vanishing twin?

[Mrsgoodhart]

I'm 9+4 today, and a week ago I had a massive bleed with clots and tissue and a lot of watery fluid that smelled like the amniotic fluid when I had my son.

I was convinced I had lost the baby, but my doctor wanted me to go to the ER for a STAT ultrasound and see what was going on in there- we were all shocked to discover a baby, measuring basically on track with my dates, and a beating heart! I was diagnosed with a large SCH and sent home to be on bedrest.

Yesterday I followed up with my OB and when the sonographer did my ultrasound, she said she couldn't find a bleed but couldn't tell me more. My doctor brought some pictures in and explained that she is nearly positive that it was not a SCH at all, but a failed twin pregnancy. She showed me the "bleed" and pointed out the decidual reaction around it, just like the gestational sac right next to it that has a healthy baby inside. This explains a lot, like....why I was positive I lost the baby, and the tissue I passed, and the watery fluid that gushed out of me. And alllllll that blood.

I'm still on bedrest as she wanted to be absolutely sure we play it safe since there had been a teeeeeeny little spot on the first ultrasound that looked like a bleed. I will go back in two weeks to see what is going on in there and will probably be released to go back to work then, but she said by all means this should not affect the remainder of the pregnancy. I hadn't known I was pregnant with twins to begin with, so this comes as a shock.

Thought I'd put this in 3rd trimester group as well to look for advice. Has this happened to anyone? Have you lost a twin and gone on to have the surviving baby? Any complications? Normal pregnancy and delivery and healthy babe?

 

[supersherwolf]

I have no experience with this but I know for sure that a lot of woman go on to have healthy pregnancies with a vanishing twin. I'm not even sure one coincides with the other, but I'm not 100% sure. Good luck though, and hopefully you have a healthy and easy pregnancy. I'm sure it'll all work out for you.

 

[felix555]

I have a close friend who this happened to twice. It's incredibly rare to have a twin pregnancy after a twin pregnancy but this is what happened. The first she lost shortly after the 12 week scan (the remaining twin is now a healthy 4yr old girl). The next pregnancy she lost the one twin quite early on (remaining twin is now a healthy 2yr old boy)

My friend found both losses very hard to deal with.

She had normal deliveries for both pregnancies after.

 

[Kaylakin]

Sorry to be so late to this, but I had a "vanishing twin" in the first trimester, too. I really hate the term because it's a miscarriage, it's just that you still have another baby in there. People always say, "Oh, it's so common!" but so are a lot of things, and that doesn't make it easier. For me, I knew right away I had 2 because I'd done IVF and saw two sacs. Fairly soon after, one was trailing behind. For me, I never had any bleeding, but the baby died and slowly the body absorbed. Nothing happened to the remaining baby, and I'm now almost 32 weeks pregnant. It was very scary as I kept thinking that something would happen to the remaining baby, but sure enough everything was fine. I hope you're doing well, and that this was of some reassurance ;-)

 

[Cattia]

This also happened to a good friend of mine in her first pregnancy. She went on to have a healthy baby girl and has since had two other successful single pregnancies. she found it a very confusing time as she was obviously very upset to lose a baby whilst same time feeling relieved that the surviving twin was OK.

 

[Kazy]

Happened to me this pregnancy too. It was heart breaking as I had found out three weeks earlier we were expecting twins. It's difficult no matter how far along you are or what you call it. I'm currently. 31 weeks and baby looks great.
It is "common." Which doesn't make the pain easier but may make you feel more hopeful for your surviing baby.