First of all, let me introduce you to two very special people:
This is Pixie, aka Elisa May, born on Thursday 16th of May at 10:01 am, and weighing 1.950 kg (4lb 2oz).
And this is Dixie, aka Eric Norman, born on Thursday 16th of May at 9:59am, and weighing 2.450 kg (5lb 5oz).
They’ve been with us for just a few days and they are already the most important people in our lives.
So, step by step, this is a recount of the first few days.
The Delivery:
It was a planned C-Section carried out by Mr O’Sullivan and I must say that everything went very well. I won’t say that I “enjoyed it”, but it wasn’t the terrifying experience that had built up in my mind.
A young student midwife came to see me in the morning and explained what was going to happen. I actually appreciated that it was a young girl rather than someone older as we could talk about it in a ‘matey’ way, rather than being told full stop. Then Jon and I were taken to the delivery theatre where we met the rest of the team (other midwives, doctors, paediatricians, nurses, etc). Jon also put on his special “ER / George Clooney” suit and came into theatre with me. A special mention is deserved to another Jon, the charge nurse, as he made it quite an experience for us. He was funny, matter of factly and really reassuring. It would have been so different without him!
Mr O’Sullivan arrived once the anaesthetic (spinal block rather than epidural) was done and everybody was ready, and he just got on with it. We were done in an hour and a bit. I could feel and hear things going on down there, but there was no pain whatsoever. Everything went clockwork.
The post delivery was brilliant too. All four of us and two midwives spent the rest of the day in a recovery room, being monitored very closely. I had no pain to speak of, and i was just over the moon to have Pixie and Dixie with us, as I honestly thought that they would be taken to the neonatal unit straight away (due to their prematurity, weight, etc). But none of the doctors were very concerned and they actually preferred the twins to stay together rather than separate them.
Aftercare in the Postnatal Ward:
All in all, we spent 7 days in the postnatal ward and the experience was mixed, but good overall. It didn’t start very well, as I was moved from my recovery room (where I was on my own) into a shared ward with other three people. This in antenatal wouldn’t have been an issue, but with two new babies, having been through major surgery and all the hormones a bit all over the place, it was a bit too much. Also, the other people in the ward were extremely noisy. One of the babies did not stop crying all the time we were there. And I mean all the time. Then, another lady had her phone on loud, with the most horrible ringtone ever, and she left her phone there whilst she went out, and the phone kept ringing… Overall I was very unhappy, so we asked to be moved to a single room… And we got it!
The care from the midwives in the postnatal ward was also different than in antenatal. Obviously you get both caring and uncaring nurses everywhere, but in post natal I noticed them to be busier and less likely to help without prompting. Not all of them, of course. There were really nice ones who went the extra mile to help (Jon seems to think that difference lays in whether those midwifes are parents themselves or not)
My room was small and it was lacking some obvious basic “amenities”, like a coat hanger for your dressing gown or towel, or even shelf space for all the baby things that you need whilst you’re here: feeding instruments, baby clothes, changing facilities, etc. Still, we managed to make it like a bit of home by just spreading our crap everywhere 🙂
The Ups and Downs:
The big massive Up has been meeting Pixie and Dixie and starting caring for them. They are so loveable and well behaved! I’ve actually been warned not to count on this kind of behaviour at home, they call this “the honeymoon period”, where kids are at their best behaviour whilst at hospital but then they turn into crying nightmares at home… I’ll update you on that at some point 🙂
Obviously it is hard. Nobody said it’d be easy. It’s specially hard at night, when you still have to get up every three hours for their feed but your husband can’t be there to help. Then you’ll notice the difference in midwife care more and more depending in whose shift you’re in.
But then, having a routine is the only solution with pre term twins. Our routine started like this:
1) Wake one up and change their nappy. For this we created a mini changing station with a bowl of cotton wool, a bowl with warm water, portable changing mat and clean nappies. It is important to set up the changing station before you take the child out of the cot, otherwise it can be a bit dangerous leaving the child unattended in the bed whilst setting everything up.
2) After changing the nappy, undress them and do some skin to skin. The skin to skin is very important, not only because of the heat and smells, but also because it will trigger hormones in you for breastfeeding.
3) Try and get them to latch to your breast. This may or may not happen if your baby is premature, as their mouths are small and it’s quite difficult for them.
4) Dress them back again and do bottle feeding (“top up”).My milk/colostrum didn’t come down until the Saturday evening, so until then we had to trust all the feeds to infant formula. Completely at random we chose Cow &Gate, but there were other brands to choose from.
5) Dress them back again and set them in the cot for a nap. Pre term babies need to sleep a lot, so for the first few days we just fed them, changed the nappy and let them sleep. Hardly held them in our arms unless it was briefly during the nappy change or feed.
6) Do some expressing of breast milk/colostrum to top up with formula on the next feed.
Obviously this routine changed a lot over the days. For example, the moment my milk came down, the skin to skin was a tiny bit redundant and we just went straight to try to breastfeed. There is skin to skin in the breastfeeding process so no need to do something specific about it. Also the amount of expressing varied depending on how they had fed on the breast already.
But the routine was set up straight away, with feeding every three hours. Sometimes this timetable would slip a bit or considerably, depending on what else what happening… For example if the twins were due some medical test or like when we had the Bounty photographs taken.
I had been told about the baby blues, but when by day four I had not experienced any of it, to be honest the thought of it had already been pushed to the back of my mind a long time ago. However, on day four, in the afternoon/evening, I had a total meltdown. It came from nowhere, and it lasted for a few good hours. It was ridiculous as I just felt overwhelmed but I couldn’t pinpoint it to anything in particular… (What about lack of sleep?). Thankfully it only lasted a few hours and by the following morning I was fine again. Since then, I have felt a bit down in a couple of occasions, but nothing like that day.
Lessons Learnt:
In just over a week, we have learnt so many things the hard way!
1) Clothing. Everybody said not to buy too many baby clothes as newborns grow very quickly out of them and many of them end up never being used. Well, this may be true with a full term singleton, but with pre term twins things are slightly different. First of all, you need to get early baby clothes or “preemies”, as normal 0-3 months clothes will be massive if one if your children is lighter than 5 pounds. Then, buy a few… Like 6 or 7 sleep-suits each. I would even go as far as 10 each, otherwise you’re going to be making lots of trips to the washing machine! We managed somehow to change Eric’s clothes three times in one day after they got soiled, and wet, and then soiled again…
Also, the tumble dryer is your new best friend. We would have not survived this week without it. Jon would take a load of dirties at night and bring them back clean in the morning. How would we have coped without it?
2) You leave your dignity at the door when you enter the maternity ward. I have never been the prudest of people, but there are somethings that I like keeping to myself… However, in this past week, I lost count of how many people have seen my boobies whilst breastfeeding or expressing, seen me completely naked or my “nether region”. But by day 2 I didn’t care anymore. You honestly can’t let that affect you, otherwise you’re going to have a tough time.
And back to normal.
Delivering the babies has brought my old body back! Not only have I lost most of my pregnancy belly, but also I seem to have lost some extra weight that I put on before I got pregnant. I suppose it’s all due to the minuscule portions of food that they serve , mixed with the fact that you do consume more calories when you’re breastfeeding… Anyhow, I feel my arms are way too skinny and can’t wait to start eating properly again 🙂
Other things that I’ve “lost” with the delivery of the babies are the heartburn (yay!), the short-of-breathlessness, tummy pain, high blood pressure (although I’m still on medication), puffy feet and legs, and the big vast majority of pregnancy nags. The only thing still remaining to get back to normal is the carpal tunnel syndrome on my left hand, but I’m hoping it’ll get better soon.
