2 weeks inpatient down!

So I haven't blogged in over a week....so that makes me 26 weeks and 2 days. Babies are doing great! I had an ultrasound this past week. They are measuring almost exactly the same, 1 week ahead and 2 lbs a piece. Wonderful news! With twins there is a concern for Twin to Twin Transfer Syndrom (TTTS) which is when one twin takes more of the nutrition from the other....but as of now things are looking like that isn't a concern for us....so YAHOO! They also did an ultrasound of the cords to determine if there were any big knots in the cords. The cords are tangled as to be expected, but the blood flow through them (which they measured the frequency and waves....some medical terms I wasn't 100% on) was great so as for now there is some reassurance that the cords are doing well. I also had a more detailed conversation with one of the doctor's about plan of care. He went over the studies that have been on momo twins, which I know some of you are still trying to figure out what that means and I will explain in a sec, and when we would be looking at a c-section depending on those studies. From the sounds of things, 32 weeks is sort of a magical week for me to get to as far as babies development and less chance for problems.....so 6 more weeks to hit that milestone....we can do it girls :)! At that time I would have a booster shot of steroids to help with lung development. Then at 34 weeks they would do an amniocentisis (the big needle they stick into my belly) to determine lung maturity. At that time if everything is a-ok they schedule the csection for ASAP. If not, they wait a week and schedule the csection for that week. Some docs in this practice will push for a 36 week delivery, but most will do 34-35. The reason is as long as development is up to par, they are safer out than in because of the threat of cord compression. The good news is, in the study that was done nationwide that my practice was involved in (the Heayborne study), they had 100% survival rate, meaning no fetal deaths. He didn't touch on deaths that may have happened after birth, and I didn't think to ask until now....so I will try to remember to ask that question.
As for those of you who still wonder, why did Em call her blog the Mullen MoMos. It is because my girls are in 1 sac with 1 placenta, monoamniotic monochorionic, nicknamed momo twins. Only 1% of twin pregnancies are this type. It is a very stressful pregnancy because from conception-24 weeks there is nothing that can be done to avoid cord entanglement or strangulation. I went in for weekly appointments that I would always have a lot of anxiety about because I wasn't sure what I was going to see on the screen, heartbeat or none? Thankfully I saw 2 heartbeats every appointment. To make matters a little more stressful, my placenta is an anterior placenta which means it is on the outside basically in between the babies and my skin. So when the babies first starting kicking and moving I couldn't really feel it because of the cushion.....so just added stress wondering if they were ok. I felt, and still feel, that the doctor's practice that I have been going to has been providing me with excellent care and I feel very comfortable with them. There is a study done on MoMo twins called the Heyborne study where they studied momo pregnancies nationwide. Basically the study shows the benefits of moms going inpatient as opposed to staying outpatient. Some women from other countries take the studyto their doctors to push for inpatient monitoring. I had read about the study as soon as I was confirmed momo. Come to find out, Dr. Heyborne is a doctor in the practice who is taking care of me....so I was very confident when I made that connection. So as I said, from conception-24 weeks nothing can be done to improve chance of survival. At 24-26 weeks women are admitted into the hospital until delivery to monitor the babies. I personally chose 24 because if something went wrong between that time and I wasn't in the hospital doing everything I could to improve the chance of getting my girls here safely, I would never forgive myself. At 24 weeks babies are considered viable; however, the survival rate of a 24 week old baby outside of the womb is not that great. That is why I got the steroid shots when I first got here. To help their lungs if they needed to come out. So from here on out, I monitor their heart rates 3 times a day for an hour at a time. They are watching for good accelerations and possible low deccelerations. So far I've had the good and not the bad. I also will be doing ultrasound every other week to measure growth. And all I can do is continue to pray and leave it up to the Big Man upstairs (as I have since I have known about these miracles) that they will be healthy.
As for the monitoring, they have for the most part done really well. I normally get them on within 5 minutes or so and they stay on for the hour. There have been a few VERY frustrating sessions where I continue to try, call for help, and the nurses don't respond very quickly so I feel like I am doing it all on my own. I don't think it's the nurses fault, I think it is whoever answers the call button at the nurses station. I don't think she is good about giving the nurses the messages. Saturday for example I spent about 30 minutes trying on my own and called for a nurse. She came in about 10 minutes later, tried for about 10 minutes and told me she needed to go check another patient and left me to keep trying. I finally after an hour and some odd minutes called the nurse again and said "I have been at this for an hour by myself for the most part and am getting very frustrated. Can someone please come help me?" In the meantime I realized the kitchen had screwed up my breakfast, so when the nurse walked in she was all cheery and asked if I was ok. I had a little melt down :). I said that I had been trying for an hour, the kitchen is always screwing up my food and I just want to go home....and started to cry! Being here is hard enough....being here expected to do the nurses job is even harder.....being here expected to the nurses job and apparently now the kitchen's....I can't handle it :)! Tonight started to get a little frustrating, but I voiced that frustration when the nurse told me to call out after 10 minutes of trying. I said I did and that I had to call back a 2nd time after waiting 15 minutes because no one came. She said she never got the message. I know it's not their fault...but something needs to be done about response time. This hospital is known for the NICU and that's why I am here. But it would be nice if the stay leading up to that was as pleasant as possible with nurses who respond quickly.
Let's see.....Bear and Louis have spent the night twice I think since my last blog. The first time it took quite a while to get him to go to sleep....but I think it's because I monitored a little later than normal and that was distracting to him. Last time he fell asleep with me in my bed for a bit and then we moved him to the pack n play. It was nice to lay with him for a bit :). He also woke up pretty early the next morning having a bad dream I think, and he called out for me.....it was nice to be able to be here for him and put him in bed with me. He's doing great with Louis and the bond they are going to have when this is all said and done is going to be so strong....but I think he is still adjusting to mommy being gone. His sleep schedule is a mess and because of that he won't go to sleep unless daddy is laying in his bed with him. Before I came in, he would get into his big boy bed, one of us would read him a book, we would both then say night night to him and he would go to sleep with no problems.....that hasn't happened since I've been here. So I am feeling some guilt about that. It makes me sad that his little world is turned half way upside down and there is nothing I can do about it.....but I have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it. He has begun to say bye bye to his sisters when he leaves to go home from his visits. It's cute. We also saw a newborn baby in the nursery over the weekend and he seemed very intrigued. When he saw her he said "baby" all soft and quiet and when we were walking away he said "night night baby". It was too cute! He's going to make a great big brother.
So other than that, my niece/God daughter turned 3 on September 6th and they had her bday party over the weekend. I wish I could have been there...but Louis and Barrett went so that made me happy. Erin, my sister-in-law, brought me down some yummy cake to enjoy.....she's so sweet! I have had visitors every day so that makes the days a little bit easier. And I am still going to the pool....but no more bearded lady. She made it to 36 weeks so they sent her home to WY for delivery. I went to BINGO last week...won some mouth wash. I know, I know....Look out! Missed it this week because I had visitors. And I attempted to do some knitting tonight but didn't know how to end a row and start a new one. My mom said I just knit it like the rest of the row...but something seemed wrong and I didn't want to keep starting over so I will wait until she can give me another lesson. I have watched lots of TV.....glad football season has started!, a few movies and read 2.5 books so far....oh and I can't forget the magazines my friends Jamie and Amanda got me....Tiger Beat and the Enquirer just to name a few :). OOHHH...and one other big "freedom", I am allowed to be wheeled out of my room and outside for 30-45 minutes. It was nice the 1st time I got fresh air again after staring out my window at the mountains and sunshine for a week! And it also gives me the flexibility of going down to the Cafeteria with visitors instead of sitting in my room and eating.....so that has been really nice.
So each week I get a little bit more excited about seeing what these identical girls are going to look like!!!! Hopefully we see an equal amount of both mommy and daddy. And we are still tossing around names. We thought we had Kaia and Kolbie pinned down for awhile. But after my husband's uncle pointed out, after I had already done so numerous times but Louis didn't agree, that identical twins should have different, separate names instead of sounding the same or starting with the same letter, Louis agreed! Why are men like that??? I say something, he doesn't listen. Another man says the same thing and he listens.....oh well! At least my original thought of not wanting their names to start with the same letter has seemed to come to fruition. Now I have to try and get him away from using the same middle name for both of them. But in some ways I guess that's not as bad because people don't really know other people's middle names.....and I have to let him have his say too on this. I named Barrett, he was supposed to name the next one....so since we get the 2fer deal we are going to compromise on some things......so names will come in time. You may not know them until they are here :).
Ok, well I surprisingly took Ambien an hour ago when I started this and my words are now finally starting to run together. I think it's time for me to stop babbling and go to bed. I will try to post more frequently.....over a week leads to a really long post and probably bored half of you to death. So off to sleepy sleep.....thanks for all your love and support. Night night!