More TAC Babies!

Well, here we go again!  Looks like our last round of fertility treatments worked very well and we are praying to bring home two more little TAC babies in February!  Yes, February.  February where we delivered and lost Jonah and Noah, and delivered our sweet baby Isaac 5 weeks early.  February, the month that used to bring me such horrible anxiety.  I'm due March 11 but TAC twins tend to come early and I have SO much pressure to keep these babies in until at LEAST February 1!

I am definitely nervous, definitely scared.  I am going to be seeing a new High Risk OB next week to get a game plan.  I need her to be aggressive.  These babies will complete our family and we would really, really like to bring them home.  Prayer is much appreciated.

Feel free to steal!

I just made this button so I can share it with the world.  Feel free to take it to strike up some convo about the TAC!

Group B Strep

One thing I did fail to mention, because it was not caused by the TAC and I don't want anyone to unnecessarily worry about something rare happening, is that Isaac developed a Group B Strep (GBS) infection 2 weeks after we brought him home.  Actually, it was just a few days after I wrote my March 26 post.  He was inconsolable one night, and after driving around with him at 4 am and calling a nurse line, we took him to the ER.  He endured some awful testing (spinal tap, blood draws) an ambulance ride, among many other things, and spent 11 days in a Children's hospital with a PICC line in his head receiving antibiotics.

Moral of the story:  While very rare, GBS can still be transmitted to baby in a c-section delivery.  Who knew.

Another moral of my story:  Make sure to do your kick counts in the 3rd trimester.  If you feel off at ALL, go into Labor and Delivery.  He was always such a mover; when he slowed down I knew something was wrong, and it turned out that I was right.  Something was indeed wrong and he was delivered that day.  Do your kick counts, mamas!  I almost lost my baby.

ETA: Thanks ladies.  We believe it was being hidden by all the broad spectrum antibiotics he was briefly given in the NICU, and then it returned full force after he was released.

Welcome!

If you want to read about my journey with the TAC, you can start at the beginning.  I won't be making any updates, but I wanted to keep this blog up as I was pretty dedicated at documenting my experience.  I'm sad that ANYone has to experience this surgery and the loss that most likely preceded it, but know that it has helped so many of us take home our full-term (or near-term) healthy babies.

((((((((HUGS)))))))))))

Farewell to this blog + Birth Story

Obviously I haven't updated in a while, and that's because I delivered Isaac at 35w1d due to some unforeseen, left field circumstances.  I'll be taking a break from this blog, but leaving it up and checking occasionally because I feel there is lots of information here about the TAC and hopefully that is useful to someone.

The TAC got us to 35w1d, I have NO doubt about that!  If what happened to me hadn't happened, we would have definitely made it to 38w3d, to our scheduled c/section.  No doubt whatsoever.  The TAC totally did it's job, and my cervix was ROCK STAR the whole pregnancy!  My c/section was performed by the on-call OB, who did a great job although had never seen a TAC before.  My regular OB had talked to Dr. Haney and got some information on the delivery, so I was a little worried that some random OB performed my c/section, but it turned out great. 

Here's what happened (copied and pasted from private blog, so hopefully it's clear):

So, placental abruption is NOT what happened. I believe, based on the presenting evidence, that my OB called a placental abruption because it seemed to make sense and gave us somewhat of an answer at the time.

However, she was incorrect. The Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM; a High Risk OB) doctor who was on call that night had been trying to reach me ALL day Friday. He reviewed and reviewed every step of our admittance day and reached a different, more rare conclusion. He came to the NICU looking for me as my mom and I had just stepped out for lunch, he called my cell 3 times without leaving a message, and finally reached us at home on Friday night at 6 pm.

He diagnosed the situation as a massive fetomaternal hemorrhage. I googled it and only a few case studies came up. The gist of it is that basically his blood hemorrhaged into mine, causing him to have severe blood loss. The only indicator is low or no fetal movement. There are no other warning signs. By the time it’s diagnosed, the baby is usually already dead. This happens in 1:5,000 pregnancies with the amount of blood loss he experienced. He used a garden hose as an explanation, which illustrates Isaac’s cord. There was a microscopic tear somewhere and the pressure caused Isaac’s blood to just rush out of his body straight into mine. The hemorrhage is somewhat common, but the amount lost was off the charts. In the 3 case studies I read about, the highest one was 207mL of fetal blood circulating in the mother’s bloodstream. I had 300mL of Isaac’s blood, not the 250 I was previously told. Yikes. It’s about 10 ounces, which explains the 11 Rhogam shots.

All babies are miracles, but Isaac is OUR miracle. He had some serious help from God’s angels, that is for SURE.  He spent 17 days in NICU, received 2 transfusions, was intubated, sedated, had a feeding tube, had lung issues, but FINALLY overcame it all and is now home with us 100% healthy.

Here's a picture of our little man at delivery (he was 6lbs 1 oz, so not terribly little), a picture during his 17 day NICU stay, and one of our healthy, take home baby boy.

Note that he had zero cord blood, and how pale (and severely anemic) he was at birth.  The transfusions happened within a couple of hours of his birth.

The worst of his NICU stay, when he was fully intubated, unresponsive and on morphine for over 24 hours:

And, our perfect little guy today:

almost 34 weeks!!

This has been a ridiculous emotional rollercoaster of a fortnight.  (I've always wanted to work that in somewhere).  I don't know what it IS about February, but it just doesn't seem to be our month...

February 5 - 1st anniversary of losing Jonah
February 10 - 1st anniversary of losing Noah
February 11 - Keith's grandpa passed away, flew out of state for his funeral
February 11 - a family member experienced a miscarriage
February 16 - my great grandmother passed away, leaving tomorrow out of state for funeral

Can it just be March yet?  It will be like a new leaf.  Isaac is still moving around like crazy - on his same routine every day - and we will finally have another ultrasound in a couple of weeks!  I'm exhausted most of the time, but have been running on adrenaline this past week.  I still have heartburn daily, nausea most of the day, and I'm still not ready for his arrival!  Next week a dear friend is coming over to help me nest in the nursery, so after that I'm sure I'll feel a TON better.  I just have to get through THIS week.  :(

EDIT: Isaac ended up being born in February, also, to remind us that things are not ALWAYS bad and there's no such thing as bad luck OR superstition.

32 weeks!!!!!!

I cannot believe we've made it this far!!!!!  I had a BABY SHOWER last weekend, we have a bassinet in our room, we bought a diaper bag and a changing pad for the dresser.  Keith did a huge load of baby laundry, the little t-shirts and Onesies are stacked up ready to be organized...  I still feel like all this preparation is for someone else's baby.  That sounds insane, but I still feel like we're just pretending about some hypothetical baby that we're preparing for in 5 more years, like when we're "old enough" to take care of another human.  I mean, 1 month before my 30th birthday is definitely too young to have a child!  Riiiiiiiight...

A woman in my OB's office (1,000 miles away from Chicago and Dr. Haney) was talking to her/my OB about possibly getting the TAC.  Since I'm currently the first and only TAC patient in her office, she hooked us up!  It's good to know the word is spreading about the TAC and it's success.  So exciting!

I really should get on packing a bag and pre-registering and such.  I'm just so tired...

PS - WHAT happened to January?  Seriously!  That month just came and went w/o me even registering it. 

45 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Isaac Nolan will be here in 45 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!