Our Twin’s Birth Story

Can we start at the beginning when we found out we were having twins? I mean, that shock will leave you breathless! I think I had a slight panic attack when the ultrasound tech said, “hey, how do you guys feel about two?”. Overall though, we were excited that we were going to be blessed with two little babes. Especially because we found out that we were finally going to get a boy and that Andy wouldn’t be completely outnumbered.

our first snapshot of our little nuggets!

As my pregnancy progressed, there were some concerns because it was considered a high-risk pregnancy. To top it off, baby A had a marginal cord insertion and baby B had some masses they found in her abdomen. All along I wondered if I would be able to carry my babies to term. I carry pregnancy with a relatively small belly usually and my two older children were only 6 pounds at birth. I wondered how big TWO babies could get in my belly. When you’re pregnant you worry, all the time, and this was no different.

I was a few days shy of my third trimester when I woke up on Mother’s day, of all days, with pain and bleeding. It was terrifying. I yelled at Andy to wake up and get ready to go to the hospital. To this day I’m so grateful that he was even home and not out of town working. We took our girls over to my parents house and got to the nearest hospital where my doctor was on call at the time.

Once up to triage in labor and delivery, I was given steroids for the babies and checked over. I was also put on magnesium to help the babies if they were born early. After being stuck a bunch for an IV and finally stabilized, my doctor decided that it would be best if they transferred me to a high-risk hospital where they could better help my babies since they were going to be born so early. This involved a 1 hour long ambulance ride. Which was no treat as I was super nauseated and basically felt like I had the flu while I was on that magnesium.

We were so blown away by how kind everyone had been so far and even more so with the staff at our new hospital. They even helped us get married! You can read about that here. After a full day of monitoring, we found that baby B was becoming distressed and we could no longer wait for them to cook a little longer and they prepped me for an emergency c-section.

The operation room was huge. They had a team for each baby and a team for me. I was given a spinal block and they started operating. As they did, Andy was able to come in and join me. Unfortunately, while they were operating I was nauseated and throwing up from the medicines that they had running. I also was being treated for prenatal hypertension and my medication for that leaked out of my IV into my arm. This required an antidote as it could end up killing the skin if not treated.

I’m no stranger to a c-section. I’ve had two prior to the twins and it was similar to that but way more emotional. With the twins arrival, I was feeling so many things. I was terrified because they were so small and who knew what kind of problems we may face with that. At 1:24 am Mason was born. He weighed 2 pounds 4 oz. I got to see Mason’s face for about 1 minute before they took him to the NICU. Madison was born 1 minute later at 1:25 am. She weighed 1 pound 7 oz and I didn’t even get to see her because she needed to be cared for ASAP.

My twins were taken to the NICU to get worked on by their respective teams and Andy got to go with them. He told me that during that time it was so chaotic and he felt like he was in the way so he kind of stood back and watched for a bit before he came and rejoined me in my recovery room. After Andy left me in the OR, I was closed up and wheeled to the recovery where they administered the antidote to my arm. I was monitored for an hour or so there before moving into my next room. If you’ve ever had a baby, you’ll already know this, but if not, when you have a baby, they have to push on your abdomen to help get your uterus to shrink down. It’s not pleasant once the anesthesia wears off, I’ll tell you that.

It took about 8 hours for me to be able to stand steadily. I ate a large breakfast because at that point it had been about 36 hours since my last meal and I was starving! Once I felt better with food in my stomach and being able to use the restroom without a catheter, I finally got wheeled up to the NICU and got to see my twins. It was seriously mind blowing. I couldn’t believe that someone so small could be so strong. I could fill pages and pages about all of the little things that happened every day. Things like being on ventilators, getting picc lines placed, many many x-rays and ultrasounds. Really the list goes on and on. Every little thing my twins endured I stood by, and cried, and watched with a mass of emotions. I felt terrible that I didn’t carry them in me longer, so they wouldn’t have to fight so hard. I was sad they had to be in pain during their many procedures. I was so proud of them. I was happy they were relatively “okay”. I was scared.

Then low and behold, not even 24 hours after giving birth, I had to get moved back to labor and delivery because my blood pressure was too high and giving me major headaches. This is preeclampsia and while I wasn’t unfamiliar with this as I dealt with it with my last pregnancy, I had never had to be treated for it other than some low dose blood pressure meds. Once I was back in labor and delivery, they had to give me a 24 hour course of magnesium. This is to help prevent the things preeclampsia causes such as stroke, seizures, and organ failure. This meant I was once again bedridden, unable to eat, and worst of all? Unable to see my babies, again. I spent 6 days admitted to the hospital being monitored. During that time I got to go up to see my twins as much as I wanted, sans magnesium drip, but I also made sure I prioritized resting because I needed that too.

During the first couple of weeks, Madison and Mason were in the most intense area of our NICU. Then they moved to the next level as they progressed. After about 8 weeks they got to move to the least intensive bay. In each of those areas they all had their own team of doctors who came and did daily rounds. I was there for those as much as possible because I wanted to be a part of their care team. I wanted to know what was happening, be able to ask any questions we had, and overall advocate for them. It has been a really long and emotional journey and while this is post-birth, it is a major part of their story. I’m writing this on the eve of Madison’s discharge from the NICU. She will have been in the hospital for 79 days. Mason still has a little ways to go before we can take him home.

As I look back, I am proud of every single one of my family members. From my husband and I, to each of my children. We’ve all weathered the storm as best as we could and while we would never have asked for this, I can say that we are much better for it. We have grown and learned that we are extremely capable beings and that even the smallest of us, can do amazing things.

Thank you for reading our story.

xo,

Heather