The story behind the twins' arrival
This is an adapted version of the birth story published in the local NCT magazine so will probably seem very familiar to most of you!!
As most of you know, I had 15 months of fertility treatment to conceive the twins. It was a very stressful experience involving twice weekly trips to London from Ashford, Kent. During this time, I produced lots of cysts but no eggs. However, in July 1996, after 56 days of sniffing and injecting hormones, I produced 10 follicles (which produce the eggs) so we had to abandon it. It was too risky - even as desparate as I was to conceive - I did not really want to have 10 babies. The doctors changed the regime but I still sniffed and injected. This time it all sped up and I went from 0 to 23 follicles in 7 days. We weren't expecting that. Due to the huge number of follicles I produced, I developed a very strange version of Hyperstimulation Syndrome . Many women have hyperstimulation syndrome when they have IVF treatment and it can make you very ill or even be fatal. Me being me, didn't develop the 'normal' type but a peculiar variation where my blood tests and general health were fine but my ovaries went into overdrive and grew and grew. Eventually, my right ovary became 2 litres (watermelon size) and my left ovary over1 litre (other type of melon sized). I resembled the size of a full term pregnancy and was uncomfortable and breathless to match. The doctors were very puzzled by me and the consultant even phoned from his holiday in Cornwall to check on my condition. (This was pre -mobile phones remember). Eventually, the test came back and I was indeed pregnant!! As you can imagine, finding out I was pregnant had now become rather a concern and was not the happy occasion I'd dreamt of for all those months. I had almost daily scans to check but it wasn't until I was 6 weeks pregnant that the ultrasoundographer discovered 1 foetal sac. We were relieved but told there could still be more. At 7 weeks they did indeed find 1 more. Due to the separation, I had to phone hubby to tell him the news that it was now twins. At this point, there was a lot of hysterical giggling which due to my immense size was rather painful and made me even more breathless than ever. Luckily, I only ever did conceive the 2.
I remained in hospital for the next 4 weeks which was a very mind numbing experience as anyone who has spent a long time in hospital can testify. It became extremely important if I could not sit on my usual seat in the TV room! It must have also looked as if I came from a very dysfunctional family, as only 1 one member would visit at a time due to the expense of the journey from Kent to London. Then, to add to our woes, hubby stood on a nail at work and could not walk, and then was made redundant!
Over the next 3 months, my ovaries reduced which meant that I must have been the only woman in history who shrank as their pregnancy progressed!! I still had to travel from Kent to London weekly for scans but all was well and the twins were growing nicely. The 12 week scan was a very magical experience as the scan showed both babies at the same time, and in wonderful detail. Twin 1, on the left, later known as Woody moved very slowly and precisely (he is much the same now). Twin 2 (Laura) was a whirling dervlish and has been this way ever since. It is hard to believe that their personalities could be seen at that point, not that we believed that at the time but it is true. Later scans were less enlightening, as they could not be seen together at the same time.
The rest of my pregnancy went well apart from the added complication that hubby found a job - on the Isle of Wight - over 2 hours and a ferry ride away from Kent. Luckily, his family lived locally and so he stayed with them in the week.
The early part of Christmas was spent with hubby’s family and the week was most memorable for having a car skid into ours in the snow. Hubby drove me back to Kent that day and the next day drove back to Hampshire. I was then snowed in for 3 weeks and had to rely on the neighbours to get me food.
Our house went on the market in December, and as the babies were due in May, we envisaged everything happening at once. We weren't far off the mark as you shall see. Our house eventually sold in March and having found a house in Southampton, we had a provisional moving date at the end of April, 1997.
By the beginning of April, I was so large and short of breath, that even getting dressed took me an hour! Getting in and out of the bath, was the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. If I did venture out, I got so stared at as if people could not believe someone so large could go out shopping. I found I had to ask for help for even the most simple things. I could not bend over a supermarket trolley so used to get the staff to come with me to do the shopping.
At 36 weeks, I'd had enough. My whole day seemed to exist around a time frame of 45 minutes. I could only sleep for 45 minutes, had to go to the loo every 45 minute or even keep awake for 45 minutes. So, at my weekly, Monday outpatient appointment, I asked to be induced asI was so big and tired and also the scans showed Woody was getting thinner. Luckily, the obstetrician agreed. As had been the way throughout this pregnancy, nothing was straightforward. It was after all, a week before the move day but I was desparate to get my breath back and to be able to lie down at night. I was banking on the idea that the twins would go 3-4 hours between feeds so that I could get more sleep! I went into hospital on Tuesday and as they had told me my body didn't seem ready, I expected it to be at least 3 days before the twins arrived. In fact, I even told hubby not to come back until Thursday but he decided to come back late Tuesday night, anyway.
I settled into the plastic covered bed at 10pm and went into a fitfull sleep until midnight when I woke up to go to the loo. As I was getting out of bed, there was a ‘pop’ as my waters burst. I can still see the midwife with her mop and bucket clearing up after me and then my contractions began. As it was still early stages, we did not contact hubby until about 3am, when I was in established labour. I thought it best for hubby to get as much sleep as possible as anyone who knows him will agree. The midwife phoned home and felt that someone had answered the phone but then could get no response! She tried for over 30 minutes but still got no reply and even more worrying, kept getting the engaged tone. I was armed with lots of phone numbers - relatives in Southampton, Red Funnel Ferry, hubby’s work, and my next door neighbour. We decided if the midwife got no reply soon, we would have to ring the neighbour and ask her to go in and wake hubby up. On her final attempt, he answered the phone! He told her that he had picked the phone up the first time, but then went back to sleep immediately wihtout speaking!! He then woke up still clutching the phone and was not sure what had happened. I'm not sure how many men could achieve this feat! He eventually arrived about 4.30am and my labour progressed very slowly for the next 12 hours. Eventually, Woody became very distressed and I had an emergency caesarian.
As shown on the scans, Woody did indeed resemble a lollypop as he was so undernourished and Laura arrived crying and wriggling but looking a small but perfectly formed baby. Woody weighed 5lb 2oz but was the same length as Laura who weighed 6lb 5 so you can understand the difference in size. Poor Woody looked so fragile nobody wanted to cuddle him incase they broke him.
As for our move - well, when the twins were 3 days old and 4 days before the big move, I found out from the portable telephone in the ward, that our buyers had not sorted out their deposit and our move got delayed for 12 days. This was our lowest and most stressed point.
I came home from hospital when the twins were 1 week old and spent 1 night in our house in Ashford before decamping to my parents for the next 2 weeks. Luckily, the new work were paying for the removal firm to pack the house. Hubby moved to our new house in Hampshire on his own until I joined him with the twins when they were 3 weeks old. I arrived on the Sunday night and hubby went to work the next day and my new life in Hampshire had begun.