My Journey Into Heart Failure

Hi! My name is Cheyanne and this is my story. 

By looking at me, I look like any normal, healthy, 28-year-old woman. You would never know that I am in full-blown heart failure. Let’s start from the beginning. 

Last year, my husband (Chris) and I decided to try for another baby. We were so excited to find out that I was pregnant in June of 2023, a day before Father's Day. A couple of weeks after finding out that we were expecting, I was able to get an ultrasound to confirm my pregnancy. My older sister (Jessica) went with me to the appointment for support since Chris had to work. When starting the ultrasound, it seemed like forever until the tech showed us what she was seeing on the screen. The only thing I could think of was that there was no heartbeat and I could feel my heart racing, expecting to hear the worst news. To my surprise, I was pregnant with twins! I was almost 6 weeks pregnant at this time.

Having twins was a complete shock. Something that never crossed my mind as a possibility of happening. I didn't get to surprise Chris with the pregnancy so I wanted to surprise him with the fact that we were having not one, but two babies. After the ultrasound, Jessica and I made a quick stop at the store to make a little surprise announcement. I had a onesie in one box that said "Baby 1" with an ultrasound photo of just one of the babies. I placed it in a little box and had our 4-year-old (at the time) son, Weston hand it to him first. Weston then brought out the second box to Chris which had a onesie in it that said "Baby 2" with an ultrasound photo of both babies. When Jessica and I made it to my house, Chris had already gotten home from work. My mother was also at our home watching Weston while I was at my appointment. I was able to surprise (and shock) my mother, Weston, and most importantly, Chris, with the fact that we were going to have two little additions to our family in February of 2024. 

After the initial shock wore off, we were so excited to be having twins. I was pregnant with Di/Di twins (Dichorionic Diamniotic twins) meaning that they shared separate sacs and separate placentas. Di/Di twins are usually fraternal and is the safest and most common type of twin pregnancy. I was thankful that if God wanted me to have twins, he at least allowed me to have a safer pregnancy.

During my pregnancy, I had severe morning sickness from about 5 weeks to 22 weeks. I couldn’t hold much down and would get sick multiple times a day. My OBGYN prescribed me Zofran, Phenergan, and Nexium. I lived off of watermelon and McDonald's Coke. They seemed to be the only things that did not make the nausea worse. Eventually, the sickness eased up and I was excited to be able to eat "normal" again. But not for long!

At 26 weeks, I had to take my glucose test. I failed the one-hour test which wasn't a shock for me because I know the risk of having gestational diabetes is high when carrying multiples. Unfortunately, I failed the three-hour glucose test (right before Thanksgiving) so I did end up having gestational diabetes but was able to control it well with my diet. It was a huge adjustment for me. I had to check my sugar levels four times a day and count carbs. I pretty much lived off of the same meals constantly because they were safe with my carb allowance and I knew that they would not spike my blood glucose levels. I did not want anything to go wrong with the babies so I was pretty strict with what I ate. My meals consisted of eggs and a pancake for breakfast or a bagel with a couple of cuties. For lunch and dinner, I would alternate with a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, salad, or cheese quesadillas. For snacks, I would have cuties, cheese, or Greek yogurt with blueberries. I did struggle with getting my fasting number below 95. No matter what I tried to help it, I was always over where I needed to be. My OBGYN prescribed me Glyburide to help lower it and it helped my fasting number tremendously. I had a pretty healthy pregnancy nonetheless. I am so very thankful for that!

Finding out the genders of the babies was so exciting for us! Since they were fraternal, they could be boy/boy, boy/girl, or girl/girl. I had such a strong feeling that they would be boy/girl. Chris thought they would be girl/girl and Weston wanted two brothers. Since Weston had completed his first season of coach toss, we had him hit two baseballs filled with either pink or blue powder to reveal the genders.

I was completely wrong. We were adding two little girls to our family! Finding one baby name you like is hard enough, but two is even harder! I never thought we would agree on names and then we finally decided on Everly Grace and Emery Hope. Everly would be twin A and Emery would be twin B.

The rest of the pregnancy was full of normal pregnancy stuff and the girls were growing perfectly. All of my prenatal check-ups went great! I had a fear of developing pre-eclampsia since the risk is high with multiples but my blood pressure was always great. I did start developing issues with breathing at night when I tried sleeping. This started about the middle to end of the second trimester. I just thought it was the girls squishing my lungs. When I brought it up to my OBGYN, he also believed that it was from carrying twins as this is a normal pregnancy symptom. I eventually had to start sleeping sitting up and had a fear of lying on my back or side. There were some nights where even sitting up did not help and I would just sit on the edge of my bed, crying, because I was so tired but could not breathe or sleep.

The difficulty with breathing started getting worse as time progressed but I just kept telling myself, “You’re having twins. This is normal. Just get through a day at a time.” I would have to take many breaks doing simple tasks like doing the dishes, making a sandwich, and even sweeping the floor. At church, I could not make it standing through three worship songs without feeling like I had just run a marathon. I just thought that these girls were really squishing my lungs and that it would all be better once they were born.

Preparing for one baby is hard enough, but two is even harder. The amount of items that twins need is insane but with support from our family and friends, we were able to be completely prepared for their arrival. Or so we thought! Throughout my pregnancy, the excitement grew and grew (along with my belly). I tried to prepare as much as possible. I joined a bunch of twin mom groups and breastfeeding groups. I tried to consume as much information as possible. I had their schedule planned out, thanks to Mom's On Call, based on each week of age and did so much research on breastfeeding because I wanted to be completely successful. I had an unplanned C-Section with Weston so I wanted to have another C-Section with the girls, especially since one of them was always breech. I knew it would be safer and I wouldn't have to worry about rushing to the hospital when I finally went into labor. I loved that everything was planned out. What could go wrong? To be proactive, I received steroid shots to help with their lung development just in case they wanted to come into the world a little early but because I was doing so well, I was able to carry the girls full term for a twin pregnancy. My C-Section was scheduled for 37 weeks and 5 days. This means that we would welcome our girls into the world on February 9th, 2024. Although I was ready to not be pregnant any longer way before that, I was thankful that they were able to grow as long as possible before coming earth side. Their arrival day couldn’t come soon enough! I counted down the months, weeks, and then days in anticipation of their debut. These girls were already so incredibly loved. In the next post, we will go into the delivery. "My strength and my weakness are twins in the same womb.” ~ Marge Piercy