Our journey to be parents: Protecting our Investments

Wow, this week has been another roller coaster ride of feelings and emotions and symptoms. Monday I woke up and I felt great and I got a lot of stuff done and I didn't even feel so bad in the evening, Yay! Tuesday day was more of the same good feelings, but then that damn nausea showed up again right at 6pm to ruin my evening. Wednesday I was exhausted ALL day and basically laid around in my PJ's all day because I had NO energy. Wednesday night I had a girls dinner and I had a little nausea come on about 6pm, but once I got to dinner I felt pretty good. Then as soon as I got home from dinner at 930pm, WOW, I had a horrible stomach ache and I really thought I was going to toss my dinner. Luckily, I didn't, but I am getting really tired of this nausea stuff.

Thursday Justin and I headed to the 2nd doctor we were considering. This doctor is called a Perinatologist. This means he only works with high-risk pregnant patients and nothing else. He is the one that was recommended very highly by our fertility doctor. We arrived and the first person we meet at the front office is a very nice cute little pregnant girl, who checks me in and I handed her my massive file of paperwork. The other 2 women working in the front reception area were not friendly at all, but this girl made up for it with her kind smile and warmth. Isn't it crazy how fast someone can make a first impression on you! We waited about 20 minutes in a very full waiting room and were finally called back for the first portion, which was the ultrasound.

The lady that came out to get us for the ultrasound was named Julie and she would be the one performing it as well. She was very straight forward, to the point, and well.... not very friendly. We got into the room and I assumed the position on the table. Justin and I were trying to make conversation with her while she was preparing, but she wasn't having it. Ok, that sucks! Anyway, this ultrasound room is set up so when I lay down and look forward about 5 feet in front of me up on the wall is a large monitor for Justin and I to view everything. That way she can have the whole ultrasound screen to herself. This ultrasound was different than any other we have had. She was very precise and looking for certain things like 2 sides to each brain, and 2 arms and 2 legs on each baby. She measured their lengths and found that one baby is about a centimeter longer than the other. She said this is still within normal range. I asked her if she could convert that into inches, (god I'm demanding!) so I could get a better idea of their size and she seemed perturbed, but figured it out for me anyway. She also measured the heartbeats which were 167 and 157, I think. Or somewhere around there. She said these are both normal as well. The babies were not as active today and only of of them was moving around a little. I think it might have been because I had eaten a little while before and they were in food coma like their momma. He he!!

During the entire ultrasound Justin and I were making comments and asking her questions and this woman was very dry, crabby, and just not friendly at all. I made a comment at the end that she has a really cool job and she made some negative remark like, "Well yea, MOST of the time it's ok." Ok, great I'm done trying with her for today. We were then led into the exam room to wait for the doctor. We waited what seemed like forever (which was only like 20 minutes), and the doctor finally came in. He was a skinny man with glasses and a short military style haircut. He immediately smiled and shook our hands and sat down to chat. And I must say he is exactly like our fertility doctor had described. He made dry humor jokes kind of under his breath during our entire conversation, which at first was weird and then I caught on to his humor. He is definitely quirky, nerdy, doctor-ish, but really seems to know his stuff.

This conversation went on for quite sometime, so I will try and summarize. His answers and thoughts:

Yes, I am high risk because I am carrying more than 1 baby, period. And just because I am healthy and everything is normal now with the pregnancy, there is a way higher chance of something developing that can make me need high-risk care. High-risk also means that you have a higher chance of going into pre-term labor, which is the case for most multiple pregnancies. So why not just begin our journey with a doctor who is super experienced in dealing with high-risk pregnancies. Better safe than sorry right? He highly suggested a non-invasive test called and NT screening which is where they measure the thickness of the back of the babies necks through ultrasound, and through a blood test with me, which gives them a very good indicator if either of the babies has a chromosome abnormality like Downs, or Trisomy. He said it is better to be prepared than not. He also talked about many other risks and abnormalities that can occur. Honestly, at the end of this portion of the conversation I was starting to get a little depressed because he was talking about all the bad stuff that can happen. This doctor likes to talk odds and percentages like 1 out of 220 or 60%, and after about 10 different statistics my brain was mush and I can't tell you which stat goes with what. He also talked about c-section versus labor, and his answer was much the same as the OBGYN I had seen last week. He said I should read this one certain book about multiples and it just so happens I had already bought it. He also said I need to be aware that I need to gain about 20-24lbs in the next 11 weeks or by week 24. He said he is looking for a total weight gain of about 40-50lbs!!!! Ahhh that is scary! He talked about symptoms, and vitamins I am taking, and I think some other things, but at that point, my brain was mushy and full and I think I went into la la land. He then did an exam and talked about how everything looked really good in our ultrasound. He put this cool doppler machine on my belly and we could hear the heartbeats of both babies through the speaker in the room. It was very cool!

I asked about the frequency of my visits and he said he would like to see me every 2 weeks and that I would have an ultrasound with those appointments about 90% of the time. Then once I reach 28 weeks, I would see him once a week. He asked me if I had done any pregnancy blood work and I said, No, and I knew we had to say something about going to the other OBGYN last week, because I felt conflicted at this point. I told him we saw her last week and we wanted to feel out both ends of the spectrum as far as an OBGYN vs a High Risk Specialist. He didn't seem to mind at all. I told him that the OBGYN had said I wasn't high risk and that I would be treated like a normal 1 baby pregnancy. He said, that we had to make the decision for ourselves and decide what is best for us. I looked at Justin and said that I thought we had spent too much time, money, emotion, tears, stress, and anxiety to not go with someone who deals ONLY with our type of case. Protect our investment right? And that was that. We are going with this doctor!

So he sent the nurse in to do my pregnancy blood work and Justin asked how many vials and she said, 7!!!!! Here we go again! Waterworks, on. Justin held my hand and this nurse did a GREAT job not making it too painful and before I knew it we were done. Whew!

I scheduled my 2 week appointment with them and also my NT screening will be done next Tuesday. I need to call and cancel my appointment with the OBGYN, but I am scared and luckily they are closed today (Friday), so I get a couple days to round up some courage to call on Monday. I am thinking I might just find a new OBGYN when this is all done and just have a fresh clean slate, just incase the OBGYN has hurt feelings.

Wow, yesterday was exhausting mentally and physically! I am just glad we have made a decision. Today I am feeling nauseous again, so I am going to sign off and go crawl in bed. Ugh!! Below are some ultrasound pictures from yesterday.