And then there were 6

In 2012, my husband and I decided we wanted to try for one more baby … little did we know, God had bigger plans for us and gave us TWINS. 🙂 We went to our first doctor’s appointment, and the nurse doing the sonogram said, “I definitely see two heart beats.. let’s make sure there’s not three.” Uh yea… please let’s make sure there’s not three! lol (I already had a 5 yr old son and a 12 yr old stepdaughter.)

My pregnancy was relatively uncomplicated. I only gained 24 lbs total, and most of that did not come on until the 3rd trimester. Those babies were literally taking everything from me. 🙂

My official due date was May 9th, but my doctor was planning to take them via c-section at 38 weeks, which put us around April 25th. That last month, I was going to the doctor every week so she could monitor me, as well as my babies. I saw the OB, my Endo, and a Fetal Specialist (for high level sonograms). On April 2nd, my OB took me off of work because I was starting to swell a little.

I saw my OB on Friday, April 12th, and had broken out in a horrible rash (which I later found out was PUPPS – it was HORRIBLE. Absolutely the worst part of the pregnancy.) She wanted to see me again on the next Monday, April 15th. At that appointment, she said my bp was creeping up and with the swelling (pre-eclampsia) she was taking the babies tomorrow. What?? I’m not ready. (Physically I was way PAST ready … lol) But we went home, got bags packed… and knew it was our last night at home without our two new additions.

The next morning, we got to the hospital around 7 am, and they put me in a room to start prepping me for surgery. I’d had a c-section with my first son, so I had an idea of what to expect this time at least.

They gave me my epidural in the OR and then laid me down to wait on the numbness to fill the lower half of my body (I’d forgotten how much you shake after having the epidural, though – it’s like you’re freezing cold. They gave me a warm blanket that helped.) 🙂

Then people started filling the room. At one point I looked around and there were fourteen of us in there. FOURTEEN. That includes me and my husband. They’d brought into two teams from NICU since they didn’t know what to expect once the babies were here.

So then I get numb… and they start the surgery. First to come out was Baby A. He immediately grabbed the clamps with a tight grip (he’s going to be a future doctor, I just know it *smile*) and they handed him over to the nurses. They weighed him … 7lbs4oz. What? I heard the nurse say the weight, and I said, “Just ONE of them??”

Then 2 minutes later, out comes Baby B. 6 lbs even.

That’s two full size babies I had in there!!

Each one went to their respective NICU team .. and both were doing great. Baby B’s blood sugar was a little lower than they’d like (in the 50s) – that is common in diabetic pregnancies, though, because baby produces insulin based on mom’s BG, and then suddenly when the cord is cut, it takes a little while to adjust back to their own itty bitty working-perfectly-fine-pancreases.

Baby B had some tone issues (if you’d pick up his arm, it’d drop) so they took him to NICU for 4-5 hours. But then brought him back to me and all was well. We had both of our beautifully healthy little boys with us.

Something that happens to a diabetic during pregnancy, is we have to take a ton more insulin as the pregnancy progresses. The placenta gives off a hormone that makes you resistant to insulin, therefore we have to continue adjusting our insulin levels – which ends up being a moving target. So by the end of my pregnancy (both pregnancies) I was taking around 3x the amount I started with.

The day after my boys were born, my BGs started crashing. I’d be fine, then would be in the 40s/50s before I knew it was coming. I’d adjust my basals.. then have to do it all over again the next day (if not sooner). My husband quickly found the snack room and every night I’d fall asleep with some juice and pb crackers sitting by my bed.

It took several weeks (almost 2 months actually) before my BG’s finally leveled out, and I’m now back to where I was when I first got pregnant. But in all that time after birth, like I said, it was a moving target just like it was when I was still pregnant.

When I was pregnant with my first son, I wish I’d had the resources available that we have nowadays. I’d have not only known that everything I was experiencing was normal, but also could’ve known ahead of time what to possibly expect. That’s my hope for my blog – that someone reading this will be better prepared for a future or current pregnancy.

And if someone who’s been diabetic for almost 21 years can have not only one, but two successful pregnancies, one of which was TWINS, then YOU can do it, too. Just have to prepare ahead of time and take care of yourself. Not only for your sake, but also for the baby. 🙂