Here is a picture of our little lion. She has been doing pretty well considering her size. She is in excellent hands. Landon is also doing very well too. I hope to have one of “Lan the Man” soon, but he was unavailable for comment when I had my camera!
@ 6:32 “Landon Aaron” entered this world weighing 700 grams (1.5 lbs).
@ 6:35 “Alissa Jean” (aka Lissy the lion) followed her brother weighing a mere 389 grams (0.8 lbs).
Despite their extremely precarious situation they both are defying the odds. As of the time of this blog both have their ventilation hooked up and both have their IV’s attached (an amazing feat for the size of the girl).
Sarah is still in recovery. She is doing well. The twins are just beginning a very difficult and dangerous time, but they already have done far more than anybody has expected.
Sarah has been having epigastric pain (pain below the rib cage like indigestion). It could be many things including indigestion, however, it is possible it is a sign of the pre-eclampsia worsening causing trouble with the liver. The doctors have tried treating it as indigestion, but it hasn’t seemed to help. Typically if this were the liver the blood test would start to show this, but they keep coming back mostly normal. So, until they have blood work showing the liver having problems, the plan is to wait and see. They are keeping a very close watch on her and checking her blood work many times during the day. We’re hoping that it is just one of the many other things that could cause this pain since the tests keep coming back ok.
They are watching her very close today as things did not go well for Sarah last night. We are waiting for blood work results to let us know how they will proceed.
Sarah had a nice quiet night (spent with her mom) with great bps. Again she had good blood work results. Let’s hope for another uneventful night!
Well we got a little good news and some okay news (I’m trying to be an optimist so there is no bad news).
First off the okay news: the girl is estimated at 457 grams (up from 400 grams) and the boy is around 668 grams (up from 562 grams). So she is still growing, but it’s still slower than him. She hasn’t quite made that 500 gram mark yet. It’s important to note though (and both the doctors and the ultrasound tech stressed this) that it’s very difficult to get accurate numbers in less than 3 weeks between scans. The reason being babies don’t grow linearly. Some days they grow in length, others in weight, others they just relax. So we can’t be too sure about these numbers, but we can be sure they are growing.
So for the good news. The girls blood flow measurements were concerning at the previous scan. This time they appear to be slightly better (so at least it’s not getting worse). The boys measurements are still great. Also both the girl and boy are very active, have plenty of ambiotic fluid, and full bladders (that means they are processing nutrients). The doctors haven’t fully analyzed the data, but we think we bought a little more time as long as we can hold off the pre-eclampsia.
Sarah’s been hangin’ tough. She had another rough night, but it all settled back down again this morning. They have been keeping a closer eye on her these last couple days, but the blood work keeps coming back okay. She takes it each day one at a time.
Sarah had a rough night and morning as well, but it all settled down. Her bp went up a little throughout the night, but by lunch it came back down to a really good level. They ran the blood work today and it all looks good again (although protein in urine is still not perfect) so at least we bought another day!
Sarah’s still doing good today, not much changed from yesterday. We are having our next ultrasound on Tuesday to check up on the babies. We’re hoping the little ones put on some weight!
Now that my BP is more stablized and I am feeling better, I just wanted to check in and assure you that I (and the babies) are doing just fine. It is unfortunate that I couldn’t get any bedrest time at home (T.V., Video Games with Mike, playing with the dog), but I wouldn’t be receiving the care that I am here. Jason has been very supportive: sleeping restless nights on a horrible blue bed chair, bringing me toiletries and medications, cooking fresh dinners and bringing them to me, washing my new attire (Moo Moo’s {sp?}), and asking the doctors many, many questions to keep them on their toes. Hospital time is slow…each hour feels like forever, and somehow the nurses wake me up more at night, almost every hour, than in the day, which makes it very hard to sleep. Who ever heard of shift changes at 4am? Oh well, the important thing is that things are going well…each day counts! On a good note, tonight mom is bringing me La Taqueria burrito’s and will be staying with me so that Jason can sleep at home; she has been as supportive as Jason. It drives the nurses crazy that I am allowed to control my diabetes and eat my own food, but too bad!
Baby Update: Both babies have heart beats, and they seem to be about the same rates, which are both in the normal range. We also visited the NICU this morning and it was reassuring to see how many small babies are doing so well. It gives us hope that things will be okay, especially if I can make it just a few more weeks (February 9th is our first major goal to reach… at that point I will be 28 weeks pregnant). Next Tuesday or Thursday we have an ultrsound to see how well the babies are growing…we will let you know how that goes.
Thanks to all for the lovely flowers and warm wishes through these trying times. It is nice to be loved by so many!!!
Â
Sarah’s bp keeps coming down and this morning was pretty darn good. The 24 hour urine protein test results finally came back and they seem to be inline with the daily protein tests (not perfect, but not bad either). If her blood work comes back normal again today they said they would start testing her every other day instead of daily.
On a lighter note, I went room shopping yesterday and got us the grand daddy of all hospital suites! The original room barely had room for the fold out cot, not to mention a cold shower! So I slipped our nurse a $20 and we got the honeymoon suite! (Okay I really didn’t give her a $20). Of course this room doesn’t seem to be able to get channel 7 so I guess I’ll just have to tape “Oprah” for Sarah.
Today marks the start of week 25. Sarah’s bp was up a little yesterday, and so was her urine protien. They don’t seem overly concerned yet as her blood work still looks good. This morning’s bp was back down a little and so was the protien. What a roller coaster!
From Tony’s comment: “have the doctors given a range of time that sarah might have until giving birth?”
Preeclampsia is unpredictable. Some last several weeks or even months while others will only be able to hold out a few days. We’re taking it day by day.
Sarah’s bp rose back up again today. Blood tests as of 6pm showed her organs are still doing fine. We spoke with several different doctors today and we pretty much have a good understanding of everything that’s going on so I’ll try to give everyone a run down:
Sarah has preeclampsia which is a disease that affects the mother (can also have affects on the babies too). High blood pressure, swelling, and protein in the urine are common symptoms. The only cure is delivery, however they try to ease the progress with bedrest. The problem is not necessarily the high blood pressure itself, but other problems associated with the disease (organ problems, seizures, stroke). So they use the symptoms as a guide to judge the severity and at some point decide to deliver. When they will make this decision is not predictable.
Twin B (the girl) has a placental deficincy which is causing slow growth (IUGR). As of Thurday (January 12th) she measured around 400 grams (21.5 weeks in age). Twin A (the boy) on the other hand measured 562 grams (around 23.5 weeks in age). They also measured blood flow using Doppler ultrasound and found the umbilical cord blood flow for the girl to be abnormal (most likely the reason for the slow growth). Also, they noted an increase in blood flow to her brain. We are told they do this as a survival mechanism to get enough oxygen and nutrients to the brain. Unfortunatley it could mean there is not enough blood going to the rest of her body meaning growth will be even more compromised and there is a potential for damage.
So what does it all mean? Well first of all the statistics show that for survival of premature babies the birth weight cutoff is about 500 gram (this is roughly 1.1 lbs). The girl is just to small to have much chance of survival at this point, however, the boy is above the cutoff. Still being born at their current size will mean a very long stay in the NICU and bumpy road ahead to say the least. The deciding factor at this point is the preeclampsia. We’re crossing our fingers that we can hold off the preeclampsia long enough for the girl to get up above the 500 gram cutoff.
So what are they doing now?
Sarah has been given steroids as a precautionary measure. The steriods are used to strengthen the babies lungs and they take 48 hours to take full effect. Again it is a precautionary measure just incase the preeclampsia takes a turn for the worse. She is on oxygen 24/7 to give more oxygen to the baby girl in hopes she can grow. She is on hospital bedrest and we are now told she is likely to stay at the Kaiser Marriot Resort for the duration. Luckily the hospital is literaly 5 blocks from our house so I’m able to go home every now and then.
So we’re just trying to hang on as long as possible to let these little guys get bigger.
Sarah and I both want to thank everyone for the support and positive thoughts coming our way.
Thanks
After some more testing today a quick urine protein test showed no protein (good sign). Blood test also showed no organ problems. Blood pressure has come down a little today.
They did some doppler blood flow tests on the babies to compare to last weeks. Both Twin A (the boy) and Twin B (the girl) look mostly the same as last week.
On Saturday and Sunday Sarah wasn’t feeling well. Sunday night we decided to go get a blood pressure meter as she was showing signs of Preeclampsia. Sure enough her blood pressures were high. They had us come straight in and after measuring her blood pressure and urine protein she was admitted. They started a special 24 hour urine protein test and ran some blood tests. Blood test results were great (no adverse affects to her organs). Her blood pressure came down a bit throught the night. They want to monitor her for a few days and assess her after the results of the 24 hour urine test come back.
Today we found out that the girl (Twin B) is not growing as fast as the boy. The medical term is IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction). She is measuring at about 21.5 weeks and he is measuring at about 23.5 weeks. Sarah is being put on modified (light) bedrest to help the girl get more blood from the placenta. Let’s hope she can put on some weight!