My time spent in the hospital was, I'd soon find out, the most relaxing time I was going to get in the coming months. My first 24hrs were not particularly pleasant... except for the part where the boys were born. After arriving at the hospital I had more blood tests, another steroid shot and was hooked up to a monitor for a while to make sure both boys were doing ok. I'd been scheduled for surgery that afternoon, so I had all day to wait around, fasting and stressing - not about the actual surgery, but about the giant needle that was going to be placed in my spine. I'm not a fan of needles, no let's face it, I'm a big fat scaredy cat when it comes to needles, and here I was being poked with the things all day with the climax of them all being the spinal.
When the time finally came to be taken into surgery I was nervous, but trying to be strong. It felt so bizarre being wheeled around in a bed when I could walk perfectly well, sort of.
Turns out all my worrying about the spinal was for nothing. That was the easy part. The canular was first up and hurt the most. After that, a local meant I couldn't feel the spinal at all. Ten minutes later our boys, Tim and Jake, made their grand entrance. I may cringe now every time they cry, but hearing them for the first time and knowing they were both ok was such a relief. I'd always worried that one or both would not survive. I also remember thinking, 'wow, I feel so much lighter already,' there was such a huge relief from pressure all of a sudden. I got a quick cuddle and then our boys and Dad went to the nursery and I went to recovery.
It took what seemed like forever to get back to my room and when I finally did I was greeted by my Husband and his parents, my Mother and Sister on their way with all the gear I'd left at home that morning not knowing I wouldn't be going home again for a week. The boys were still in the nursery and eventually I asked if they could be brought in for me to see them and so I got my second cuddle.
They did have to go back to the nursery where they would spend the next week and a half, although they exceeded the expectations of everyone but us and came home a week earlier than originally expected. The Paediatrician announced they could go home once they could take 24hrs of all sucking feeds, claiming this would probably take all week. Not my boys, they acheived it in the following 24hrs, we returned to the hosiptal to "room in" for the night (and got quite a cruisy afternoon watching the rugby) and brought our boys home the next day.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The last 12 months
This time last year we had just returned from a holiday in Beijing and Hong Kong. We'd hiked on the Great Wall of China, experienced Hong Kong Disneyland and suffered some pretty nasty food poisoning.
Until just recently there hadn't been 12 months go by when we didn't travel somewhere different. Our holidays included Europe, East Africa, South America, Antarctica and local adventures like four wheel driving to the tip of Cape York and swimming with Whale Sharks off Exmouth in Western Australia.
Everything changed in February when we were told we were expecting two additions to the family. It had taken us 12 months to fall pregnant and now here we were with two at once... "instant family" as I would hear many many times from almost everyone I told.
Of all the experiences I have had, being told there were two heart beats was by far the most surreal. We had joked about the possibility and how awesome it would be, but never expected it to actually happen. Lying in bed that night I couldn't sleep. I was amazed, excited and terrified all at the same time.
The next 6 weeks would prove difficult not telling anyone (until the 12 week scan) and being told to take it easy, exercise should be restricted to light walking only. For an active person, this was really difficult. The weekend after we found out I attended the hens weekend of one of my very good friends... the main feature of which was at one of my favourite wineries... it wasn't suspicious at all when I volunteered to drive and didn't drink anything. We did get to take a couple of small trips while I was pregnant: Jenolan Caves over winter, although I wasn't allowed in the caves and a road trip to South West Rocks and back over Easter - On this trip I got to swim with a giant sting ray at the Australian Shark and Ray Centre, which was awesome!
I think I was lucky with my pregnancy. We attended an expecting parents evening with the multiple births association where I found most people had been very very ill (as is common with multiples due to the extra hormones), but I'd been lucky and pretty much escaped that. We had tonnes more appointments and scans than you would normally as there's a greater chance of complications with monochorionic twins. You can read more about it here. It wasn't till the very end that I ended up with some issues.
Knowing that many twins are born early, we were prepared to meet our sons from 28 weeks, although we were to wait another 8 and by the time they arrived I was exhausted. The night before they were born I could barely move off the couch, not even to go to bed. I'd had a scan done that morning where we were advised to move our scheduled cesarian from 38 weeks to 37 weeks. That afternoon the obsterician agreed and sent me for blood tests and a steroid shot with another to follow early the next morning. On our way to the hospital bright and early the following day I received a phone call from the obsterician: "you won't be going home." We'd be meeting our boys that afternoon.
Until just recently there hadn't been 12 months go by when we didn't travel somewhere different. Our holidays included Europe, East Africa, South America, Antarctica and local adventures like four wheel driving to the tip of Cape York and swimming with Whale Sharks off Exmouth in Western Australia.
Everything changed in February when we were told we were expecting two additions to the family. It had taken us 12 months to fall pregnant and now here we were with two at once... "instant family" as I would hear many many times from almost everyone I told.
Of all the experiences I have had, being told there were two heart beats was by far the most surreal. We had joked about the possibility and how awesome it would be, but never expected it to actually happen. Lying in bed that night I couldn't sleep. I was amazed, excited and terrified all at the same time.
The next 6 weeks would prove difficult not telling anyone (until the 12 week scan) and being told to take it easy, exercise should be restricted to light walking only. For an active person, this was really difficult. The weekend after we found out I attended the hens weekend of one of my very good friends... the main feature of which was at one of my favourite wineries... it wasn't suspicious at all when I volunteered to drive and didn't drink anything. We did get to take a couple of small trips while I was pregnant: Jenolan Caves over winter, although I wasn't allowed in the caves and a road trip to South West Rocks and back over Easter - On this trip I got to swim with a giant sting ray at the Australian Shark and Ray Centre, which was awesome!
I think I was lucky with my pregnancy. We attended an expecting parents evening with the multiple births association where I found most people had been very very ill (as is common with multiples due to the extra hormones), but I'd been lucky and pretty much escaped that. We had tonnes more appointments and scans than you would normally as there's a greater chance of complications with monochorionic twins. You can read more about it here. It wasn't till the very end that I ended up with some issues.
Knowing that many twins are born early, we were prepared to meet our sons from 28 weeks, although we were to wait another 8 and by the time they arrived I was exhausted. The night before they were born I could barely move off the couch, not even to go to bed. I'd had a scan done that morning where we were advised to move our scheduled cesarian from 38 weeks to 37 weeks. That afternoon the obsterician agreed and sent me for blood tests and a steroid shot with another to follow early the next morning. On our way to the hospital bright and early the following day I received a phone call from the obsterician: "you won't be going home." We'd be meeting our boys that afternoon.
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