Birth story from BB x
So Monday 19th September started off relatively normally. DH left at 7 for a week away in Gloucester with work. Mum and my sister took DS out shopping for the day they needed to go a bit further than town to pick some bits up so I was left under the care of my father who was leaving for work at 1.30 that day so I would only be alone for 2 hours (you forget I am a full grown adult).
Dad was plumbing in the bathroom trying to fix a leaky tap on the bath (cue memories of him fixing the bathroom I ripped out when I was in labour with DS with no water etc ? SNAP!). Plumbing failed but there was lots of banter at home about when I was going to hospital that day as dad was plumbing!
Went to midwife appointment, all was fine, told her about potential leaky waters and period pain and she said it might be a slowly starting off but she couldn?t see anything that implied it was happening any time soon.
Off dad went and DS returned home about 3.30. We played in the garden had a little bounce on the trampoline (no more than normal). I was knackered as had a bad night sleep so I went to lay on the sofa about 4pm and watch Greys Anatony DVDs while my sister entertained the monster! After about 5-10 minutes I felt a warm sensation (but not gush) in my underwear. I?d been a bit paranoid that my waters were slowly leaking (or that my pelvic floors were shot) so I went to the bathroom to check... Bathroom was busy so don?t know why but decided to have a little feel and realised my hand was covered in blood. Called my mum to take me to the hospital and went into the bathroom. My underwear and trousers were soaked through with blood and I had a horrendous amount of what looked like blood clots but I later learned were chunks of the placenta in my underwear. After getting myself sorted, sending my sister off to get my hospital bag and new clothes for me to put on etc, I called the labour ward who wanted me to get an ambulance in but it was quicker for me to be driven in. We drove in were hooked up to CTG and blood loss monitored.
As with every CTG the twins were flicking between tracking brilliantly and falling off the machine. Blood loss calmed down to ?period type? levels. The day team finished at 5 and handed over to night team. My new consultant and midwife were without doubt the best medical people I have ever dealt with. Completely honest and open about everything. The day staff had been very flakey and just said ?let?s wait and see if we can get you as close to your elective CS as possible (which was booked in for 26th) but these two were just fantastic. The midwife stayed with me the entre time, (bar going out to talk to consultant / get paperwork etc), she kept me up to date of every conversation had about me with any medical team and got the consultant to explain everything to me. They were really honest and said that they would really like me to get through the night so they could deliver the babies in the maternity theatre the next day where they had enough pediatricians and anesthetists to support me as a section that night would mean emergency surgery in the main hospital and they were worried they didn?t have enough staff to cope (labour ward was busy at that point). So that looked set to be the plan, sent mum home about 8.30 as it was pointless us both sitting around and not getting any sleep and come back the next morning (DH was still away but was not coming into surgery with me regardless so I was to call him when we knew a time so he could be there waiting for me to come out).
I?d been having on and off tightening for a week or so and these carried on while on the ctg but at 9am the proper contractions as I would call them started ? 3 minutes apart and blood loss started to increase. By 10am I was being monitored every 20 minutes by the consultant who said that again ideally I would get through the night but it was looking less likely. Midwife (who I loved) said to me to call mum in as based on her experience she thinks I will be in theatre in less than four hours. By 11pm they were 1 minute apart and the decision was made to do an emergency c-section as I was losing too much blood and contractions were too strong for me to cope. I don?t think I had realised how serious it was until there was an emergency callout on the hospital. Anesthetist came and tried to get me to have a general which I refused point blank to do unless there was an emergency situation which consultant agreed with and I was taken over to the emergency theatre and everyone was rushing around getting it all ready. I got a bit freaked out at that point but tried to hold it all together as they were talking me through everything. Spinal took a few attempts to get in and midwife was explaining everything to me. There was so much going on, I was hooked up to ctg machines, drips, injections put in, arm strapped to the table. They were all brilliant keeping me talking about random rubbish while they set up around me (I wouldn?t normally see any of that), spinal went in, final tests done, screen up and it started.
One of the surgical team talked me through everything , twin one he could see hair, I heard it cry (sounded just like DS). I asked him what it was, he asked if I really wanted to know ? and told me it was a girl. Lots more crying and rummaging around and out came a bum and then the whole of twin two three minutes later. I asked them again, they couldn?t believe I wanted to know before seeing them ? they told me it was another girl. To say I was shocked was an understatement everyone was convinced I was having one of each (including me). I couldn?t hear any crying. Twin one was bought over to me and we had head snuggles while they worked on twin 2 and sewed me up. Twin two was bought over, the pediatrician told me that they had to work on her a bit as she wasn?t pinking up as fast as they would have wanted but she only needed a bit of oxygen and they would keep an eye on her for a bit but she seemed absolutely fine. Shortly after we were taken to the post natal ward cuddling my babies and DH arrived about 30 minutes later. He couldn?t believe he had two girls. He couldn?t get his head round it. They let him stay on the post natal ward for an hour and then had to leave.
My beautiful daughter Edith-May was born weighting 5lb 11.5 oz at 00.44 on 20th September 2011 and her sister Ayse-Rose followed weighing 6lb 1oz at 00.47.
Post natal for the first 12 hours was pretty horrible until I made them get me out of bed so I could move and get dressed and the contrast in care compared to labour ward was horrendous but was discharged after one day after which made it more bearable. So that?s it, I have two beautiful baby girls at home and their big brother who is amazing me more at his coping abilities every day. I am tired. A bit sore from constant feeding and tummy is slightly tender but overall not as bad as recovery from the internal stitches I had with DS.
All in all (bar post natal care) absolutely great experience.