I Crossed the Finish Line

So I realized that I had never posted the conclusion to what happened in my infertility marathon. I crossed the finish line on July 16th and received my two precious prizes Halle and Ben. I made it to 37 weeks on the nose. Ben weighed 6lbs and 13 oz and was 20 inches and Halle weighed 5lbs 13 oz and was 18.5 inches. They spent no time in the nicu, and I had them via csection.

My twin pregnancy went off without a hitch until the very end. Everything was very smooth. I did develop gestational diabetes, but I was able to manage it with diet so it wasn't a big deal. I did develop some itching though at some point during the third trimester, and I mentioned it to my doctors. It really only bothered me at night, but they said if it started bothering me during the day, I would need to get tested for cholestasis. Cholestasis is something that occurs in late term pregnancy that can result in stillborn birth. Anyway I didn't think I needed to get tested for it, but then on July 4th I felt a little itchy during the day. The following day when I was at the hospital for my stress test I asked them to run the lab work for cholestasis. The hospital called my doctor and she approved the blood work. Well then I don't hear anything about the results of this blood work. My itching during the day has subsided and it was only bad at night. My ob and mfm doctor look at my weekly appointments for the results from the hospital, but they can't find them. Anyway my ob goes out of town the week of July 10th and I see a different doctor and ask about my results; he says he will try to find them. On Friday, July 15th (our 11 year anniversary) I get a call at about 4:30 in the afternoon from the doctor saying that I need to go to the hospital the following morning and have a csection because I have cholestasis (the lab results were finally found) and maternal fetal medicine wants the babies out tomorrow. So I get the on call physician the following day who was my old ob. I switched obs because I felt like she was a space cadet and always told me to eat donuts and gain weight to get pregnant which got on my nerves. She's really nice, but just a bit dingy. Anyway, she did the csection. She did a great job. It was very routine and no big deal. However, she had to do one air head thing. She forgets to order my morphine pump before she leaves. So now I'm starting to feel pain and they can't get in touch with her because it's Saturday and something is wrong with her cell phone. Finally, they got in touch with her and I got morphine.

The babies and I were transported to our room. Things were still going great. I was in a bit of pain here and there, but I was walking around by the end of the day. Then the troubles began. Who knew you could develop preclampsia after pregnancy. You can and I did. Who knew you could develop PUPS after pregnancy. You can and I did. Who knew you could become severely anemic after pregnancy. You can and I did. I tried to breastfeed for three days while in the hospital, but it wasn't working and my milk wasn't coming in plus I had a myriad of other problems going on, so I threw in the towel. At the time I felt really bad about it, but it was the smartest thing I ever did for me. Not breastfeeding has really helped with my sanity and being able to give other people some responsibility for the twins and have a little break here and there.

Recovering from the csection took about 10 days before I felt somewhat better. At three weeks I started walking 3 miles and now I am run/walking three miles four mornings a week at 5:30 am. The twins will be six weeks on Saturday. They are good babies, but I never get more than 2-3 hours of uninterrupted sleep because one of them always need something. I call it groundhogs day at our house because every three hours I change, feed, stimulate and put the twins to bed. My husband does the 10 pm feeding by himself so I go to bed at 8:30. He has been awesome with them. If you have twins, you have to have a spouse who is committed and on board to give it 110% or you will be in big trouble.

I'm very active with the twins. Today we went to the outlets and the grocery store. They were great as usual. Right now they are having tummy time to help prevent flat head syndrome. I'm enjoying the twins, and I will be so happy when they both sleep 4 or 5 hours at a time. I'm off work until January so hopefully we will be in a good routine by then.

I'm so glad that I didn't give up and pursued CCRM. There were obstacles and set backs in my infertility marathon. My marathon was much different than many of my friends who easily crossed the finish line, but in the end I crossed the finish line and that's all that matters.