Our Baby Girls Are Here!!

Britian's hand grasping my finger

At 26 weeks and 5 days, on February 9th, 2011 at 9:37pm and 9:38pm respectively, Britian Dorothy Mae and Jillian Elaine Marie entered this world ready for the fight of their life.

Before I tell their story, I first want to thank all the prayer warriors that have lifted my girls and I up in prayer. They have the fight of their life ahead of them and can still use your continual thoughts and prayers.

Now for their story: At approximately 4pm on Wednesday 2/9 after a long day running errands I realized that I had not felt either girl move all day and could not remember them moving on Tuesday the day before either. I have been battling a head and chest cold and not been moving a lot myself so it didn't even cross my mind about their movement on Tuesday. When I laid down to count their kicks at 4pm on Wednesday I didn't feel anything, not even a hint of movement. Now I have to tell you that I am normally the type to talk myself out of these early pregnancy concerns. Even with this pregnancy I have talked myself out of other concerns I had and not called my OB, nothing to this scale, but more along the lines of contractions and nausea etc. Wednesday though those thoughts never even crossed my mind, I simply called knowing that not feeling them move at all was a real reason for concern. As I reflect upon this simple decision more, I know it was God telling me it was the right thing to do. He gave me the knowledge and confidence that I was doing what I needed for my girls.

Britian Dorothy Mae

By the time I got ahold of my doctor's office it was just after 5pm and they had just switched over to "after hours". So I was sent to labor and delivery at our local hospital where I would have delivered normally at full-term; about a 40 minute drive from my house in the country. My husband and I arrived at L&D just after 6pm. Shortly after 6pm my girls were on the ultrasound to check for heart rate and movement. Honestly, this was as far as I was expecting my L&D adventure to go. They were alive so all was well. I couldn't have been farther from the truth. After monitoring their heart rates for a while the realized that Britian was not having variations in her heartrate, known as accelerations and decelerations. Her heart rate tracing was a flat line compared to Jillian's tracing which was more of a typical wavy line with accels and decels. They gave me some oxygen hoping to wake up Britian. No luck.

Jillian Elaine Marie

After seeing no change in Britian's heart rate the bigger and more advanced ultrasound machine was called up to check on the girls. Most notably from that u/s was that Britian had a ton of fluid around her in her amniotic sac and also had a huge bladder and possible kidney issues. Jillian on the other hand had little to no fluid around her. Although at the time diagnosis' were not given, it now appears that within 2-3 days my girls had developed acute twin-to-twin transfusion. 3 weeks prior they were otherwise fine and I think it was only within the past 2-3 precious days because my belly discomfort shot through the roof in that time period. I simply thought it was because they were going through a growth spurt, but I now know it was because of all the fluid in my belly. In 3 weeks my fundal height increased 11cm, I was 38cm when I delivered last night. 3 weeks prior I was only 27cm.

Britian and Mommy

Because of Britian's combined conditions the OB on call made the tough decision to deliver my girls. Later she told me that even minutes before surgery she was still questioning her decision. However, once she cut into me she knew she had made the right decision and even thought that she should have rushed me to surgery and hour or more before when she actually did. As she cut into the amniotic fluid shot to the ceiling, there was so much and under so much pressure. Also, ironically on the heart rate tracing Jillian "looked" better but in reality she was and still is the more critical of the two. She did not have a heart beat for the first 20 minutes of her life and received CPR for about the first 45 minutes of her precious life. Britian on the other hand "looks" more developed. She was very swollen with fluid at birth. Her belly was basically one huge oval whereas her sister was just all skin and bones. Now, almost 24 hours after birth her swelling has gone down and she resembles Jillian much more. Both girls' eyelids are still fused shut which is odd. Fused eyelids is more of a 23-weeker characteristic, at 26-weekers their eyes should have opened by now. At approximately 1:30am CST the girls were driven by ambulance from the hospital we delivered at to the closest level 3 NICU, nearly 2 hours from our home. There was concern that Jillian would not survive the drive but thankfully she did.

Jillian's hand grasping my finger

Early this morning, 2/10 I got a call from the girls' on call NICU Dr. saying that Jillian had crashed and was not doing well at all. She was at basically room air oxygen saturation but suddenly crashed and had low blood count as well as low blood pressure. They wanted to know when I would be able to get to see them, there was extreme urgency because Jillian may not be alive for much longer. At this time my OB post partum staff went into over drive. After waiting for insurance approval and receiving a few updated vaccines myself I was loaded into a transport ambulance and brought here to be with them and finish my own recovery.

In an answer to prayers Jillian was alive when I arrived. To date she has received a few blood transfusions and will probably continue to do so because of low hemoglobin. She is also being treated for low level jaundice. Britian will most likely get the bili lights at some point too because a preemie with out a touch of jaundice at some point is almost unheard of. I have been to see the girls quite a bit today along with my husband. I have been able to touch them both, what a blessing that has been. They both seem to be responding to my voice as well, Britian more so than her sister but Jillian is still fighting harder than Britian so her less movement is understandable.

Jillian covered with saran wrap over her to keep her skin hydrated

Blessings for today include: they have both survived (almost) their first 24 hours (we are 1.5 hours away from 24 hours post delivery). Also, preliminary scans of Jillian's head is not showing any bleeding which was a huge concern earlier today.

Britian's bladder and kidneys are still larger than normal but she is peeing a good deal as well. She may have urinary reflux. But in contrast to everything else that could be wrong with her, I will take renal surgery down the road compared to the alternatives

On a personal side of this event I had a vertical c/s incision because of the emergency surgery. Also, I was put to sleep instead of receiving an epidural. During surgery I woke up, it felt like coming out of a deep sleep dream. I could feel my OB tugging on my belly, I couldn't talk because of the breathing tube down my throat, and worst of all I could hear the OR staff counting CPR compressions on my baby Jillian. Knowing how fragile how she was that caused an immediate sense of panic but I couldn't do anything about it. I started shaking my head and gagging on the breathing tube to let the OR staff know that I was waking up. I heard them call the anesthesiologist over to give me more medicine. At 11pm I woke up from surgery.

Again, I want to thank everyone who is praying for my girls. The outpouring of love, prayers, and well wishes has been overwhelming. It will be a very long road for my little girls, but I am hopeful that they will continue to improve.