
office first thing in the morning. I
got there at 8:00 am and they did a
test on the fluid, it was indeed
amniotic fluid. They did an u/s to see
which sac had ruptured. It was only one
baby's sac and it had hardly any
fluid. They told me that "the
prognosis to continue the pregnancy was
not good" and hospitalized me. I had
no sign of infection. The leaking
stopped and they kept me for 8 days. In
that time, I developed no infection, my
fluid reaacumulated and I did not go
into labor. I was sent home on
"modified bedrest" basically I could
only do something if it could be done
laying or sitting down. I also had to
see my OB every week.
Things were going along fine. Then at
23 weeks and 4 days I felt some
leaking. I ran up and called my OB's
office. Due to my earlier PROM, they
told me to go directly to the hospital.
I got there even before the doctor's
call to tell them to expect me. I was
terrified, I kept telling my husband
that I couldn't go through this again,
I was lucky the first time but there
was no way I would be that lucky
again. Again, they tested the fluid,
yes it was amniotic fluid. They did an
u/s, it was the same baby's sac, but
it wasn't as empty. I was having some
contractions so they had to transfer me
to a larger hospital. My hospital had
no NICU. We got to the new hospital and
my contractions stopped. The next day
they did an u/s and one baby's
heartrate was very low, it was the same
baby whose sac had ruptured. It was
decided I was to be in the hosptial
until the end of my pregnancy. We were
pretty sure the first baby was going to
die, but we were hoping he would hold
on so that I could safely deliver the
second baby. Well, the next day an u/s
showed that my first baby had died. 2
days later I went into labor .It was a
farily easy labor, considering. My
first son, Michael Jeffrey was
stillborn and weighed 1 lb, 3 oz and
was 11 1/2 inches long. Kevin Michael
was born and taken directly to NICU. He
wighed 1 lb, 2 oz and was 10 1/2 inches
long. They told me the hospital had a
50%25 survival rate for babies born at
24 weeks I was 24 weeks and 1 day but
a 0%25 survival rate for babies that
small. I had delivery complications
postpartum hemorrage due to a retained
placenta so I could only spend 30
minutes with Kevin. He wasn't expected
to live through the day. He lived for
13 hours.
They are doing tests on the placenta
and did an autopsy on Michael. My sons
were identical twins which means only 1
placenta for the 2 babies. They
suspected Twin to Twin Transfusion
Syndrome. That is when blood is shared
disproportionatley between the two
babies. In that case, the baby that is
not getting any can die due to anemia
or the baby that is getting everything
can die due to heart failure and have a
larger amount of fluid due to more
urination. Michael was the baby that
was getting everything. The larger
amount of fluid may have caused the sac
to rupture. My last OB appt before my
sac first ruptured was 2 weeks prior.
Fluid could have built up that we
didn't know about. He also may have
died in utero due to heart failure from
being the "receipient" baby.
This all happened on 9/30/98 as I type
this the clock on my computer says
12:00 AM so it is now 10/30/98, exactly
one month since I lost my twin sons.
My firstborn ons.
Memorial
page for my sons
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