What is it like to give birth to twins? How does a twin pregnancy different from a singleton pregnancy? Giving birth as a first time mom is confusing, scary, exciting and overwhelming with one baby. How do you even begin to comprehend what is normal and what to expect with two? I'm not here to serve as a medical expert or to state how a twin pregnancy and delivery should look like. I am here to share my experiences so that other twin moms can find connection and similarities to their experiences. My goal is to also support expecting twin moms in knowing what a twin delivery can look like through my birth stories. While I gave birth to twins twice, both experiences were wildly different. I learned to expect the unexpected and to go with the flow. I trusted the medical professionals that were part of my delivery and recovery process, unless my mommy radar told me something didn't feel right. I'll touch more on this in part two.
With both sets of twins, we learned were having fraternal twins at our eight-week ultrasound. The first time was a complete shock. I was at the ultrasound alone due to Covid restrictions. I immediately called my husband and sent him the ultrasound photos. My husband was with me the second time and we were prepared that twins were a possibility. The shock was more centered around how we would financially make it work and how we would go about raising four under two. Would I need to quit my job? I definitely would need to purchase a larger vehicle. Could we afford it? What impact would another set of twins have our our marriage? Postpartum with our first set was challenging for us. Would we be able to go through it again? My head was racing with questions and concerns. My husband was wonderful in assuring me that we would make it all work and that we would be ok. He was my sense of calm as we tried to figure out all of the unknowns.
While I was pregnant with twins twice, my pregnancies were wildly different. Both first trimesters were filled with nausea and migraines, but that's where the similarities end. I had gestational diabetes in my first but not second pregnancy. My second pregnancy came with some different challenges just due to it not being my first pregnancy. I had painful varicose veins along with additional aches and pains that I did not experience with my first. I also found myself to be a bit more at ease with my second pregnancy. This is probably due to it being my second pregnancy and know what to expect in a twin pregnancy.
With our first set of twins, I had gone into labor and delivery several times prior to being thirty four weeks. This was due to thinking I was losing fluid or not feeling fetal movement. This led my medical staff to believe I might go into labor earlier than my scheduled c-section date. They gave me a steroid shot to speed up the lung development of the babies lungs in case I did deliver before thirty five weeks. The steroid spiked my blood sugar levels which led me to needing to go on insulin with the gestational diabetes. Since needing to go on insulin, I was scheduled for non-stress tests twice a week. This is where they strap monitors to your belly and listen for the fetal heart rates. I was exactly thirty six weeks at one of these non-stress tests when they they noticed low fluctuation in baby b's heart rate. The on-call doctor decided that we would do an emergency c-section due to concern for baby b. Once the decision was made that I would be delivering that day, things went extremely quickly.
However, I did not pick up on the sense of urgency that the entire medical team had. This was probably due to me just trying to keep my cool knowing I would be meeting my babies soon. The nurses asked how far a drive it was for my husband to the hospital. I nonchalantly said, "about twenty minutes." I gave him a call and told him to head to the hospital but did not stress that he needed to get there immediately. The nurses kept asking if he was close or how long until he would arrive. It was then that I realized that they wanted to deliver these babies as soon as possible. I didn't think there was a rush so husband was taking his time and excitedly calling his buddies on the drive to tell them we were having our babies.
As my husband got to the hospital, they were just about to wheel me back to the operating room. They had him change and wait in the recovery room while they prepped me and gave me the spinal block. I had the most incredible care team that made the process feel as relaxing as possible. My anesthesiologist was a fellow twin mom and exuded joy and excitement for me as I was become a twin mom as well. My nurses were extremely warm and caring. One had me hug her and engage in a breathing exercise with her while getting the spinal block. Between the incredible anesthesiologist and nurse, I did not feel them giving me the spinal block at all.
After the spinal block set in and I was laying on the operating table, everything moved really quickly. My husband came in. I felt some pushing and pulling on my stomach and Baby A was out. They brought him by my head so that I could briefly see him before they cleaned him up. Two minutes later, Baby B was out. They checked the babies vitals, put diapers and hats on them and took them to the recovery room for monitoring. My husband was summoned to be with the babies in the recovery room. We joke now because I think my husband was in the operating room a total of five minutes.
At this point I thought that I would be quickly sewn up and holding my babies in a matter of minutes. However, I noticed it started to take longer than expected. The doctor and nurses started counting and looking around the room. I asked if we were waiting for something or if something was wrong. The doctor mentioned that they were waiting for an x-ray technician to come with a mobile x-ray lab. I found this to be a little odd and asked why I needed an x-ray. The doctor then told me that they were missing an instrument that they used during surgery. An x-ray was needed to make sure the instrument was not in my body prior to sewing me back up. They reassured me that they didn't think it was because it is a pretty large instrument. Yes, you read that right. They literally had to x-ray me to make sure they weren't sewing a metal instrument in me. I felt like I was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. We waiting what felt like forever for the x-ray technician and all I can think about is my husband and babies in the other room and longing to be in there with them. My husband later said that no one mentioned to him about what was taking so long and began to worry that something was wrong.
The x-ray technician finally came. I was instrument free, sewn and glued back up and wheeled into recovery. Once reunited with my husband and babies, they immediately put my babies in my arms. Many moms talk about having this overwhelming joyful feeling when holding their babies for the first time. They say it's like an epiphany. I did not have this feeling. I'm here to reassure you that it is ok if you do not have this feeling either. There was so much going on around me and with my body that the moment felt overwhelming. The entire process felt like an out of body experience.
Prior to delivery, we had picked out two boy names but did not know which baby we wanted to name what. After looking at both boys, we both immediately knew that Baby A was Noah John and Baby B was Elliott George. I don't know how we knew. We both just knew. Noah was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches long. Elliott was 6 pounds, 6 ounces and 19.5 inches long. I walked into the hospital that afternoon at 3:00 for my appointment not thinking I would be having my babies that day and my babies were born at 5:12 and 5:14.
We spent the following three days in the hospital, adjusting to being family of four. There were still Covid restrictions during the time so we were not able to have visitors. After I was discharged, the boys spent one additional night in the pediatric unit. This was due to them having a difficult time regulating their body temperature. The doctors wanted to keep them for observation for one additional night.
During our recovery, we continued to have an incredible care team during recovery. They supported me in my recovery by helping me get up and walking around. They also helped us learn how to care for our new babies. They were so patient, caring and helped up with anything we needed. The anesthesiologist from my c-section even came to visit the next day to see how we were doing and to see the babies. I felt so supported and loved even though our families could not visit.
While I also had a c-section with our second set of twins and delivered at the same hospital, our experiences were very different. Some good and some quite unfortunate. Stay tuned for part two of our birth story blog post!
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