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Jeremy and Jonathon's Birth Story By Marsha |
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Birth Stories -
Multiple Births Stories
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 09:34 |
At age 37 my dh & I decided it was time for us to have another baby. At age 18 my 1st son was born. Being so young I had not educated myself on having a baby. That being the case I was heavily medicated and he was 3 hours old before I even knew he was born. I was determined my next would be different. I would be in charge. I was 27 and had read more about natural childbirth. I decided I wanted to go as far as possible & if I needed medication to get it. I waited to late... Andrew arrived after two and a half hours of unmedicated hard labor.
Ok on to my last pg. I came of the pill in April of 96. I went for my annual check up in June & mentioned to my Dr. that we were thinking of having a baby. He told me I was not to old (37) & went ahead and started me on prenatal vitamins. The first time we tried we got pg! :)
All was going well except that I was having morning sickness 24 hours a day. This lasted for four months! I began loosing weight. Thankfully it ended soon. My Dr. had scheduled a routine ultrasound for 22 weeks on Dec 4th, 1997. I live an hour away from my Dr. so anything extra he would do around regular visits. My niece (who is only 7 years younger than me) went with me since my dh couldn't go. The lab tech started & was making strange little noises. Looking at the screen I remember thinking wouldn't it be neat if there were two? Then all the sudden she said "there are two here." Needless to say I was in shock!! I started crying as did my niece. I was so excited. Oh what a wonderful gift!!
My dr had told me way back in June that with my age (over 35) there was a chance of multiples. I laughed and told him no way. Well he was as excited as I was & laughing told me to sit down we had to talk because this changed the way my pg would be handled. I had to have more ultrasounds than normal to make sure they were growing the same. I had to take extra folic acid to prevent neural problems & ensure the were both getting the needed nutrients from the placenta. I had to be monitored quite frequently to check their heart beats, etc.
Well telling, friends & family was a challenge. It took them by surprise & they thought I was teasing at first. My mom & dh didn't believe it till I showed them pictures & at the top was baby A and Baby B. Andrew & Christopher thought it was wonderful. Christopher almost fell in the floor laughing when he found out I was preg. but thought it was great there would be 2 babies!!
I lost track of how many ultrasounds I had. With the 2nd one though, a few weeks later, I found out I was having two boys. We thought we could plan better if we knew what they were. I have to admit it did help.
At 28-30 weeks I began having what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions. At 31 weeks I thought my water had broken. I was so scared because it was way too early for them to be here. Off I went to the dr. I was in observation & babies were monitored all day. My water was fine. There was so much pressure I couldn't tell what the fluid was. A friend from work had taken me & my dh arrived a couple of hours later. Being in construction it's not always easy to find him.
After he got there an ultrasound was done to check fluid levels. One was kinda low. It was the first time he had seen them and I could see him rubbing his eyes. He was very touched by it. At this point I was put on house rest & not allowed to do anything but go to the dr. I did manage to go to a few baby showers given in my honor though.
One more trek to the hospital 2 weeks later on Friday thinking my water had broken again...it had not, but another Dr. decided to check to see if I was dilating ..no to that too. On Monday at my regular appt. my Dr (who is so wonderful!!!!) checked again because there was so much uterine activity & I was at 1 cm. I was beginning my 34th week. He told me to come back on Thursday for another ultrasound & that from here on out to always keep my bag in the car, being prepared to stay. I was happy and so scared. On Thursday he checked again & I was at 2cm & definitely in pre-term labor.
I was sent to labor & delivery for overnight observation. Boy was that ever fun. I had 3 belts on - one for each baby & one for the contractions which were beginning to get uncomfortable. I was also attached to the blood pressure cuff that went off every 10 minutes & an IV, just in case. My BP kept going up with the contractions. The highest it got was 150/98. Normal for me throughout was 120/80. At 2pm my dr. came in with a very grim look on his face & said we are going to do a section at 4 pm can you find your husband? I managed to track him down. He barely made it. I also called my best friend, Lisa, who was to be in the delivery room with me. Dh didn't think he could do it & I didn't pressure him.
At 4:30pm on 2/27/97 I went to surgery. We had always planned to have a C-section, because it was thought they were identical & this was safer for them.. The epidural was great!! No problems at all & no pain either. The catheter went in. One comical thing... my dr. stuck his head in and asked if he had time to catch a baby next door before we got started.. The next I remember was feeling a lot of pressure on my abdomen & asked what was going on. One of the anesthesiologist (I had 2) said the 1st baby, Jeremy, was almost out. There were so many people in there!! 2 dr.s, 2 nurses and 2 anesthesiologist for me, Lisa, four nurses & a neonatologist for the babies. A real circus, lol. I thought I was exposed to the world, but actually only a small portion was open. A minute later Jonathan joined his brother. The room was tense as he was not responding. All the sudden he peed on the neonatologist & you could feel the relief in the room.
I was able to see their beautiful faces for only a moment as they were whisked off to NICU for special care. Jonathan needed to be under oxygen for 24 hours & Jeremy for 48. It was so scary. They were hooked up to all kinds of equipment to monitor heart rates, oxygen levels, bp, etc. They were so tiny. Thankfully the nurses explained everything to us. I was able to hold them after they came out from under the oxygen. Throughout their stay the nurses would put them in the same bed a lot as it had a calming effect on both. It was so sweet. Jeremy came home at 8 days & Jonathan at 11 days. It was such a unique experience. I had a lot of gas trapped in my abdomen & was quite sore for a few weeks. Other than that it was great!!! I would do it again if I could, but alas that is not to be.
Jeremy And Jonathan are now 20 months old and are happy, healthy toddlers. It is so wonderful watching them play & yes fight together. They will always have a "special" friend & playmate for life. There have been moments when it is hard with twins but mostly with the extra bottles to fix and all the diapers to change. There is so much LOVE that it outweighs all else.
Thank you for reading my story. I apologize for this being so long. I left out so much. I love to talk about babies so feel free to e-mail me at
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Thanks again, and good luck to all you expectant mothers, there is nothing in life to compare to having a baby.
Marsha Peters
Mom to:
Jeremy 5 lbs 7 oz and 18 3/4 " Long and Jonathan 5 lbs 14 oz and 18" Long
Born at 5:06 & 5:07 pm on 2/27/97 (not bad for being 6 weeks early, uh?)
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