The Story
Below is an email I wrote to some friends letting them know the details of what happened. I don't want to lose this, as it details the worst day of my life (not being dramatic, def. worst day of my life). So here it goes.
Last Sunday morning I urinated out my mucus plug. I was pretty sure it was the plug; we had an appointment the next morning at 7am, so we just waited. I am not sure how bright of an idea that was, but being it was Sunday; I stupidly didn't know who to call or what to do. I had also read it could take weeks for labor once you lose it, so I thought I had some time for them to fix this. Little did I know I was also having contractions for about 2 weeks, which I thought was the baby kicking my bladder. I am a dummy.
The dr. sent me to St. Peters' right away. There they checked the heartbeats and I saw the babies on the ultrasound. They were fine. But twin A was so low and during the exam they could see the membranes coming out. They assumed I had some sort of infection due to having ICSI during my IVF treatment. St. Peters' is one of the leading high-risk pregnancy hospitals in NJ, my doc is pretty famous, and they've seen a lot of these ICSI cases. If this was infection, I was done for immediately. They did an amino on the first twin and fortunate no infection. So they rushed me to the OR were they were going to be a cerclage (which is stitches and this balloon thing into my cervix to close it) It was risky since the membrane was so low and he could risk breaking it. But we didn't even get that far, the water broke right there before we started anything. It was over for twin A.
I gave birth (yes, I pushed) to Marie Josephine on May 21st around 7:45pm. She weighted 8oz and was 8 1/2 inches long. I was still pretty numb from the spinal they had given me for the operation, so there wasn't a lot of pain. But the pushing was exhausting and sweaty. My OB did an amazing job of controlling the situation where he only delivered the one twin, cut the umbilical cord and tied it into a knot, so that the second baby wouldn't come out. The cord problem I had actually helped, because it wasn’t attached to the placenta, but to the membrane between each twin.
The next morning I was doing pretty well. They checked again for infection in baby B. The cervix had collapsed which was a good thing and my contractions were getting better. So they decided to send me back to the OR for the cerclage I still needed it, since my cervix was no longer closed. The doc saw that my cervix was still long and think, but just open. So really had no labor, just a cervix that decided to dilate. It is unpredictable, especially when they way they check for preterm labor is on you cervix length which mine was still long. Why it suddenly opened is still a mystery.
The operation went well and for two days I was feeling pretty good. The only thing they needed to watch for was infection. Having had my cervix opened for so long and giving birth, and an operation, infection was the #1 reason why these cases fail.
All day Thurs. I was down. I just felt like something was going to go wrong. Thurs night my contractions were getting a lot worse and by 10pm I had a 101 fever. It was over. In order to save my life, I would have to be induced. First they needed to remove the stitches. I got an epidural, which having a temp and low blood pressure, I passed out for a second or two. Then I puked and shook (I mean shook like crazy) for about two hours. Before they even induced me, my water had broken and I started to bleed pretty heavy. Epi wasn't working so well, so they gave me some other drug, which was pretty good. I felt nothing. My fever skyrocketed to 102 and then they had to induce. Around 9am Gillian Grace was born. She was 9 1/2 inched long, not sure on the weight.
Dennis and I at first didn’t' want to see them. Name them or anything like that. But the social worker was really good. She gave us time and did everything in steps. She gave us pictures first, and though it was hard to see (they are very red), they still look like babies. Then we decided to see them and we held them. Marie looked like me, Gillian like Dennis (FYI this is the baby who like to show us its butt on the ultrasound). Kinda freaky at that state to say that, but you can tell. It’s strange. Anyway we decided we are going to cremate them. We still don't know what we are going to do with the ashes. But we will spread them somewhere. I can't handle a burial.
Last Sunday morning I urinated out my mucus plug. I was pretty sure it was the plug; we had an appointment the next morning at 7am, so we just waited. I am not sure how bright of an idea that was, but being it was Sunday; I stupidly didn't know who to call or what to do. I had also read it could take weeks for labor once you lose it, so I thought I had some time for them to fix this. Little did I know I was also having contractions for about 2 weeks, which I thought was the baby kicking my bladder. I am a dummy.
The dr. sent me to St. Peters' right away. There they checked the heartbeats and I saw the babies on the ultrasound. They were fine. But twin A was so low and during the exam they could see the membranes coming out. They assumed I had some sort of infection due to having ICSI during my IVF treatment. St. Peters' is one of the leading high-risk pregnancy hospitals in NJ, my doc is pretty famous, and they've seen a lot of these ICSI cases. If this was infection, I was done for immediately. They did an amino on the first twin and fortunate no infection. So they rushed me to the OR were they were going to be a cerclage (which is stitches and this balloon thing into my cervix to close it) It was risky since the membrane was so low and he could risk breaking it. But we didn't even get that far, the water broke right there before we started anything. It was over for twin A.
I gave birth (yes, I pushed) to Marie Josephine on May 21st around 7:45pm. She weighted 8oz and was 8 1/2 inches long. I was still pretty numb from the spinal they had given me for the operation, so there wasn't a lot of pain. But the pushing was exhausting and sweaty. My OB did an amazing job of controlling the situation where he only delivered the one twin, cut the umbilical cord and tied it into a knot, so that the second baby wouldn't come out. The cord problem I had actually helped, because it wasn’t attached to the placenta, but to the membrane between each twin.
The next morning I was doing pretty well. They checked again for infection in baby B. The cervix had collapsed which was a good thing and my contractions were getting better. So they decided to send me back to the OR for the cerclage I still needed it, since my cervix was no longer closed. The doc saw that my cervix was still long and think, but just open. So really had no labor, just a cervix that decided to dilate. It is unpredictable, especially when they way they check for preterm labor is on you cervix length which mine was still long. Why it suddenly opened is still a mystery.
The operation went well and for two days I was feeling pretty good. The only thing they needed to watch for was infection. Having had my cervix opened for so long and giving birth, and an operation, infection was the #1 reason why these cases fail.
All day Thurs. I was down. I just felt like something was going to go wrong. Thurs night my contractions were getting a lot worse and by 10pm I had a 101 fever. It was over. In order to save my life, I would have to be induced. First they needed to remove the stitches. I got an epidural, which having a temp and low blood pressure, I passed out for a second or two. Then I puked and shook (I mean shook like crazy) for about two hours. Before they even induced me, my water had broken and I started to bleed pretty heavy. Epi wasn't working so well, so they gave me some other drug, which was pretty good. I felt nothing. My fever skyrocketed to 102 and then they had to induce. Around 9am Gillian Grace was born. She was 9 1/2 inched long, not sure on the weight.
Dennis and I at first didn’t' want to see them. Name them or anything like that. But the social worker was really good. She gave us time and did everything in steps. She gave us pictures first, and though it was hard to see (they are very red), they still look like babies. Then we decided to see them and we held them. Marie looked like me, Gillian like Dennis (FYI this is the baby who like to show us its butt on the ultrasound). Kinda freaky at that state to say that, but you can tell. It’s strange. Anyway we decided we are going to cremate them. We still don't know what we are going to do with the ashes. But we will spread them somewhere. I can't handle a burial.
posted by Squirt at 11:59 AM
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