By Mary, Clackamas OR USAMy husband Jacob & I started trying to get pg in Oct. 2003, just a few months after our July wedding. We wanted to start right away since I had problems four years earlier with Endrometriosis. We did not have any luck and in the April I had my annual appointment with my ob. He instructed us to have Jacob's sperm count checked to see how it looked. After a few samples were provided, it turned out that he didn't have any (maybe one every so often, but not enough to get me pg). Our choices were to be childless, adopt, or donor sperm. We chose to do the donor program, we figured it would be better than nothing to have the baby be biologically one of ours. We had to go thru the fertility clinic since I would have to be inseminated. I started testing my urine for ovulation and for four months I got positive results but I wasn't getting pregnant. Finally the fertility clinc tested my hormone levels and they came out negative for ovulation. The next month I went on Chlomid and that didn't work either. Our health insurance is great, they offer infertility benefits, so we decided to go to the shots (we wanted better odds). Two weeks after the insemination we found out I was actually pg! Not only was I pg, we were going to have twins. We were so excited, we told all family and friends (since they knew we were trying). We only wanted two children, and we thought this was great, get them both at once. Well the beginning of the pregnancy was really hard, I was put on bed rest and part time work due to spotting and passing blood clots. Everything was always great though when we went to the doctor, they had no concerns as it can be normal to spot during the pregnancy.
PROM at 17 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 21 weeks + 1 days.
Story added: 2005-12-08
Just over 17 weeks, I was leaving work and I felt this gush. I went to the bathroom thinking I had started to bleed again but it was clear. I called the nurse at the doctors office and she said that if my water had broke I would have known and that I probably just had really heavy discharge. I took her word for it since this was my first pregnancy and I didn't know anything. At about 19 weeks I stopped feeling them move so I went to the doctor to be checked out. The doctor was in surgery that morning but the nurse hooked me up to the fetal monitor. Everything sounded great, and since I was going in for my ultra sound the next day I thought it would be ok. After the ultra sound I was told to call my doctor as soon as I got home (they do the ultra sounds at the hospital). The doctor informed me that my fluids were low and that he wanted me to see a Perionatologist the next day. So we went....the doctor did an exam and swabbed to check for amniotic fluid. Our worst fears were coming true, that is was amniotic fluid. He checked my cervix which was completely closed tight, which he felt was odd. I should have been dialating since I had been leaking for a few weeks at that point. The doctor informed us at that point that each baby only had about a teaspoon of fluid in each sac which would have made no lung development at all since that is what builds their lungs. The doctor told us that I had an infection that made my membranes rupture. My cervix was closed tight and it was of normal length, so the only answer was an infection.
Next we were given our choices of what we could do. I could carry them as far as I could and deliver them (we were give the odds of them living which was only 5%), or I could choose to do a D&E which is less painless physically & emotionally. We chose to do the D&E, I could not handle everything as it was. I had a really hard time being pregnant and not feeling them move, so I knew I could not continue to carry them.
They were delivered on November 18, 2005 while I was asleep on the table. We never did learn of their sex, we did not want to know. I could not handle knowing, as this was hard as it was. They are our two angels (baby A & baby B) watching over us now. It's been three weeks since I had the procedure and I still can't keep it together. I can't stop thinking about it all the time, how this all had actually happened. We are going to try again early next year, I hope. I just hope everything goes ok next time, as I could not handle another outcome like this again. We know some day we will see our babies again, and until then we will never forget them.