The arrival of Mae and Hana - our little twin girls (bit long)
On the 15th of Feb our twin girls Mae and Hana were born with the most dramatic entrance.
13 Feb
My contractions started on Friday late in the day. They were pretty regular but not too troubling as i was still able to nap through them. But Dinner time they got worse and I had to take a panadol to sleep. Not a big deal I thought. I'd had false labour contractions before and I didnt want to get everyone excited over nothing. But that night I had the worst sleep. (I dont know how that's even possible because my sleep was already painful and non existent before that day)
So i spent the night restlessly forcing myself to rest and then getting up to put a *few things* into my hospital bag just in case...
14 Feb
In the morning I woke DH up and told him I still had regular pains every 10mins. Still bearable but they weren't going away. We agreed to wait and see how they went before I called the labour ward.
Over breakfast they got worse and i found it hard to pour cereal for Ella's breakfast so I suggested we get contact the hospital after we finished our museli - I gotta have breakfast!
The midwives suggest that I come in after hearing we were having twins and that I'd previously been in with pre-term labour. At this stage i was 36+5 days.
Once at the hospital the contractions calmed down (typical) and we were observed by the obstetricians and assigned a labour ward. I was already 3cm dialated and they did a S&S to kick things along. I wanted to walk so DH and I pounded the pavement for the next 6hrs around the hospital grounds and periodically went back to be checked. We progressed another 1cm but the contractions were still bearable. I knew we were in for a big long labour! (our last one was 24hrs)
I took a panadine and tried to get some sleep but by 3am the pains stepped up a notch. We were keen to limit the intervention so i asked not to be induced or ruptured and see if my body could deliver these two bubs.
15 Feb
Its now early - 7am i think and the pain contractions had set in. The Midwife strapped me into the CTG and did a trace on both babies. I noticed twin 1's heart rate had dropped but thought she must be resting so didnt raise it.
The Obs changed shift and a new doctor popped in to introduce herself and check out our status she said she was keen to rupture the membranes to help me along as I was so tired after not sleeping or eating for over 24hrs. I agreed! Yay at least we will on the home stretch i thought.
This is when things changed suddenly. She did an internal - still 4 cm!! so she went to rupture the membranes. I felt the gush and the Ob looked at me calmly and said "we need to take you to theatre". WHAT!? I asked her why. She and the midwife quietly said "there is a bit of blood in the fluid and we need to get the baby out now". DH was at that time on the phone with his mum so i couldnt ask him to explain what they saw. As I called out for him I saw his expression as he said to his mum "oh god i have to go mum". There was blood everywhere.
In 30secs flat there were a team of people in the room moving me to another bed while the contractions kicked into overdrive and they asked me not to push. People and faces calmly telling me everything was OK but I could hear that they were not happy. DH asked to come to the cesarean with me but they said "no she will be put under general anesthetic". And with that I was gone. DH was alone in the room with no explanation as to what just happened.
The next 3mins went by slowly as they pushed me into theatre and I was prepped for surgery and introduced to 15 different people all with the one motivation - to get the babies out NOW. I was petrified. The midwife stayed with me as i held her hand and cried and begged to tell me what was going on. She explained it briefly but she wanted me to obviously calm down. Then I was put under and the twins were born at 8.30am.
I came around after an hour to find I was attached to half a doz drips and gasses for pain relief. In the groggy state of post op i asked about my babies and the nurse assured me they were all fine and the DH had them. What a relief.
I met my little ladies shortly after that. Hana (twin 2 - 2.2kg) was put on my chest and they were picking up Mae (twin 1- 2.4kg) when she threw up. There was blood in her vomit. My heart stopped again and they rushed her into a resuscitation unit as she had gone pale. They called this a "Dusky Episode" and the baby stops breathing. They brought her round and took her straight downstairs to ICU. I didn't even get to touch her.
The next few days in hospital were spent teaching Hana to breastfeed and worrying about Mae in ICU. I got on my feet shortly after my surgery determined i wouldn't leave her alone down there without her mum or a good feed. So when the feeding frenzy kicked in for the girls DH and I were rushing from maternity to ICU to get to their needs so they could thrive. The poor things were still so small. By day 3 Mae came up to maternity with us and has been catching up slowly to little sister (who has been on a daily feeding frenzy since then)
Now we're at home with the girls and Ella and its hard to think about what went on in few hours. Teams of Obs and midwives came around and said "Did you realise you had the twins delivered in 9mins flat?" From the time of rupturing my membranes to pulling the babies out it only 9mins! Had it been any longer and Twin 1 would have lost oxygen to her brain and ...well i hate to think what would have happened.
The official story is that during labour Twin 1's placenta had started to come away causing the bleeding. The abruption caused her some distress and was picked up by the CTG machine and that is why they decided to rupture me so quickly.
I was at the right place at the right time. Its not the most beautiful birth story but it shows you how amazing our medical system can be sometimes.
Ann
