Yesterday was also when we had our thirty four week appointment with our doctor. She had the results of the non-stress test we took earlier in the day, and she said everything looked fine. She also said that the Group B Strep test from last week’s appointment came back negative. Group B Strep is a kind of bacteria that is often found in the vagina. It has the potential for causing meningitis if a baby is infected by it either during labor, or if the mother’s membranes are ruptured for a significant amount of time. Anyway, Agnes’ test came back negative.
Our doctor continued the examination in much the same way she does every other appointment. She did an ultrasound to measure the size of each baby, as well as gauge whether they still have enough space. By taking different size measurements, such as the size of the head, abdomen and femur, the ultrasound machine can estimate how big the baby is. In our case, it looks like each baby is a little over five pounds. Considering that the average birth weight for twins is 5 lbs, 5 oz, this is good.
From our Lamaze class, I realized that most people have only two or three ultrasounds done during their entire pregnancy. One nice thing about having twins is that we’ve had an ultrasound at most of our appointments. It’s nice to continue seeing them grow. Their heads barely fit on the monitor at this point.
The ultrasound also revealed that both babies are now in the breech position. Last week one was right side up, the other was upside down. Now they’re both right side up. This isn’t good. If either are in the breech position by the time Agnes goes into labor, they will have to do a C-section. Our doctor suggested that we schedule a C-section during our 38th week and if they don’t both turn before that week, then they’ll do the C-section. It’s pretty unlikely that they’ll both turn.
The 38th week is the first week of August. We scheduled the C-section for August 2nd at 12:30pm. It’s kind of weird to pick out when the babies’ birthday will be. We asked for August 1st, but the hospital was already booked for that day. It’s still possible that Agnes will go into labor before August 2nd, and in that case they’ll have less time to prepare for the C-section. For now, we know that the pregnancy won’t go past August 2nd.