Sunday 31 May 2009

Day six in hospital

Chris had her second night in a row with just 20 minutes sleep, with both twins grizzling on and off all night, feeding or wanting attention. Again, hopes of a discharge were high today as Chris was given the OK to go home. AT LAST!

However, and there’s always seemed to be a however, babies are given their first checks at this time, usually at home. A paediatrician arrived and decided that Matthew was looking rather too jaundiced. They were also weighed, and Matthew turned out to have lost about 12 percent of his body weight. All babies lose weight as they lose hydration and meconium after birth, but anything over 10 percent gets doctors worried. So…although Chris was free to leave, now the hospital wouldn’t allow Matthew to come home until he’d had some phototherapy for his jaundice. Basically, he lay in another incubator with a bright blue light shining up on his back:


As this is an overnight procedure, this meant another night in the slammer for Chris. After a bit of discussion, we both decided that I should take S
ophie home to give Chris a quieter night. It also felt like a small victory in what was turning into a major battle to get everybody home.

Poor Matthew had to fill a couple of vials with his blood, which meant inserting a needle into a tiny vein in the back of his hand. Needless to say he screamed the house down. This was to eliminate any problems with his kidneys and liver, as well as to get an accurate reading on his jaundice. Sophie, incidentally, also gave blood this way, but only whimpered a little at the start. She may be small, but she’s hard as nails.


Chris, apart from slowly going insane, is physically in good shape now. She's only taking paracetamol for her pain now, though her legs have swollen to impressive dimensions. All par for the course.


Matthew’s weight loss got us both somewhat worried, so we decided to drop the cup feeding and start bottle feeding in addition to breast feeding. Chris is now expressing a lot of milk, so much of the bottle feeding is with her breast milk. The paediatrician gave us a ‘target’ for the a
mount of milk per day Matthew should be getting and by bottle feeding we will be able to ensure he gets at least as much as he needs for the next few days, hopefully to put on weight quickly. We are both very keen to get both twins breastfeeding full time in due course, but for now we need to compromise.

Late in the evening, I scooped up our tiny girl, strapped her into a baby seat and to comments from the midwives including “you must be brave” and “this is very unusual”, I took her home to meet the cats. They scarpered and hid in the conservatory. Though feeling guilty for leaving Chris in hospital, I had a wonde
rful night with Sophie, putting her to bed in a Moses basket, feeding her every three hours, except once when she woke me two hours after her previous feed. I got about 4 hours kip, partly because she is now so alert, especially at night. Wide-eyed, looking around, soaking up her new world. She’s adorable. Here she is, dreaming of her brother joining her in the Moses basket.



Overnight, while feeding Sophie and calling her name softly to encourage her to feed, one of our cats, Wolfie, shut outside the door thought I was calling his name. We had a little chat:
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
Me: Sophie
Wolfie: Miaow
...and so on...
Looks like I may have to change Sophie's name to stop confusing the cat.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Please can we leave? Please?

Another gloriously sunny day for the masses. Another day's captivity in a sweatbox for Chris. I got up early and gave the bedroom an overhaul in anticipation of Chris and the twins coming home. Got to be optimistic.

We'd hoped for a nice relaxing day, but on Ward 9, even in a side room, that's never really possible. Sophie and Matthew were their usual quiet selves during the day, waking occasionally to feed and drawing coos from the steady influx of midwives, doctors and visitors.


Chris' other brother, Nico, and his wife Gyorgyi dropped by today, with their twin daughters. Unfortunately their twins were not allowed in to meet ours, so
Nico and Gyorgyi had to take turns babysitting in the waiting room. Nico, ever thoughtful, turned up with some champagne and we toasted our twins for the first time. Long overdue! Here’s Nico demonstrating his expert baby handling:

Today was fiercely hot again so I brought in a fan to help keep Chris cool. Hard to say if the twins are suffering or not, but Chris says the crying at night across the ward is relentless, so I guess they are. Popped round to see Kerry and Steve again late evening. Kerry looked very comfortable, despite the raging heat and hoped to be off with junior the next day. As I was fighting fit after my full night's sleep, I hung around til midnight doing the feeds and nappies. Seems like I've been doing this all my life - amazing how quickly you get into the groove, not giving it a second thought. My life now revolves around the demands of two miniature Babers and the constant need to pop into Mothercare. (Should be called Mother&Fathercare.) I left the twins looking calm and sated late in the day, but appearances can be so deceptive with little-uns.


For the first time, we both felt that nothing had been achieved by hanging around in hospital today. Chris' observations are minimal and it seems that red tape is the only thing keeping her in hospital. Really frustrating.

Friday 29 May 2009

Day four in hospital

Hope that we might leave today were dashed by 'regulations'. Chris' experience on Tuesday apparently requires a minimum of five days recovery, so that means Sunday at the earliest. Ho hum. At least the twins have been discharged now, so once Chris gets the green light we're outta here. We'd been keeping visitors at bay until today, because it really hadn't been in Chris' best interest to have anyone drop by, but today was our first full day on the ward and allcomers were welcome. Chris' mum and brother Luis turned up, as well as her cousin Filomena. My mum, dad and sister turned up too (despite a 4 hour nightmare journey) and it was lovely to see them all. Everybody loved the little bubbas, even when Matthew blew raspberries at them all.


By the time they left I was exhausted, partly because the temperature soared as Summer arrived with a vengeance, hitting 31 degrees in the afternoon. Not good for the babies and mothers to say the least. Here's Sophie looking very thoughtful for such a tiny scrap.


One of our NCT group joined us in Ward 9 today, Kerry, who'd had an emergency caesarean and produced another wee fellah. It's really nice being part of this group and Chris and I are both looking forward to sharing our experiences over the next few weeks.
By evening, my lack of sleep was really causi
ng me problems and I struggled home to collapse in bed. Chris was left holding the babies, often literally, through the night. I hated leaving her there and it was really quite depressing. Both of us want to get home to settle into being parents.

Thursday 28 May 2009

Sleep? I remember sleep.

We did get some sleep, but not alot. 2am, with Matthew perched on my shoulder murmuring quietly in my ear was just magical.

Chris finally managed to shed the tubes and amazed me by easing herself gently out of bed and walking gingerly around the room. Yesterday she couldn't ease herself up the bed, her pain was so great. It may be a cliche, but women are definitely made of much sterner stuff than men. She was also feeling a lot more positive and we got the news that she was to move to the postnatal ward. We piled up her bed with luggage and twins and whisked her round, drawing many admiring comments from passers by.


Observations were now less obtrusive and we settled down to the business of focusing on our two twins together and sharing the load a little more evenly. Again, I was allowed to stay the night, this time in a sleeping bag on the floor, but I only spent a couple of hours inside it. The twins were getting more active at night, frequently wide-awake, but what did we care? It gave us a good taste of the days to follow. As for when we will be allowed to leave, nobody is able to tell us. The twins appear to be doing well, though Matthew is moderately jaundiced, but as Chris has not been discharged yet, it could be a day or two.

Oh yes, to mark her new mobility, Chris put on a new top and Sophie promptly shat all over it during a nappy change. I love my daughter!



Wednesday 27 May 2009

Day two in hospital

I set off for the hospital at 6am and went to see the twins first. They were, of course, utterly unconcerned at their plight and Matthew greeted me by projectile vomiting on my shirt. I love my son! Chris had a reasonable night, being woken hourly for observations, but was obviously far from happy to be away from the babies. Again, I began flitting between intensive care and SCBU until noon, when Chris was given a green light to go to the labour ward (rather than the postnatal ward). This was simply because it was easier to maintain a close eye on her there and also allow the twins to join her. Her bed was wheeled round and, for some reason, I had not expected the twins to be there, or there to be music playing, when we arrived. The sight of the twins below collapsed me and the tears flowed. Too beautiful.
Chris had expressed some colustrum earlier, which I'd taken round to SCBU for the twins, but now she was in a position to try her first breast feed and, of course, for me to do my first nappy change. Joy! Chris was in a lot of pain, of course, and still had some tubing attached to her, so was not able to do much, but at least we were all together in the same room, able to start playing happy families.


SCBU had laid a 4 hour feeding schedule for each twin, staggered by 2 hours, so there wasn't a whole lot of sleep to be had that night. I stayed with Chris, kipping on a camp bed in her room, to help with the twin's demands, which came thick and fast. Matthew achieved his first breastfeed - Sophie's mouth is a little small and her latching reflex not well developed, so we were feeding both of them by cups, as were the midwives.


Chris spent much of the day trying to persuade the docs that her morphine pump wasn't working properly, but nobody really believed her and it wasn't fixed.
The characters of our bonnie babes began to emerge. Matthew made a constant, background, low-level grizzling noise most of the time and had continued his fondness for vomiting. A paediatrician gave him the once over just in case and pronounced him fit. Sophie, being much smaller, is a much more modest eater, more relaxed and observant. Though both of them struggle to open her eyes, she spends a lot of time looking out at the world.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

They're here!

Far too much happened today to record here, but what a day! What a range of emotions.

Chris checked into the postnatal ward at 7.30 and made herself at home. No window bed. Never mind. I’d bought her an orchid which gave her cubicle a personal touch and went down well with the midwives. Chris was prepped and was second in line for the theatre. We were led in around 10.15. All was much as we’d expected. Bustling with staff, all very light-hearted and
welcoming and we put a Gypsy Kings cd on to help Chris relax. She was great – the spinal was straightforward and she lay back, nice and calm, to wait for the surgeon to set to work. 10.47am, a gentle cry from behind the screen, and a wriggly, bloody, waxy Sophie was laid on Chris’ chest before being quickly replaced by Matthew looking almost identical but somewhat heavier. Both went off to their resuscitaires for assessment before returning a little scrubbed and well swaddled to both of us to hold. Sophie weighed in at 2.28kg (5 pounds), small, but larger than we'd expected and Matthew at 3.14kg (6 pounds 15 ounces). Bliss. Here's Chris with Sophie, eyes open (unlike her brother):


T
he bustle around us died down as the surgeon sewed Chris back together again and she was transferred to a trolley to head for the recovery room. However, she turned out to have a bleed that was not easing off as it should have done and after a little while was put back on the operating table. In short, Chris was opened up again to find and tie off the leaking vessel, which was successful, but she lost about three quarters of her blood in the process and needed a major blood transfusion. I’d been ushered outside while this was going on and, for both of us, it felt like the longest 90 minutes of our lives.

Unsurprisingly, Chris went off to intensive care for some very close monitoring, which sadly meant that she could not spend the night with the twins, who camped out in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU).



I flitted between intensive care and SCBU, keeping tabs on the babies and relaying info to Chris, but I always felt I was in the wrong place. Happily, I was able to persuade a SCBU midwife to print out a photo of the twins for Chris.


Very weird day – such joy and such concern wrapped up together. I went home in a bit of a daze and fed the cats.

Monday 25 May 2009

Two's company...

...three's a crowd. What's four? A riot? A mob?
Today's a potter round the house day, trying not to wish our last day with just Toffee and Wolfie (the cats) to keep us company away too fast. Lots to do still: pack the h
ospital bag, keep the family up to date, fit the car seats, laundry, snacks and clean Wolfie's bum (Heaven knows what he's done, but it's not pretty).
Chris had a final check-up at Wycombe Hospital this morning - CTGs, blood pressure (which had been creeping up) and platelet count (which had been dropping fast) all fine.
Early start tomorrow - 7.30 kick off and then into theatre any time from 9.00 to 12.00. I really hope Chris goes first and I hope she gets a bed by a window. Chris is quite nervous, of course, and I've got a little knot in my stomach, but I actually think we are as ready for this as we'll ever be. Cannot wait!
Wish us luck...

Richard & Chris

Sunday 24 May 2009

Two days to go and counting...

Hi there
We thought we'd start this blog to post some photos and keep a diary of the soon-to-arrive Baby Babers.
PLEASE leave comments - we'd love to hear from you all. And if the blog gets a little self-indulgent, we hope you'll understand.
Just two days to go now! Having an elective caesarean is a bit like shopping online at Sainsburys: "Would next Tuesday be convenient?"
"Er, no."
We're off to Mothercare now - still got a few things to buy.
Byeeee
Richard