Sienna Rose and Evan Paul Verghese, 27-08-11

Well, by now most of you know that on August 27th Sienna Rose and Evan Paul Verghese made their entrance into the world and here is how they arrived....

The morning of Saturday August 27th my waters broke at around 6.30. Mark had taken his office out the night before for a few drinks and didn't get home until late (although was sober thank God!) so we had had about 4 hours of sleep when I came into our room to tell him it was time... I was 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

Thank God Rachel, my sister in law, got here in good time to watch Calum and thank God our hospital is a 5 minute drive from our house. We got there and met the midwife and her assistant at the maternity ward and were taken to our room where they took their time writing up our notes since my contractions hadn't really started. A team of doctors came to do an ultrasound to check the positioning of the babies again to determine if we would be going for a c-section or a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). When they did the scan they couldn't quite make out twin 1's head and saw that whilst they were probably both head down, neither was positioned in the middle at the birth canal (fighting already!) so they informed me that in this instance I would have to have a c-section as no amount of time would change this and it could cause distress to the babies.

As I was signing the consent papers my contractions were definitely getting stronger and when it came time for them to put in the IV lead and take blood samples, I felt really faint and nauseous. They had done an examination about 20 minutes prior and I was barely dilated. All of the sudden my blood pressure dropped really low and they lost the trace (heart monitor) on twin 1 so they decided to examine me again and I was fully dilated, twin 1's head was making it's appearance.

I hadn't had any pain medication yet and they barely had time to get the hospital gown on me to wheel me into the operating room where they told me they would give me a spinal injection (due to the limit on time) and try to deliver twin 1 with the ventouse and twin 2 with forceps although it was likely twin 2 would come out via c-section.

Sienna Rose Verghese was born at 10.31 a.m. (4 hours after my waters broke!) with the assistance of the ventouse weighing 4 lbs 11 oz. Evan Paul Verghese was born at 10.36 a.m. with the assistance of the forceps weighing 5 lbs 8 oz. Whilst they were stitching me up (episiotomoy, yikes!) and delivering the placentas, I could see both babies being checked by the pediatricians (there were 16 people in total in the delivery room!). Sienna was handed to Mark straight away but Evan's breathing was really labored and awhile later while we were in recovery they went to hand him to me and noticed he was very blue so he was sent straight to the special care baby unit (SCBU).

I was up and showered by 6 p.m., but had yet to see Evan so Mark wheeled me down to the unit to see him. Initially he was put on a CPAP machine to breathe for him, fed by IV and we were told he would probably be in until his due date.... He then got jaundice and was given photo therapy. Each day was up and down but it looks like today Evan might finally be sent home as he's feeding on his own (bottles of expressed breast milk).

Sienna stayed with me on the maternity ward for 6 very long nights... She also had jaundice and was put under the lights two different times. She's a strong girl though and we both came home on Friday night/Saturday morning at midnight.

The whole time I was in the hospital I wasn't able to have Calum come visit because he had developed a tummy bug that could have been dangerous to Sienna so in addition to being torn between the twins, I also felt especially sad about missing Calum having never been away for him for so long. We arranged a dinner for him and I at the hospital cafeteria which was a disaster and I really dreaded what it would be like when I got home but Calum has been amazing-not only is he a gentle and loving big brother, but he's also seemingly forgotten about me abandoning him and all is going really well so far.

Having premature babies has been a very different experience to having Calum. I've been reminded several times that these babies should still be in my tummy, they are very difficult to feed and sleep pretty much all of the time. It's stressful worrying that they aren't getting enough food and watching them closely to make sure their jaundice doesn't come back. Even holding them is different, they feel so delicate and tiny and have to be kept really warm since they didn't have a chance to develop much fat in the womb.

Regardless, the challenges we have faced since they were born has made me forget about my concerns over how I would cope and focus more on how excited I am to have them home and begin this next phase in our lives. Bear with me over the next few weeks (months, YEARS?!) as I settle into a routine with the babies and thank you all for your cards, thoughts, prayers and etc.

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