Scarlett & Harmony
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We found out that we were expecting identical twins at our 12 week antenatal scan, once the initial shock had worn off we were excited to meet our twin girls. Unfortunately we didn’t have to wait long as at 29 + 0 weeks I began to lose my waters, I was admitted onto Dacre Ward at the Lister and was looked after with frequent scans and monitoring. I managed to keep the girls in for another 4 days before I was whisked downstairs into theatre due to them becoming unstable. I was worried about them being born so early and asked them to try and hold on for a bit longer but was told by my amazing consultant that getting them out now would be the best chance for them. In theatre, I was well supported by everybody who talked to me, reassured me and kept me calm. The second the girls came out we heard a faint cry from them both and the Neonatal team were all ready for them in the room and immediately began working to keep them alive. Twin One was able to remain stable on a CPAP machine and was whisked into Neonatal in her incubator, Twin Two was weaker and needed to be intubated. The next day I mobilized myself and went to see my miracle babies, they nurses were amazed as Twin One was already breathing by herself without even any oxygen and twin 2 was stable now on the CPAP. We were unable to hold them straight away but we stroked them through their incubator and stayed with them for hours just feeling amazed by what incredible little fighters they were already! Our nurse that day explained every single wire, tube and piece of equipment and how it worked to us, we only needed to stay for 6 weeks and got to know many of our regular nurses very well. The journey in nicu is very up and down, sometimes you have an amazing day and your babies have reached milestones that you didn’t know even existed, you celebrate every ounce your baby has gained and every tube or piece of equipment removed means another day closer to taking them home but there are also days where you do take a step back. Our girls became jaundiced and required treatment for this and on another occasion towards the end of our stay, twin 2 stopped breathing multiple times over a day, the team reacted immediately, they discovered that this was being caused by reflux and due to her prematurity, she wasn’t able to re-catch her breath when she had a little reflux, once on medication this improved, she also caught an infection which they thought may be meningitis so antibiotics were given straight away and a lumber puncture was performed- thankfully she recovered well. One of the most incredible things that always stayed with us was that we had seen our babies hearts beating in their chests, at the time it upset and worried us but once they were home and we realized what an amazing thing that is to witness that not many parents get to see. It feels like they are never going to go home but when they do, it’s an amazing but emotional feeling, you have gotten to know your nurses and they feel like your family and you feel nervous about how to look after your tiny babies (especially without the sats machine that you’ve gotten used to!). Once home, we were well supported by the care team, our health visitor and pediatrician who regularly kept in contact with us.
We thought that once we left Neonatal, that would be it and our babies would be perfect! I have many friends whose premmies were but we were not one of those. At 4 months old (1 month corrected) our girls had broncolitis and despite regular monitoring became critically unwell then ended up in resus and back on CPAP machines, x rays showed that they had two collapsed lungs and blood tests revealed that they were also septic. We were told that they were lucky to be alive and that if we had left it just minutes longer, they may not have survived. Once again the pediatric and Neonatal team at Lister worked hard to stabilize our babies and save their lives, we had a further two week stay before we could take them home once again. We had multiple stays over the next two years for problems with their underdeveloped lungs, numerous GP visits and ambulance rides. I’ve learnt to always take extra precautions with premmies as amazing as they are, they do fall hard. Our girls are now 3 and a half and are happy little things but are still underweight for their age and have regular appointments at the children’s development centre, with their senco support, speech and language, pediatrics, audiology and physiotherapy. My twin 1, is behind but starting to now catch-up whereas my twin 2 (who has always been the more poorly of the two) has hearing problems, is very behind for her age, has problems mobilizing due to development coordination disorder and her sensory issues and investigations are underway to see if she sustained a brain injury from when she was critically unwell. Despite all this, my girls are little warriors who giggle and fight like any other siblings, love to sing, enjoy and thrive at ballet classes, are great at art and incredibly caring. We are holding our girls back from school as they were summerborn and they will always be one year behind now but we have been supported once again on this decision by their future school, senco and medical teams. Yes, we have a lot of appointments and milestones still to reach but they are happy and have survived everything thrown at them and we are truly lucky to have these little miracles with us. We have since raised money for the unit every year asking for donations rather than for gifts and have spread awareness and raised money for Sepsis UK.
We thought that once we left Neonatal, that would be it and our babies would be perfect! I have many friends whose premmies were but we were not one of those. At 4 months old (1 month corrected) our girls had broncolitis and despite regular monitoring became critically unwell then ended up in resus and back on CPAP machines, x rays showed that they had two collapsed lungs and blood tests revealed that they were also septic. We were told that they were lucky to be alive and that if we had left it just minutes longer, they may not have survived. Once again the pediatric and Neonatal team at Lister worked hard to stabilize our babies and save their lives, we had a further two week stay before we could take them home once again. We had multiple stays over the next two years for problems with their underdeveloped lungs, numerous GP visits and ambulance rides. I’ve learnt to always take extra precautions with premmies as amazing as they are, they do fall hard. Our girls are now 3 and a half and are happy little things but are still underweight for their age and have regular appointments at the children’s development centre, with their senco support, speech and language, pediatrics, audiology and physiotherapy. My twin 1, is behind but starting to now catch-up whereas my twin 2 (who has always been the more poorly of the two) has hearing problems, is very behind for her age, has problems mobilizing due to development coordination disorder and her sensory issues and investigations are underway to see if she sustained a brain injury from when she was critically unwell. Despite all this, my girls are little warriors who giggle and fight like any other siblings, love to sing, enjoy and thrive at ballet classes, are great at art and incredibly caring. We are holding our girls back from school as they were summerborn and they will always be one year behind now but we have been supported once again on this decision by their future school, senco and medical teams. Yes, we have a lot of appointments and milestones still to reach but they are happy and have survived everything thrown at them and we are truly lucky to have these little miracles with us. We have since raised money for the unit every year asking for donations rather than for gifts and have spread awareness and raised money for Sepsis UK.