Let me start by saying, twin pregnancy is NO joke and if you’re wanting a story about how glamorous pregnancy is, this is not it!
After going through two singleton pregnancies before, I thought I had some idea of what my third pregnancy would be like. I didn’t have morning sickness with Finn but I did in the first 3 months with Leo, although it was manageable and then the rest of the pregnancy was pretty straight forward.
Obviously not knowing I was having twins when I found out I was pregnant this time round, I was very unsuspecting. At five weeks, I started to become very, very ill. Luckily, I was off work at the time because I could barely make it out of bed. I wasn’t vomiting, it was just constant nausea from the minute I woke to the minute I went to sleep. In fact I wish I could have vomited to get at least a moments relief. I was put off almost every food that I enjoyed previously and the only things I could stomach were stone-fruits, fruit ice-blocks and hot chips.
Being the stubborn person I am, I refused any anti-nausea medication and at about 8 weeks I resorted to gorging on ginger chew lollies from the health stores to get me through (they did work for an hour or so at a time).
It was at 8.5 weeks also that I found out we were having twins, much to our VERY big surprise (my previous post explains about finding out). From there everything started to become a little bit foreign to me because I knew they were higher risk. I ditched my pregnancy multivitamin and started on a huge amount of folic acid as prescribed by my midwife (5mg I believe), iodine and iron tablets.
The iron of course made me constipated and in turn caused me to get haemorrhoids. It was around 13 weeks that I woke up one morning with SEVERE cramps that I told my husband I thought we were losing them. I was bent over the bathroom sink like I was in labour. It was actually horrendous. Turns out, I just needed to do a poo and the combination of iron as well as two babes cramping my uterus had made that very difficult. I am happy to report that this was the only time that happened and I have a very good stash of Kiwi Crush in the freezer should I need it.
It was also at this time that I ended up in hospital due to severe tooth pain. I knew pregnancy could make your gums and mouth more susceptible to pain but this was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Please, if you are planning on getting pregnant, make sure your teeth are in good order before hand. This pain was worse than both my labours. I had a deep filling about 4 months prior to falling pregnant and it clearly erupted during the pregnancy and the nerve was not happy. It took a trip to A & E, a number of pain relief meds that I desperately did not want to take but had no choice AND two visits to different dentists before they finally figured out was wrong, removed my existing filling and loosened it with a temporary filling and antibiotic. This should get me through the remainder of the pregnancy until they can extract the tooth afterwards (or root canal if I choose to keep it as it’s my back molar). Sensodyne toothpaste has also been a big help with the sensitivity of my gums and teeth and is safe in pregnancy.
At 12.5 weeks we had our first growth scan which is also the scan that tests for abnormalities like down syndrome. Our twins are di-di which means they are in separate sacs with their own placentas. There is always a leading twin who is bigger and for us, that is also our naughty twin. Our smaller twin was sitting quietly and able to be measured and everything was fine. Our bigger twin was doing flips and they couldn’t get the measurements they needed. The sonographer said I would need to come back to try its measurements again but as my leading twin was measuring ahead of gestational age we were almost past the point of being able to do the test. I went back the following week and they were still unable to get the measurements, however the lady managed to get something that she believed would be enough to suffice (even though its neck was curved when they should be lying flat). Well that day my midwife called me and said the results had shown that my second twin was in the 95% percentile which meant it was “high risk”. How they determine this is usually by the nuchal fold in the neck. The cut off I believe is 3.5mm and our leading twin was 3.1mm (which still wasn’t over the threshold). I want to stress something here, you will know if something seems off and I felt this was very off. The sonographer had not been able to get a proper measurement AND the age of the twin was on the cut-off of being able to tests. Of course, I was still beside myself worried sick. My midwife told me to wait for the combination blood test but if I wanted a more accurate result I could pay $595 for the Illumi test which is a pretty new test to New Zealand (it’s called the Harmony test in Australia). The Illumi test basically gives you a much more accurate risk percentage rate for these tests as the current testing (ultrasound with combined bloods) can give off a lot of false positives. Of course being the anxious person I am, I decided I could not wait for the blood test results and I went and had the Illumi test done that day. It was a very anxious wait for those next few days awaiting the results but something in my heart knew we would be OK. When we got the results, they were all low risk which was a huge weight off my shoulders.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with having a child with down syndrome or a chromosome abnormality but of course all mothers hope for a healthy baby and would want to be prepared for anything else. What I am saying is though to trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right and also, if you do get a “high risk” result, it may not always be the case. I have had friends who have returned a high risk result and have had to go through with the invasive Amniocentesis testing to then get a low result. I hope that they fund the Illumi test in the future so that every mum has access to more accurate results.
And that so far my friends, has been our first trimester journey. It has definitely not been easy and I have found it difficult to enjoy my pregnancy but I hold on to hope that it will get easier in to the second and third trimester which I will share as they transpire. I do however feel so incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to grow TWO little beings at the same time, I mean isn’t that just crazy?! and I cannot wait until they are here and in my arms. Because in those moments, this will all be forgotten.
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