ultrasound yesterday showing twin B small

I went for my routine 24 week ultrasound yesterday expecting everything to be fine. They measured twin A right on for the date. Twin B measuring 22 weeks and a couple days only. They sent me upstairs with a sealed piece of paper (oh yes I tried to look at it, to no avail)for a stress test. But then they called my OB and he recommended another ultrasound next week and stress test then (I guess they prefer to wait until 25 weeks) and then ultrasound the following week again.

My worry is that there is something really wrong. Since 6 weeks along baby B has always been the bigger one. (last time A was 10oz and B was 12 oz) I know they wont always be the same size and I know they explained to me that the important part is that it keeps growing, not the weight so much. But I'm wondering what is going on, is there a cord/placenta issue. She took lots of shots of the bloodflow through the cord which makes me wonder. So then I came home and google and came up with all sorts of bad things. What happens if it isn't growing???

I know the hearbeat is ok, and they never said anything was unusual at the anatomy ultrasound last month and. The only thing I notice is B is less active than A at times, but definately moving around.

Anyone have any words of wisdom for me?

 

Are your twins mono-di? My twins had 7 oz weight discrepancies at 26 weeks, only to find at 28 weeks they weighed the same. You may be surprised and have twin B measuring closer to his/her due date next week! Sometimes the baby is just in a difficult position to get more accurate measurements. Try not to stress too much (easier said than done!) and definitely stop googling

 

It can be so nerve-wracking, when you don't get answers! It is hard to wait a week with your mind going all over the place.

It is good to know if your babies are sharing a placenta. If so, there could be some placental-share issues. If she took a lot of shots of the cords, she could be looking for signs of TTTS. Poor flow through the cord can be a sign of TTTS, but there are a bundle of other signs as well.

But - another thing to keep in mind is that ultrasounds are not completely 100% accurate each time. It seems like each ultrasound tech measures things just a little different. When I was pregnant I had weekly and then daily ultrasounds, and it was always amazing to me to watch the techs do their thing. And, when babies are still that small they move around so much and it can be difficult to pin things down.

If you are worried, can you call your doc and see if he/she will talk to you a little, maybe explain what they are looking for next week specifically?

Big hugs. These pregnancies are harder on us emotionally than physically, I think!

 

Thanks, I need to try to shut my brain off. My husband has also lovingly suggested to stop googling. I should clarify they are fraternals -definately two placentas and two cords. Which I know is probably a better situation them not sharing anything. My Dr. is on vacation until the 19th so I have to just go with what the Dr. on-call at the hospital says next weeks when they do the testing. I guess I am one of those people who would rather be given the worst case scenario and if it turns out to be ok, then I am pleasantly suprised. This is my first pregnancy and I just don't know what to expect as we go along. Everybody on this site has been so helpful and nice!

 

I can relate to that - as soon as I found out I was pregnant with twins I started looking online, and seeing all the horror stories and things that could go wrong was enough to send me into shock.

Good luck with the testing next week!

 

i could have written that post myself! I am 28 weeks preg with di/di twins girls. Baby B has always been our big girl, well until we had an ultrasound at 27 weeks. Baby B is much smaller than A now. She has IUGR. Her placenta and cord are abnormal and she is not getting enough nutrients. We have seen a few different doctors and they all tell us the same thing. So now we are going for dopplers and biophysicals once a week. We know our girls will be born early but how early we dont know. I am hoping to make it to 34 weeks. I hope all goes well with your babies!!! our situation seems so similar. I am sorry we are also having to go through this, I know how terrible it all is. There is a great thread in the link above "complications in pregnancy" with info on IUGR.

take care
Jennifer

 

:hug: I don't have any advice... just hugs. Keep us posted! Oh and stop googling, I did the same thing for ever little bump and very rarely did it ever do any good!

 

Do you know the sexes? If one is a girl and the other a boy, simple genetics could be in play. My Baby B suffered from IUGR (one of the many stories in the IUGR sticky mentioned above) and is now 2lbs heavier and at least an inch taller than his "big" brother. Ours was diagnosed at 19 weeks. The good news is that IUGR is rarely deadly and the babies recover from it once out of the womb. Oh, I also wanted to add that unless your babies are of different sex they could still be identical. My di/di are!

 

I experienced the same thing. Darn u/s techs. Ours was due to a 2 vesel cord in Jessy and both having velomous cord insertion

 

No words of wisdom, just wanted to send some :hug:'s and to let you know I'm keeping you and the babies in my thoughts. :hug:

 

Hi, thanks everyone for their responses and thoughts. I am fairly certain they are fraternal since we had IVF and two embryos placed (but stranger things have happened). And we don't know the genders, we want to be suprised. The stuff I was googling was all IUGR causes. My Dr. office has scheduled me for weekly ultrasounds followed by the stress tests. They keep saying stress test but I guess it is the non-stress testing?? His receptionist told me that since he is out of town for two weeks I will see the hospital Dr after and they will keep and eye of things.

Thank you "hammjl" you kind of answered my what ifs. I guess they just monitor until they are concerned for the baby and then out they come. At 24 weeks they are not done cooking!!!! I'm willing B to grow this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just feel so helpless. My fear is that something will go wrong and we'll lose baby B.

When I was born I only had a two vessel cord and I actually mentioned that to the u/s tech and she said usually they make note but it isn't usually an issue. Then the "sealed" paper they gave me to take upstairs said something was "abnormal" but I couldn't see what it said. Also I didn't want to accidentally see the genders on it. They sugar coat things when they talk to you because no one wants a stressed out mama. And until they really know what is going on I guess they don't say much. It's going to be a looooong week!

 

I know exactly how you feel right now, going through the same! email me if you want to talk more, I know I found it helpful to chat with someone who has gone through the same thing. [email protected]

take care
Jenn

 

They pretty much gave up on doing NSTs on my girls because they couldn't get them both on monitors at the same time. It was so much easier to do a u/s and do a biophysical profile

 

Big hugs. I hope that Baby B grows this week!!

 

Grow B, Grow!

I just wanted to add that when I had my last ultrasound the technician mentioned that the weights have an error of +/- 8 ounces (at least at 35 weeks, the error rate may be different when the babies are younger). So, if measurements for both babies are on the extremes of that error range, then things would look worse than they actually are. So, these measurements, as others have said, can be off by a fair amount. It'll become clearer after some repeated measures (the weekly ultrasounds) whether there really is a pattern of difference between the two or if the ultrasound tech was having a bad day. I'm hoping for the later. Stay strong, and stay away from Google! Those bad news stories only make it worse ;-). Good luck.