When my 4th baby, Luke was around 9 months old we decided we would like to try for another baby. We knew we wanted more children and neither of us is getting any younger so we thought we may as well get on with trying. I remember having the discussion with my husband that "twins would be nice, then we'd have an even number of kids". Believing that prayer works, we prayed, "God if you think we could handle twins, we would be open to that". Little did we know that my then 9 year old daughter was also praying for twins. Within a month or so I was pregnant. This pregnancy felt different in that I was so extremely tired. I also suffered quite a few migraines in the first few months. We decided to have the 12 week nuchal scan so we could see the baby. Surprise surprise - twins. We were a little shocked but not totally bowled over. Then began the roller coaster ride of having identical twins - fortnightly scans, fears about TTTS, gestational diabetes and then the various doctors opinions about vaginal delivery versus caesarean. My 4 previous births had been pretty straight forward vaginal deliveries. My main concerns with having a caesarean were the need for an epidural (the thought of a needle in my back didn't impress me) and also worrying how I would cope with the recovery of a caesarean with twins and an active toddler (plus 3 older children).
After much research and discussion with my husband and doctors I decided to go ahead and have a caesarean. I was booked in for 37 1/2 weeks. One day before 37 weeks I went into labour, so we went up to the hospital. Considering one of my labours was only 1 1/2 hours, I didn't want to wait too long before going to the hospital. We went ahead with the caesarean a few hours after arriving at the hospital. The epidural wasn't too bad except that I felt extremely cold during the birth and for about half an hour afterwards and I couldn't stop shivering. My precious babies were born at 4.09am and 4.10am. The recovery from the caesarean was actually worse than I thought it would be. I had several infections and still feel tenderness from time to time. I am 95% sure that our family is complete but if we did end up having a 7th baby I would hope to have a vaginal birth again if all the circumstances were right.
A few days old.
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