The BEST Birthday Gift

We had another follow-up appointment at U of M this afternoon. Since we had gotten such a good report last week, Nate and I both felt pretty good about this ultrasound, but we started getting a little nervous as it got closer.

The first thing we saw on our ultrasound was both heartbeats, but our doctor seemed a little concerned and told us "one of your kiddos has a really slow heartbeat." We looked and, sure enough, one heart was beating much slower than the other. Nate and I were ready to just crumble. Our babies have survived so much, we immediately thought there was no way they would both survive if there was another major problem. She had me turn to my side since I was laying close to flat on my back, and when she put the scanner back on, the heart beat was back to normal!! As I mentioned in another post, laying flat on your back is NOT GOOD when you're pregnant, and this was evidence of that. The doc didn't seem too concerned, but just reminded me that the girls do not like it when I lay on my back! (She said this probably happens all the time if I lay on my back for a minute, we just happened to catch it on the ultrasound. It's no big deal as long as I turn and the heart rate comes back to normal.) Whew!

After that little scare, this is what we found out:

• The fluid levels around Baby A and Baby B remain normal.
• Baby B's bladder is normal.
• The speed of blood flow through Baby A's brain was in the 30s... normal.
• The speed of blood flow through Baby B's brain was normal.

Do you see a theme? For the first time since this all started, everything looks NORMAL!! Our doc feels the blood transfusion did the trick and that we most likely won't need another laser surgery OR blood transfusion! PRAISE THE LORD!!! We are so thankful... our prayers have been answered. I could not ask for a better birthday gift! She also feels comfortable enough to transfer our care back to the high risk specialist in Grand Rapids. We were very sad to say goodbye to our wonderful doctor (and we exchanged lots of hugs before we left), but it will be so much easier to have weekly appointments in Grand Rapids. It's going to be nice to get to know the doctor who will most likely deliver our babies as well.

My restrictions remain in place, and will remain until I get to 30-32 weeks (which is 10-12 more weeks from now.) So... I can work two days a week (sitting down only), lay low when at home, no groceries/laundry/cleaning, etc. We have so much invested into fixing the TTTS and TAPS problems, it would be foolish to risk going into early labor by doing too much activity. It will be boring, but SO worth it.

We can't begin to express our thanks to everyone who has thought about us, prayed for us, helped out with meals, or just come over to spend time with us. If you offered and we haven't taken you up on it yet, we will! We are overwhelmed by the amount of concern so many people have shown for us and for our precious girls. While this is a major step, there is a chance that either baby could have suffered brain damage during their times of low blood flow or during times of major blood flow shifting. We may not know if this is the case until the girls are born. Although we believe that the problem has been fixed, there is still a chance that the blood flow could begin to shift again. We ask that you continue to pray with us that our girls will arrive healthy and at the right time!

Much love!

The Vander Ploegs