Tags
Donor eggs, fertility, Infertility, IVF, nuchal scan, older mum, PGS, scan, twins
This post is a bit late as it’s been sitting in my drafts for a while. I’m now over the (horrible, slightly bloody, nerve-wracking) first trimester. There is still a really long way to go and I still take it week to week but I am so very grateful to be here.
At about 12 weeks I had my midwife booking in appointment. She was really lovely as she went through all the various checklists and questions and so thoughtful when asking me to run through my previous pregnancies/miscarriages. Unsurprisingly she recommended a hospital birth due to the twin pregnancy, and the pregnancy has been classed as high risk due to the twins, my thyroid (which admittedly is a non issue according to the NHS guidelines), and my quote ‘geriatric age’ (although I used donor eggs being older than 37 still carries risks). Largely due to the twins I’ll have consultant and midwife combined care.
At 13 weeks and 1 day I had my first NHS scan, the nuchal scan where they test for Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes using a scan and blood test. These usually happen between 10-14 weeks. My hospital is a research hospital and they have a brand new state of the art foetal research unit. This means that at the moment I don’t need to go anywhere near the awful EPU that holds so many bad memories. As it’s a research facility the sonographers are all researchers, I was expecting this but not to have 3 in the room. The ‘trainee’ started to do the scan and straight away they were like “woah twins why didn’t you say?” all I can say is it’s a good job I knew already and they obviously hadn’t read my notes – the reason I didn’t say anything was mainly because I get so nervous about scans. Anyway, the more experienced researcher then had to do the scan whilst the other experienced one fired multiple questions at me and the trainee hovered around. I hardly got to see any of twin 1 because they were constantly asking q’s but I could see they were slowly moving around. I actually got to watch twin 2 a bit more. Just like last time he/she was going a bit crazy – drumming their heels on the edge of the sack and then possibly sucking their thumb. The sonographer found it difficult to take measurements because they were so active. Luckily they settled down after a while.
We then had to wait for the results of the nuchal test which was slightly nerve wracking, though as we’d had PGS on our embryos so we were fairly confident that the twins wouldn’t be high risk, and they weren’t which was a relief.
A week later at 14 weeks I had my first consultant appointment, again at the research centre. It was a bit of a non event. I was told more than once that I was high risk due to my geriatric age. I get it, I don’t think they need to mention it more than once. In the end after a bit of a lecture about blood pressure I felt compelled to point out that my blood pressure is great, until recently I ran 35 miles a week, and i’m still doing some exercise.
More interesting was a very quick discussion about my birth options. My hospital induces ladies pregnant with twins at 37 weeks which I’m not too pleased about but chances are I may not get to then anyway. The consultant was pleased to hear I wanted to try a vaginal birth (I don’t really want to say ‘natural’, aren’t all births to an extent natural? It’s a bit like the ‘are your twins natural?’ question. I’d be so tempted to say something like ‘well I guess so as they’re not plastic’). But at the end of the day isn’t the main thing to have 2 healthy babies, it doesn’t really matter how they arrive.
I now have to wait until 19 weeks for my first proper midwife appointment and 21 weeks for my next scan. It seems a lifetime away!
I’m looking a bit inbetween – is she a bit fat or a bit pregnant? So far I’m managing to hide it fairly well at work I think!
I have some pics of the scan but I don’t know whether to post as they look much more like babies. I guess most people reading this wouldn’t mind?
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tidleone said:
I’m really glad that you’re doing so well and that the bleeding has stopped. I attempted an induced natural birth at 38 weeks with my twins. I was never really intersted in a c section, it was never offered and I really didn’t look into it. My 2 were head down and it should have been easy but I ended up having an emergency c section after a long labour and I ended up with a tenperature and my heartrate went through the roof. It may just be the UK but for one reason or another more than 40% of attempted natural twin births end this way. The c section was not that bad at all and if it had been planned I’m sure it would have been easier than what I went through. It was calm and they came into the world safely and we’re perfect. I’m not suggesting you change your plans but do prepare and do a bit of research.
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mintpea said:
Thanks. I will research it. Turns out twin one has a really low placed placenta at the moment and so I may have to have a c section – I’m hoping it moves up as my uterus moves. I’ve got 3 good friends with twins and 1 had a vaginal birth with both though it was touch and go, the other had a vaginal birth for twin 1 but c section for twin 2 and the other friend had a planned c section. At the end of the day the most important thing is that they arrive safely. I’m going to prepare for all eventualities!
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tidleone said:
I’m really glad that you’re doing so well and that the bleeding has stopped. I attempted an induced natural birth at 38 weeks with my twins. I was never really interested in a c section, it was never offered and I really didn’t look into it. My 2 were head down and it should have been easy but I ended up having an emergency c section after a long labour and I ended up with a temperature and my pulse went through the roof. It may just be the UK but for one reason or another more than 40% of attempted natural twin births end this way. The c section was not that bad at all and if it had been planned I’m sure it would have been easier than what I went through. It was calm and they came into the world safely and we’re perfect. I’m not suggesting you change your plans but do prepare and do a bit of research.
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mamajo23 said:
Such a huge milestone. Congratulations!
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mintpea said:
Thanks. x
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Dubliner in Deutschland said:
Have you told some people at work? I told my manager and HR manager at 12 weeks but asked them not to tell anyone else. I’ve my next scan at 16 weeks and I think provided all goes ok then I might gradually start telling more colleagues. I’m still at the inbetween stage too, just looking like I’ve put on a bit of weight! Being 35 my doctor immediately ticked the “high risk” box for me. The term “geriatric” is pretty awful really! Glad to hear everything is going well with you and the babies though! I’d love to see some scan pics x
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mintpea said:
I told my manager at 16 weeks – he had guessed! I’ve also told 2 of the people I manage and a couple of other people at work. My Director also knows – she has twins herself, and one of the lawyers I work with congratulated me today so it’s getting pretty obvious! In my non work clothes there is no hiding it and I’ve now got 2 maternity dresses! Glad things are going well for you. Good luck for the next scan. I don’t get my next one til nearly 21 weeks so we paid for a private one at just over 17 weeks.
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Nara said:
Aww post away! I know that it’s so so scary at this stage but think of everything as a milestone. I found the second trimester everything started being more enjoyable! It’s lovely when you start looking properly pregnant (which you probably will in a few weeks) and everyone starts being nice to you! Haha. Congratulations. X
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mintpea said:
Thanks – this post was a little old and I’m now 18 weeks and it’s pretty obvious! x
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Nara said:
Yay! Take all the bumpies!
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Nara said:
Oh and I was geriatric AND apparently overweight! At the time was wearing UK 10 and thinner than a lot of my friends!
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mintpea said:
Ha – that does not sound overweight to me! Bloody cheek!
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30yr old nothing said:
Aw yay!! I’m so glad things are going well!
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Fio said:
I’m so glad things are going well. And you have no idea how much your blog is keeping me going – really. Thank you. After a number of miscarriages – all meant to be due to chromosomal issues – we have just gone through three rounds of stims to get one PGS normal embryo. After initial success the FET appears to have lead to a chemical pregnancy … which just doesn’t compute with me given we did PGS! It scares me that we may have an unidentifiable implantation issue. I also went through a failed FET round due to lining issues. Just wondered was there anything majorly different you did this time around … e.g. neupogen uterus wash vs your transfer in Summer 2016? Thanks so much in advance and I am keeping everything crossed that everything continues to go well for you.
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mintpea said:
Thank you – that’s a really lovely thing to hear, I started this blog partly to share my experiences as a bit of an IVF veteran – I really hoped that someone might find them useful. I’m so sorry about your chemical pregnancy – I know how devastating they are. I also understand your feelings of confusion as to why a PGS tested embryo hasn’t worked – I had one that didn’t implant in 2015 (though I suspect that’s because it was transferred on day 6 – one of my biggest IVF regrets) and then last summer transferred two tested embyros – one took but I miscarried at just over 7 weeks. No one could explain that to me, just that it was either bad luck or that the PGS can’t test for every single possible abnormality. That wasn’t a comfort at all. The only two things I did differently this time was to take steroids (the time before it was just intralipids for the NK cells) and thyroxine as I had a bit of a thyroid issue. My lining wasn’t great this time, though it wasn’t awful either – I think that’s the main thing that the neupogen wash is supposed to help with. To be honest I think that if the lining is triple stripped and over 6.5 that’s ok (though over 7 better). I have had implantation many times with a thin lining – but it’s always been triple striped. As one Dr did admit, who knows what thickness the average woman’s lining is when they get pregnant? The theory of it being at least 8 is based on a sub sample of women who already have some kind of fertility issues. What is the quality of your lining like? I also have a friend who transferred PGS tested embryos twice with no luck but the third time she was on Vit D supplements as she’d been found to be low on it and she now has twins. Good luck with your next steps.
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Fio said:
Thanks for your reply and so sorry it has taken me a couple of weeks to acknowledge. Have kind of just had my head down – trying to survive! My lining was triple lined and 7.5-8 this time. But I didn’t have the neupogen (as we got me ready with a totally natural cycle they felt they didn’t have evidence it would help and we were all scared of ‘upsetting’ my lining in case it reacted differently to expectations. I also didn’t take Clexane given we had not pumped me full of extra oestrogen. These are both things that myself and our doctor are beating ourselves up over … but in a strange way I feel it means we still have something to try … does that make sense?! Anyway, thank you for your reply. I hope all is still going well for you. And thanks again for your blog x
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