By Sarah, Vancouver, BC CanadaOur miracle story begins in 2006 when my husband and I learned I was in premature menopause and would not conceive a baby on my own. After several years of discussing options, and trying naturopathic remedies as well as acupuncture we decided to use an anonymous egg donor to conceive. A year ago today we went down to Seattle to fertilize the donor's eggs with my husband's sperm and transferred two embryo's into my uterus. I remember the Dr asking,"are you sure you want to transfer two embryos, we could just do one." Our response was yes two we are prepared for the idea of multiples!
PROM at 18 weeksDelivery at 32 weeks + 5 days.
Story added: 2010-02-10
Five days later I took a home pregnancy test that was positive! We were so excited! The bld test revealed a very high HCg level and I knew we were having twins! The six week U/S confirmed it I saw two little hearts fluttering away and I was in love! The pregnancy was pretty standard nausea and vomiting from six weeks on, tiredness and back ache which made working difficult as I am a labor and delivery RN. By 18 weeks I decided I wanted to go off work and I guess my body agreed!
My 18 week U/S seemed pretty straight forward until the tech told me my Dr would be calling me soon. The next day I started to have contractions so I went in to the hospital where I worked pretty anxious and worried; luckily labor stopped and my cervix was closed but my U/S showed that twin A had severe low fld.I was very confused because I was certain I had not leaked at all. I left the unit that day absolutely devestated knowing that the outcome is not good with PPROM.
After two weeks of extreme anxiety and complete bedrest we met with the perinatologists at BC women's hospital to do a follow up U/S and discuss options. The U/S on twin A was so scary, she was so jammed in my pelvis we couldn't see her face, heart, spine or limbs and the pocket of fld was so small. I knew it didn't look good. We were given the horrible list of options: 1) carry on the pregnancy as is, 2) terminate the pregnancy or just twin A or; 3) do an amniocentesis with an amnioinfusion to diagnose the cause of the low fld.
I think we cried the whole car ride home, right away I knew in my heart I could not actively terminate the pregnancy or choose one baby over the other. We wanted these babies for so long and were so invested already! We decided to choose option 3 and two days later at 20 wks we did the two hour drive back and had the amnio done. The amnio was nerve wracking to have done because the risk of miscarriage is high and the more needles the higher the risk is so we decided to leave baby girl B (Brooklyn) alone and just do the amnio on baby girl A (Alyssa). We went home and continued on bedrest and weekly U/S that showed the infusion worked and I was retaining amniotic fld in the moderate oligo to normal range.
Then at 23 weeks I woke up and had a huge gush of fld I had never been so scared in my life I was certain that there was no fld left around Alyssa or worse Brooklyn's sac had ruptured. Amazingly when we had the U/S that day the AFI was normal and my cervix was not only closed but 4cm long. At this visit they reminded my husband and I that we are getting closer to viability at 24 weeks and that is the last possible time they could selectively abort we told them no thanks, besides doing that at this stage would only put Brooklyn in harm's way increasing the chance of labor and losing both!
At 24 weeks I was admitted to hospital, 25 weeks I received steroids to mature the babies lungs. 26 weeks they discharged me to my mother's house on the antepartum at home care program because my house was too far away. The nurses came and monitored me everyday and everything continued to progress normally despite continuous gushes of fld. The girls were active, growing and I stayed infection and labor free. We had a shower at 30 wks to celebrate making it this far!
At 32 wks I started to feel pretty awful and noticed a slight rise in my BP. At 32+4 I went into the hospital I had bad headaches and heartburn and my pulse was 112 bpm. I was admitted because of my blodd pressure and started labor at 2am. The next evening at 1854 and 1856 my beautiful girls were born by C/S! We were so happy when both girls cried with stimulation and looked a good size. They were both 4lbs!
We waited all evening to see the girls and finally the neonatologist came up to talk to us, Alyssa had a collapsed lung due to the small size of her underdeveloped lungs! She was on a ventilator that gave small puffs of air and had a chest tube. He said she was not out of the woods yet and that they would know in the next 24 hours if she'd make it! Brooklyn was on the CPAPP and looked good. I cried so hard, to make it all this way and still have her fight for life! It didn't seem fair!
Shockingly both girls were off their ventilators in 36 hours and on room air and never went back! They were discharged to my hospital where I live and I even caught a ride with the transport team! Alyssa thrived in the nursery and was off the monitors and taking full feeds long before Brooklyn! They are absolutely beautiful and have none of the issues the perinatologists warned us of!
The girls are now 5 months old and are breastfeeding exclusively! They are active and Alyssa loves to sing! When we look at the girls we know we are truly blessed and meant to be their parents and they were meant to be ours!