The Arrival

As most of you know, Carl and Ella arrived a little ahead of schedule on Monday October 6th 2014 at 34 weeks gestation. Their EDD (estimated due date) was Nov 17th (40 weeks) but we had a pre-booked C-section for October 29th (37 weeks) as they were twins and I had Gestational Diabetes etc. Neither date was to be reached!
I had problems with swelling and blood pressure and was having extra ante-natal  appointments as a result. On one of these appointments, I went in for a blood pressure check and ended up being escorted (by two midwives) to the labour ward. I knew it was serious when they wouldn't let me go to the hospital shop to buy a magazine :-)

Talk of an emergency C section that night (Thursday) scared me but luckily the medication they gave me brought down the blood pressure enough that we were able to wait a few days to deliver the babies on the Monday morning, October 6th.

The procedure went well. Dan was with me the whole time

and we got to see both babies being pulled out. Carl first at 10:52

then Ella at 10:54

both weighed 3lbs 12oz Ella came out screaming but Carl needed a few artificial breaths to get started.


They were brought to me for a quick kiss before being whisked off to the Neonatal Unit (SCBU)

I spent a while in recovery then back on the Labour ward overnight with plenty of morphine!

Dan was able to visit the babies in SCBU and bring back pics to show me.

I was able to visit the next day and was wheeled round to see them. They then spent around a week in SCBU in incubators for the first few days, while I stayed in the post natal ward. Both babies were fed through tubes at first but Carl soon learned to drink from a bottle.

Once I was better we moved to the Transitional Care Unit where we stayed together and I learned how to be their Mum with the help of some amazing midwives. Once Ella could feed from a bottle a week later we were free to go home.
I can't explain how good it felt when all four of us were in the car going home as a family after two weeks in hospital but many years of waiting :-) We celebrated with a lovely dinner at home.