Today was an important day, our first day of stacked doctors' appointments. We saw Dr. Gonzales at 1:30 and glory be, it was so much more pleasant. We had our ultrasound with the most adorably perky nurse. As she conducted the ultrasound, she cooed over and talked to the babies on the screen. She confirmed the three gender guesses and was able to also get Baby A to cooperate. Are you ready to know? Drum roll please!
The Mottlets are three girls and one boy!
After making fetal measurements, the nurse did my first cervical measurement. Then Dr. Gonzales came in, looked over the pictures, and spoke with us. The babies are measuring 5- 6 ounces, Baby A is the big 6 ounce girl. She is in the 92nd percentile! Their heartbeats ranged from 140-150 bpm. Dr. Gonzales was much more personable this time. He smiled as he spoke with us and confirmed that my cervix is doing well, holding strong.
Donny and I headed down to the second floor with smiles on our faces! In our appointment with Dr. Straughn I was able to run down my symptoms. All of them were expected pregnancy symptoms. Well, all but the rib muscle that I pulled today. I'm moving like an old lady. Man a pulled muscle hurts! Every move and cough hurts! I think it was a combination of coughing, throwing up the other night, and the pressure on my ribs as I grow bigger and bigger.
On a more positive note, our babies are movers! I feel them nearly every day now. This morning from 4 -7 they were practicing their ninja skills. It's hard to sleep when four babies are flipping and kicking around inside you! It's sleep I'd gladly miss, just to know our Mottlets are happy and healthy. Please continue praying that the babies grow, my cervix stays strong and tightly closed, an my BP stays regulated. All of your prayers and support are so incredibly appreciated!
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Don't Rain On My Parade
So what does it mean when I'm updating my blog on a school day, during school hours? That's right, I'm sick! The little germ factories have struck again. I could tell on Thursday that my lingering cough - you know the one that likes to make me lose my meals- was getting worse. A bunch of the kids in my class had been hacking too. I knew I was getting a cold. So, ever after resting in bed or on the couch all weekend, I still had to take a sick day. That does mean I have to time to update you on the two most recent doctor visits as I sit hear cocooned in pillows.
We saw Dr. Gonzales for the first time on January 28th. He is the perinatologist at Brookwood. First they took us back to the nicest ultrasound room I've ever been in, huge! It had a nice long bed beside the screen, a row of chairs along the wall, and plenty of space for the equipment, a desk, and a few other pieces of furniture. The overhead lights were out, but a pretty table lamp shed a warm glow in the corner. The tech who called us back then set to work doing the most through ultrasound I've ever had. She'd checked organs - heart, diaphragm, stomach, and brain. She located key developing bones- growth plates in the skull, tibia and fibula, radius and ulna, and the little nasal bone. She measured them all from head to rump to confirm due date. Thankfully they all were measuring one to two days ahead of schedule and no one was lagging or small. She located and measured all the heartbeats. A few babies gave her a hard time and kept wiggling away as soon as she found the heartbeat. You'd hear the woosh-woosh-woosh of a heart for a second then it would turn to garbled white noise as the tiny patient squirmed away. We watched them practice swallowing, squirming, waving arms and legs. The imaging equipment was incredibly clear! Their tiny profiles were easy to see. It is amazing what bonding can take place just by watching your unborn children. We even got gender guesses for three babies. Baby A was not cooperating. I'm going to wait to share genders here on the blog until we have them confirmed sat my next appointment with Dr. Gonzales.
So, we were on cloud nine! Our babies were growing! They were moving! Then the tech said, "ok, I'm going to show these to Dr. Gonzales and then he will come in ands tell you everything that can go wrong." Thunderclouds overhead, he was going to rain on my parade. We knew it was coming. Of course he'd have to share all the possible nasty scenarios. I had to make a run for the bathroom before he came in - too much pushing on the bladder- and when I returned he was already in the room. The tech flipped through the images pretty quickly as he watched. I guess he found nothing to cause alarm, because he didn't refer back to the images during the rest of the consultation. Basically the biggest scary concerns he had were these: preterm delivery before viability, blood pressure issues, and distribution of nutrition as the babies grow. There were more, but these struck home.
Basically, he said preterm labor, once it begins, can only be delayed a few hours at best. 40% of quadruplet sets are born before 24 week, before they can survive outside the womb. There is no good information on why it happens. When the babies decide they are coming then they are coming. The hospital will take steps to medically intervene from 24 weeks on, but not before that.
I already have high blood pressure that is controlled on medication. He said that the blood volume increase needed to support four babies may be more than my circulatory system can handle. My blood vessels can on stretch so far and my heart can only pump so much. He said with my preexisting blood pressure issues, this could cause us to have problems. If my blood pressure goes too high they might have to deliver the babies early, possibly even too early.
Then final concern will show up more later as the babies grow. If one baby has a greater surface area attachment between the placenta ands uterine wall, it will get more nutrition than the others. This would cause uneven growth, crowding out the ones receiving less nutrition. Finally the smallest baby may just decide they are all coming early.
See, rain, a downpour really. Selective reduction also reared it's ugly head once again, and once again we said a kind, but firm "no".
As you can imagine we left that appointment with mixed emotions. Our babies were growing, beautiful, and strong but WHAT IF?
Donny and I talked and were reminded that God entrusted us with these babies and this journey. He hasn't just started all of it in motion and then washed his hands of us and our babies. He is knitting them, all four of them, together. His plan is perfect. Even if the plan is one of the "what ifs" it is perfect. My quad mom friend told me that all I can do it eat, rest, and leave it in God's hands. That's what I intend to do.
Our most recent appointment was this past Friday morning. This time with Dr. Straughn. It was so much less stress! The ultrasound showed four strong heartbeats, but the tech didn't try to tell us the sex if Baby A....darn! Dr. Straughn answered our questions about when I should try to stay home from work, how to handle my cold, and how Hawk would fit in the picture at the hospital when the babies arrive ( that one had really been bugging Donny). She said all my lab work from the last visit looked great. My blood pressure was even normal, I told her that was because I hadn't been to work yet that day ;) It was fantastic to leave an appointment feeling good instead of worried. There was rain on our parade, but the sun came shining through bringing a rainbow of hope.
So now you are all caught up on my life carrying four babies. In the course of the time it took me to type this I've had to make a bathroom run, a snack run, and a refill my water jug run. Just imagine what life will be like as they grow! For now, I'll cough, sniffle, eat, and sleep the rest of this sick day away.
We saw Dr. Gonzales for the first time on January 28th. He is the perinatologist at Brookwood. First they took us back to the nicest ultrasound room I've ever been in, huge! It had a nice long bed beside the screen, a row of chairs along the wall, and plenty of space for the equipment, a desk, and a few other pieces of furniture. The overhead lights were out, but a pretty table lamp shed a warm glow in the corner. The tech who called us back then set to work doing the most through ultrasound I've ever had. She'd checked organs - heart, diaphragm, stomach, and brain. She located key developing bones- growth plates in the skull, tibia and fibula, radius and ulna, and the little nasal bone. She measured them all from head to rump to confirm due date. Thankfully they all were measuring one to two days ahead of schedule and no one was lagging or small. She located and measured all the heartbeats. A few babies gave her a hard time and kept wiggling away as soon as she found the heartbeat. You'd hear the woosh-woosh-woosh of a heart for a second then it would turn to garbled white noise as the tiny patient squirmed away. We watched them practice swallowing, squirming, waving arms and legs. The imaging equipment was incredibly clear! Their tiny profiles were easy to see. It is amazing what bonding can take place just by watching your unborn children. We even got gender guesses for three babies. Baby A was not cooperating. I'm going to wait to share genders here on the blog until we have them confirmed sat my next appointment with Dr. Gonzales.
So, we were on cloud nine! Our babies were growing! They were moving! Then the tech said, "ok, I'm going to show these to Dr. Gonzales and then he will come in ands tell you everything that can go wrong." Thunderclouds overhead, he was going to rain on my parade. We knew it was coming. Of course he'd have to share all the possible nasty scenarios. I had to make a run for the bathroom before he came in - too much pushing on the bladder- and when I returned he was already in the room. The tech flipped through the images pretty quickly as he watched. I guess he found nothing to cause alarm, because he didn't refer back to the images during the rest of the consultation. Basically the biggest scary concerns he had were these: preterm delivery before viability, blood pressure issues, and distribution of nutrition as the babies grow. There were more, but these struck home.
Basically, he said preterm labor, once it begins, can only be delayed a few hours at best. 40% of quadruplet sets are born before 24 week, before they can survive outside the womb. There is no good information on why it happens. When the babies decide they are coming then they are coming. The hospital will take steps to medically intervene from 24 weeks on, but not before that.
I already have high blood pressure that is controlled on medication. He said that the blood volume increase needed to support four babies may be more than my circulatory system can handle. My blood vessels can on stretch so far and my heart can only pump so much. He said with my preexisting blood pressure issues, this could cause us to have problems. If my blood pressure goes too high they might have to deliver the babies early, possibly even too early.
Then final concern will show up more later as the babies grow. If one baby has a greater surface area attachment between the placenta ands uterine wall, it will get more nutrition than the others. This would cause uneven growth, crowding out the ones receiving less nutrition. Finally the smallest baby may just decide they are all coming early.
See, rain, a downpour really. Selective reduction also reared it's ugly head once again, and once again we said a kind, but firm "no".
As you can imagine we left that appointment with mixed emotions. Our babies were growing, beautiful, and strong but WHAT IF?
Donny and I talked and were reminded that God entrusted us with these babies and this journey. He hasn't just started all of it in motion and then washed his hands of us and our babies. He is knitting them, all four of them, together. His plan is perfect. Even if the plan is one of the "what ifs" it is perfect. My quad mom friend told me that all I can do it eat, rest, and leave it in God's hands. That's what I intend to do.
Our most recent appointment was this past Friday morning. This time with Dr. Straughn. It was so much less stress! The ultrasound showed four strong heartbeats, but the tech didn't try to tell us the sex if Baby A....darn! Dr. Straughn answered our questions about when I should try to stay home from work, how to handle my cold, and how Hawk would fit in the picture at the hospital when the babies arrive ( that one had really been bugging Donny). She said all my lab work from the last visit looked great. My blood pressure was even normal, I told her that was because I hadn't been to work yet that day ;) It was fantastic to leave an appointment feeling good instead of worried. There was rain on our parade, but the sun came shining through bringing a rainbow of hope.
So now you are all caught up on my life carrying four babies. In the course of the time it took me to type this I've had to make a bathroom run, a snack run, and a refill my water jug run. Just imagine what life will be like as they grow! For now, I'll cough, sniffle, eat, and sleep the rest of this sick day away.
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