And twins make 4!

by Natalie
(Whitby, ON, Canada)

I am one of 3 girls in my family, so having more than 2 children of my own was important to me. My husband however is an only child so having 2 kids was ideal for him. About 2 years after our son was born, we were thrilled to have a daughter! The Million Dollar Family indeed!

But as time went on, I still had a longing to have another child. In fact, I was really hoping that we would have another girl so my daughter would have that special bond that sisters share. After some VERY long discussions about increasing our family, my husband and I came to the decision that one more really would be exciting. Busy, but exciting!

As with my previous 2 pregnancies, I became pregnant the first month. About 5 weeks later, I had some spotting so my doctor sent me for an ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. All the technician could see was the chorion, but I wasn't far enough along in the pregnancy to see where it was located in my belly. She asked me to return 2 weeks later to confirm it's location, when my life as I knew it was flipped upside down!!!

My husband wasn't allowed in the room at first, so I found out the great news before he did. I thought with a smile on my face, "oh my gosh, he's gonna kill me!". It was surreal, wonderful, exciting, scary all at the same time! When he came in with my other 2 kids (who were 6 and 4 at the time), he casually showed them the screen and explained to them what everything was. The technician said, "... and here's the heartbeat..." then slowly moved the wand over and said "...and here's the other one." Basically when he pulled his jaw off the floor, he said "WHAT?" followed by hysterical laughing!

The feelings we felt were many, but really we thought that this is what it must feel like to win the lottery!! It was amazing! At about 18 weeks we were told that our identical twins were in fact boys! So much for a sister for my daughter!

I had a wonderful twin pregnancy! I felt pretty good, a little tired, but all in all good. I decided early on that I was going to avoid the internet since the first 2 websites that I visited about Monochorionic Diamniotic twins were terrible. There was no sense worrying about things out of my control! But as time went on, I became more and more concerned about Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. In the end, I luckily had nothing to be worried about, but it was a big cause of concern for a long time.

At 35+ weeks, I gave birth to 2 beautiful boys, naturally. Jack came out head first, weighing 5 lbs 2 oz and two minutes later, Liam was pulled out by his feet, weighing 4 lbs 11 oz. I was in the O.R. for about 10 minutes max before they wheeled me back to my room! It was my absolute best delivery ever!

Since they were premature, the nurses took the boys to the Special Care Nursery right away. Jack needed some oxygen at first, but within about 2 hours, they were both sleeping peacefully in their isolettes. They both had feeding tubes for about 4 days, but Jack decided he didn't want it anymore, so after yanking it out, the nurses agreed that he didn't need it anymore. Liam kept his in for another day, but then his was removed too. Liam needed some phototherapy for about a day to take care of his jaundice.

They stayed in the S.C.N. for 9 days and were sent home together! We were expecting to have to leave one there for a couple of extra days, just to make sure that he was consistently putting on weight, so this was great news!

Our family of 4 is now complete! The first 3 months were definitely an adjustment, but now we're all in a pretty good routine and just excited to see what happens next!