Baby not growing as he should at 26+5

[JustJane1234]

Hello,

I'm currently at 26+5 with twin babies, a boy and a girl. We conceived through donor egg IVF and have been over the moon.

The worry never goes away, though. As it's twins, we had a growth scan + dopplers at 24+3 weeks. Both twins were small, with the girl on the 12th percentile, but they were more worried about the boy, who was on the 8th. They asked us to come back at 26+3 weeks.

On Monday, then, we went for another growth scan. Little girl seems to be doing well, although she's still relatively small. Little boy has grown in the last 2 weeks, but has fallen further behind in terms of percentiles (not overall as his head has grown well, but his abdominal and femur measurements are both below 10th percentile).

Most worryingly, they recorded abnormal doppler measurements for little boy's umbilical cord (high flow?). They put us on heart rate monitoring and both babies' hearts were doing well. Both babies are also active in terms of movement, especially the little boy. We have to go back on Friday, though, and twice a week going forwards, for more monitoring.

I'm going out of my mind with worry for my little boy. I did a little research online into fetal growth restriction with abnormal dopplers and it made me even more frightened so I'm trying to stay away from Google and just wait to talk to the doctors this week.

Anyone with stories or experiences to share, please? Or can anyone tell me what questions I should be asking when we go back on Friday? We were so overwhelmed on Monday that we didn't really ask anything.

Thank you in advance and sending lots of love to all the mums and mums-to-be out there xx

[AuroraXen]

Ahhh Jane. I don't have any experience of this I'm afraid , but am thinking of you and hope it all turns out to be nothing you need to worry about. You're spot on, the worry never goes away!! Xx

[LadyM2019]

Jane are you on Aspirin and or Enoxaparin? May be helpful to ask about this re the blood flow to the babies. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Incredibly stressful for you all xx

[JustJane1234 in reply to LadyM2019]

Thanks Lady M. Yes, I've been on aspirin since 12 weeks as it's a multiple pregnancy. We didn't see a consultant today, just had the CTG heart monitoring (which was fine), but I will ask if it might help to increase my aspirin dose next time I see one xx

[DianeArnold Partner]

Hi JustJane. I wondered whether they share the same placenta? I remember having a lady with a similar story, who had a C section at 34/40and the smaller twin caught up in a few weeks and all was well. Just my thoughts, but if it was the case with your little ones I’m sure you would have been told. Hope they soon catch up. Thinking of you. Diane

[JustJane1234 in reply to DianeArnold]

Thanks Diane. They have a placenta each and the little girl's seems to be working well - just question marks about the little boy's. We had more heart monitoring today and that was fine, so now we're waiting to see what the repeat dopplers next week show. The midwife today said that sometimes an abnormal doppler is followed by a normal one, and the baby gets back on track by itself, so fingers crossed... xx

[DianeArnold Partner in reply to JustJane1234]

Hi. I feel more reassured that they have a placenta each. He will more than likely catch up, could just be down to positioning. Reassuring too that they both appear normal. Thinking of you “all”. Diane

[XOXO13]

Hello,

I had boy/girl twins too and both always measured on the smaller side with baby girl measuring within the 8th percentile and baby boy in the 10th percentile. I had scans every two weeks to monitor mainly baby girls growth, but she gave us a massive surprise when she can out as the bigger baby almost 2lbs heavier than predicted!! Baby boy was actually the smaller of the two by a 1lbs but still bigger than what he was estimated!

I don’t have experience with high flow or know much about it but it’s good you’re being monitored closely xxx

[JustJane1234]

Might seem strange that I'm replying to myself months later, but when I was struggling I often found old posts on this website. For anyone reading this and going through something similar, here's a brief update.

My little boy continued to grow slowly and to fall behind on the growth charts. His placenta hadn't implanted properly so, as he grew, it was increasingly struggling to support him.

We had to have doppler scans 2-3 times a week for the rest of the pregnancy to make sure that blood was getting across the placenta to him, and we frequently had heartrate monitoring when they weren't happy with the doppler results. It was all very frightening but we were really well looked after by the team at our hospital in Leeds.

Eventually, I delivered my little boy and his sister at 34 weeks, as it was felt that the risk to my son from staying inside was greater than the risk to my daughter of being born prematurely.

My son was a very small baby, at 3lb 9oz, but is in good health and is now doing really well. At 7 weeks, he now weights 5lb 4oz. He smiled for the first time yesterday. Despite all our fears, he doesn't seem to have any long-term health issues as a result of the growth restriction.

So it was a very scary time, but we had a happy ending and couldn't be more in love with our beautiful, healthy babies 🥰

[JustJane1234 in reply to JustJane1234]

Just to add, I had to deliver by C-section as they felt that my son wouldn't withstand a vaginal birth. If anyone is going through this and wants to message me, please do and I'll do my best to get back to you xx

[ki50 in reply to JustJane1234]

Just want to say I'm so glad both your little ones are safely here and doing well! X