To my loyal fans
Sorry that I haven't had a chance to update since the amnio on Wednesday. I've been busy and stuff, plus, y'know, twins. I love that I have a built-in excuse for everything these days.
Wednesday's appointment was really long. First we had to do a two-hour ultrasound where they check and measure every single bit of each baby, head to toe. I can't begin to imagine what ultrasounds are like when you're pregnant with octuplets, by the way. Might as well just move in to the ultrasound room, especially given how frequently high order multiple moms are monitored.
After the ultrasound they counseled us again on amnio and offered me a clinical trial (which I agreed to; it is a study designed to see if they can determine genetic abnormalities by testing maternal serum instead of amniotic fluid. I'm all for keeping people from having to do this in the future if needed, plus I feel like I'm giving something back to my chosen field of employment, yo). We met with yet another of the perinatologist team at Swedish (they want you to meet with all of them ideally throughout the pregnancy).
This guy wasn't as obnoxious as the last guy, who gave me an extreme answer for every question I asked him. (Vivid dreams? You might want to consider therapy or do a sleep study. Headaches? Here, let me prescribe you Vicodin or Percoset. Shortness of breath? Well, you know, could be heart failure. Guess to some degree that's what I get from specialized medicine - I was the proverbial nail to this guy's hammer.) Anyway, the doc from Wednesday was very nice, very accomodating, but also very young. He was also the one who was scheduled to do my amnio.
Despite the usual bias against baby docs, I know from my own experience that oftentimes the guys in their late 30s or early 40s in highly specialized practices are the workhorses while their more senior colleagues spend more time on the lecture circuit than they do actually practicing medicine. As a result, I wasn't terribly worried that I was going to have an invasive medical test done by a newbie, but I was still a tinge more nervous than I'd been going in.
We finally got called in for the amnio and they got the whole shebang set up. They advised me that they usually have to do two sticks with the needle for twins, once for each gestational sac. In order to differentiate between the two twins, after the first amnio they'd inject a small amount of dye into the first sac so that they'd know if they tapped that one again by mistake. They advised me that it'd take about 24 hours for me to process the dye through my kidneys, which meant I'd be peeing blue for 24 hours. I was amused.
Once they started the ultrasound guidance, however, it turned out that the position of the babies was just right so that they'd only need to do one tap, since they could just pull the needle back after the first sac into the second sac. Cool with me, but it meant no blue pee for me, alas. They discussed the positioning of the babies and agreed on the game plan: Baby A was on the left side and lower (first sample), Baby B is on the right and higher (so second sample).
They prepped my big huge belly with betadine and warned me with a count to three before they stabbed me with a needle about 6" long. It's a super thin needle, but damn, it hurt pretty good going in. It probably doesn't help that most moms are pretty nervous at this point due to all the advising of risk of miscarriage and all the other horrible things that could happen.
They withdrew three syringes full of fluid from each sac, which took forever due to the small gauge of the needle. It felt like my insides were being sucked out, which, well, they were. (Actually, I am pretty sure that the sensation I felt is entirely due to the needle and not the actual vacuum action of the syringe.) We watched the ultrasound screen intently to make sure they didn't nick either of the babies on the way in or out.
Once they finished, they cleaned me up and then started the most absurd discussion. Despite the fact that there was a perinatologist, a radiologist and two nurses in the room discussing the game plan up front, they were not able to agree on which sample represented which baby at the end of the procedure. They kept mixing up the position of the babies ("A is right and lower ... no, A is left and higher ... no, B is left and lower").
William and I were looking at each other with incredulity, and I finally said, "Y'know, you are not inspiring a lot of confidence over here." We then proceeded to tell them which baby was which, and they relabeled the sample tubes. Ultimately we realized that from our perspective, as long as both babies come back as normal, we don't really give a whoop if they mixed up the samples - but I am sure they won't view it the same way.
After that fun experience we packed up and got out of there, and my sweet baby took care of me for the rest of the evening (not letting me lift stuff, he got takeout for dinner for us, watched another disc of Weeds). I was fairly aware of the puncture site all evening, but again I think that was more in my head than anything.
So far so good, it's now 36 hours later and no fever, no water breaking, no leaking fluid, so hopefully all is well and my paranoid honey will agree to some of the activities that lead to babies in the first place soon.