When Wyatt was about 9 months old, Chantz and I decided we would like to try for another baby in the next few months. Although I went back and forth between wanting more kids and not, I wanted my kids close together because my brother Ben and I are only 18 months apart and we were pretty close growing up. I loved having a sibling the next grade up! On July 13th (Wyatt's 1st birthday) I was having a miscarriage. My second. I had had one before Wyatt was born so we both knew exactly what was happening. We decided not to tell anyone and headed to the lake with some friends that morning anyway. When we got home to Ely a couple of days later, I made an appointment to make sure everything was ok. I was told that I had definitely miscarried and that there was only one small piece left to pass. 3 weeks later I was still bleeding and my mother in law said she thought something might be wrong, I shouldn't be bleeding like that still. A little over 4 weeks later I finally called my doctor in Cedar City to tell him what was going on and was told to get to his office asap. I threw Wyatt in the car and took off, 3 hours later I was in his office with my parents who had driven up from St. George to meet me. My doctor however was out of town and his partner who had told me to come straight over had been called to the hospital, so I was instructed to meet him there in the emergency room. When I got there I was seen by the ER doctor because my doctors partner never showed up. The ER doctor was pretty annoyed that I had come in over some bleeding and told me (in front of my mom even) "your bleeding is an annoyance, it's not going to kill you" (HAHA boy was he wrong) so he prescribed me some high dosage birth control and sent me on my way. I felt very embarrassed and left upset and crying. It was not my idea to go to the hospital. My doctor had told me to.
Well, my mom did not take no for an answer. Wyatt and I went home with them that night and her and my dad decided to take me to the emergency room in St. George the next morning. I was seen by an actual OB there who decided right away to do a d&c (he goes in and scrapes out the uterus). After the procedure was over they drew some blood and sent me home. At my follow up the next day the doctor came in and said "I don't normally do blood work after a D&C because I've seen inside and know it's cleaned out, however I was somewhat shocked by your amount of bleeding and how little was left in the uterus. Your blood work shows that you are basically more pregnant today than yesterday. I suspect you have an ectopic pregnancy. (when the egg latches to something outside of the uterus, and in my case my Fallopian tube)" I was given a shot that was supposed to dissolve it and sent on my way. A few days later my doctors partner who was supposed to have seen me that first day called to check on me. I told him what all had taken place and about the shot and he was upset that the OB in St. George had not set up any follow up appointments. He said that shot could be very dangerous and that a checkup needed to be done to be sure it had done its job. Soooo I headed back to Cedar for a "quick" checkup. My doctor was back from vacation by this time and performed the ultrasound where he found the egg had grown so large on my Fallopian tube that it had a small tear that was already slowly bleeding out. He said it was still in good shape and that if he got in to do surgery the next day he could simply repair the tube. I was scheduled for surgery early the next morning. That night the pain was so bad I couldn't stand it any longer. Chantz's mom convinced me to let them take me in that night instead. And it was a good thing. After the surgery I was told that my tube had then twisted and ruptured even larger and was filling my belly with blood. He ended up having to take the tube out entirely.
Because of the shot and swelling from my surgery we were told we could not try to become pregnant until January (it was August) and that I would likely only ovulate every other month. Oops! haha. ;) 3 weeks later, a day before my 3 week post op check up, I called in a panic that I had taken a pregnancy test and it was positive. I was literally bawling while talking to his office. They called back and said it was probably just left over hormones from the tubal pregnancy and not to worry. whew.
At the next visit my doctor did an ultrasound just in case for me and says "you're definitely pregnant! And do you see that? There are 2 or more in there!" WHAT?! I was in complete shock. I just laid there and said nothing. When I left the office I sat in my car staring at the ultrasound pictures for almost 20 minutes in disbelief. I didn't know whether to be as crazy excited as I wanted to be, or as scared as I was. Chantz was at work and couldn't receive calls so I had no one to tell for 5 more hours. Time went so slow that day!
We found out I was pregnant when I was almost 4 weeks along but not quite. Crazy! I didn't even know it was possible that early. At my 6 week appointment it was confirmed that we were having twins. By this point I was pretty excited and praying they would make it. We told our families when I was 9 weeks along and waited to tell everyone else until I made it to 13 weeks. I was told, repeatedly, by my doctor that my chances of miscarrying one or both were very high so I should wait until then before telling anyone.
We found out at 15 weeks that we were having two GIRLS! :)
I honestly didn't believe it until they came out. When they did I asked right away if they were definitely both girls because I just couldn't believe it... I'd always wanted twin girls growing up, but come on, what are the odds?! I never thought I'd actually have them! My maternal grandma is an identical twin so I guess it's true about skipping generations on the moms side. At least this time anyway..
This pregnancy was high risk from the beginning because my body never did have time to recover from the surgery and tubal pregnancy. Both babies were head down by my 24 week appointment. yay! I realized at this time however that we had to switch doctors and hospitals to Las Vegas because of insurance issues.
I was SO nervous to switch. I was told repeatedly that doctors in Vegas aren't as good or as thorough as in Utah, and that I probably wouldn't be allowed to have them naturally. Bonnie and Tim hooked me up with my "uncle" Sheldon Paul in Vegas as my OB. He was great! I was treated so well, he was very thorough and I felt had a say in things. Both of my babies decided to turn transverse (laying sideways across my belly, one on top of the other) around 27 weeks. Big bummer! In this position, C-Section was my only option.
At my 29 week appointment at the High Risk clinic I was contracting, starting to dilate and my funneling cervix had gotten much bigger (funneling is basically dilating from the inside out) I was then sent to the hospital with Racqual. We both thought I'd just be hooked up and sent home within a couple of hours so we decided to eat afterward. WHY DID WE DO THAT!! hahaha. Man, I regretted that decision for 2 days. They put the toco monitor on and I was indeed having steady contractions. I was in labor at 29 weeks. As they were hooking up my IV we asked how long I would be there, one of the nurses said "This first bag of magnesium takes 12 hours and then they'll be 2 more after". We both almost choked. Lol. what? Mommy in law stayed all night long with me :) So anyway.. Dr. Paul ordered magnesium to try and stop my labor. Let me tell you, magnesium is a horrible awful no good thing. Horrible! As soon as they started it thru my IV a couple nurses came in with buckets of ice and ice water and a stack of rags. Confused, I asked what it was for. I was told that magnesium makes you very hot, and that was that. "Very hot" is a GIGANTIC understatement. oh my. It literally felt as if I was burning alive from the inside out. It also made me pretty out of it and my body crazy heavy. The worst part for me was the thirst! I was extremely thirsty and my mouth was bone dry, I was basically on fire (or so it felt) and hadn't eaten since early that morning. The best part? I wasn't allowed to drink anything or even have ice chips because I needed to be ready to deliver the babies via C-Section at any given time. Racqual kept me covered in ice cold wash rags almost head to toe all night long, even though she was freezing. We were also visited by a NICU doctor and prepped on what to expect after delivering 29 weekers. It was a little nerve wracking. Oh and a funny side note... Racqual asked if she could have a bed or at least a couch that would lay flat for her to sleep on that night and was told no. The next morning when Chantz showed up after finishing his night shift, he started to "lay down" in the chair his mom was forced to sleep in that night and when the nurse came in and saw him she says, "oh honey, let me get you something comfy to sleep on!" I think Racquals blood [might] have started to boil, just a little. ;) Chantz just laughed and laughed and laughed!
Back to that night. I begged for a drink of water or some ice probably every 3 minutes. I'm sorry for that Racqual! I was literally pleading with Dr. Paul for "just one ice chip, please just one ice chip!!!" every time he came in. I am not proud of that.... Lol. Finally I just started sucking the water from my rags whenever the nurses weren't looking (I sort of want to vomit thinking about that now). I also convinced racqual to sneak me a couple peices of the ice. :) We decided that I was puking often enough that no one would even know! When she fell asleep and my nurse was out of the room I tried everything I could to reach that ice bucket to guzzle the water at the bottom (again, ew) but they had strategically placed it just out of my reach. Bummer.
The following morning Dr. Paul came in and was happy to see I'd made it threw the night without needing to deliver, but that I probably wouldn't be going home until I did. I absolutely did not believe him. Well, FIVE WEEKS later I was sent home to continue bed rest for another week and a half before I finally delivered at just about 36 weeks.
On Wednesday, April 23 2014 I was scheduled for a check up in Sheldon's office. I was 35w 6d. Normally I would have been seen the next day at 36 weeks, but for some reason this week I had to be bumped up a day. I'd been having tons of strong contractions at home, but they never seemed to last longer than an hour or two. I admit wholeheartedly that it became very frustrating for me. I hate to say this because I never ever wanted to be "that girl" or do anything to endanger my babies, but I was so ready to be done and for the contractions to just continue. I told him what was going on and I remember saying that if they hadn't dilated me further that I'm a huge baby and I would probably cry. haha. He said that because they were laying transverse (not much, if any, pressure on my cervix) the contractions probably hadn't done much of anything. Then he checked my cervix and to our surprise I was dilated almost to a 5. Grandpa Leavitt had brought me in to my appt. that day, so he was told to take me straight to Summerlin Hospital for my C-Section at 3pm. Chantz was still at work in Panaca, so we called him immediately and he was there by 2:45pm.
At 4:06pm We met Baby A (Annie) weighing in at 6lb 8oz and 19in long. At 4:07pm we met Baby B (Elsie) weighing in at 6lb even, and 19in long as well.
The girls spent 8 days in the NICU due to blood sugar levels, minor eating issues and one apnea spell.
Their 7th night there we got to "room in" with them to see how they and we would handle it. We passed the test ;)
We chose to pay $50 per night after I'd been discharged to continue using our room and breast pump in order to stay right there with our girls. I don't regret that decision one bit.
We finally got to take our girls home that next morning! And that is where I'll stop.
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