Sarah's gorgeous twin boys

by Sarah
(Portsmouth, UK)

Hello again! I meant to write this sooner - but the 5 weeks since Mini Michael and Dinky David arrived have gone so fast. It is crazy and also lovely, the way that newborns can feel like they've been part of the family forever - but in reality its just a number of days, 35 in my case.

The picture is 10 minutes after the birth of the boys and don't I look pleased with myself? - with good reason... I just joined a very exclusive club by being a multiple mum and I was not pregnant any more!

Not that I dislike that, not at all - I love being pregnant. Its just after the 28 week milestone it gradually got harder and harder to function, until I found that being awake and moving around in the day was a lot easier than trying to sleep in bed at night. It seems a long way away now - but it was so difficult to get comfy at night and near on impossible to physically turn over in bed, even with all my pillows arranged to the sides, top, bottom, between and everywhere! "And where exactly am I supposed to sleep?" Martin would despair at me.

I can't believe I thought it was hard to move or bend at 30 weeks (last time I blogged to raising-twins), at 38 weeks I hadn't bent my back for such a long time - picking things off the floor involved a bit of gymnastics. I had perfected the technique of standing on one leg with the other sticking out behind whilst tilting my whole torso down! Socks had a technique too - but theres no way I could explain it... any pregnant twin mummies reading this - you will adapt believe me.

The birth was so good, it was no harder than my previous babies, in fact better! We were in for inducement and spent the night in the large labour room on a comfy bed - it was quiet and I had a lovely cool breeze from the open window I was sleeping under. At 8am we met Carol, our midwife for the following 12 hours, she was officially allocated to us and she was lovely - we spent the day chatting, laughing, walking round the unit it was so laid back and relaxed. Carol had lots of experience with twins and I felt good and very lucky to have her with us.

I had thought I would be having an epidural as advised blanketly by one of the consultant doctors. They say this as a precaution if twin 2 complicates things by twirling round in all the space after twin 1 delivers. More than one midwife said "not necessarily so Sarah". I had to have a serious think about this... I wanted to choose whatever meant the smallest risk of having a C-section (never had an operation in my life and scared stiff of the thought!) It looked like the epidural would not lower the risk of intervention - if it were to end up in a cesarean then it would happen anyway.

I had learnt from my previous labour how to concentrate on breathing well and relaxing everything lower down in order to cope. And cope I did... I was absolutely fine, still having a laugh with Martin and Carol until about 17.30 when I really had to breath through the pains and I felt a bit serious and quiet. When I finally wanted gas and air at 18.00hrs I was 10 cms already! Mikey came first at 6lb 15oz (wow great size) and while I was busy cooing over him - I did not see any goings on. When I looked up it wasn't just the three of us anymore. There were ladies either side of me holding the outside of my belly stopping twin 2 somersaulting round and holding him in place head down, where did they come from?

"Are you having contractions still Sarah?" No I wasn't, so I was given syntocin. The moment I said I had a contraction everyone was willing me on with pushing, They were hard to ignore, when there was about seven of them and only one of me. They said they really needed me to get twin 2 OUT. I could read from their faces that all was not well. The doctor said he would pull with the vontouse, but he could not do it on his own I had to push with all my might and with that next push David was born at 5lb 8oz. He was a terrible mauve colour but he screamed his little lungs off straight away! Now out of danger, Martin told me Davids heart rate had been slow since Mikey was born and I was about 60 seconds away from having an emergency cesarean!

It turned out the urgency was that David had the cord round his neck. The original plan had been to have twin 1, perhaps breastfeed him to get contractions started again naturally, only resorting to syntox if after 30 mins there were still none.

The boys were both safe now, born at 18.11 and 18.19 on 11 October 2008 and within a few minutes all the extra staff left and it was just the three of us again - oops I mean five of us now. And we were chatting and having fun again as Carol started the paperwork. It was such a good day, I'll never forget it for as long as I live.

I am so lucky... for all the staff at St Marys, Portsmouth who helped look after me both before and afterwards, my wonderful husband, parents and family - immediate and extended. Without them I would not be such a happy twin mummy, I have received all sorts of help and support. Even little Maya who is not yet two has been an absolute angel.

Good luck to you pregnant twin mummies out there, especially Kimberlee who commented on my belly pic - it really is worth it!!