We were surprised at the beginning of the year that I was pregnant — with twins — at the ripe old age of 43. Despite my “advanced maternal age” and the fact that we were doubling up, things progressed normally until the 20 week ultrasound.
During the ultrasound, the doctors noticed a size discrepancy between the two babies — both girls, it appeared — with Baby A measuring substantially smaller than Baby B. At this point, they were both within the “normal” range, so we were scheduled to come back in four weeks to measure them again. Unfortunately, at 24 weeks, the size difference had grown even larger, and I was immediately admitted to the hospital and facing the possibility of delivering the babies right away.
While in the hospital, the babies were on 24-hour monitoring for three days (neither showed any signs of distress) and we did an amnio and more ultrasounds to find out what was going on. Apparently, Baby A’s placenta didn’t form properly, and was only delivering blood when my heart was actively beating, rather than having a continuous flow like it was supposed to. On the bright side, the results from both amnios came back normal — and we discovered Baby A was really a boy.
After much soul searching, John and I decided that it was too early to deliver, even if that meant increasing the risks to Baby A. I was sent home to be on active bed rest, as we continued to wait to see if Baby A would grow. At 26 weeks we were able to measure again, and he did not show any measurable growth. We again decided we weren’t ready to deliver, and went back home to keep our vigil.
We’ve now made it to 27 weeks, and will be going back to the doctor tomorrow to make sure Baby A is still surviving. If so, we will be delivering our babies on Friday (July 2nd) at 28 weeks.
