"That Won't Happen to ME..."

Famous last words, right?

We had a doctor's appointment today that included an ultrasound and routine visit with my doctor. The ultrasound went great--both babies are measuring close to 5 pounds and are moving around, breathing, etc. wonderfully. They both have their heads firmly planted up in my ribs, so a c-section is looking extremely likely, which, honestly, is fine with me. Brian likes to come with me to the ultrasounds to see the babies and make sure all is well, which I always appreciate. After getting the good news that everything looked great with the babies, I told Brian that he should go on back to work, because my weekly appointments with my doctor are always routine and uneventful. Again, famous last words.

As it turns out, my doctor took one look at me and became concerned that I am on my way to developing pre-eclampsia (apparently my face is THAT swollen...he said that even my nose is swollen). After noticing that my previously consistently normal blood pressure has been steadily increasing for the past two weeks AND that I have gained 10 pounds in two weeks (which I assure you is NOT from eating mass quantities of food; my stomach can't hold too much these days) he is confident that pre-eclampsia is in my near future.

He explained that this means a few things: first, I am now on bed rest and not able to drive myself anywhere...okay, I can handle that. I was honestly expecting it at some point during this pregnancy. If my condition worsens even while on bed rest, I will be moved to hospital bed rest. This would not be ideal, but I can handle it if need be. Second, I will need biophysical profile ultrasounds twice a week from now on to make sure the babies are still doing well...again, no problem. Third, and the scary part, is that there is pretty much no chance of me being able to carry the babies to 37 or 38 weeks like I had expected. Our short-term goal is 34 weeks (which is TEN DAYS from now...holy crap) and then we will go from there. I had to get a steroid shot today and will get another tomorrow to help the babies' lungs develop since they will probably arrive before their lungs would normally be mature.

I am going to be honest here...I am really sad and worried. I have known throughout my pregnancy that the average twins are delivered at 35 weeks or so...which means that many twins are born prior to 35 weeks. Maybe it was positive or wishful thinking, or maybe it was just denial, but I always thought that wouldn't be me, that wouldn't be MY twins. I could carry MY twins to 37 or 38 weeks and bring them home with me from the hospital--no NICU time required. I have been eating what I'm supposed to eat, getting excellent prenatal care, taking all my vitamins, and taking it easy, so I should have no problems, right? Apparently that's not how it works. I am having a really hard time letting go of my ideas of chubby, healthy, full-term babies and coming to terms with the fact that they are most likely going to be very small and require at least a short stay in the NICU. Hopefully I will be able to carry them long enough that they won't have too long of a stay at the hospital, and we are encouraged by the fact that they are currently nice and big for their gestational age. I am also thankful to have made it as far as we have without any complications. I guess for now all I can do is follow my doctor's orders and stay in bed and pray that I can defy the odds and keep the babies cookin' for as long as possible. We would definitely appreciate any thoughts and prayers you want to send our way!