I'm sharing my story as I know I
scoured this site and the stories on
it so many times whilst I was on bed
rest looking for something to give me
hope....
This was my first pregnancy, conceived
the first time we tried, much to our
surprise. I was 36 at the time, a
little overweight and really thought
it might take months.
At 12 weeks I was watching tv one
night when I felt a trickle between my
legs. I went to the bathroom to check
and it was bright red blood. Of course
I panicked, it wasn't exactly gushing
out but there was quite a bit of it so
we went to the hospital A&E. They
seemed more concerned that my heart
rate was through the roof (no surprise
really), I hadn't had any cramping so
were fairly relaxed and I was told
that 'some women bleed during
pregnancy'. However they did arrange
for me to be seen at the early
pregnancy unit for a scan 2 days
later.
Along we went and they started the
scan, I was terrified that they would
find the baby had died. Instead the
nurse said, 'hang on a minute, I think
I can see two'.. I nearly fell on the
floor...
By this stage the bleeding had stopped
and I returned to work. I booked in
with the midwife on the Saturday of my
13th week and went shopping
afterwards. That evening I felt
another trickle, I went to check and
just saw some clear fluid in my
knnickers. I put it down early
pregnancy incontinence and thought
nothing more of it.
For the next few weeks I had the
occasional trickle, some with a bit
more fluid than others and I took to
wearing pantie liners. Christmas came
and I went to my brothers. Over those
few days I didn't have any leaks at
all (maybe because I was taking a
break from work). I returned to work
in the new year and had my 20 week
scan on the 17th January.
The sonographer scanned twin no.1 and
found everything to be in order and
said it was a girl. She then started
on no.2, after a while she stopped and
said she was going to ask a colleague
to take a look. They told me that twin
2 had severely reduced fluid levels
around it and that I should go to the
Maternity Day Unit to see a doctor. We
waited a long time to see a junior
doctor who demonstrated his lack of
bed-side mannor by telling us that we
might loose one or both of the babies.
He had no advice to offer and said I
should go back to work. Well, I wasn't
having any of it. I lived in London at
the time and took one of the bounciest
tube lines into work, it was quite
uncomfortable bouncing into work and I
thought this might contribute to the
problems I was having. I decided to
sign myself off work until my
consultant appointment the next week.
So the next week I saw the consultant.
He was great if not overly optamistic.
He told me that the chances of twin 2
not surviving were high as this was
the critical period for lung
development, he'd seen babies born
without lungs etc etc... He did say if
this was a single pregnancy he might
recommend termination but as I was
carrying twins we should wait and see
if I was happy to do that. There was
no other option as far as I was
concerned. So we agreed to wait.
I was given appointments with him
every week, he did swabs, bloods and I
had scans to measure the fluid levels.
He agreed to formally sign me off work
and I took myself to bed in an attempt
to reduce the amount of leaking I had.
I drank gallons of water in the hope
this may help my baby produce more
urine. Some weeks my fluid levels
increased, one week I had no
measurable fluid. I also took my
temperature every day to check for
sign of infection, I was on
antibiotics as well. I was given
steriods for the babies lungs at 24
weeks.
I spent 5 weeks in bed. We were moving
house on the 26th of Feb - 100 miles
away. I made arrangements from bed to
see the doctor the day after our move
to arrange my transfer to the new
hospital.
On 18th Feb I had some bleeding in the
evening so we went into hospital, I
was told it was cervical erosion but
I'm not convinced that it wasn't my
cervix ripening.
On the 23rd February I woke feeling
out of sorts and feeling like I had
trapped wind in my stomach. The
feeling didn't go away, I had my
consultant appointment that afternoon
so decided to mention it to him. By
early afternoon I had some bleeding
and pains around my tummy and lower
back. As soon as I mentioned this I
was admitted and told I may be going
into labour. They did a scan and my
husband told me he could see both
babies, head down in my pelvis and
ready to go.
I was transferred by emergency
ambulance across London to a hospital
that could cope with babies under 28
weeks and we were very lucky that they
had 2 incubators free. Sophie and
Isabel arrived 13 minutes apart at 2am
after a very short and painkiller free
(there wasn't time) labour. I heard
Sophie cry. The room was full of
paediatricians and they worked
frantically on both of them before
whisking them off to intensive care.
We were told that Sophie (twin 1) was
fine, Isabel was giving them more
cause for concern, her carbon dioxide
levels were proving difficult to bring
down. Both were on ventilators and had
been given surfactant.
Two days later we moved house. I was
now trying to express milk and
transport it on the train down to
London...
Gradually, very gradually the doctors
worked their magic and both girls
improved. They were taken off the
ventilators and put onto c-pap. Sophie
continued to improve very quicky and
in total spent 10 weeks in hospital
before coming home 5 weeks before her
due date...
Isabel had to go back onto the
ventilator and remained on it for 4
months. The doctors discovered she had
a narrowed windpipe and she was
transferred to a childrens hospital in
London. Isabel had her windpipe
stretched and slowly recovered. SHe
was transferred to our local hospital
6 weeks ago and after a few ups and
downs we are hoping she will be coming
home to be with us and her sister on
Sunday. 6 1/2 months after she was
born.
It's been a long and hard road for us,
emotionally and physically exhausting.
Looking after one twin at home with
the other in hospital so far away has
torn us apart but we have survived and
we know that Isabel won't remember her
tough start in life.
I have really posted my story (our
story) as I want you all to know there
is always hope. Doctors are very quick
to write you off but if you are lucky
and get a good one like I did there is
a chance things might work out. I
prommed so early but never
dramatically, I don't think my
membranes ever re-sealed but I managed
to carry 2 beautiful little girls for
12 weeks to the point where they had a
chance of survival. Modern medicine
did the rest.
If you are reading this because you
have prommed then I wish you all the
luck in the world, keep your feet up
and keep on drinking that water...!!!
Kat
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