Our Babies are Here!

As predicted, we slipped on the banana peel way earlier that we had planned.  On Tuesday, December 18 at 10:19 pm, our babies were born via emergent C-section after Andrew massively failed his NST at 9pm.  Andrew Cole weighed  2 pounds 5 ounces (and within minutes in the NICU, 2 pounds 8 ounces) and was 14" long.  Anna Catherine weighed 1 pound 13 ounces and was 14.25" long.  Anna was tiny, but strong and healthy.  Andrew was larger, but far sicker.  He was in DIC and had a severe metabolic acidosis.
Since then, both babies have been in the NICU on ventilators.  Anna is doing wonderfully and Andrew has struggled, though he has maintained good hemodynamic stability.  Because Blogger is so difficult to post and deal with, I have decided to chronicle their "stories" on Facebook.  Their page name is The Sawinski Twins: Bringing Home Anna and Andrew.  Now that it has been established, I will likely quit posting here on the blog.
Please keep our babies in your prayers as they have a long NICU course ahead of them. 

29 Weeks and a Bannana Peel

Today (or tomorrow depending on how you calculate things), marks 29 weeks of being pregnant.  While this isn't much of an accomplishment for most, it is definitely a milestone for us.  Frankly, each week that the babies stay "inside" is a huge blessing for all of us. 

I'm still in the hospital and still on bed rest.  We also still get non-stress tests every 8 hours and daily biophysical profiles performed.  Both babies have reversed flow as of today, which is not a positive thing...it's worse than the absent diastolic flow.  The good news though is that both are continuing to ace their monitoring and BPPs with perfect scores!  As long as they are doing this, we will continue to wait and allow them to grow.

My new analogy for this process is "feeling like I have one foot on a banana peel."  The babies are behaving well, though the cord situation is worsening.  At some point, my foot will "slip" and we will be emergently/urgently c-sectioned.  For people like me who have always planned everything...it's tough not knowing when this will happen!

We were told this weekend that our situation is extremely rare and could not have been prevented or controlled in any way.  It just happened...  Thankfully, it was found and we are the benefactors of very modern medicine and great physicians. 

Please continue to keep our babies in your prayers.  Adam and I are fine and are blessed to have Mom and Dad here, as well as several great friends.  Obviously, our concerns are with the babies and we are just praying that I can continue to provide them a comfortable environment to grow and become stronger. 

28 Weeks...And a Serious Change of Plans





On Tuesday, Adam and I went to our "routine" 28 week Maternal Fetal Medicine appointment.  We knew our babies had been measuring a touch small, but otherwise were really happy with how they seemed to be moving more and my belly was growing slightly.  To be honest, I was feeling great! 

Our ultrasound (routinely performed for several reasons) showed AEDF in both babies, something relatively rare in dichorionic/diamniotic twins.  I'll let you use Dr. Google if you care to learn more, as it's fairly complicated!  The treatment for it is bedrest, decreasing the blood pressure (if this is an issue), and watching the babies closely for an advancement to REDF.  Once REDF happens, the mortality is 100% if missed.  In layman's terms, this means that the babies will die.  We were admitted directly to the hospital and told to plan on being there between 5 days (which would be the case only if flow came back) and until birth.  On Wednesday, both babies had REDF...so we were told that we would not be going home until delivery.  Period.  No discussion.

The babies are back to AEDF now and will hopefully stay there or improve (not as likely).  They are tested every 8 hours as well as every morning with ultrasound to evaluate their cord flow and other BPP values. So far, they are getting perfect scores daily.  As long as this is the case, we allow them to continue to "grow" inside of me.  Once they fail, which will likely happen at some point before 34 weeks, I'll have an urgent/emergent c-section and the babies will be spending several weeks in the NICU.

Obviously, we never dreamed of anything like this happening to us and our babies.  But, we are VERY thankful we didn't postpone our appointment (which we considered because I was moving my office this week) as our situation could have been tragic.  Our babies and I are well for now (minus this problem) and are taking everything one day at a time.  Many of you have emailed, called, messaged, and texted these past few days and we really appreciate it!  Thank you for these and your prayers.  All 4 of us can definitely use them!

BTW...  The photo on top is what we are now experts in.  Basically, the top line is "normal" flow.  The second is absent diastolic flow (what we have), and the third is reverse diastolic flow (what we had Wednesday, which is basically me "stealing" blood and nutrition from the babies).  Every morning, we look at these to see where things are...talk about nerve-wracking.  The good news though is that I'm responding well to the strict bedrest and everything else (blood pressures, blood sugars, thyroid levels, etc.) seems to be going perfectly.  So now...we wait.

27 Weeks 4 Days



Baby Girl Sawinski profile...finally!

I'm a tad later than I had planned on this update, but life has been kind of crazy!  Last Friday, we went to the MFM office for a growth ultrasound.  The babies looked great, but are definitely going to be tiny little mites.  Our little girl was in the 14% percentile and our little boy was in the 17% percentile.  Neither weighed 2 pounds yet.  Both were active and rather cooperative, which meant that the ultrasound only took about an hour!  We left the office, had a nice breakfast, and then I went to the office to work a few hours.

On Saturday, I just didn't feel well at all.  My blood pressures were up, my swelling was rather bad considering that I was just getting out of bed, and I had a headache that didn't go away with tylenol.  I asked my collegue if he thought I should call my MFM, and he said "yes."  So, I called and was told to come on up to the OB ER...with plans to stay overnight.  So, Mom, Adam, and I headed up.  We were there about 4 hours and had several tests done.  Other than BPs (which improved while I was stuck on the stretcher for 2 hours), everything looked great!  So, I was released and told to check my BPs several times a day and to start checking my urine for protein.  I've been a good patient this week and so far, everything looks good.  My BPs are a touch high, but not high enough for the MFMs to increase my meds.  Now, we go back Tuesday.  That's the day I drink the nasty glucose drink for my diabetes test as well...so lots of fun!

Otherwise, I'm definitely looking a bit more pregnant.  I feel pretty decent, and feel very blessed to be doing so well at this stage of our pregnancy.  Because we know that our babies are now "viable," we went ahead a bought some diapers and wipes this weekend (good deal with nice gift card for later) and will be ordering our carseats next week.  I guess things are really getting real now!