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Birth story of our twins
Sorry for the delay in getting this written. The last week has been a bit manic.
First a bit of background.........
As most of you know, at my 20 week scan, the sonographer had spotted that one of our twins was bigger than the other. We were referred to Queen Charlotte's hospital where the size difference was diagnosed as a growth restriction due to one of the twins' cords being right on the edge of the placenta. We were warned that we could lose one or both twins because of this and that, if we made it, the twins would definitely need to be delivered early. We were given a 50% chance of making it to 28 weeks with both twins and a 30% chance of making it to 30 weeks.
We spent from 21 weeks onwards trekking to London once a week, ticking off the days and weekly milestones and hoping that each scan would show a continued growth of both twins and a stable blood flow to our smaller twin.
Against slim odds, at my 29 week scan, both twins were still growing (although one on the 50th centile and one on the 3rd) and I got my c-section date for 32 weeks and 3 days. I would've liked to have gone for longer but the consultant thought it was just too risky to keep the twins in past 32 weeks. So I started to come to terms with the fact that I was about to be ???????robbed??????? of the last month of my pregnancy and that I would definitely not be bringing my babies straight home with me.
So.....
On Bank Holiday Monday, I went to the Day Unit for my pre-op appointment (bloods, consent form etc.). When they took my blood pressure, it was raised again so they put me on the CTG to monitor the babies' heartbeats. The babies were fine but they were concerned about the risk of pre-eclampsia. I had spent 2 nights in hospital a couple of weeks earlier for the same reason but had never had any other PE symptoms so had been allowed home. This time, they were having none of it and wanted to admit me. Although I was only 3 days away from my c-section date, I was really upset that I was missing my last meal, last sleep in my bed, last cuddle with hubby whilst pregnant. Silly I know, and mostly down to hormones, but I sobbed. Once I was up on the ward I pulled myself together and got chatting to another woman in the same bay. She was fed up too as she had been in hospital for a week after several failed attempts to turn her transverse baby so we had a laugh and settled in. After a rubbish menu at dinner which consisted of cheese - cheese salad, cheese sandwiches, cauliflower cheese, cheese and onion pie and cheese and biscuits (I'm not joking) we ordered a takeaway. The pizza place sounded very confused when we asked them to deliver to the Maternity Unit - I think they thought it was a prank call but our pizzas arrived and we tucked in.
By the Wednesday evening, the friendly midwives kept asking me how I was feeling about my c-section the next day. They were all lovely and I had got to know them quite well as I'd been labelled as the ???????twin lady???????. Everyone in our bay had had a rough night the previous night due to someone in the bay who had moaned and groaned all night. It was the second night in a row that she had been laughing and joking with her OH all day but suddenly, in the middle of the night, had been in unbearable pain and just lay there moaning (I sound so unsympathetic but she was really annoying!). So the midwives moved me to a room on my own so I could get some valuable sleep before my ???????big day???????. After another takeway (well I had to fast from midnight so it would have been rude not to!) and The Apprentice, I snuggled down for the night.
The Big Day
I woke up at about 6am and went for a shower. As I plodded past the midwives station, they asked how I was feeling again and asked if I had ever been to Delivery Suite. I hadn't so they took me through and showed me the theatre so I knew what to expect. After a shower (no breakfast allowed though), hubby arrived at about 8am. I knew I would be going down early as I was the only one on the list for a c-section. Our hospital does elective sections on Wednesday and Friday mornings - all other times are for emergencies but as I was having twins and needed twice as many people there, I had been booked in all on my own. At 9am they called to say they were ready for me. I was still on the CTG and hadn't even got my gown on so I quickly changed and we went over to Delivery Suite.
When we arrived, they told us they were trying to assemble the team but that 4 ladies had gone into labour so they needed to wait for one to deliver before there were enough midwives free for me (we needed 3). Finally, after an agonising 2 hour wait (hubby was pacing the floor), I heard someone in the corridor say ???????Right, let's get these twins delivered??????? and we were on!
Hubby was given some scrubs to change into and told to wait outside the theatre until called. I was taken into theatre to have my spinal. Now, I don't want to scare anyone who is having a section but, for me, this was the worst part. I sat on the edge of the table and had my canula put in and then had some local anaesthetic put into my back - so far so good. Then, they tried to put the spinal in but kept missing. They had about 6 attempts and each time, I could feel a jab to the right of my spine, nowhere near where the local anaesthetic had gone in. By about the 4th attempt, I was in tears and, at this point, the Consultant Anaesthetist (there were 3 anaesthetists there!) told them to stop and put some more local anaesthetic in. Finally, they got it in and I started to go numb. Once I had been laid down and my catheter had been put in, hubby was called. When he came in, I was still crying. He thought I was scared until I told him about the spinal (with the Consultant Anaesthetist still apologising). My consultant then appeared and they prepped my tummy. Within 2 minutes he was cutting me and we could hear some suction and then the best sound ever - a loud strong cry. My consultant knew that we didn't know whether we were having boys or girls, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold them as they needed to be whisked off to Special Care, but as Twin 1 was delivered, he held its bottom up to us so we could see that we had A LITTLE GIRL, or make that 2. Twin 2 was born, also crying and she was also whisked out. After a few minutes, the Special Care nurse ran back in with her and we were able to give her a quick kiss before she was whisked away again. There was an amazing team of 2 paediatricians, 2 Special Care nurses and 2 midwives looking after our girls and getting them breathing, stable and down to Special Care.
Hubby and I then had a few moments to ourselves to take in the fact that we had 2 beautiful girls while they were stitching me up. Hubby found some hidden bravery along with his new title of "Daddy" and managed to peek over the drapes a couple of times while they were stitching me up (this is the man who can't watch me have blood taken?!). Due to the problems we had, he also asked to see the placenta. He was over the moon as he had wanted girls (not that we would have been disappointed with boys) and we were both so relieved that they had cried when they were born. Hubby was then sent out to get changed out of his scrubs while they finished tidying me up and I was then wheeled back to Recovery to meet him. The midwife looking after me promised me that Special Care would phone as soon as they could but we spent a very long hour waiting for the call. Surprisingly, we weren't worried about the girls (I think we were so overwhelmed that they sounded OK when they were born) but wanted to know their weights so we could ring and text everyone. Finally, at about 2.15 (over an hour after I had left theatre), the call came and we found out they weighed 2lb 9oz and 4lb 2oz. This was the cue for us to be able to see them too. As I was still numb, hubby went down to see them and came back with photos that the nurses had taken before hooking them up to the monitors. He also told the nurses their names - Lily (Twin 2 2lb 9) and Grace (Twin 1 4lb 2). Names we had chosen and kept a secret for 25 weeks and now belonged to our little girls. So we set about spreading the news and we're still in a bit of a whirlwind. Presents and cards are arriving every day and so many people have commented on how pretty their names are. We didn't share the names in advance as we didn't want to be influenced by other peoples opinions - good or bad - but it is lovely when people say how much they like them! I think I spent the rest of the day in a kind of daze. Hubby said I was a bit spaced out (probably all the drugs they pump into you) but just before I went to sleep I had a text from hubby saying "well done mummy, night night xxx" and it hit me that we had made it.
I had my own room in hospital which was very sensitive of the midwives, since I didn't have my babies with me. I was medically discharged on Saturday but they said I could stay as long as I liked so I stayed until Tuesday. Mainly because they started the girls on EBM on Monday and I wanted to be close by for the first couple of days until my milk came in. We are now visiting every day, for most of the day.
Each day, the girls' personalities are becoming stronger and they are doing really well. They both started off in the NICU on CPAP. Lily came off after 2 days and Grace had a day on the ventilator and then went back onto CPAP for a day. Since Monday, they've both been breathing on their own with no help and have had no issues so far. They are off all IV drips and are being fed EBM through a tube. On Tuesday they were moved from NICU to the High Dependency Unit where they've been snuggled up in incubators keeping warm and under the lamps for jaundice. Other than that, they just need to fatten up and learn to feed and then they can come home. Not too bad for 32 weekers. Part of me feels so guilty that I couldn't carry them for longer but we are so proud of how strong they are and how well they are doing and we can't wait to get them home as soon as they are big enough.
If you are still with me, thanks and well done! I will try and post a couple of pics later on
A xxxxx
[Modified by: trying4babyM on 15 May 2009 09:19:42 ]
First a bit of background.........
As most of you know, at my 20 week scan, the sonographer had spotted that one of our twins was bigger than the other. We were referred to Queen Charlotte's hospital where the size difference was diagnosed as a growth restriction due to one of the twins' cords being right on the edge of the placenta. We were warned that we could lose one or both twins because of this and that, if we made it, the twins would definitely need to be delivered early. We were given a 50% chance of making it to 28 weeks with both twins and a 30% chance of making it to 30 weeks.
We spent from 21 weeks onwards trekking to London once a week, ticking off the days and weekly milestones and hoping that each scan would show a continued growth of both twins and a stable blood flow to our smaller twin.
Against slim odds, at my 29 week scan, both twins were still growing (although one on the 50th centile and one on the 3rd) and I got my c-section date for 32 weeks and 3 days. I would've liked to have gone for longer but the consultant thought it was just too risky to keep the twins in past 32 weeks. So I started to come to terms with the fact that I was about to be ???????robbed??????? of the last month of my pregnancy and that I would definitely not be bringing my babies straight home with me.
So.....
On Bank Holiday Monday, I went to the Day Unit for my pre-op appointment (bloods, consent form etc.). When they took my blood pressure, it was raised again so they put me on the CTG to monitor the babies' heartbeats. The babies were fine but they were concerned about the risk of pre-eclampsia. I had spent 2 nights in hospital a couple of weeks earlier for the same reason but had never had any other PE symptoms so had been allowed home. This time, they were having none of it and wanted to admit me. Although I was only 3 days away from my c-section date, I was really upset that I was missing my last meal, last sleep in my bed, last cuddle with hubby whilst pregnant. Silly I know, and mostly down to hormones, but I sobbed. Once I was up on the ward I pulled myself together and got chatting to another woman in the same bay. She was fed up too as she had been in hospital for a week after several failed attempts to turn her transverse baby so we had a laugh and settled in. After a rubbish menu at dinner which consisted of cheese - cheese salad, cheese sandwiches, cauliflower cheese, cheese and onion pie and cheese and biscuits (I'm not joking) we ordered a takeaway. The pizza place sounded very confused when we asked them to deliver to the Maternity Unit - I think they thought it was a prank call but our pizzas arrived and we tucked in.
By the Wednesday evening, the friendly midwives kept asking me how I was feeling about my c-section the next day. They were all lovely and I had got to know them quite well as I'd been labelled as the ???????twin lady???????. Everyone in our bay had had a rough night the previous night due to someone in the bay who had moaned and groaned all night. It was the second night in a row that she had been laughing and joking with her OH all day but suddenly, in the middle of the night, had been in unbearable pain and just lay there moaning (I sound so unsympathetic but she was really annoying!). So the midwives moved me to a room on my own so I could get some valuable sleep before my ???????big day???????. After another takeway (well I had to fast from midnight so it would have been rude not to!) and The Apprentice, I snuggled down for the night.
The Big Day
I woke up at about 6am and went for a shower. As I plodded past the midwives station, they asked how I was feeling again and asked if I had ever been to Delivery Suite. I hadn't so they took me through and showed me the theatre so I knew what to expect. After a shower (no breakfast allowed though), hubby arrived at about 8am. I knew I would be going down early as I was the only one on the list for a c-section. Our hospital does elective sections on Wednesday and Friday mornings - all other times are for emergencies but as I was having twins and needed twice as many people there, I had been booked in all on my own. At 9am they called to say they were ready for me. I was still on the CTG and hadn't even got my gown on so I quickly changed and we went over to Delivery Suite.
When we arrived, they told us they were trying to assemble the team but that 4 ladies had gone into labour so they needed to wait for one to deliver before there were enough midwives free for me (we needed 3). Finally, after an agonising 2 hour wait (hubby was pacing the floor), I heard someone in the corridor say ???????Right, let's get these twins delivered??????? and we were on!
Hubby was given some scrubs to change into and told to wait outside the theatre until called. I was taken into theatre to have my spinal. Now, I don't want to scare anyone who is having a section but, for me, this was the worst part. I sat on the edge of the table and had my canula put in and then had some local anaesthetic put into my back - so far so good. Then, they tried to put the spinal in but kept missing. They had about 6 attempts and each time, I could feel a jab to the right of my spine, nowhere near where the local anaesthetic had gone in. By about the 4th attempt, I was in tears and, at this point, the Consultant Anaesthetist (there were 3 anaesthetists there!) told them to stop and put some more local anaesthetic in. Finally, they got it in and I started to go numb. Once I had been laid down and my catheter had been put in, hubby was called. When he came in, I was still crying. He thought I was scared until I told him about the spinal (with the Consultant Anaesthetist still apologising). My consultant then appeared and they prepped my tummy. Within 2 minutes he was cutting me and we could hear some suction and then the best sound ever - a loud strong cry. My consultant knew that we didn't know whether we were having boys or girls, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold them as they needed to be whisked off to Special Care, but as Twin 1 was delivered, he held its bottom up to us so we could see that we had A LITTLE GIRL, or make that 2. Twin 2 was born, also crying and she was also whisked out. After a few minutes, the Special Care nurse ran back in with her and we were able to give her a quick kiss before she was whisked away again. There was an amazing team of 2 paediatricians, 2 Special Care nurses and 2 midwives looking after our girls and getting them breathing, stable and down to Special Care.
Hubby and I then had a few moments to ourselves to take in the fact that we had 2 beautiful girls while they were stitching me up. Hubby found some hidden bravery along with his new title of "Daddy" and managed to peek over the drapes a couple of times while they were stitching me up (this is the man who can't watch me have blood taken?!). Due to the problems we had, he also asked to see the placenta. He was over the moon as he had wanted girls (not that we would have been disappointed with boys) and we were both so relieved that they had cried when they were born. Hubby was then sent out to get changed out of his scrubs while they finished tidying me up and I was then wheeled back to Recovery to meet him. The midwife looking after me promised me that Special Care would phone as soon as they could but we spent a very long hour waiting for the call. Surprisingly, we weren't worried about the girls (I think we were so overwhelmed that they sounded OK when they were born) but wanted to know their weights so we could ring and text everyone. Finally, at about 2.15 (over an hour after I had left theatre), the call came and we found out they weighed 2lb 9oz and 4lb 2oz. This was the cue for us to be able to see them too. As I was still numb, hubby went down to see them and came back with photos that the nurses had taken before hooking them up to the monitors. He also told the nurses their names - Lily (Twin 2 2lb 9) and Grace (Twin 1 4lb 2). Names we had chosen and kept a secret for 25 weeks and now belonged to our little girls. So we set about spreading the news and we're still in a bit of a whirlwind. Presents and cards are arriving every day and so many people have commented on how pretty their names are. We didn't share the names in advance as we didn't want to be influenced by other peoples opinions - good or bad - but it is lovely when people say how much they like them! I think I spent the rest of the day in a kind of daze. Hubby said I was a bit spaced out (probably all the drugs they pump into you) but just before I went to sleep I had a text from hubby saying "well done mummy, night night xxx" and it hit me that we had made it.
I had my own room in hospital which was very sensitive of the midwives, since I didn't have my babies with me. I was medically discharged on Saturday but they said I could stay as long as I liked so I stayed until Tuesday. Mainly because they started the girls on EBM on Monday and I wanted to be close by for the first couple of days until my milk came in. We are now visiting every day, for most of the day.
Each day, the girls' personalities are becoming stronger and they are doing really well. They both started off in the NICU on CPAP. Lily came off after 2 days and Grace had a day on the ventilator and then went back onto CPAP for a day. Since Monday, they've both been breathing on their own with no help and have had no issues so far. They are off all IV drips and are being fed EBM through a tube. On Tuesday they were moved from NICU to the High Dependency Unit where they've been snuggled up in incubators keeping warm and under the lamps for jaundice. Other than that, they just need to fatten up and learn to feed and then they can come home. Not too bad for 32 weekers. Part of me feels so guilty that I couldn't carry them for longer but we are so proud of how strong they are and how well they are doing and we can't wait to get them home as soon as they are big enough.
If you are still with me, thanks and well done! I will try and post a couple of pics later on
A xxxxx
[Modified by: trying4babyM on 15 May 2009 09:19:42 ]
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Replies
Im so glad the girls are doing well. They sound like real fighters, and to both cry as they were delivered must have been amazing.
Im sorry if this doesnt make sense but I cant actually see what im typing! Bloody hormones!
Lots of Love to the 4 of you xxxxx
I too can hardly see the screen for crying, mainly for you and the safe arrival after all the scares and also coz it reminds me of when my twins were born.
I am so pleased that they are both doing well and the names you have chosen are gorgeous, big congrats on the EBM i know its hard work but you are giving them such a great start, really pleased that they are supporting you in your decision.
take care and look forward to updates on the girls when ever you get a minute.
big hugs
xxDBxx
You have given me hope as the stats the consultants give are all doom & gloom. Good for you keeping them in as long as you did....excellent work xxx
Congratulations to you and your hubby on the birth of your 2 beautiful daughters,lily and grace. i must agree beautiful names!!
BTW im gate crashing from due in jan 2010!
the message you hubby sent to you the night after you gave birth, i would have cried my eyes out, bless him and well done to you xx
Congratulations on your 2 little girls!
It sounds like you have all been through so much. I am so pleased that everything went well and that they are doing so well.
And I agree with everyone, what beautiful names
I will check back to see if you have posted some piccies - would love to see some!
Love NN xxx
Click Here To Read My Ramblings On Living With Loss And Pregnancy After Loss