Premmie only weighing 500g?

[Jen and twins]

I'm currently 23.5 weeks pregnant with identical twin boys..
We have already gone through twin to twin transfusion and had laser surgery to correct it which went well..
Now we have been told that twin b has severe iugr and only weighs 350g.. Twin a is weighing 600g already and is doing well..
Drs don't know if our little baby is going to make it to 500g by 28 weeks.. He is currently only putting on about 20g a week..
They say they don't want to do anything before 28 weeks because they don't want to put twin a at risk from being so early when he is doing so well..
I'm petrified for both of my boys.. I'm scared that our little baby won't make it to 28 weeks
Anybody have a similar story they could share with me?

 

[AP]

Hey Jen,

I haven't got experience but I'm pretty sure others on the board have. I will say though, growth scans aren't accurate so it may not be as scary as it sounds

I'm sure some lovely experience mummy will have some advice shortly x

 

[corrie anne]

I dont have any experience with this either but i would say if the surgery has just happened or it was recently i think they should give him a couple of weeks to catch up. His body has to adjust to the nutrition and blood flow it was lacking and now getting more of.
It has to be hard for you. I hope that the pregnancy does get better.

 

[twins_daddy]

I'm currently 23.5 weeks pregnant with identical twin boys..
We have already gone through twin to twin transfusion and had laser surgery to correct it which went well..
Now we have been told that twin b has severe iugr and only weighs 350g.. Twin a is weighing 600g already and is doing well..
Drs don't know if our little baby is going to make it to 500g by 28 weeks.. He is currently only putting on about 20g a week..
They say they don't want to do anything before 28 weeks because they don't want to put twin a at risk from being so early when he is doing so well..
I'm petrified for both of my boys.. I'm scared that our little baby won't make it to 28 weeks
Anybody have a similar story they could share with me?

Very very similar to us although we have fraternal twins, check the thread I started.

We were told that our girl would probably not make 28 weeks but she did, in fact she did manage her best growth spurt between 26-28 weeks which took her estimated weight from 500g at 26 weeks to 700g at 28 weeks. In the end we pushed it to 30 weeks before that doctor wanted them out, birth weight of Aimee was 760g and Ethan was 1500g. Yes she was/is tiny but I do think maturity plays a big part and every week you can get makes a big difference.

You will be petrified, we were, I was a mess for a couple of weeks and I'm a big ugly bloke! I'm not eloquent enough to express the thoughts, feelings and emotions we went through though as a man my default feeling was to hit something, many times! I particularly hated the morning of the scans and the wait to find out if Aimee was still with us and how well she was, horrible horrible horrible

As for advice, well breaking everything down into small steps helped, we set targets ranging from day to day and week to week. We tried to take confidence from every day and week that passed, every scan we got through helped steel out resolve (the flip side of scans to what I said above). I must say that my OH really tried to remain positive and encouraged the twins as much as possible by talking to them, stroking them telling Ethan off for eating all the food etc! My best advice however, is to avoid Google at all costs and read this forum, it really is great even though there should be more dads

Anyway, I'm rambling. It's not easy, wont be easy but have faith and focus on the successes you've had and will have.

 

[Laura2919]

Hi hun.
I have fraternals. I had a growth scan at 27+5 and they both weighed 2lbish. When I had them 2+1 later they weighed 3lb10 and 3lb5 so a big difference in two weeks.
How often are they scanning you now? If they see a danger they may opt to deliver them earlier. When I had my girls I was told sometimes they are better out than in and in my case they were.

 

[vermeil]

hello! i had my little guy at 27 weeks - he weighed only 570 grams (the weight of a 23 weeker) at birth due to severe IUGR. you can see his pictures below. He`s now 8.5 months (5.5 corrected) and doing great! only minor health issues so far *crosses fingers*

i know its very hard but try to keep positive - i met another woman in the hospital whose twins received the same surgery and the smaller one did eventually catch up. and yes those growth scans are quite approximate




https://www.babyandbump.com/prematu...ip-very-important-preemie-25.html#post5821261

 

[HCB]

I have just given both to our identical twins. At our 20 week scan they found we had severe twin to twin transfusion (one baby was measuring 20 weeks the other 17 weeks and had virtually no amniotic fluid) and were immediately referred for laser treatment that afternoon.

We know exactly what it's like and how hard it is to go through. The first few weeks after the laser treatment were awful. We had a scan the day before my birthday but it was too soon after the treatment so nothing much had happened but because we were trying to be optimistic it was actually even harder to take and made for a difficult birthday.

The following week they found both babies were growing and at a similar rate so the difference was still the same but not getting any bigger. At that point we were told that if things stayed as they were we could probably go almost to term but it would be unlikely and there was a significant chance that the smaller baby's growth would tail off again and depending on if and when that happened they would then decide what to do - if it was 32 weeks they would deliver both babies, if it was early (26 weeks) they would just let nature take it's course, which meant probably losing the smaller one, because they didn't want to risk the bigger one for the sake of a baby that wouldn't have a chance (he would have measured 23 weeks). We were also basically told that the smaller one would never catch up in the womb and that they had to reach at least 600g to have a chance.

However.....they both continued to grow and scans showed the smaller twin was actually catching up. We had a scan at just under 25 weeks and the smaller twin was still estimated at under 600g but 2 1/2 weeks later at 27 weeks he was estimated to be over 700g. At that scan we were told everything was looking good and that we'd probably have them at around 34 weeks. The twins had other ideas though and I went into spontaneous labour 4 days later, one weighing 1072g and the other 810g so he had been piling on the pounds! That was just over 2 weeks ago and both are in NICU but doing well.

What I am trying to say is that our little one did start to grow bigger a bit further along so there is every chance yours can too but I do know it's easier for me to say this now. The other thing is that the weights they give you when you are scanned are only estimates and not accurate.

I hope that everything turns out well for you. Just rest as much as you can, try not to stress (not easy, I know, but makes a difference to you and the babies) and make sure you eat and drink plenty to keep those little ones growing!