Catherine With Twins Max & Charlie

Your name?  Catherine

Location? Tannum Sands QLD

 

Names and ages of your children? Max Henry and Charlie Thomas, 3

Facebook Fan Website Member Or Both? Both

How did you react when you first found out you were having twins?  I was thrilled/nervous and decided straight away not to get too worried about raising twins and focus instead on getting them here first!

Can you sum up the 1st year with twins at a glance? Repetition, joy, tiredness, amazement and more repetition! It was all I expected but then some more-thank goodness for a wonderful hubby helping out!

What is one of your favorite twin moments? One of my favourite moments is when as babies Max and Charlie slept in the same position-and they still do! It's still a wonder to me...

 

What is the one piece of advice you give to someone pregnant with multiples? Get things organised before hand, look after yourself and accept ALL help offered-let them hang out washing, cook you a meal, take care of older children for a while-people love to help out!

Newborns Max & Charlie 

Max & Charlie Three year old

Tiffany & Marty's Birth Story

My name is Tiffany, and my husband's name is Marty. We now have the honor of calling two beautiful little 4 month old identical twin girls  our daughters. Week by week, things -have- gotten much easier, we have came a long way from the beginning. After many sleepless nights (still not an unusual occurrence!) trial and error with tandem nursing, cloth diapering, (an attempt to benefiting our babies well being, make a 'greener' choice, and of course save some funds as well!) and all else that comes along with being a new parent, we have found our 'routine'.. 'organised chaos'.. 'system' that works for our new family! 


We have managed to stick to all of our guns on our pre-determined decisions as new parents to twin girls... with the exception of the girls' now beloved... 'sookies'.. 'pacifiers'... god sent gift to a new parent! This is our birth story of how our little miracles came into this world almost four treasured months ago!  May 16th, 2011. The day before my scheduled cesarean, as our leading girl, 'twin A' was breached since week 16. I was so excited all day, the minutes seemed like hours, and the hours seemed like days. I went to the hospital that afternoon for my 'pre-op' work up: blood tests, consent forms, signed into the hospital. 


After all of this was finished, the resident doctor came into the room I was waiting in, to brief me on how things were planned to go the following day and answer any questions. Five minutes after she began to speak, my excitement became mixed with anxiety. I had never even had a tooth pulled, let alone a surgery! My outlook until that day was after waiting 38 long weeks, AND one day to meet my beautiful twin girls was, "going to go to the hospital, finally meet my girls.. and leave!" The terms, 'blood transfusions'.. 'bleeding out' .. etc quickly made me realize that my girls and I had a major surgery to endure before we would all finally be snuggling together safe and sound! I was too stunned to think of any questions, the doctor let me go home and get some "rest" for the night, and I was to return for my appointment at 7am sharp.  


Marty and I returned home at around 6 o'clock, I spent the entire evening sorting baby clothes, going through my checklist of things to bring with me to the hospital. Around 10 o'clock, I went to bed for a total of 5 minutes. My mind wouldn't stop racing, at this point, I crept out of bed as Marty slept and stayed awake the entire night obsessively cleaning, while listening to music trying to distract my mind from every possible thing that may go wrong. After almost 9 whole months, all I wanted was to have my baby girls both safe in my arms.  5 o'clock am. I woke Marty up, as I was already awake, grabbed my things and we drove off to the hospital. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink from the time I had left the hospital the day before to after I had the surgery, so I was extremely thirsty! I blasted inspirational tunes the entire way, we arrived at the hospital at around 6:30 am. 


The first person that met me was the anesthesiologist. She went through a questionnaire, gave me a briefing on what to expect with the spinal and surgery, and gave Marty some scrubs and a hairnet to wear. Before the day-of, I made him promise me he wouldn't leave me.  I was then informed I had to be in the operation room alone to receive my spinal. Marty was a great support system my whole pregnancy so I was quietly upset and alarmed by this surprise.   The doctors took me to the operation room which was very cold in both temperature and appearance. I was told to sit on a steel table covered in a thin sheet of paper and hug a pillow. They first gave me a dosage of morphine in an iv. It made me shiver in the already cold room.. and my nerves didn't help! As the anesthesiologist directed me to keep my back "straight" so she could administer the spinal.. I clutched onto my pillow as my teeth chattered. It is -very- difficult to keep a straight back after having a belly protruding in the opposite direction with two healthy sized babies for 9 months! It took a lot of poking and prodding, but the anticipation was far worse than the spinal itself. The only complications they had was my blood pressure going down significantly from the medication.. there was talk of putting me under anesthesia, but luckily, things ended up working out just fine! 


It only felt like a bee sting! Easier said than done, but any expecting mothers.. DO NOT fear the spinal! Feeling relieved that step one had happened fairly smoothly, I was confident. The doctor then asked me to lay down. It was the strangest thing, first I felt an extremely cold sensation in my lower body, then I couldn't move! I was -told- this would happen, but actually trying with everything in me, I was not in control of any of my body, waist down. So, the doctors moved me in place, I felt lopsided on the table, and tried to re-position myself, but just gave up!  The first incision was made, the doctors asked me if I had felt anything.. it just felt like someone lightly scratching my skin. Marty then came in the room - (with camera!) after what seemed like hours. There was a curtain blocking my upper body from my lower body. The (TWELVE or so!) health careLuckily I wasn't allowed to eat anything prior, so I wasn't able to be sick!  


 They then called Marty to the other end of the curtain, I heard a very gurgled cry and I felt as if my heart almost stopped because I thought something was wrong. (Babies born by cesarean often have a cry that sounds this way, I later read.) I heard the doctors tell me that at 8:50 am, I had a beautiful, healthy baby girl, twin A, Lily. 5 pounds and 12 ounces. It was the most surreal, amazing, treasured moments to date in my life. I wanted so badly to just jump up and see her, but knew that there was another precious baby girl on the way - so overwhelming. One child is an insurmountable blessing.. two at once.. a true miracle. Exactly one minute later, I heard almost an identical cry, heard the doctor say once again, "beautiful, healthy baby girl." Twin B, Julie. 6 pounds and 1 ounce. An equally surreal, amazing, treasured moment, even more so now because reality struck in that I now had two healthy daughters.   After what had seemed like hours, but was maybe all of ten minutes, Marty brought over, both girls, one cradled in each arm. Julie with a pink hat, Lily with a purple (these would become their 'signature colors'). The most beautiful, big dark, dark blue eyes I have ever seen. Their hands were so small I could see the detailed bones in their hands move When they placed their little fingers on their faces. We had finally done it. There the four of us were, our family together for the very first meeting. 


We knew there was so much to come, but we weren't worried. Just so overcome with relief that our babies had arrived safely.   I was moved to recovery, where they brought me my baby girls to hold for the first time. It was long awaited but was hesitant as I was still very shaky. I studied their faces, tried to find words to express how I felt, but there weren't any to justify this moment. After being watched for a few hours in recovery, we were all moved to a private room where we stayed for 5 nights. The nurses were wonderful with teaching me to nurse first one baby at a time, and eventually two. It seemed like such an impractical juggling act at the time, but if you stick to it, and you chose to go this route - it  IS possible. I can even honestly say it becomes easy and routine eventually!   Recovery from the cesarean lasted about 2 months, it seemed brutal at the time, but is now a distant memory. 


I would endure the pain and discomfort all over again in retrospect to get these fast-passing 4 months back. It goes by oh so quickly. Some days are more challenging than others, but when mothers say, "it's worth it"... that couldn't be further from the truth.  

Tiffany, Marty and their new additions  
Julie (Pink hat) and Lily (Purple Hat)

Tiffany, Julie (left) and Lily (Right)

Facebook Fan - Steph Ross

Your name? Stephanie Ross

Location? Hoppers Crossing, Melbourne

Names and ages of your children? Blake and Coby 5 months (Twin Boys)

Facebook Fan Website Member Or Both? Website member

How did you react when you first found out you were having twins? So excited as I have always wanted twins.

Can you sum up the 1st year with twins at a glance? First 5 months have been amazing. My boys change so much from week to week and have completely different personalities. It astounds me that 2 babies raised identically can be so different.

What is one of your favorite twin moments? When the boys first recognized each other and begun to smile at one another.

What is the one piece of advice you give to someone pregnant with multiples? Not to listen to all the negative comments from every one. I was told every horror story and told to multiply it as i was having twins yet I my pregnancy, birth and every stage of development have all been smooth sailing.