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Pregnant with Twins: Diary
Month One: I knew something was different immediately. I always had a regular menstrual cycle, but on the day my period was due I spotted and then nothing. I confirmed my suspicions with a positive home pregnancy test. The dad-to-be and I met with my ob/gyn the next day. Although the sonogram did not show anything, the doctor’s office confirmed the pregnancy with another pregnancy test. A week later the dad-to-be and I went back to my doctor’s office, and the sonogram showed a single round fertilized ovum.
Month Two: I remembered my friends telling me about occasional morning sickness, but this was ridiculous. I was throwing up every morning and every night. I even lost some weight. When I went back to the doctor’s office, I threw up there. The doctor said that it was a good sign that everything was progressing fine (that was her opinion), but when she looked at the sonogram, the excessive morning sickness made more sense. She boxed off two pictures and asked me, “What do you think about this?” Staring at the two boxes, it took me and the dad-to-be a minute to realize that there were two babies on the screen. Two heart beats, four arms, four hands, four legs, four feet, and not one twin anywhere in the dad-to-be or my family. The doctor explained to us that since I was carrying two fetuses - Baby “A” and Baby “B,” the hormones were doubled; hence, the really bad morning sickness. I was classified as a high risk pregnancy because it was a multiple pregnancy. Oh, joy.
Month Three: My skirts were replaced with stretch pants, but the morning sickness did let up after the twelfth week, like my doctor promised. It was the longest twelve weeks of my life.
Month Four: I experienced no glow phase. As soon as the morning sickness stopped, the back aches began. The dad-to-be and I heard the heart beats at the doctor’s office, and we already picked out names. Baby “A” would be named Tara or Todd. Baby “B” would be named Abigail or Randy III.
Month Five: I felt the babies move. It felt like a bunch of muscle twitches. Everyone commented that they thought I would look a lot bigger than I did. I saw a Perinatologist, who said that there was one placenta. Therefore, she thought the twins are identical. She also noticed extra fluid on Baby “B’s” brain.
Month Six: We decide to do an amniocentesis test. It confirmed Baby “B” was a girl, and she was diagnosed as “hydrocephalus.” The Perinatologist said that it meant she had extra CSF fluid on the brain. I was also told that it could be routinely treated with a shunt. The shunt would drain the excess fluid from her brain into the abdominal cavity. Nothing involving drilling a hole in my baby’s skull sounded routine.
Month Seven: I felt the babies roll over from opposite sides of my stomach. They bumped into each other, and they must have scared each other because they immediately moved back into their respective sides. Bumps protruded from my stomach as my babies moved around. It looked like aliens had invaded my body.
Month Eight: Nothing fit any more. I had trouble sleeping and lying down because I became very short of breath. The “you don’t look pregnant with twins” comments stopped. It was my senior year of college, and I could no longer fit into the school’s desk as I took my finals to graduate.
Month Nine: I filled the bath tub up three or four times a day and lied still. The water was the only thing that made me comfortable. One night I began itching terribly. I called the doctor and went into the hospital for observation. The on-call doctor said the itching was my body reacting to the changing hormones. Although my ultrasound was scheduled in two days, the on-call doctor decided, since I was already in the hospital, to go ahead with an ultrasound before discharging me. She noticed Baby “B” was not receiving enough oxygen, and her heart was over correcting. They did an emergency C-section and spared me any feeling of labor pains. Tara and Abigail were born at 36 weeks. We were able to go home three days later, and I exclusively breast fed both of them until Tara got her first tooth. Abigail’s surgery was successful. She had no complications and is as healthy as her sister. What an experience!
Click here to read other articles by Sarah V. Richard
Copyright © Sarah V. Richard lives in the New Orleans area. She is the author of the children’s book, "Is Christmas Coming?" Visit DiskUs Publishing. Reprinted with permission.
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