Three Days Old!

Sunday, March 29

Brylee

 

Brylee is doing amazingly well, especially considering that it was her we were so worried about to begin with. Her most recent echocardiogram showed basically no problems. She will have one more test before she is discharged, just to be safe, but otherwise her heart is perfectly fine. Her bloodwork shows that her body is slowly stabilizing itself.

Today while the nurse was feeding her, she decided to kick the IV out of her foot. The staff decided to leave it out since she was being weaned off of fluids anyway, and hasn't needed any medication lately. Currently, the only treatment she is receiving is a calcium supplement and time under the jaundice lights.

Brylee sunbathing

 

Ellison is improving as well! Today her oxygen cannula was removed, so she is breathing all by herself now. She also stopped receiving antibiotics, which were being given to her as a preventative measure due to her increased red blood cell count and the possibility of infection. The blood transfusion she received Friday night was a partial transfusion, meaning that blood was taken out of her body, and replaced with a type of saline to thin out her blood and get it back into balance. It seems to have worked great! Her levels have slowly been returning to the normal range, which is exactly what the doctors had hoped for.

 

She is also spending time under the jaundice lights, like her sister. She has not been able to feed yet, and therefore gets her nutrition from her IV. The staff hopes to remove some of her lines tomorrow, and then try to begin bottle and/or tube feedings. Her feeding progress will probably be much slower than Brylee's to be sure that her digestive system can handle it.

 

Ellison

Even more high tech than Devyn and Kinley's jaundice treatments. These girls even get a light-up mat that they lay on so they are sunbathing from all sides!

We can finally get a better look at Ellie's pretty face, even though it's still red from the tape from her oxygen tube.  

So, what do you think? Are they identical or fraternal? All signs point to identical. Brylee and Ellie have the same blood type and if the diagnosis of twin to twin transfusion syndrome was accurate, then they must be identical (TTTS can only happen between identical twins).

 I finally had the opportunity to hold, and even feed someone today! Twice!

 Brylee's dinner time.

 Brylee and Mommy's first snuggle.

Too sleepy to eat....she ended up taking her food through a feeding tube.

Daddy and Brylee

 

 

Happy Birthday Brylee and Ellison!

Friday, March 27

Surprise! Surprise! Another set of Marsh twins decided to shock us by entering this world ahead of schedule. Of course, we were in much better shape this time around at 36 weeks and 6 days, compared to 28 weeks and 4 days with Devyn and Kinley.

My water broke around 4:30 this morning, and off we went to the hospital. I called ahead to alert our High Risk Pregnancy office, as they wanted a cardiology team prepared to monitor the girls. It just so happened that one of the high risk doctors was already scheduled for another C-section for a heart defect baby at 6:00 am, so everyone that needed to be was already here!

Brylee Quinn

5 lbs., 6 oz., 17 inches long

7:46 am

 

Brylee is our Baby B and the doctors were concerned about the condition of her heart. She was taken to the NICU immediately after birth for further examination. The cardiologist was very pleasantly surprised when he took a better look at her heart. He said that it is very possible she may not need any procedures to fix anything.

 Ellison Mae

5 lbs., 6 oz., 18 inches long

7:45 am

Ellison decided to trick us by pretending to be perfectly healthy. Upon her initial evaluation by the neonatal team, they decided there was no need for her to go to the NICU, so she was sent to the nursery while I was in recovery. Over time, however, the doctors noticed that her red blood cell count was too high, and she was having blood pressure and blood sugar level problems. So, she was sent to the NICU to join her sister.


Overnight Update:
I have only been able to visit the girls in the NICU once since delivery. I've been dealing with nausea and a bleeding incision. The doctors thought they were going to have to take me back into the operating room to reopen and fix the incision. Luckily, they were able to remove some of the staples and redo them. Ouch! And my nausea finally seems to be under control. Maybe I'll actually get to eat something today!

Daddy has been making trips back and forth to the NICU and relaying information and photos. A doctor came to visit us last night to communicate the girls' conditions related to their bloodwork. They think the girls may have developed twin to twin transfusion syndrome while in utero. Basically this means that one twin starts getting more of the blood supply than the other. This would explain why Brylee was anemic and Ellie's red blood cell count was too high, making her blood too thick.

Brylee had another echocardiogram this morning, and the results looked good again. Daddy is in the NICU with her now for her first feeding. Ellie had a blood transfusion during the night, and it seems to have helped out a lot. Her bloodwork results have improved greatly since last night.

Now that my own complications seem to be under control, I hope to be spending a lot more time with them in the NICU.

Marshmallows 3 and 4

Friday, March 20

Marsh Girls

March 13th ultrasound

Just when I thought we were going to have a normal, long, healthy pregnancy...
We received some difficult news today at my ultrasound. A cardiologist was called in to take a look at a possible abnormality in one of the hearts. He confirmed that there are two areas of concern for our baby girl B. I hope I get all my medical terms correct....

Baby B has settled way up under my rib cage which makes it very difficult to get a good view, but there are two areas of her heart that appear abnormal on the ultrasounds. Her ductus arteriosus (blood vessel) appears to be prematurely narrow. This, by itself, is not overly concerning, as this blood vessel normally closes shortly after birth anyway. The bigger concern is that her aortic valve appears to be too narrow as well (called aortic stenosis). During my ultrasound, the cardiologist was able to measure the speed at which blood is traveling through this section, and it measured in the above average range, which supports the theory that the passageway is too narrow.

So, what does this all mean? Once the girls are born, the ductus arteriosus will begin to close (which it is supposed to do--you may remember that Devyn and Kinley both had open ductus arteriosus, or PDAs, which had to be closed with help from medication). Once it closes, then all the blood will have to travel through this aortic valve, and if the passageway is too narrow it makes the heart work harder to pump blood.

My doctors have decided to change our delivery to a different hospital that is better prepared to deal with this potential problem. Although this isn't the end of the world, it is disappointing that we won't be at St. Rose, which became our second home for 12 weeks while Devyn and Kinley were in the NICU.

Once born, the cardiologist said there are likely three possible outcomes/treatments. 1). The aortic valve is not as narrow as it appears on the ultrasound, and it will be able to manage the blood flow without any medical intervention (obviously this would be wonderful, but at this point appears unlikely). 2). If the valve needs to be widened, one option is to insert a balloon via a catheter up to the heart to stretch the valve and improve blood flow. 3). If the condition is severe enough, open heart surgery will be required to replace the valve completely.

I am scheduled for another ultrasound with the cardiologist next Thursday to check on baby B's heart. If her condition has worsened in any way, they may decide on an immediate delivery. Otherwise, we are scheduled for a c-section on March 31st.

Aside from all this, both girls look very healthy in every other way. At my growth ultrasound last Friday, both girls were about 5 and a half pounds. They are very active during my monitoring sessions each week, and all other measurements look great!

Although I'm scared of what challenges we may face in the coming weeks, we are anxious to meet our baby girls. Your thoughts and extra prayers are very much appreciated!

34 Weeks Along!!!

Saturday, March 7

 Pic taken at 33 weeks

We definitely have a reason to celebrate today! Marsh babies C and D have cooperated and I've made it to my final goal of 34 weeks! Of course, 34 weeks would not be a normal goal for most pregnant women, but for me it's a huge accomplishment! I never actually expected to make it this far, as Devyn and Kinley were delivered at 28 and a half weeks.

However, it hasn't been a very smooth 3rd trimester. We had an emergency trip to the hospital on February 1st due to contractions. Apparently, the Super Bowl game got the girls all excited (even though I only watched about 10 minutes of the entire game). It took a few hours and two different types of medication to get the contractions under control. I was sent home and have been on bed rest ever since. I've had a few episodes of contractions again since then, but otherwise the medication and rest keeps things under control.

On top of all this, February was a month of sickness in the Marsh household. I was sick with some type of cold/flu twice during the month, which of course I passed onto the girls. And then the girls and I shared some type of stomach bug later in the month as well. It was not a pleasant time, but we survived and everyone seems to be healthy for now.

And finally, last week I was up one night with intensely itchy hands and feet. Weird, right? Well, apparently it can be a sign of liver problems related to pregnancy. It's not harmful to me and will go away after delivery, but it can affect the babies, so I had testing done last week, and we should find out the results on Monday. If there is a problem, the doctor will most likely choose to deliver the girls a bit earlier. Otherwise, we should be delivering at 37 weeks, which means only 3 more to go! (No exact date has been set yet). And no....we haven't decided on names yet either. Let's just say there has been some disagreement!

In one sentence.... Bed rest stinks! And quite frankly, I'm not very good at it. It's difficult to sit around in such a busy house. Thank goodness we have amazing friends and family to support us! My mom and grandma came about a week into my bed rest and have been absolute lifesavers! Then Grandpa Keith came soon after, and mom has kept him busy doing work around the house. Add to that, meals and support from friends and we've gotten by just fine, even if I haven't enjoyed it.

Kinley, 20 months 

Kinley is doing great! She recently received braces for her legs (I didn't get a pic yet) that she will wear to help loosen the tightness in her ankles and legs. Hopefully this will help with her therapy, where she is working on standing and crawling, among other things. She still army crawls wherever she wants to go. In addition to physical and occupational therapy, she also started receiving speech therapy. She actually says, or rather repeats, more words than Devyn, but she doesn't always seem to understand what she is saying. Her newest word is "more."

 Devyn, 20 months

Devyn is doing good as well. It's getting nearly impossible to keep up with her! She is into practically everything and loves to dump her toys all over the house. It's a bit of a death trap trying to walk around. You never know what you'll step on or trip over. She still doesn't say too much, although she seems to have her own language that we can't yet understand. However, she definitely understands what we are saying. She already has selective hearing and doesn't seem to acknowledge the word "NO" very often. 

Devyn runs and hides when she knows she's in trouble. I'm not sure this is her best hiding spot.  

She finally got her first haircut back at the end of January. It did not go as well as Kinley's first haircut. Devyn acted like we were physically torturing her!

 Devyn was not impressed with the car she could drive or the movie she was watching during her cut. She did calm down a bit when Daddy let her play with his phone.

Reward: my first sucker!

The weather is getting warmer, so Daddy set up one of the girls' Christmas presents...a new trampoline! They weren't quite sure what to make of it at first, but they're starting to warm up to it now. 

 Where am I? -Devyn

 Pajama Day on the trampoline with Daddy, or for Devyn...lack of pajamas. 

I'm pretty sure both Mom and Dad are over the 100 lb weight limit! 

Which would you rather have....a mini van or a Ducati? I'd say she chose wisely! 

I don't think Kinley trusts Devyn to take her for a ride. I wouldn't either!