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Maureen and Andrew's
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Nov. 6, 1998
(Maureen was 27 weeks on Nov. 5)
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(Here is an image of Baby "A"
from Nov. 5, lying sideways, head on the right and body on the left. An arm is visible above the head.)
(Here is an image of Baby "B"
from Nov. 4, lying sideways, head on the left and body on the right, facing down, with the spine clearly visible, connected to the skull on the left)

Well, it has been 1 week now since Maureen was admitted to Hospital. She has gotten very bored, but she has had many phone calls and visits from Lynn and Barb, and Sue, plus the social worker Diane has visited and our former primary nurse (from when we were in with Laura) Mary Mowbray keeps dropping in to keep tabs on Maureen. (We really like Mary. She talks about the babies as "little people" and it just makes you feel good that they all care so much.)

Maureen's routine is about like this:
6am - the nurse checks Maureen's blood pressure, temperature and heart rate.
7am - Maureen wakes up to take her Fragmin/Heparin (she is taking her own "meds" including the Heparin, the Calcium, DiClectin(?)(the anti nausea medication) and the Materna Vitamins.
7:30-8:30am - somewhere in here the residents make their rounds checking up on Maureen and checking the charts the nurses have been keeping
8:00-8:15am - I arrive for my morning visit
8:30am - breakfast arrives
9:45am - I leave for work
10am - a Fetal Heart Monitor Stress Test. This test is simple and is performed by the nurse attaching flat microphones to Maureen's belly using elastic straps, and listening to the babies heart beats. As the microphone detects the heartbeats, it is shown on a LED display, and also recorded on a paper strip. Because we have twins, they use the twin monitor, and both sets of heartbeats show up on the one paper strip. She is generally hooked up to this for 20-30 minutes.
10:30am - the on-call doctor may drop in around this time.
12:00pm - Lunch arrives
4:00pm - Maureen is taken up to the 12th floor to the high risk unit for an ultrasound exam.
4:03pm - I generally arrive just after Maureen is taken upstairs! So I high tail it up their and she is usually still waiting in the waiting room (in her wheelchair ... They don't want her doing any extra walking!) Depending on what they find the ultrasound lasts 20-30 minutes.
5:00pm - dinner arrives (sometimes while we are upstairs)
7:00pm - either I or Maureen gives her her Fragmin injection
9:00pm - another Fetal Heart Monitoring session
10:00-11:00pm - somewhere in here I go home, but it varies a lot (plus I am curling on Tuesday and Thursday evenings)
12:00am Maureen goes to sleep

So it has generally been a boring week but there have been some developments.

Tuesday, in the size measurements, it looks like baby "A" has grown more. The measurements on ultrasound show the gestation size at around 25-26 weeks, and the size was around 780 grams! That is up considerable from 580 grams 7 days ago, but there is a margin of error of +/- 112 grams. Baby "B" has only grown slightly and is not being given much chance of survival. It is still only around 370 grams! Very small. Also, the cord flow in baby "B" is now showing "reversal", meaning when the babies heart is beating, instead of the blood having a positive direction flow, it is now actually backing up when the heart is resting. That is not a good sign for "Boris".

On Friday we got a scare. They took Maureen for her ultrasound at 2:30. When the nursed scanned her, they could not see much movement in "Abigail" (baby "A").
They tried waking it up (tapping on the belly), but nothing. The heart was beating strong, just not lots of movement. They watched baby "A" for 40 minutes, and she finally started showing some movement. I don't think there were breathing motions either.
So they decided on a Fetal Heart monitor, and then Dr Seaward scanned Maureen again (that's when I arrived at 4:00pm!).
He was concerned because of the lack of movement. The baby was moving a bit more, but he really though it might be time to go in and get the babies out!
He asked Maureen not to eat anything, incase they decided on bringing them out and he indicated he would scan her around 7pm again, and then on Saturday morning before his shift ended!
Well, to make a long story short, the doctors got so busy that they didn't re-scan Maureen until 9:00pm, and the baby was a lot more active. The doctor does think though, that they may have to scan twice a day to be on the safe side! So She'll be scanned twice on Saturday (tomorrow) and at least once on Sunday.

So all that was worrisome, but it sounds like Maureen will get another few days out of this, and maybe, maybe, 1 week.

More later, Andrew

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