Birth Story of our Twins

Our birth story isn’t really all that exiting, pretty average. Just the way I like it.

This is long, I warn you.

I knew immediately I was pregnant, and did a home test the first possible day that I could. It showed up bright blue. Andrew (my hubby) wanted more children, and when he bought our new stationwagon I promised to go off the pill. We already had two beautiful children, Joshua and Emily. Andrew wanted 2 more, but settled for one more. Little did I know he would get his wish. At 8 weeks I went in to our Dr. and announced I was feeling unwell. He asked for my symptoms; I replied that I felt nauseous, and was gaining weight. I was incredibly tired... He had a really shocked look on his face, (our eldest hadn’t even turned 3 yet) then suggested that I could be ...pregnant??? AND couldn’t quite grasp the concept for a moment that I was happy about this. We chatted happily for a while, I gave him the instructions that I wanted an amniocentesis performed (Joshua has a chromosome abnormality) and he fully agreed. "Lets take a look then shall we?" I knew right away, the second it came up on the screen I could see it in his face. He let out this little laugh and I remember saying "Oh no??? There’s two isn’t there? NO??? It’s not is it?" He laughed quite hard, I whacked him one! He said it just had to happen to me of all people.

So, we were expecting twins? I had always wished for twins, and loved to look at them for as long as I can remember. But I sure as heck didn’t expect them myself. I was so exited and so worried. I would swing daily from being thrilled to being horrified. How on earth would I cope? 4 children in 3 and a half years, the eldest with special needs? Boy, I sure have got my life cut out for me now! But twins would be so special, so cute, and so wonderful.

And I am right, they are special and cute and definitely wonderful!

My pregnancy was wonderful; I was very healthy and happy about the two little lives inside of me. We decide not to go ahead with the amniocentesis after much thought and soul searching. What if I lost the babies because of the test and there was nothing wrong anyway? What if one baby was affected? I couldn’t bear the thought of trying to terminate only one and maybe losing the other, just because his twin had a disorder. Whatever was coming was meant to be. Joshua’s syndrome wasn’t a hereditary thing for us anyway.

So I sailed along till about 30 something weeks and started feeling uncomfortable. Hugely heavy and awfully sore. All over, all the time. Poor Andrew heard nothing but complaints and I don’t know how on Earth he put up with me. By about 35 weeks it became apparent that I had to rest or I just couldn’t possibly make it through the day. That’s fun. Resting with two little kids to look after. What a joke!

At 37 weeks my obstetrician decided it would be best to induce the labour as she was going away and didn’t want me delivering without a specialist. So, to the power of convenience I was admitted to hospital. It was a little "too organised" for my liking, but in reality it gave me room to move in organising baby sitters for Emily and Joshua.

That night I had an epidural inserted, with no medication in it, as I was not in pain at all, ready for the morning when I would be induced. Although the epidural is the best thing in the world for labour pains, and I wanted it, I would NEVER recommend having one put in when you are not in pain. I spent the whole night in agony because of the epidural. I needed painkillers and sleeping tablets. I could normally sleep on a railway track during a storm.

Morning finally rolled around and I was given the prostaglandin’s gel at 8am. It was slow to start, but by 9 am I was in labour. It was wonderful. (As wonderful as labour can get that is) I kept the epidural topped up (my mistake with my last two births was no top ups) and it was well controlled. I felt the contractions and although a little painful, they were not unbearable. We were monitored all the time, and there was a stack of onlookers. Extra Doctors, one for me, and one for each baby. Each baby had a midwife and then there were those who hadn’t seen twins being born and wanted a peek. We had a big room, but boy it was filled!

At 11:10 am after 2 hours of labour MATTHEW JAMES LITTLELY was delivered. He didn’t cry for the longest time and I remember being very upset and worried. No-one was listening to me and I kept repeating "Is he alright?... Is he alright?" I felt my heart go into flutters as none answered me. Of course I thought the worst, a Mother always does. It seemed like an eternity before someone finally assured me, "He’s fine, here, have a quick cuddle. That’s enough, now lets concentrate on baby number two now". Looking back, it was probably only a minute and all eyes were on Matthew, so who cares about Mum?

At 11:17 am (seven minutes after his twin’s delivery) DANIEL JOHN LITTLELY was born. Oh wow I remember thinking. It’s all done, so quick, all over! Daniel was delivered with help from our obstetrician. She had his leg and wasn’t letting go, so he was a breech birth. Matthew had already paved the way, and I had the epidural topped up, so it didn’t hurt so badly. In fact it was a good birth, easier than the first (Joshua) and the second, (Emily) birth. But I was given some drugs to prevent hemorrhaging and something else too, I can’t remember what, but they made me so ill. I just felt disgusting, and all I wanted was a shower. I felt so nauseous that I didn’t even feel like holding my two miracles for long. They wouldn’t let me up to shower just yet, and I wanted the IV out! Normally I am a good patient, and do as I am told, but the urge to get clean was so overwhelming. Then they brought me lunch! They soon listened to me when I started to get out of bed anyway, as I was desperate to vomit. Ugh, I was so embarrassed and sick and felt so ugly. Awful.

So anyway, it took the rest of the day to wear off. With my first two children I wanted visitors all day and was on such a happy high I couldn’t sleep. This time I just felt sick and didn’t want to do or say anything. I didn’t call anyone, and only took visitors who just ‘had’ to be there. Andrew had the babies (he was in his glory with two babies all to himself) and the nurses bathed them for me. I couldn’t wait for the day to end. Finally it did, of course and now that the babies were out and safe, could I get some sleep. Tomorrow I would worry about it.

The babies were in separate cribs and cried very loudly. I put them in together all squished up, and they liked that. It was amazing to see the two of them side by side. I am still bedazzled by that now. Wow TWINS. How lucky can someone get? Watching the two of them brings incredible feelings rushing to my heart. Twins. Wow.

One would cry (extremely loudly) and smack out at the other, and the other wouldn’t even flinch. It was as if he was immune to his brothers’ antics. I had read that twins don’t usually wake each other, and that they are fine to have in the same room. I took this as truth, and had two cots in their room at home waiting for them, but when I saw for myself how undisturbed they were I was sent back to amazement again.

This was gonna be okay.