It turned out to be a serious issue: baby 1 had almost no amniotic fluid left and baby 2 was swimming in all the amniotic fluid

Meghan writes about her pregnancy and the birth of her twins. This is part 1.

Extremely nauseous but only 7 weeks pregnant

I was overjoyed; pregnant again just like with our previous son. But soon I became just as sick. The vomiting wouldn't stop. I couldn't do anything and was as weak as a dishrag. I had no energy for anything. Just turning my head made me vomit, and I was only 7 weeks pregnant. During my previous pregnancy, I also had to vomit so much. And the reason might well be because there were two babies. On our first ultrasound, we saw two gestational sacs, twins! Around 10 weeks, unfortunately, I miscarried but our son Dean remained, carried to 40+6.

I suspected twins

This pregnancy felt exactly the same; so sick, so miserable, so nauseous. In the morning I woke up with a high fever. I went to the general practitioner and he referred me to the hospital. It turned out I was completely dehydrated from all the vomiting. Once at the hospital, the doctor wanted to do an ultrasound immediately. I was about 7 weeks pregnant at that time. My husband was on his way to the hospital but the doctor didn't want to wait because of the high fever. I indicated that I could already feel it, it felt the same as the last time. So clear and so strong and I expressed this: "I think there are two." And yes, my feeling was right. I looked at the screen and saw two babies right away. Soon after, I heard the confirmation: "Madam, I indeed see two babies. Your feeling is correct. Identical twins!"

A few weeks later, I had to go to the hospital again due to dehydration

When my husband arrived at the hospital, it was quite a shock. “Another set of twins?”, he asked. I was given an IV and was allowed to go home late in the evening. A few weeks later, I had to go back to the hospital due to dehydration from vomiting. It just wouldn't stop. The worst part for me was that I couldn't do anything with my little boy and was just lying in bed or on the couch all the time. I felt so guilty towards him. The vomiting lasted until 18 weeks, but thankfully it decreased a bit after that.

The doctor said, “If you suddenly get a belly, you should come back”

I was now under observation at the hospital, I had to report every two weeks. The doctor had said: “If you suddenly get a belly, you need to contact us. At almost 18 weeks, there was still no belly visible due to all the vomiting. One day I woke up and suddenly there was a noticeable baby bump. How could this happen so suddenly? I called the hospital, the assistant said that this was very normal at 18 weeks. Later, the doctor called back: “Just to be sure, come in for a visit.” The checks and the ultrasound were all good. What a relief.

The doctor wanted to consult with a colleague

During the next check-up appointment at the hospital, everything appeared to be fine. The day after, I had to go to Erasmus MC for the 20-week ultrasound, because it's an identical twin pregnancy. At the 20-week ultrasound, initially, everything seemed fine. Until the doctor who was performing the ultrasound suddenly said: “I'll be right back.” I looked at my husband in alarm and saw his startled expression. “There couldn’t be anything wrong, could there?” my husband said. “Everything was fine yesterday, that can’t just change all of a sudden, can it?”

Yesterday everything was fine and now there are doubts?

There she was again with another doctor who took over the ultrasound. They looked together and after a few minutes, they both indicated that they wanted to consult with another doctor. They then left the room together, leaving us behind. Those minutes felt very long and the tension increased. 'Please come with me to another room,' we heard from yet another doctor. There we were. Everything was fine yesterday, what now?

It turns out I have TTS

“U heeft het tweeling transfusie syndroom, TTS. We hebben net contact opgenomen met het LUMC en u moet daar nu direct naar toe.” “Nu direct?”, vroeg ik nog. Ja, we moesten echt direct door. Aangekomen in het LUMC, werden we heel vriendelijk ontvangen. En het klopte, ik zat echt tegen TTS aan. Bij TTS wordt het bloed niet eerlijk verdeeld. De bloedstroom gaat dan voornamelijk in één richting. Zo ontstaat bij de ene foetus (de donor) een tekort aan bloed en daarmee (omdat hij eerst minder en daarna helemaal niet meer plast) een tekort aan vruchtwater. Het was precies het oud en nieuw weekend, we moesten over twee dagen terug komen. Onze oud en nieuw werd thuis op de bank met veel angst. Komt er een operatie? Zo ja, overleven de kindjes het?

The ultrasound at the hospital turned out to be bad news

On January 2nd in the morning, I was in a lot of pain. It was located on the upper right side near my ribs. I had to keep pressing on it, otherwise the pain was almost unbearable. We got into the car and headed to the LUMC. The pain increased by the minute. Upon arrival, I immediately had an ultrasound. It turned out to be bad; fetus A had almost no amniotic fluid left and fetus B was swimming in all the amniotic fluid. In these two days, the situation had worsened significantly and I had to be operated on immediately. I wanted to be under general anesthesia, but unfortunately, that was not allowed. I had to be awake and only received a light sedative that didn't help, in my opinion, due to the extreme nerves.

I had to undergo surgery

Only four doctors in the Netherlands perform this surgery. It's very rare, why did it have to be me? Again, all sorts of thoughts were running through my head. The doctor asked if she could start. I said, “If it has to be done, then it has to be done.” The doctor insisted on hearing a clear “Yes”. “Yes, okay, start,” I managed to say with great difficulty. They make a small hole in your abdomen and go inside with a laser. The doctor had already indicated that my placenta was not well positioned. As if I needed more to worry about.

There were three possible scenarios

There were three options: either the babies survive, or the umbilical cord of one baby is cauterized so the other can survive, or neither of the babies survive. It felt like hours before we heard whether it was successful. And it was!

Now it was a matter of waiting until tomorrow morning to see if both hearts would still be beating...

MEGHAN