My 'Yule Tribe' twin story

by Sarah
(Crawley, Sussex, UK)

It was a shock to find out that we were expecting another baby, let alone twins.

We found out I was pregnant very early on and then watched my belly expand quicker than our first child, who at the time had literally turned 1 yrs old.

We went to the booking in appointment and saw a student midwife, we joked during the meeting that twins ran in both our families.

All our friends and family were joking about the bigger my belly was getting quicker than our daughter. My sister in law even joked that it would be identical twin boys. What a witch!!

We went to our 12 week scan and thank god I was laying down on the bed as when the sonographer worked her magic there were 2 heads, my husband laughed, I cried and the sonographer commented tha she would make sure there was not a 3rd. Luckily there were just the 2.

She checked them out and found they were in 1 placenta and because of this we were referred to the 'Harris Birthright Centre' in London.

I was booked in for a few days time. When we got up there and had spoken to the consultant, we were told we would be here every 2 week until further notice.

Life & the ever expanding waistline were fine, I even went on a canal boat and did a few locks. I kept going as life had not and was not going to change.

At 28 weeks, London referred me back to my local hospital, as I was progressing like a textbook twin pregnancy.

I was still monitored every 2 weeks until 31 weeks. Twin 1 was getting bigger and twin 2 seemed to have stopped growing, but there was nothing to worry about and I would be monitored every few days now.

At 34 weeks, on a Thursday in October I went for a routine scan and then went straight down to see my consultant. When she compared the last scan and the new scan, there was quite a difference, she suspected TTTS had appeared.

She said to me that I would be in for a C-section, and I said in a week or 2 and she said no Tuesday. That was 4 days away.

I had to have the injections to mature both my babies lungs over the next 2 days.

Tuesday arrived and I was told I would be taken down about 1030. It was a bit later than this and had had the magic cream rubbed in as I don't like needles.

When I was walked in to the operation room, there were so many staff there. One commented on how many babies I had inside me as I appeared quite small!!

At 1145, Jake the first was born. He cried and was whisked away while the 2nd was born at 1146, Aaron. They were perfect. Jake weighed 4lb 11oz and Aaron weighed 4lb 3oz.

We were taken to recovery and watched our Identical twin boys. The nurse caring for me, asked if I had fed them. I replied,'Do I need to feed them?', even though I had only given birth to our daughter 18 months beforehand.

My husband took Jake, the older one, and I had Aaron. As we were feeding them Jake snorted milk out of his nose and turned blue. The nurse immediately took over and sorted him out.

The paed doctor came round and admitted Jake to SCUBU. My husband was taken after the had stabilised him. My husband came back distraught at the sight of Jake with the CPAP on. The doctor explained to us that Jake was suffering from Mild RDS( Respiratory Distress Syndrome).

She explained that because he was the bigger twin in the womb, he didn't need to fight for anything and was therefore distressed at being the big wide world and not knowing how to get food.

Aaron on the other hand, knew how to survive as he had fought for everything inside me.

They are now 4yrs old and are going to school in Sept. The school are going to have fun with them and vice versa.

Its been a hard few years but the end is kind of in sight, although life will never be quiet in our house.