I never thought I'd be posting here . . .

[*beannaithe*]

. . . so it has taken me almost a year to write our birth story but better late than never! And the birth story itself is really short and sweet, with less than two hours from start to finish but there is so much background to our story. DH and I started ttc in 2005. I was on depo and it took somewhere between 18 months and two years to even get my period back. We started investigations in 2007 and just to rule it out, a pregnancy test was done. You cannot imagine our surprise when it was positive. Unfortunately, it was not to be and a dating scan revealed a twin partial molar pregnancy. We were devastated, even more so by the fact we were advised against ttc for 12 months in case of recurrence. Mid 2008, I fell pregnant again but miscarried early on and eventually we decided to visit a FS. This revealed problem after problem and we were told that our only option was IVF with ICSI and so our fertility journey began. To cut a long story short, I was not the easiest patient to manage in how I responded to drugs, prior to our fifth cycle my family was diagnosed with an extremely rare bleeding disorder which causes miscarriages and these two factors combined with our multiple fertility problems led us along with our FS to make the decision that this would be our last cycle and there was no point continuing if it didn't work. The only two embryos that fertilized that cycle were transferred and we geared ourselves up for a life with no children. At 9dp3dt, I couldn’t bear it any more and convinced DH to let me poas. We were absolutely dumbfounded to see two lines and my HCG at 14dpo (11dp3dt) was 300. We were still dumbfounded! At six weeks, I felt a big gush and went to the loo to see LOTS of bright red blood and resigned myself to the fact it was all over. We called our fertility clinic who sent us to emergency. We were dumbfounded yet again when we saw not one, but two tiny little heartbeats flickering away on the US screen, among a large subchorionic haematoma and I was given a 50% chance of miscarrying. This, combined with my bleeding disorder, saw me blood transfusion dependent and, for the duration of my pregnancy, I received three bags of plasma concentrates twice weekly. Not fun but it worked

Fast forward a good few months. Other than the transfusions and obvious hugeness and fatigue associated with a multiple pregnancy, the rest of the time was textbook and uneventful – yay! Baby A was a little uterus hog and happily sat on my cervix from about 28 weeks, refusing to budge and squashing her sister firmly up under my ribs which was fun. As she was breech from so early on and baby B transverse, we made the decision at about 32 weeks to have an elective c section. I was perfectly happy with this decision as it was such a hard fought battle to get pregnant in the first place, I just wanted my girls out the safest and easiest way possible and I am a sook when it comes to pain so our c-sec was booked for July 16th. I finished work at 32 weeks which I was relieved about as because of my now vast proportions, extreme itching and severe carpal tunnel syndrome meant sleep was not happening but hey, in the grand scheme of things, that was nothing . My OB could feel Braxton Hicks from about 28 – 30 weeks but I never really felt anything.

Friday 13th, I was having some mild crampy sorts of feelings for a few hours but nothing regular and they all fizzled out as soon as they started so I put it down to gas lol!

We decided that we would make a night of July 15th as we live an hour from the hospital. We booked into a nice hotel complete with spa bath and we booked into the same restaurant that we went to on our first date. We had a lovely meal and went back to our room for a nice, relaxing spa bath. After a good, long soak, my phone beeping was the decider to make the move out of the bath and I spent a few minutes wrapped in a towel texting my sister. I went to get dressed and felt that 37+ week pregnant slight bladder leakage thing going on. Or so I thought because next thing, my waters went with gusto so here I am trying to get back to the bathroom without flooding our room, all the while texting my sister to tell her the news. This was 8.45pm. I rang my midwife as I had no idea how soon I would have to head in to hospital and she told me to come in right away so off we went, once DH had been to the hotel owners to get a stash of towels for our trip to the hospital.

Once we got there, everything happened really quickly. My midwife checked my waters which had a bit of meconium but she wasn’t worried as apparently this is quite normal with a breach baby. I was hooked up to the monitor and was having some very small contractions, small enough that I couldn’t feel anything and to this day, I still don’t know what a proper contraction feels like . My OB arrived and had literally returned that day from a skiing holiday which we were really pleased about as she had been our FS as well and it was nice to have her right through everything. Her words on arrival was that she was here, I was here, these babies are ready so lets get on with it then and proceeded to make the necessary arrangements.. The longest thing was waiting for an anaesthetist (strangely enough, the anaesthetist was the same one as for our lucky egg retrieval) and once that was done, it was all on and I was off to theatre. It's funny, my whole pregnancy, I had been in self preservation mode and it wasn’t until I was just about to get the spinal block that I got all emotional because this was actually going to happen and I was going to have some babies of my very own that I would get to take home with me. I can honestly say that the c section experience was absolutely fine and I felt next to nothing, not even the tugging that I had been warned about. Little Miss Twin A was born and went straight to daddy for a cuddle and was quickly followed by little Miss Twin B who needed a wee bit of oxygen but was absolutely fine. Most of the rest of the night is a big blur, both girls came out perfectly healthy and once I was all stitched up, they came to me for skin on skin and a huge breastfeed. They both went at it like little champs, knew just what to do and fed for a good hour each.

Stats:
Twin A – Eliza Grace 5lb 10oz, born at 10.38pm, 15/7/12
Twin B – Gemma Claire 5lb 6oz, born at 10.40pm, 15/7/12

My girls are now 10 months old and I still pinch myself from time to time and marvel in the fact that I have not one, but two beautiful little girls who I never thought I would be lucky enough to call my own. The first six months were the hardest months I have ever been privileged enough to experience but they are now so much fun, with such distinct little personalities and we can tell already that they are going to be the best of friends.

[~Hestia~]

Thanks for sharing your story, enjoy those two little girls!

[Lenny]

Thanks for sharing. Congrats on your two little girls.
(I'm so chuffed to be a plasma donor when I read stories like this!)

[Teeki]

Gorgeous story! I'm so glad you're now enjoying your two beautiful girls

[Joeve]

Lovely! I remember your molar pregnancy as I was new to ttc and to BB and I remember how sad you were having to wait to try again.
How much was the wait worth it for your precious little princesses!!!!

[*Nikki*]

Oh Hun what a beautiful birth story... I truly couldn't be happier for you :-)

[Jaycee]

Congratulations on becoming a mummy to two very special little girls!

[~TT40~]

oh wow! I had no idea you had such a struggle at the start! thankyou so much for sharing =D

[Mrs P]

Wow what a journey! Congrats on the birth of your two girls

[Charlotte91]

Awesome

I think it should also be mentioned in there how incredibly amazing you have done with breastfeeding your little miracles. You deserve a medal.

[Babyluv]

Wow what an amazing story, you made me cry. Congratulations on your precious miracle babies

[Mrs O'M]

Congratulations!!!

[Baby Dreamtime]

Congratulations, what an amazingly beautiful end to your story, I loved reading it, thanks for sharing xx

[Saffy]

I love this story! I am crying reading it, congratulations wonderful woman x

[Arcadia]

Gorgeous story. This really resonated with me

The first six months were the hardest months I have ever been privileged enough to experience

It place the joys and trials into such a succinct package. So true.

[Cassius2]

Thank you so much for sharing your twins birth journey!

Amazing!

[sunshine 11]

What a beautiful story - thanks for sharing

[jayejaye]

devine.! Congratulations.