More about our boys

August 18, 2010

More about our boys

Sir has ordered me to spend some time relaxing on the sofa with my laptop, while He sorts the dinner out for later. i was feeling a bit guilty about the amount of stuff He is doing round the house at the moment, but earlier when i was trying to do the laundry i got very dizzy, so now Sir says my priorities at the moment have to be recuperating and recovering from the birth and looking after the twins (and Poppy too). So i thought i would use this time to give everyone some more details about Finn and William and their birth, seeing as they are happily fed and changed and sleeping right now.

i had been getting painful 'practice' contractions since about 10th August, but they were fairly short and only happened a few times a day. Then during the night of 14th (Sat) i was woken up a few times with pains and twinges in my belly and pelvis, and then from about 3am i started getting some proper contractions, but still spread quite a long way apart. i tried to relax as much as possible in between them and i was able to doze off and get some more sleep which was good. i woke Sir at about 6am to tell Him because by then the contractions were coming more regularly, and He started timing them and also phoned my parents to ask them to come and collect Poppy as soon as they could. Sir phoned the hospital at about 7am and was told that i should have something to eat and drink and then come in, but not to rush unless the contractions suddenly speeded up. So we took our time and made sure everything was ready, and once Poppy had been collected we made our way to the hospital and got there about 8:30am, and i was taken to a room and given the usual check-ups and put on a monitor to see how the twins were doing. (This is one of the things i was really impressed with the hospital about because they had a wireless monitor which meant that i could still move around as much as i wanted to once it was in place. And somehow it was able to track each twin's heartbeat separately as well as mine through one device - it took a bit of time to get it all set up and programmed in but once that was done i was free to change positions and do whatever i wanted and it meant i could also go to the loo when i needed to. i think i would even have been able to use the birthing pool if i wanted to but for some reason that option didn't appeal to me this time round.) i was told on arrival that i was 4cms dilated and the monitor showed that both twins were doing fine in there, not getting distressed at all, so the plan was to go for a natural birth and let things happen in their own time so far as possible. i spent most of the early part of labour sitting on my gymball, rocking back and forth with Sir rubbing my back and belly, or pacing around between contractions, or sitting propped up on the bed, and i was able to use the gas and air to take the edge off the pain like last time. Just like last time my waters broke of their own accord whilst at the hospital and my dilation happened gradually and naturally.

Everything was going smoothly up until about 12:00, then i went into that nasty 'transition' phase just before the urge to push comes, and like last time i found it really hard to cope with. The contractions got so close together that it felt like i wasn't getting any break between them, i couldn't find any position which felt 'right' to be in, there was an awful lot of pressure and discomfort down there, i was shivery and cold and feeling sick, and it made me feel very overwhelmed and panicked. Like last time Sir was there for me and He held me and reassured me and talked me through that scary time, and by about 12:45pm i was checked and told that i was fully dilated and should start pushing when i got the urge. By this time there were loads of people in the room and i was feeling like it was too much and i didn't want my babies born into that kind of chaotic environment, so Sir showed the doctor in charge my birth plan and asked for all non-essential people to leave the room, and lots of them left so there were only a few left and that felt much better. After taking a few moments to calm down and get myself refocused (again with Sir's help) i got into a propped-up sitting position on the bed and started to push William out into this world. Sir talked me through the breathing and the pushing again, just like last time, and i was able to block everything else out and just focus on His voice and i took one contraction at a time, until before i knew it the head was there and the midwife helped me to deliver the head (i hate that feeling too) and then in the next push William was out - at 1:31pm, only 5 hours after we had arrived at the hospital! i was worried if he was ok because he didn't cry at first and he wasn't nice and pink like Poppy had been but kind of purple-blue instead, but he was checked over and pronounced 'fit and healthy' and placed on my chest for a few moments while we rubbed him down with a towel (by then he was crying which i took to be a good sign). William weighed 6lbs 5oz when he was born and had an apgar score of 7 both times (which is at the low end of 'healthy').

They weren't sure how long it would be until my contractions started up again, but it was literally minutes and then they came back really strong and i was pushing again to get Finn out. In some ways he was much easier than William, i guess because William had made a path for him to follow but it was harder to push because it felt like i couldn't feel the muscles in my tummy anymore (apparently that is normal with twin births so the midwife and Sir pressed their hands onto my belly to give me something to push against). Finn's head was crowning within minutes of me starting pushing and His head seemed to ease out without any trouble and then the rest of him slipped out in the next push - at 1:36pm, only 5 minutes after William had arrived! i was surprised by how easy it had been to deliver him, but very relieved as well because i was quite tired by that point. He was checked over and also pronounced fine, and i could tell that he was because he started to cry straight away and was nice and pink. Finn weighed 5lbs 14oz, a little less than William but still a good weight for a twin, and his apgar scores were 8 and 9 which is very good. Both boys were put onto my tummy/chest, wrapped in their towels and then once we had rubbed them down they were transferred to blankets. i was given an injection to speed up the delivery of the placentas and to minimise the bleeding involved which can be very heavy with twin births, but by that stage i didn't even notice the injection or the delivery of the placentas really. i was just so amazed by my two beautiful boys. Finn stopped crying fairly quickly once he was given to me and he gave me this special look which let me know who he was. William was still protesting his arrival into this world, but stopped when i put him to my breast. i couldn't get him to latch on properly, but he was content to nuzzle there for a while and it seemed to calm him.

Both the twins didn't actually feed until about an hour later, after we had been moved into another room and they had been given their eye-drops and injections, and i had been checked and cleaned up and made comfortable (no episiostomy and just one little tear which they have left to heal on its own). The lactation consultant worked with me quite a bit during my time in the hospital because William was found to have difficulties obtaining a secure latch onto the breast and also problems with co-ordinating his suck-swallow pattern. i was given some tips to help him such as gently manipulating his jaw to get the 'gape' necessary, and we found that holding him in the 'rugby ball' position under my arm seems to help him stayed latched on better once we have achieved it initially. Also i have to express some of the milk from my breast before putting William to it as otherwise he gets overwhelmed by how fast it comes out at first and chokes. And when he stops sucking for longer than a few seconds i am to gently stroke his cheek and if that doesn't work i am to gently squeeze my breast towards his mouth to get him started again. Finn has taken to the breast like a natural from the very first time and will feed for 20mins solid and be nice and full and happily drift off to sleep when i lay him down in his cot, but William takes about 45mins to feed sufficiently and needs some help with it. William is also rather difficult to get settled afterwards, if we just put him into his cot he gets very cross and cries and cries, even if we sing to him and reassure him. So i have to get him drifting off to sleep in my arms before i lay him down, otherwise he wakes Finn up again and we have both of them crying! But we are learning these things fast and able to adapt what we do to the needs of our boys, so it's ok.

Oh i forgot to say that the placentas were investigated and showed that the boys are definitely not identical, they came from two separate eggs which happen to have been released at the same time. That makes sense with William's genetic condition anyway, but we wanted to know for sure. So far William seems fine, just the minor difficulties with breastfeeding and settling to sleep that i have mentioned, but he is a happy baby apart from that and responds to me and Sir when we talk to him, and especially to Poppy when she sings to him just like she did when he was in my belly! Poppy came to the hospital with Sir to collect us on 16th (Mon) and she was absolutely amazed by her new brothers and so excited. She kept saying "babies out!", then putting her ear to my belly and tapping it saying "no babies here", and whenever a nurse or doctor came into the room she pointed to her brothers saying "Finn 'n Willum" to introduce them! We got her a dolly from the boys, complete with nappies and a bottle and a bath, so she can feed/change/bathe her baby when i'm doing the same for the twins. So far she has been content just to watch and fetch things for me as my little helper, but i think the time will come when she starts to resent how much time i have to spend looking after the twins, and then the dolly might come in useful. i was also worried that she would be woken up every time the twins cried in the night, but she just seems to sleep through it, which is good, though she has said an indignant "sssssh babies!" when they cry during the day! i also didn't know how she would react at being taken to nursery, leaving me behind with the twins, but she waves bye to us cheerily as her daddy takes her out to the car and is reportedly happy there all day, coming in the door at home to kiss me and the boys and say an enthusiastic "hello mama, lubs you!" "hello babies, lubs you!" as soon as she arrives. So it looks like our little family are going to be just fine, and now that i've met William i feel even more confident that we can help him through whatever challenges his condition may present him with in the future.

Thanks for reading, please ask questions if you want to!