Happy Birthday!

Estelle (Stella) Marie and Alice Rose were born August 22nd 2012!!!  I was 34weeks and 4days along, and Stella weighed in at 5lb 6.5oz and Alice was 4lb 9.5oz!  What a whirlwind it's been!

My OB returned from vacation and had his first in office day on the 22nd.  On the 21st I was in having an NST and my blood pressure was unstable.  It was high at first but then went down later on.  I'd never had high bp in my life so I guess it's kind of a big deal.  They ran blood tests and all came back normal, so I was sent home.  I'd developed a lot of swelling, my feet, legs, and a "pouch" of water retention in my lower abdomen.  When I had my appointment with my OB my bp was again a bit high.  Given that there had been some worries about the dopplar readings from my ultrasounds, the variable bp issues, and that they thought there was a kilo difference in size between the girls, he felt it was time for them to join us.  He called to try to book my c-section for Friday, but they were completely booked...however they did have an opening for THAT DAY between 1:00-1:30pm.  It was 10am.

Needless to say I called Chris at work and he came to the hospital immediately...our friends came to pick up our older kids and the process started.  Anyone who has watched "Baby Story" on TLC knows how the rest of the process went..pre-op, spinal block, surgery, and of course the moments when each little one was pulled out of me, so amazing!  Both girls cried when they were born but they did require some breathing assistance..common for 34ish week gestation babies.

The next couple of days were stress filled.  Stella was born first and she appeared a bit blue at birth.  Upon initial examination the Pediatrician believed she had a heart murmur.  The next day she was sent to MacMaster hospital in Hamilton where she could be seen by cardiologists and specialists to see what exactly was going on with her heart.  Having our babies at separate hospitals was heart breaking and not knowing what was happening to our little girl that we didn't even know was petrifying!

After two days of tests, we finally heard from the cardiologist at Mac and got her diagnosis.  Stella has a congenital heart defect called "Ebstein's Anomoly".  Essentially a valve in her heart is misplaced, causing one of her heart chambers to be enlarged, and the same valve is also "leaky" which is what caused her to appear a bit blue at birth.  Thankfully hers is a very minor form of the defect and according to the cardiologist she should be able to live a long, healthy life without requiring treatment.  She will be followed closely as she grows to ensure everything is fine.  There is a chance that if she becomes an athlete that she could have problems, in which case treatment could be an option, possibly surgery.  I intend to speak to many cardiologists and get as many opinions and viewpoints as I can, just to see if perhaps a minor surgery when she's young might be preferred over waiting til she's an adult...but we have time to figure it all out.  The good news is she will be OK!

Alice has stayed at our local hospital and has been doing fairly well.  Unfortunately yesterday I heard from her Pediatrician that she has contracted an infection.  The blood cultures came back today and it's a form of blood infection, but thankfully she seems to be responding to antibiotic treatment.  It's a bit of a set back as this means she'll need to stay on IV's for at least 7-10 days to get the antibiotics, and her formula feeds have been slowed until she's kicked it.  Stella, however, has been off of IV's completely for a few days AND is on full formula feeds..AND has started taking a bottle as well!  I'm so proud of my little girls, they're fighting so hard and I just can not wait to bring them home.  Stella is finally returning to our local hospital from MacMaster TODAY, and we're so happy.  The girls are 6 days old now and I've only been able to hold Stella twice...she's definitely due for tons of cuddles!!

Thanks everyone for reading my blog, I look forward to continuing to update you all on our little girls progress!

Estelle (Stella) Marie

Alice Rose

                                                 

To C or Not to C, THAT is the Question.

Congratulations to my sister, brother in law and niece on the birth of their son and my nephew Luke!  He looks a LOT like his older sister when she was born, such a cutie!

Today I had a post-op appointment with my OB.  He was happy that all seems to be going well and that I haven't had any problems since the surgery.

One big decision I'll have to make before these little ones join us is whether to attempt a vaginal birth or choose to have an elective cesearian.  I know most of you are thinking "Why on earth would she want an elective cesearian???"...well, lets go over it.

Lets say I choose to have a cesearian.  The benefits are, I would be able to have MY doctor deliver the babies...otherwise I'll be at the mercy of whatever doc is on call at the time.  Also, I asked my doc today and he confirmed that if the elective cesearian was my choice that he could do a tubal ligation at the same time, so I wouldn't have to have that as a separate procedure later.
      The downside of a cesearian is of course the fact that it is a major surgery.  Recovery time is much longer than a regular vaginal delievery, and I'd inevitably have some scars (which isn't a real issue with me since the scar would just go along with my stretch marks..ha ha..).

Alright, so if I decide to have the babies vaginally lets look at the positives.  I would have a faster recovery.  Studies have shown that babies actually benefit from the process of labour and delivery because the contractions help the babies lungs prepare to breathe air.  I would have a short hospital stay.
     Those are pretty significant benefits, however, there are some big negatives to attempting a vaginal birth this time around.  First of all, I'd only be able to attempt vaginal if the first baby is head down.  Otherwise it would be a cesearian since most doctors around here won't even attempt a breech birth.  So, assuming the first is head down, and the second one is breech, it's possible that I could still deliver both vaginally, but there's about a 50% chance that either the second one or both of them would need to be delivered by an emergency c-section (again, by the doctor on call, likely not MY doc).  Often the 2nd baby enjoys the extra room in the uterus left after the first baby is delivered and will "stretch out", making vaginal birth impossible.  Since the operating room wouldn't be booked for the tubal procedure as well as a cesearian I'd have to book the tubal for another time, and have a separate procedure for it.

So, I'll be considering the options for a while.  Of course I have a long time until I have to make the decision, but it's what I've been thinking about.

On another note, I've been feeling some movement!  The baby on the right is the one I've been feeling mostly, the one on the left is further back so I don't feel him or her as much.  It's pretty exciting though and I'm loving the little pokes!

So there's my update.  Next ultrasound is still booked for May 10...I've been impatiently waiting.  I can't wait to find out if they're boys or girls!