Waiting for a Twin to "vanish"

[Celesse]

I had a scan at 5+6 were they saw 2 sacs, one had a yolk the other was smaller and empty. At my follow up today (7+4) the bigger sac had a happy healthy blobby baby with a heartbeat. The smaller sac had grown but was still empty. There is also a blood clot around the the smaller sac and I've had bleeding for the last 10 days which started red but is now brown.

I've been told the smaller sac is non viable and I am being rescanned in 10 days to see if it has started to disappear and if the blood clot is resolving. They have warned me I could start to bleed heavily and pass both babies or I could reabsorb the smaller sac.

Is anyone else waiting for a non viable twin to "vanish"? Has anyone else been through this?

 

[FeistyMom]

So sorry to hear about the non-viable twin I haven't had any experiences with this, but my mother went through something similar. Try to be good for yourself - I see you have LOs to chase after, so hopefully you can also have some time to relax just to yourself too

 

[amjon]

The MFM told us it is common to have a vanishing twin and it rarely harms the other. Our boys were obviously both fine though.

 

[BabyMaybe917]

My situation is a little different and I was a little further along but I'll share. Our 6 week scan showed two babies both with heartbeats. Just shy of 9 weeks I started bleeding, went to the ER, was diagnosed with a small subchorionic hemorrhage. Both babies were fine at this appointment with heart rates 178 and 179, measuring the same at a day or so ahead of where they needed to be. 4 days later we went back at 9w2d and baby a's heart stopped beating and grew wings. Baby b is doing fine and I'm currently 13w1d. Baby a is still hanging out in his/her sac. I was initially told my body would reabsorb but now they're saying I will probably deliver baby a and sac with the placenta when I deliver baby b. The first few weeks I spotted brownish/red, now it's more of tannish brown and only once a day maybe? I still cramp pretty frequently and currently just switched from weekly scans to every 2 weeks.

It is scary but from what I read doing research myself it seems that vanishing twin is very common and the earlier it happens the less likely it seems to lead to complications. Of course everyone is different though. I wish you the best and hope your little survivor hangs in there!

 

[Celesse]

That spotting pattern sounds very similar to what I'm experiencing. Next scan is tomorrow. I'm hoping the empty sac has stopped growing and recognised its empty.

 

[Skittleblue]

Sorry to hear about the loss of one twin. I have been through losing a "vanishing" twin between 8 and 10 weeks. I didn't have any spotting, but I was told that I may not due to being on progesterone. At any rate, I was told it's extremely common and very rarely would cause problems for the remaining baby that early. The rest of my pregnancy went fine and I have a perfectly healthy 10 month old now. Losing the other baby broke my heart, but in terms of causing other problems, it didn't.