Hi all
Timely question hippy - I have just managed to draw breath long enough to sit down and let you all know that I had my twins on Saturday night, 8 weeks early! I was in the same hospital as Magic and was told she was in having hers but we never crossed paths in the corridors. Anyway, huge congratulations Magic and I'm so pleased to hear they arrived safely. Hope you have taken them home and are loving getting to know them both. What names have you gone for?
You may recall I had that bleed last Weds and that turned out to be nothing. Well on Thursday night I went to bed feeling pretty awful, bad tummy pains after attending a Tamba seminar and sitting on a hideously uncomfortable chair! During the night I started to feel worse and it occurred to me that the pains seemed to be coming in waves so we decided to treat it like contractions and get down to hospital at 4am. They got me on monitors and gave me gas & air, and that helped. After an examination they found I was 1cm dilated so decided that they should try to stop labour given how early it still was (31+2) and give the babies steroids to help their lungs develop, just in case. They kept me in overnight with a patch on my skin which stopped the contractions, and the next day (Saturday) sent me home at lunchtime saying all seemed well and hopefully we would make it another couple of weeks, but if it started up again it couldn't be stopped.
I was only home for 4 hours before I went to the loo and found I was bleeding heavily, which actually pissed me off rather than worrying me as I felt as though I have practically lived at the hospital just recently! We dragged ourselves back there (early evening) and when they saw how much blood there was and examined me they took the decision to deliver that evening by cs. So I was prepped and by 11pm was in theatre. The cs itself was a bit of an odd experience - 13 staff in the room apparently, though I wasn't able to see most of them. The anaesthetist was brilliant and kept us informed what was happening, and I didn't even realise when they'd started.
At 11.13 our son was born (3lb 4oz) and needed help to start his breathing. Two minutes later our daughter was born (3lb 9oz). I was shown them both very quickly wrapped up in their blankets, and then they were whisked off in incubators to NICU while I was stitched up. We both had a cry, we were so happy to see them and they looked beautiful.
After evaluation, our son was kept in NICU but our daughter was able to go down a couple of grades into special care. They've stayed there since and will be in for a while. We decided on names the next day - Sebastian Henry and Rosamund Madeleine (Rosie). Seb has been on a ventilator for a few days but will hopefully be coming off today. Rosie has needed less help and may be home in a couple of weeks. We've had some cuddles with her which are lovely!
We could only be happier than we are if our beautiful babies were well enough to come home with us. The staff at the hospital are doing an incredible job with them, and we are going to be incredibly grateful to them. I've been discharged and feel pretty good, though unfortunately I have a sore throat today so can't go and see them.
It seems the bleeding was caused by a partial placental abruption, hence the urgency of getting them out. I'd been told my placenta wasn't low lying but it seems it was after all.
As for breastfeeding - I've been expressing since Sunday afternoon and found it quite difficult to get the hang of at the start. It was hard to get someone to stop and coach me on what to do but eventually a lovely nurse helped me get to grips with it and I was able to get established using syringes to capture the colostrum. So be persistent in asking for help and make them spend the time with you until you are happy with what you are doing. Apparently I am doing well given that I had a section and the babies were so early, and by now am managing to express 10mls of milk every 3 hours but it's going up in leaps and bounds (was only 2.5mls each time yesterday). Am going to order a pump today as it's already at the point where milk is running down my stomach from one breast while I deal with the other one! It's quite weird having these things leaking without me able to do anything to stop them!
This is a bit of an essay, sorry, but once you start it's easy to go on! I've uploaded a couple of photos if you're interested.
Good luck for your induction holidays, hope everyone else is well.
Cerub x