http://www.myregistry.com/giftlist/avakevin
Kevin and I have to be a bit unorthodox when it comes to our first children and having a shower to honor them. We didn’t realize how tricky having twins and being 5-6 hours away from family and friends could be.
Twins in general are high risk and involve many more trips to the doctors office and many more ultrasounds. Twins have to be seen every two weeks till delivery without complications! So with our recent surgery we now will be seeing our doctor every week until their delivery which will more likely be late May rather than early June. This is where we are asking for help if anyone wants to give it. I’ve linked our registry above if you would like to help Kevin and I out to get the things we need before our babies arrival. (You May need to copy and paste if the “link” doesn’t work) We thank you you so much for your love and support of our family.
we love gender neutral colors especially ones seen in our registry as well as these images above—I love the idea of sharing clothes regardless of what gender a child may be.
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On February 11th we were hoping for good news on Daddy’s birthday. We were hoping to hear that little A made enough fluid on their own and that the little one just needed some time to grow. However, when I looked at the ultrasound I could tell that we weren’t getting that news. The previous week I kept trying to ask little A to be be okay and to get healthy, but it was out of this little baby’s hands.
Our high-risk doctor gave us good news and “bad news”: good news was that we could still see both bladders and the the blood flow still looked really good, but the fluid levels were even more exaggerated between the babies indicating that they were going towards Twin to Twin Transfer Sundrome. I had slightly “joked” with my mother earlier that week saying that we’ll probably fall into the category out of my luck, since well, it took me long to get pregnant, then out of sheer luck of the universe I was given identical twins (a 3% chance mind you) and most of my life I’ve seemed to fall into that “there’s a slight chance” category. Having that gut feeling made the news not as frightening since I was already preparing for it—although I did shed tears in the room just because I just wanted my babies to be healthy. In what felt like a whirlwind my little family had to head to to MD within a day to make an appointment at Johns Hopkins. The poor furbaby had to fight her anxiety of being in a car and exploring new places as we had to fight our fears of what might happen to our little ones. After my ultrasound with the specialist we met in the conference room to discuss what she found. Out of her mouth came the diagnosis: stage 1 TTTS and selective uterine growth restriction. I remember having to think “take in the information don’t let your hormones get the best of you, don’t cry right now.” We were explained that stage one was mild and that they had to wait and see where the babies would progress; they didn’t want to operate if they didn’t have to. That friday we went in again and and we were actually kind of surprised to see that the little one actually made some fluid. Little A was trying with all their might to survive in the conditions they were given. However, the larger baby had also made more fluid signifying that a surgery was necessary to make sure both babies survived. When you learn about TTTS you hear that if nothing is to be done that there is an 80-100% chance that the babies would not survive. This knowledge haunts me to this day. This meant the surgery was the only choice to make to give them life. The surgery went well, really well. The most painful things that day: the catheter going in & the local anesthetic needle. The rest was just tolerable. One of the worst parts of the surgery was how I was suppose to breathe I was told that I could not take deep belly breaths, I had to take shallow breaths into my chest to help the doctors navigate the amniotic sacs. This was very challenging for two reasons: one being that deep belly breaths are part of my profession and the other is that deep belly breaths is the main way I keep myself calm. Luckily Kevin was there to talk me through and keep me on track. Both ultrasounds following the surgery gave us good news and it seems both babies are doing great. I am an advocate of less is more when it comes to birth. I truly believe that the woman’s body is meant to give birth. Baby size and pelvis size do not matter and there is plenty of research to show that. What I was taught and what I believe is that if you give a woman time and a stress free environment she’ll do what nature intends. However, I truly know now that this does apply to women who are considered low risk, women who are having one baby and who are overal healthy individuals. My pregnancy sadly is not low risk and is a high risk. Thankfully medicine has helped my high risk pregnancy and my babies (fingers crossed) hopefully will be able to be with me till hair 36th week—which is the week of May 22nd not June 9th like I had thought 😂 |
Ava Elise
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