Brian went with me to the appointment yesterday and when we got called back, the first thing we did was have an ultrasound. The tech put the wand on my belly and then pulled it off really quick.
The following conversation went something like this:
Tech: "Have you had an ultrasound yet for this pregnancy?"
Me: "No, this is our first."
Tech: "Was this a spontaneous pregnancy or did you have help?" [ie fertility treatments]
Me: No, it was just us...
Tech: "Well, the reason I'm asking is...[and she puts the wand back down]...there are two babies in here."
Me: "Are you JOKING???"
Brian: [Sitting next to me spluttering]
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So....yes, we're having TWINS. We will have FIVE kids! I'm pretty sure I'm still in complete shock but Kyler and Melissa are THRILLED.
After that, she continued to check over the babies and take measurements, listen to heartbeats (TWO of them! Oh my goodness!), etc. All that fun sonogram stuff. When she finished, she left and we waited for the doctor, talking about our surprise over the addition of two babies to our family instead of one. I know at one point I turned to Brian and said, "Nobody will ever want to baby-sit for us again." :)
When the doctor came in, he discussed with us the antibody issue. There are tons of different antigens and antibodies and certain ones can cause issues in pregnancy. Basically, my blood naturally does not have a certain antigen (called little c) but at some point it was introduced into my blood and my body recognized it as a "foreign object" and so my body created white blood cells to attack the little c antigen. So the antibody issue is that my body is now "on guard" against that particular antigen and IF one or both of the babies has the little c antigen and my body recognizes it as something it's dealt with before, it could cause my body to create mass amounts of white blood cells and send them across the placenta to attack the baby's blood. It can cause serious anemia issues (and even lead to death of the baby).
The doctor had us do a blood draw on Brian as well. IF his blood work comes back completely negative for the c antigen, then our babies are in the clear. Since I don't carry little c and if Brian doesn't carry little c, then the babies would not possibly have little c in their blood, which means my body would have no reason to attack it. Make sense? This would obviously be the BEST case scenario.
However, my honest guess is that Brian DOES carry little c and he passed it on to Caedon. Sometime during Caedon's pregnancy or birth, some of his blood mixed with mine and introduced that little c to my body, causing my body to create antibodies against it. Just a guess, but it's an educated one and a very likely scenario
At this point, it's just a waiting game to see if the babies will be affected. I go back at 18 weeks (the earliest they would be able to intervene if the baby/babies have issues) and they will do another ultrasound. Each month (I THINK he said once a month, there was a lot of info to take in) they will do the ultrasound and keep an eye on the blood flow of the babies by checking the blood vessels in their heads. If the baby or babies start having any anemia problems, they can start doing transfusions to the baby/babies through the umbilical cord.
We would LOVE your prayers. Please pray for the babies throughout this pregnancy, that they will BOTH stay healthy and strong and are not affected at all by the antibodies. Please pray specifically for the next 5 weeks. Until they are 18 weeks, they are too small for the transfusions. If one or both of the babies start having trouble in the next 5 weeks, there is nothing to do for them. I had no idea before yesterday that there were two babies on the way to join our family, but now that I DO know, I want to bring BOTH of those sweet little people home to join us.
