On Saturday, December 9th I woke up and realized I was leaking a small amount of fluid. After a call to the nurse hotline, Kev and I decided to come down to United to get checked out. The nurse gave me an Amnisure test to determine the source of the leak. The test came back negative, indicating that the fluid was not coming from the amniotic sac, and was simply just another pleasant side effect of the body adjusting to pregnancy. The nurse examined my cervix just to be safe and found that I was slightly dilated- about 1 cm. The team assured me that this all could all be ‘normal,’ and advised me to go home, relax, and get in to see my OB on Monday.
On Sunday I woke up with a bit more leaking, and decided to head back to United to play it safe and repeat the previous day’s tests. After an ultrasound and additional Amnisure tests the doctors determined that my cervix had thinned significantly (to .6) and I was indeed leaking amniotic fluid (water had broken/slow leak). My thinning cervix caused my body to think it was time to go into labor at 23 weeks. The doctors think that because of two sacs and two babies, my body expanded a little too quickly and my cervix took the brunt. The medical team has assured me there is nothing I did to cause this and nothing I could have done to prevent it from happening.
I was admitted to the high risk antepartum (pre childbirth) wing of the mother and baby center at United around 4pm on Sunday. The first priority was to get our little girls as prepared as possible for life outside the womb. They put me on an IV of magnesium to protects babies’ brains, steroids to strengthen their lungs, and an antibiotic to reduce the risk of infection. We have received two crucial rounds of this medication so babies are already better equipped for the real world!
Overnight on Sunday I started having contractions. The doctor increased my magnesium, which eventually stopped the contractions. The increase in magnesium made me sick, which led to baby A’s amniotic sac fully rupturing. At this point we all sort of braced ourselves for an imminent delivery.
Here we are about 28 hours later with ABSOLUTELY NO ACTION. We are thrilled as this is the best possible scenario for right now. Babies are seemingly unimpacted by everything that is going on- they continue to have strong heart rates and are staying very active! Baby B is still snug in her sac and Baby A has her sister’s cushion to lean on! At 23 weeks babies are perfectly fine without their amniotic fluid. They continue to produce their own fluid, and she is still getting all of the nutrients she needs through her umbilical cord and placenta. Lots of amazingness going on in there!
Right now we are thankful for every additional hour babies can grow inside of me! If I make it to 4pm today (Tuesday) without going into active labor we will have reached the big 48 hours hurdle. From there we are shooting for making it to Monday when babies will be 24 weeks. One day at a time!
Right now at the mother and baby center our room is sandwiched between the MN perinatal clinic (for high risk OB mamas) and the neonatal unit at children’s hospital (for the babes). We have heard so many times that we are in THE BEST POSSIBLE FACILITY for our situation. We met so many great care providers already! We feel well taken care of and lucky to be here!
Here is what we know: I will be in the hospital until babies are born. Babies will be born preterm- 34 weeks is absolute longest we will go. Right now we are at 23 weeks 1 day. Babies born early have an uphill battle ahead of them. Their chance of survival is lower and their susceptibility to complications is high. Each day babies are growing bigger and stronger and the risk factors continue to decrease. We are in good hands with the medical team that surrounds us. We are in even better hands with the love and prayers from the people in our lives. We feel your support and are so grateful to have it. These girls are tough cookies. We have made it through several big hurdles already, and we plan to have babies stay put for as long as possible. At this point we are watching to make sure there is no infection that comes on and that babies are not showing any signs of distress in the womb- so far so good! We will continue to take this challenge on one moment at a time
We will send updates as we have them- hopefully there will be nothing to report for quite some time!
Thank you for everything- we are such a lucky family!
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