So I am officially into my third and final trimester which makes me very happy! The boys are still looking great and are as active as ever.
My perinatologist came by yesterday evening to check up on me and discussed with me a bit more about what their (my OB & peri) plan is. The main concerns that they have is that a) I'm bleeding and b) I'm already dilated to 3 cm. As far as the bleeding, apparently it can be very unpredictable in pregnancy and can go from nothing to very heavy (as was the case when I came in) and that's a big issue. The other issue - my being 3 cm - is a big concern because my last labor was less than an hour and they don't want to send me home to give birth on the way to the hospital. I figured as much with both and my OB had said as much but at least now I know where my peri stands since my OB said it is ultimately up to my peri as to if they release me prior to delivery.
I will have the steroid shots repeated (did I mention this in my last post??) around 29 weeks. They want me to have ultrasounds weekly to check fluid levels and the boys' positions and growth ultrasounds every three weeks. My peri also said they've officially changed their policies on mono-chorionic twins in that the farthest they'll let me go is 36 weeks so I have 7/8 weeks left at most if these boys hang in there. My OB is having me do my glucose test this week (GAG) also which I'm definitely NOT looking forward to. Hopefully I'll still have an option of something other than orange even though I won't be going to the lab to do it. I do get wheel chair rides 1 hr a day now which makes me SO excited as I haven't been outside since the Tuesday that I came in for the bleeding. Paul was able to come up for a little while and take me outside and I cannot tell you how good it felt to breathe in the outside air (even if someone was totally ignoring the "NO SMOKING" sign. *sigh*
Every day I have an NST (non-stress test) to check on the boys' heart rates and my contractions. They need a solid 20 minute strip on their heartbeats before I can come off the monitor. Almost every single day someone from L&D has to come to the floor and help track down the boys so they can get a solid strip. Thursday was quite interesting during my NST. The floor nurse came in and tried to get me on the monitors. She was able to get Grant on pretty quickly but was having a heck of a time tracking down Bryce. After fighting with it for about 15 minutes or so, she called up L&D and asked someone to come help (they monitor me from L&D Triage). A triage nurse came in, found a heartbeat and went back to watch the monitors. I realized after she left that they were tracking the same baby. So, about 10 minutes later, here comes a nurse from L&D. She tries and tries to find Bryce and then calls for the ultrasound machine to locate the heartbeats. This whole time both boys were moving so we knew both were ok. They just had to have that 20 minute strip. A nurse comes in with the ultrasound machine and they find the heartbeats. However, when they looked at the strip, they were still tracking the same baby so after about 15-20 minutes of trying to figure out where two separate heartbeats were, in came the OB hospitalist. He used the ultrasound machine and found that Grant and Bryce were back to back which explained the difficulty finding two distinct heartbeats. By the time I was able to get off the monitor, I'd been on the monitor for over two hours. I honestly feel so bad for the nursing staff every time the words "they want you on the monitor" are mentioned because its almost always a chase/challenge to get both boys on the monitor and get them to STAY on the monitor for long enough to get a good strip. I'm very blessed to have fantastic nurses who keep a smile even when the boys are being difficult.
So, overall we're doing very well and only 7-8 more weeks at most! :)
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