Well, they are finally here! Simon and I headed out from home just after 7am on Saturday 24 January. I made sure we had a last belly shot for posterity. I have to say, while I felt pretty huge and uncomfortable for the last couple of weeks, I think I got off pretty lightly compared to some of the photos of twin mums I have seen.
After arriving at the hospital, I was taken off to pre-op where Simon was left sitting out in the waiting area wondering what was happening as no-one bothered to explain anything to us. I was then wheeled out on a trolley to the theatre with Simon left to get into his scrubs before joining me. I had the spinal block which was not as bad as expected, aside from the anaethatist saying, "Now if you could just get your knees a little closer to your chest!". Yeah, right!!
The operating theatre seemed to be filled with a myriad of people including two doctors to look after me, one for each baby and a raft of supporting nurses. Heating stations were set up for each bub and it all looked a little serious. I was pretty relieved when Simon turned up to distract me from it all. With my legs feeling like leadweights, the doctor popped out from behind the screen to ask if I could feel anything. When I said "No" she replied, "Good, because I just did something that would be incredibly painful".
After that, everything happened quite quickly and the babies arrived a couple of minutes later, within 47 seconds of each other. Both bubs offered hearty wails before being taken to special incubators where they were checked and wrapped up. They were brought to me for a quick kiss before being whisked away for shots, weighing and all the other things they do to new babies. I sent Simon off with the babies to make sure that Fraser (Baby 1) and Campbell (Baby 2) didn't get mixed up.
After the long process of stitching me back up I was taken to recovery and popped under a nice warm air blanket to counteract the shivers which hit half way through the op. Fraser and Campbell were brought to me for their first attempt at breastfeeding and then headed off to our room.
Once I got up to our room, I found out that poor little Campbell had been having some breathing difficulties and was taken off for observation in the NICU unit. Fraser and I had a chance to have a cuddle and get to know each other.
I didn't get to see Campbell again for about 24 hours when I was finally allowed down to NICU to try to feed him. He rejoined Fraser and I on our second morning in the hospital and I finally felt like the mother of twins.
We had a four night stay in the hospital. Unlike my time in hospital with Isabella, I didn't freak out at the idea of the bubs getting a taste of formula so I happily left them in the nursery each night to skip a breastfeed and allow me some rest - something I think I needed much more after the c-section than after my natural delivery last time. My little men got the hang of breastfeeding very quickly and I even managed to get them both feeding at once.
The nursing staff were generally pretty great, especially some of the Filipina nurses. They were incredibly helpful especially as my buzzer would be going off all the time as I strugled to feed, burb and change two babies at once. One nurse was hysterical as she said that she wanted to have twins too and could I please tell her what position we used to make them!
Anyway, after five days it was time to head home and get used to our newly expanded family. More on that in the next entry.
