T-Minus three days till goal date

Hello again,

It has not been that I have not wanted to write I just wanted to have enough info for it to be worthwhile. The last few weeks have been full of stressful times hoping that everything was going to be ok with Shauna. Here we are today with the buns still in the oven and Shauna continuing on her hot streak of beating the odds. It is hard to ignore the other two girls as they too are doing so well. Shauna definately has had her moments of instability however on a whole we are here today with big smiles on our faces because we can see our goal marker getting closer and closer.

Last week Friday we had our measurement day for the little ladies, where they look at the babies heart beats/ min, the size of their abdoment, head, and femer, as well they take the flow of the arteries in umbilical cord which I have kind of explained in the past few weeks. All three girls grew the maximum they could in 14 days. So we now have Andy (A) and Paige (C) at around the 71st percentile or approximately 1100 grams and Shauna at the 7th percentile or about 850 grams. 1 pound is 454 grams.

On Friday the 21st, Stephanie got a phone call from a home nurse from Surrey telling her that she needs to be on full bedrest effective immediately. This also led to visits from the home nurses doing non-stress tests which looks at a 20 minute time frame monitoring the heart beat as well as the kicks that Steph feels during that same time frame. If the heart beat rate is between 110 and 160 with good "acceleration" periods then they consider the test to be a good indicator that the babies are still doing well.

We are now doing two visits to BC Womens this week and three visits to our home from the home nurses. There of course is the possibility that things may go awry this week and therefore the schedule will change at any point. There has also been more talk about admitting Steph into the hospital if things change slightly from where it is now. We are at a point now where if we need to intervene due to any circumstance then we will deliver all of the girls. There is a definate push to keep all of these guys in the oven for as long as possible. There are definately a few things they will be keeping a close eye on over the next few weeks however right now the only thing that we need to really be aware of is the umbilical cord.

On Friday the 27th, we also decided to begin the two doses of steroids which will help the babies if they are born within 2 weeks. The steroids take 48 hours to begin their effect and the doctors have been adiment in that the steroids are very important and proven to have such a huge effect on the babies if and when they are born. There has also been research on the even more positive effect if the babies recieve two full doses of the steroids, however the second round of steroids will only be given if it has been more than two weeks after the first dose, and once again they will only have an effect if they are done 48 hours prior to their birth.

All in all though, we are starting to relax a little more as we are so close to 28 weeks now, the only hard part now is Steph trying to stay relaxed and keeping her on bed rest. As everyone knows, it is really hard to do nothing for even a few hours in a day so to be told to do nothing all day and everyday you know that that will not be easy. We are really hoping that the ultrasounds stay the way they are so that we do not have to admit Steph to hospital. She absolutely loves her time with Renee in the morning and just being in the comforts of home is much better than being stuck in a hospital, but it will be inevitable that Stephanie will need to be in hospital for closer monitoring due to the circumstances.

Hope all is well with all of you.

Nothing comes easy!!!

24 weeks 2 days.

Well the last time we wrote things were just peachy and that was at the gestation period of 20 weeks 3 days, we truly have an appreciation for life and the complications that we and others have faced in this world. We have been put in a perdicament that I wish upon no one. However we sit here today feeling so confident in our decisions.

On April 22nd we came out of the our ultrasound thinking that things were still good as the prior measuring ultrasound was so perfect. When Dr. Gagnon came in to the room after the ultrasound we could see that his demeanor said it all. What was presented to us was that in week 20 the growth of Baby B was in the 32nd percentile range with 10 -90 percentile being "normal." in week 22 Baby B was at the 11th percentile compared to her identical twin sister who was at the 55th percentile at the same point. The cause, the umbilical cord.

When the heart pumps in the baby it causes the blood to flow freely between the baby to the placenta in order to send back or recieve blood from it. Because of the positioning of the umbilical cord on the placenta and a bit of the sharing of some veins and arteries between twin B and C the cord was not working entirely normal. What is happening is that the factors of the position and Baby C's link with Baby B is causing the flow through the umbilical cord to literally stop intermittently. Each time the heart pumps it starts the flow from the body back to the placenta. What should happen is that the blood should continue to flow slightly between the pumps of the heart, however with Baby b it was stopping briefly prior to the next pump.

What this leads to is a lack of nutrients and water for the baby. The next negative thing described to us was a small fluid sac surrounding the baby. The fluid surrounding her is so important in the development of her lungs starting somewhere around now. A fluid pocket of anything over 2 cms is ok and today, May 6th, we found a pocket of 4.5 cms however in week 22 there was only a 2.2 cm pocket was found

Without going any deeper, what was then presented to us were the options and the ethics that surround them. Remember when we found this out we were 22 weeks 2 days. It was described to us that because it was still before 24 weeks 0 days we could still terminate baby B in order to save baby C or we could terminate both baby B and Baby C. The two problems that this posed is that we were in this position at the beginning of the pregnancy and we chose not to terminate anyone of our babies and the second that if we were to do the procedure then we would risk losing the entire pregnancy due to infection or pre-term labour.

So with all the wonderful facts that were thrown our way we were left feeling very uneducated and that any decision that we made would not be the wrong one. We needed to accept our current situation and deal with the decision we made. It was hard to find a comfortable answer and our emotions were truly all over the map. Through the weekend we had lots of questions and on Monday we went in to try to get a little more claity on Baby B's situation through a dopler or blood flow test. It came out ok and we were able to get all of our questions answered. We set ourselves up for a meeting with the surgeon who would be performing the termination procedure if need be. This lady, Dr. Pressey, truly is a god send for us since that day. She was so comforting and reassuring and was able to truly put herself in our situation where she would fight for us if need be.

Since last Wednesday we have had three ultrasounds to see how the umbilical cord doppler is doing for Baby B. Dr. Pressey has been involved in each session and been able to educate us to the point where we are able to feel so strong in the decision that we have made and we now feel that once again we are at peace with our little ladies.

So where are we today? We had another sizing test today and that went well, once again Baby B had intermittent flow in her umbilical cord and she grew 10 days out of 14 days. Is this good? Yes, as long as she grows, it shows that she can continue in mommy. She is now down to the 7th percentile in growth with Baby C being at the 64th percentile and Baby A being at the 93rd percentile. Dr. Tessier and Pressey both agreed that they think that these three will make it to 28 weeks if not further.

So what does 28 weeks mean? A lot. This is an invisible line that doctors have which has a more positive outcome on the babies. Remember there will be risk of serebal palsy at any age and everything else. Today we also took a trip to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. What a special place, our first trip into Childrens Hospital was truly gut wrenching as you begin to feel what situation we are in. It is a very real situation and it is coming clearer and clearer moment by moment. We were introduced to a couple of babies that were just over a pound and it was a stunning sight. We are so humbled by the support that we have from the doctors at the womens hospital and now a little from the childrens that all we can do is thank god for who we have had help us.

So where are we mentally and physically today, happy!!!! We know it is going to be a challenge to get to 28 weeks but we know that Baby B is a fighter like her mother and father are. We have wonderful help from Stephanie's mom who has, together with Stephanie's dad, have decided to have Shirley, Steph's mom, stay with us for as long as we need. It is such a pleasure to have her help and be there for her daughter at a time which is the most trying time that we have ever gone through and I really hope this is it.

Now I would like you all to know a little one of our secrets about Baby B. She is our daughter already and we have accepted the fact that we can not control what happens in the near future to her. Her name is Shauna Hope Van Marrewyk and has been a true fighter over the past few weeks if not longer. She has brought so much to Stephanie and I already, and we know that this little girl is loved by everyone that has followed her through the blog or been a part of her life through us. She is going to fight, we can feel it, and she gave us a true sign today during the ultrasound. After an hour of testing on the ultrasound the technician did one last pass over Shauna where we were able to see Shauna raise her hand and give us a extremely clear thumbs up. We know she is going to do it and I truly ask that all of you pray for our little star and of course all of them because they could potentially all be at risk however this is worst case scenerio.

We know that you all wish you could help, so like I said please pray for the girls. We are doing our best to get to the milestone of week 28 and we are going to work day by day to get there.

Love

Shauna, Ron, Stephanie, Renee, Baby A and C