Note to new visitors: This page is chronologically upside down. If you want to read it like a story you need to scroll to the bottom and work your way up entry by entry.

(February 2002)

Thanks to all of Ryan and Beatrice's friends and family who have been following their story. When Beatrice was very ill we often used to tell her that she had lots of friends out in the world that she'd never even met who were thinking of her. It was a good feeling to know you were all there.

There won't be anymore updates to this page now. Ryan and Bea's story is only just beginning, but they can tell the rest of it themselves when they're old enough !

Love to you all !

Dom, Dawn, Ryan and Beatrice

Sunday 10th February

St. Peters

On Thursday afternoon, Dawn and I arrived at the hospital to 'room in' with Ryan and Beatrice. Bea had been disconnected from her last remaining monitor and she and her brother were both looking very well. We wheeled their cots out of the SCBU and into the parents' sitting room, where we were going to be sleeping. The neo-natal unit has a proper room for this purpose, but it's too small for twins. Not that the sitting room was all that large either - by the time the sofabed was unfolded there wasn't really much room for anything.

On Thursday night we didn't get very much sleep. Ryan was both hungry and sleepy at the same time - which meant he wasn't feeding very well, but cried if left to sleep. Bea was good, as usual.

Friday went better since we tanked Ryan up with breast milk and NutriPrem (a kind of bottle milk for premature babies) and then he slept for ages.

Saturday was a bit chaotic as the doctors and nurses prepared to discharge Ryan and Beatrice. We had to be taught how to give the twins their medicine (Bea has 5 different ones). We'd already had the babies and small children first aid briefing the previous night. A lot of experimentation was done with their car seats. The doctors were very busy with some of the intensive care babies and it was a while before they had time to see our two.

A final weighing was done. Bea was 2.614 kg (5.75 lbs) and Ryan was 3.330 kg (7.3 lbs). Then we put the twins into their coats, took them down to the car and headed for home.

Home (Feltham)

Ryan and Bea went inside and quickly settled down to sleep in their cotbed. They've spent the last day getting used to their new life and now seem to be settling down well. Their medicines aren't really any trouble to give and both of them are getting plenty of food and sleep.

There are lots of new things coming up for Beatrice and Ryan in the next few days and weeks - musical mobiles, bouncy chairs, splashing around in their baby bath. However, the greatest challenge has already been overcome. Ryan fearlessly faced down Emily Marle (our huge furry cat). The two sized each other up... and Emily ran for her life ! (Don't worry, Dawn gave her a big hug later when Ryan was back in his cot.)

Thursday 7th February

The doctors have announced we can take Ryan and Beatrice home this weekend ! Bea's breathing is now fine and she's off her saturation monitor. Although she's still on predigested milk and various vitamins, these are things she can take at home just as easily.

Dawn and I will be 'rooming in' at the hospital between now and Saturday, when - if all has gone well - we get to take the twins home.

Saturday 2nd February

Tomorrow the twins would have been at 37 weeks' gestation if they were still in the womb, which is the typical point at which twins are born.

Both the nurses and the doctors have made clear that Ryan can go home whenever we want. He weighs over 3kg now (6lbs 10oz) and is on no monitors, breathing aids or medical assistance of any kind. He's also a terrible affection addict, constantly demanding hugs from not only his parents but also all his nurses.

For some time now, the doctors have had one eye on Bea's development, suspecting something was wrong. They've subjected her to a huge battery of tests (blood tests, urine tests, ultrasound, x-ray) and although it's taken a long time, we now have all the results.

The root cause of Bea's remaining problems is, like her breathing difficulties, a side effect of her earlier treatment. Back before she was able to take milk, she was on a drip providing all her nutrition. The stuff in the drip (TPN) can cause liver damage. In particular, it can cause cholestasis, which is what Bea has.

Fortunately for Bea, she doesn't have a very serious case. Even better is that this is something which will clear up completely given time. Her liver is functioning correctly, in fact, it's just that some of the channels out from it are blocked or closed.

In practical terms, Bea's liver just needs lots of rest in the short term. She is therefore being fed predigested milk and various vitamin supplements. The former apparently tastes revolting (one of the doctors offered me some to try but I declined) and unfortunately means she isn't allowed to breastfeed at the moment.

The other good news for Bea is that she seems to have got the hang of breathing on her own. She has now been breathing well without any kind of assistance since the middle of the week.

Sunday 27th January

Another big step forward was made this week as Ryan and Beatrice moved into 'Room 3'. Neo-natal units typically have three rooms - 'intensive care', 'high dependency' and 'special care'. This is the last stage of their stay in hospital. To some extent, it must be said, the move was made because of pressure of admissions to their previous room. That said, they've risen to the challenge and over the course of the week have earned their place amongst the healthy babies.

Bea has taken big steps forward in recovering from her various remaining problems. She's a better breastfeeder than Ryan now. Also, her jaundice has faded substantially. Both her and her brother are very alert and show signs of being able to see things when looking at them.

Ryan is beginning to develop a reputation with the nurses as a bottomless pit when it comes to feeding. Bea may be a better breastfeeder, but what Ryan lacks in technique he makes up for in capacity ! He's now nearly six pounds, a full pound ahead of Bea (who is now gaining weight normally).

Since the Twins' fan club seemed to like the last gallery, Dawn's done another one. Click here to view it.

Sunday 20th January

Yesterday, Ryan was doing so well he was allowed to try without any breathing aids at all. He was also unplugged from his monitor (heart rate, breathing rate and oxygen saturation). With only his feeding tube left, he did what any self respecting baby would do... and pulled that out too. The nurses knew a lost cause when they saw one and have moved him on to bottle feeds whenever Dawn's not around. Ryan is a very keen breastfeeder too - he regularly manages half hour long feeds. In fact he probably wouldn't give up at all of his own accord so Dawn removes him.

Today Ryan was doing slightly less well. He was feeling anaemic, so he had a blood transfusion. However, much to our surprise, Bea had seized the opportunity to overtake him and whilst he was back on oxygen, she had her breather off entirely (both photos above were taken yesterday).

Bea's reward for her good progress was a hug with her Grandma Jo. She seemed to enjoy this a lot and stayed there for most of Ryan's feed.

Wednesday 16th January

Today, Ryan and Bea had their first baths ! Bea went first and was very good. She seemed to love every minute of it. We had every expectation that Ryan was going to cry his head off... But, they do say it's bad to stereotype your twins and sure enough once Ryan was actually in the water he didn't cry at all and was a good boy. Bea then finished up by taking a dump in her bathtowel, which somewhat tarnished her good girl image.

Both are doing well with their breathing. Ryan had his nose prongs out today and so was breathing like a grown-up. Bea had hers still in, but they weren't actually connected to a cylinder, so she was only breathing air also. These things go up and down, so they're not necessarily off extra oxygen for good, but it's good progress.

Breastfeeding is going unexpectedly well for both Beatrice and Ryan. When Dawn visits they're both able to take a full feed from the breast. If they can keep this up until they come home then they should do very well out of it.

Sunday 13th January

Dawn has been busy assembling a gallery of pictures of Ryan and Beatrice so far. Click here to see the results.

Friday 11th January

Yesterday evening saw a big step forward for the twins as first Beatrice then Ryan managed their first successful breastfeed. This wasn't coinicidence - Dawn had been talking to an infant feeding advisor and had been introduced to the use of nipple shields. These may sound like protection for the mother, but actually their function is to assist babies in latching on properly. In the case of Bea and Ryan they need them because their mouths are simply too small to manage otherwise.

There have been no real health problems for either twin recently. Bea still sometimes seems to have her heart duct open very slightly, but apparently it's normal for it to open a close a bit before it seals permanently and it's been causing no problems. She's also using a 'donut' (seen in the photo above) which enables her to lie on her back with her head straight - this is simply to prevent her from ending up with a flat head (!) due to her weak neck muscles.

Both are putting on weight - but particularly Ryan who is now up to an impressive 2.332kg (5.1lb). Bea is also growing well, though and is up to 1.946kg (4.28lb).

Friday 4th January

Dawn and I travelled to Hounslow this morning to register the births of Ryan and Bea.

We are now able to visit them every evening at the hospital. We half expected to see some of the other sets of twins whose parents were at our ante-natal classes, but none of them are there yet (our kids were due last of the group but seem to have arrived first).

Ryan and Bea each weigh about 4 pounds now and are increasingly keen on trying to suckle (though still neither is really able to feed that way, not least because their mouths are too small).

Wednesday 2nd January

The twins were sufficiently healthy to be transferred back closer to home. An ambulance had been booked the previous day in anticipation and they set off towards London early in the morning.

St. Peters

The special care unit at St. Peters called Dawn to let her know that Beatrice and Ryan had arrived safely. They had no difficulties during the journey and it did not seem to have upset their progress.

Tuesday 1st January

Continuing her rapid recovery, Beatrice has moved from an incubator into a cot, less than a week after her brother. They are now sharing a twin sized cot so that they can touch and cuddle each other. This is particularly important for Bea, who missed out on lots of physical contact whilst she was ill.

2001

Sunday 30th December

Following the removal of her ventilator, Bea has made very rapid progress. She came off her nose breather (CPAP) after less than 24 hours. Since then, she has moved on to hourly milk feeds and dropped her oxygen requirements right down so that she is breathing normal air some of the time. In the photo above, both twins are on Dawn's lap. Before this, Bea made clear her intention to overtake her brother's progress by managing a significantly better try at suckling on her first attempt. Indeed, the idea of suckling appeals to her so much that we regularly catch her trying to locate a nipple on her blankets.

Ryan continues to do well and has now been moved to three-hourly feeds. Whether he can cope with this may turn out to be less relevant than whether the nurses can cope since when on two-hourly feeds he got into the habit of crying to be fed after about 100 minutes and apparently on one occasion succeeded in obtaining early dinner as a result.

Friday 28th December

The twins are now one month old !

Beatrice, following her rapid improvement over the last few days, has celebrated by having her breathing tube taken out. This is a very good thing, since the breathing tube was contributing to her problems with secretions in her lungs. So far (after about 4 hours) she is managing well without the tube. Her breathing is still being assisted (by a constant pressure system fitted across her nose) but this is far less of an obstacle to her recovery than a tube.

Also, not to be outdone by her brother, Bea messed up the inside of her incubator.

Ryan continues to do well in his cot and is now down to 2-hourly feeds (the eventual target being 4-hourly).

Wednesday 26th December

Yesterday, Santa visited the S.C.B.U. We know this to be true not only because he left presents in stockings for all the kids, but also because he was caught on film by one of the staff nurses. I was struck by the fact that Santa resembles Ryan and Beatrice's doctor... but not nearly as much as I was struck by the fact that Rudolph (who was also present in the photo) resembles the other paediatric expert who was present at their birth. Except that Rudolph has antlers. Anyway, there were lots of presents - and then we turned up with lots more from Bea and Ryan's relatives and fan club.

Much unwrapping (by proxy) later and Bea and Ryan had doubled the size of their wardrobes, acquired a small library and were surrounded by musical mobiles, stuffed toys and various other bits and bobs. The pictures above show Pooh and Tigger with their proud (or should that be totally indifferent ?) new owners.

Christmas must have agreed with them, though. Today (Boxing Day) has seen both Ryan and Bea make considerable progress. Ryan has taken a big step into the outside world by leaving his incubator for good. He is now in a cot ! He still has some breathing assistance, but seems to be quite stable without his private climate. Bea's still some way off from that, but her ventilator settings have been turned down quite a bit today. These are by far the lowest settings she has reached yet and she seems quite happy, so although she still has some way to go this represents good progress.

Sunday 22nd December

Beatrice and Ryan have both been growing well. Surprisingly, Bea has overtaken her brother and now weighs over 1.6kg (3.5lbs). Both are now taking milk, though Bea still manages rather less than Ryan does (which is just as well considering how fast he gets through the stuff).

Bea remains stable, but her progress has slowed considerably. For the last couple of weeks she had a problem with blood flow to her lungs. This was caused by a small duct which is present in all babies in the womb which redirects blood flow around the lungs rather than through them (because babies in the womb get oxygen from the placenta, not via their lungs). After a baby is born this duct is supposed to close, but in Bea's case (as often happens with very premature babies) it remained partly open. She was put on a course of drugs to fix this and, fortunately, this seems to have been successful (avoiding the need for surgery which would otherwise have been the only option). The trouble is that all concerned had expected the closing of the duct to result in considerable improvements, but it hasn't.

The problem Bea has is that her lungs continually become clogged with secretions. When these are sucked out, her breathing improves dramatically, but not for very long since she congestion soon returns. Currently we can't be certain of the root cause of this, but there are a number of possibilities. One is that she might have a chest infection, so she is now being given antibiotics. Secondly, she has been diagnosed as having candida (thrush), which might well be causing the secretions, so she is being treated for this. Thirdly, her lungs have always been much less mature than Ryan's, so there is a possibility she may be given a steroid injection to mature them. This is something her doctor wants to talk over with us, but we are definitely in favour since I have a theory that Bea didn't actually get much of the steroid that Dawn was given shortly prior to labour. One of the possible causes of the early birth that was discussed with us was that Bea's placenta had become partially detatched, which might account for this.

Although Ryan continues to do extremely well for his age, his progress has slowed a bit too. Drinking a lot of milk causes minor problems with his breathing, so he has come up from breathing air into about 23%-28% oxygen. This isn't a serious problem though and will go away with time as he grows.

Ryan's favourite thing is Dawn's breasts (and who can blame him !) - although he is much too young to drink from them properly, he now attempts to suckle if taken to the breast. Even though he can't be getting any milk yet, it seems to make him very happy (heart rate goes up). We were slightly surprised to see him doing this given that we were told babies don't develop their suckling reflex until 34 weeks (pregnancy, that is, not from birth !). Ryan was also very disappointed to discover that his dad didn't have breasts - he keeps lifting his head (quite an effort) and opening his mouth in an attempt to find them !

Thursday 13th December

Beatrice has now recovered enough to be fed milk. She is moving around quite a bit and it has been necessary to keep her sedated enough to prevent her from pulling her own ventilator tube out. The pressure on the ventilator has come down slightly further and she is also looking healthier each time we see her. It looks as though she will be on the ventilator for a long time - probably into January - but it now seems very likely that she will eventually recover completely.

Ryan continues do do very well and drops his heart rate far less often now. He will probably be ready soon to move from continuous feed to hourly feeds. The milk seems to agree with him now, though, since he is digesting it properly. The only downside is for the poor unfortunates who have to change his nappy since having worked out how to poo he manages to get the stuff everywhere. On one occasion his whole incubator had to be dismantled and cleaned !

Wednesday 5th December

Ryan has been making steady progress and was allowed out for his first hug yesterday. He got a bit cold but apart from that seemed to like it a lot, so was allowed another session today. He has also had a line put into his arm to replace one of the ones to his navel, which should be an improvement. Ryan gets tired quite easily and sometimes drops his heart rate a bit, but that's not uncommon in very premature babies and generally he's doing extremely well now.

Beatrice has recovered a great deal since last Friday. She's still quite ill, but has been making steady progress and is in a stable condition. Her breathing has improved enough now that she's breathing normal air (instead of lots of extra oxygen) and the pressure being used to inflate her lungs is being slowly reduced. Also, she's now off her paralysis drugs, so she's able to wave her limbs around again !

Friday 30th November

We were both woken up at 06:30 by a loud knock at the door. We were told there had been a sudden change in Beatrice's condition and that we should come down to the SCBU. I was sleeping in my clothes and just pulled my shoes on. Dawn was helped into a wheelchair. I felt suddenly cold and scared and Dawn was crying. It seemed to take forever to get there.

We arrived in the intensive care room of the SCBU to see four people around Bea's incubator. One of them saw us enter and came to meet us but the others were too busy to even look up. "There's been a very serious change in Bea's condition," the nurse explained "she has had a severe bleed in her lungs. We're doing everything we can."

As soon as I heard those last words I felt sick inside. I knew what this meant, as Dawn had anticipated all the way down. We moved to the side of the incubator to see a scene weirdly familiar from TV medical dramas. The consultant was very calm, but moving very quickly and speaking in a very clear, crisp voice with no hint of warmth in it. The midwife was talking to me - offering gentle support - but I couldn't hear her at all. I was listening to what the others were saying, whilst they tried to help Bea. I didn't understand all of their quick verbal shorthand, but I could get enough to tell what was happening. This was very bad.

After a few seconds I looked up at Bea's monitor and felt suddenly cold all over. Her blood oxygen saturation was down to 35 (should be in the 90s). Also, it was dropping fast. I forced myself to breathe and began to cry, Dawn was holding my hand and shaking. We looked at Bea and she seemed very pale suddenly. She was moving in a panic, trying to breathe but failing. The consultant was repeatedly switching between sucking more blood from her lungs and ventilating them with oxygen.

It wasn't working. Bea's bleeding was just too bad, even though they'd given her something to increase her clotting, it wasn't anything like enough. I watched her oxygen go down - 30, 25, 20, 15, 10... At the same time, I felt all the strength drain out of me. I had my arms around Dawn in her wheelchair and we could feel what was happening just from each other shaking. Finally, I had to say it, "She's dying". Dawn simply responded "I know".

Oxygen: 10, 5, 0. So this is it... I thought. Dawn and I began to talk to Beatrice. We told her about all the friends she had out there in the world, who she hadn't ever met. We told her about her family. We told her how much we loved her and how she had to try to breathe.

Still 0. The consultant and the nurses were still carrying on, carefully injecting miniscule quantities of drugs, sucking more and more blood from her lungs, giving her more ventilation in between. It wasn't working. Dawn and I held each other tighter and carried on talking to Bea, there wasn't anything else we could do. I was shaking all over and very cold. Then I looked at the other readings on Bea's monitor. Her blood pressure was down. And her heart was slowing.

A part of me wanted to leave, then, but I felt I had to stay and watch the end. Even through my tears I could see her heart rate drop to 60, then 40. Then it became irregular, the sparse peaks in the graph of varying heights. The computer calculating the rate became confused as a result and the number flashed between 10, 200, 60 and 0.

A gentle voice and a hand on my shoulder caught my attention. "Do you have a religion ?" I couldn't talk, I just shook my head. "Would you like Beatrice baptised ?" I looked back to the monitor, there were long flat sections appearing on the heart line. I managed to say 'no' and Dawn shook her head. I took my eyes away from the monitor to focus on Bea. She had stopped moving now and was very, very pale. The doctor and the nurses carried on working, their faces set and unreadable.

I don't know how long it was before I looked up at the monitor again. Holding onto Dawn and mourning for Beatrice I lost track of time. When I did look up it was only because I had decided I could no longer put off seeing that flat purple line stretching from one side to the other. But that's not what I saw - there was a faint heartbeat still and although it was slow, it was regular. A yellow figure below caught my eye: 10, 12, 13... Bea was getting a tiny bit of oxygen. I shook Dawn's shoulder and pointed to the monitor.

Over the next hour, we watched Bea's oxygen saturation creep slowly back to the low 90s. Every so often it would slide back a few points and we would think it was all over. Finally she settled down at a fairly acceptable level. Slowly, we began to move again, stretching and looking around. I looked back at Ryan, feeling suddenly guilty at not having thought about him in the meantime. He was sleeping peacefully.

Eventually we found the courage to talk to the consultant about Bea's condition now. It wasn't good. Yes, she was getting some oxygen, but the ventilator was suppling 100% pure oxygen to her lungs, not air. Also, the ventilator was set to a pressure more than twice the normal for inhalation, to push her lungs open. She was on a drug to keep her paralysed to prevent her own efforts at breathing from causing problems. And she was on a lot of morphine. Also, her blood had lost most of its alkalinity, indicating she was in a bad way inside. We didn't much care about any of that at the time, all we wanted to know is what were her chances. "She has a chance now" said the consultant, but didn't elaborate.

Over the course of the day, the oxygen setting on Bea's ventilator was slowly turned down. By the time we went to bed at almost midnight, she was down to a 75% oxygen mix and her blood had improved almost miraculously to a near normal acidity. Dawn overheard the nurse calling through the result to the consultant who had been there in the morning, "Now don't fall off your chair, but Beatrice's acidity is down to..."

We didn't sleep well that night, but by the morning Bea was still slowly improving.

Once we had the courage, we asked if there would be any lasting damage to Bea from the oxygen deprivation. We were told it might have affected the development of some of her organs, so they would have to watch them all closely. What about brain damage ? We were told that she might be fine, or there might be some short term side effects. What about long term ? "It is possible, but with luck she should be fine." That was good enough for us.

Later, we found out that there had been a point where the consultant herself had not expected Bea to survive. Now, her chances aren't looking too bad.

27 Weeks, 3 Days

At about 19:30 on Tuesday 27th November, Dawn started feeling contractions. Some timings revealed they were about 10 minutes apart and 20-30 seconds long. A quick check of our mini-library on such subjects was a bit worrying - the symptoms weren't right for Braxton-Hicks contractions (the early sort which don't indicate imminent labour). After a quick phone call to St. Peter's Hospital, we drove there and Dawn was taken to the labour ward immediately.

On arrival, Dawn was attached to a twin heart monitor. At about this point the first of many medical staff discovered the hard way that the twins had no intention of staying still long enough to be monitored. Both heartbeats were fine, though. Unfortunately, the straps on the monitor were making the contractions worse and they slowly sped up over the next two hours until they were less than 3 minutes apart.

Fortunately by this point the assistant registrar had arrived and wasted no time in taking action. At 11.00pm Dawn was given an injection to mature the babies' lungs in case labour did occur. She was examined by a doctor who told us there was no sign of dilation. We were very relieved - labour could be avoided if we were lucky. A drip was put in Dawn's arm to supply a drug designed to suppress the contractions.

The bad news was that St. Peters had a problem: no fewer than 5 sets of twins had been delivered there in the previous 24 hours and there was no room in the special case baby unit. We would have to be transferred somewhere, which Dawn was not at all pleased about.

The contractions begin to space out a little more, but weren't going away as quickly as they should have been. After another hour we asked the midwife if we could remove the scanner, given that all the people who'd tried (about 5 by now) had failed to keep track of the heartbeats. She told us that unfortunately she wasn't allowed to remove the monitor - the drug Dawn was on was a new one with fewer side effects than previous options, but there was still a risk it might cause problems for the babies. This was a serious problem - we were both sure the contractions would not stop whilst that monitor was there, but until they did Dawn would remain on the drip and so the monitor would stay - Catch 22.

Things continued to get worse. All the hospital staff were being very nice and helpful and trying to keep us calm, but I overheard a few of their quieter conversations and realised that the special care units up and down the country were full - they had phoned 10 hospitals and got nowhere.

At this point the assistant registrar impressed us considerably by giving permission for the monitor to be removed. It was obviously the right thing to do, but he really wasn't allowed as far as we could tell. The payoff was immediate - the contractions began to slow.

At about 00:50 on the morning of Wednesday 28th, good news arrived. The Royal Hampshire Hospital in Winchester had room to take the twins... probably. By now we were the centre of attention of quite a number of hospital staff. The contractions continued to slow - down to more than 15 minutes apart. The next hour passed very slowly. An ambulance was found which could take Dawn to Winchester.

We waited nervously - an ultrasound scanner was brought in and succeeded where the monitors had failed. The twins were still alive and well inside and showed no signs of coming out just yet.

The ambulance arrived and Dawn departed for Winchester shortly after 02:00. I headed back to Feltham to pick up a few necessary things and tell the world it wouldn't see us for a few days.

Winchester

Dawn slept in the ambulance and the contractions stopped.

Arriving at Winchester, the staff there looked through her notes, made her comfortable and then... attached her to a twin heart monitor. By the time I arrived, shortly after 05:00, contractions had begun again, though weak and far apart. The midwife was very sympathetic to our requests to remove the monitor, but said that unfortunately she could not allow it. After much negotiation, she was persuaded to allow removal of the straps provided that the sensors were held in place. This helped somewhat - by 06:30 Dawn had fallen asleep again and the contractions stopped. At about 07:00 the midwife came in to find both Dawn and I asleep, with sensors still in their hands (though by now quite out of place). To her credit, she had the good sense to leave them asleep.

The sun rose and things were looking good. The contractions seemed to be gone. Over the course of the morning Dawn had a few slight twinges, but nothing severe or regular. She was moved out of the labour ward and onto maternity. Various doctors and the registrar came to speak to us and look at Dawn. Most of them wanted to play with heart monitors again - still with no good results - but fortunately no contractions were provoked. A second injection to mature the babies' lungs was given at 11:00am, just in case.

The diagnosis seemed to be that Dawn had an irritable uterus and although she would need to rest a lot from now on, this was not necessarily a sign of imminent labour.

By about 16:00 we had decided that I would go home even though Dawn had to stay until the next morning. I would return to pick her up the next day once we'd both had some much-needed sleep. By 17:10 I had put my coat on and was vaguely preparing to leave when Dawn had a contraction - a strong one, like the previous day. One of the maternity ward staff turned up to talk to her and a second contraction happened. The gap had only been 10 minutes and the second contraction had been about 40 seconds long.

With an inevitability that would have been comical under other circumstances, a twin heart monitor was brought and strapped to Dawn. I tried to explain to the doctor that this was a bad idea. She listened and there was a moment of indecision, but she decided to leave it on. She and her assistant kept the straps as loose as they could, but it wasn't good enough. A familiar scene was played out as Dawn's contractions sped up. This time it was worse, though - each contraction was longer than ever before, some up to 2 minutes in length.

By 18:00 we were heading back to the maternity ward. Dawn's contractions were becoming very painful indeed and she was unable to remain on the bed at all, needing to walk around. That did, at least, get rid of the heart monitor ! A new doctor arrived who I immediately took a liking to. She was happy to let Dawn move around as she wished and made no attempt to re-attach the monitor. Between contractions (no mean feat - a time window of only 2 minutes !) she managed to examine Dawn. She was 8cm dilated. The twins were going to be born.

The only good thing was that the twins still both seemed to be fine. Fortunately we had no idea at this point that they had only one incubator available since we had taken them by surprise and they were racing against time to get the other one on site. Dawn's pain was becoming unbearable by now and the doctor agreed to give her a shot of painkiller.

It was clear that things were happening fast. The painkiller made Dawn numb and despite preventative measures against exactly that she also began to feel sick. Also, it wasn't doing much good against the pain, which was still extremely severe. The decision was made to transfer Dawn to theatre.

I was dressed in theatre kit (in a fashionable light blue) and allowed to stay with her. Very fortunately, both twins were head down. The expected army of medical staff was there and they introduced themselves to us. It helped that they didn't seem as terrified as we felt. I was sure at this point that the twins wouldn't both be alright and Dawn told me later that she feared the worst.

Dawn's pains were getting still worse. The doctor we had recently met turned out to be the one who would be delivering the babies, which I was pleased about. She talked to Dawn and they decided to try for a normal vaginal delivery. She was too far dilated for an epidural, so it was going to have to happen without. This looked like it was going to be a problem - Dawn's legs were secured in position ready for delivery, but the next contraction was so painful she managed to thrash free of the restraints. One of the midwives narrowly escaped what would have been a pretty impressive kick to the head.

The anaesthetist spoke quietly to the doctor and they both nodded. "OK, she said, we've decided we're going to try to give you an epidural anyway." I thought this sounded pretty impossible, but I was worried about what might happen to Dawn otherwise so it seemed worth letting them try. I discovered later that they didn't quite mean what we thought they did - they were attempting a full spinal block, a much more powerful anaesthetic which would completely remove all sensation from the middle of the chest down.

The preparations were made, but Dawn had to be moved into position. She didn't want to be on her side since it would make the pain worse. I explained that if she could do it for just two contractions the pain would be less after that. She could barely talk and so wasn't able to say "What do you mean only two ?!". She was rolled onto her side and almost immediately the first contraction came. After what seemed like a very long time, it ended. I started timing - by my estimation the anaesthetist had about 100 seconds to get the epidural in. After 60, she was still cleaning the patch on Dawn's back. After 80 she was fine tuning the prepared needle. I felt like saying "No, you'll have to wait for the next one now." but I stayed quiet - Dawn had her eyes screwed shut and was trembling. I whispered 'stay really still' to her.

The anaesthetist began. Then the contraction started. Amazingly, Dawn didn't move her back at all, just held very tight to my hand. Then, suddenly, her grip loosened and her eyes opened. "You should feel it start to work fairly soon," said the anaesthetist. Dawn's just blinked and said "It's stopped".

From then on, the focus was on the babies. The doctor broke the waters of the right twin and Dawn was told to push. It was difficult, though, because she couldn't feel anything down there at all. A decision was made to try for an instrumental delivery (ie. assisted by forceps). A small cut was made to make more space and Dawn pushed again at the next contraction. The doctor said it was going well, but that she would have to push harder. The next contraction came and Dawn tried again, with everyone trying to make encouraging noises. The push was good and Ryan was born at 19:26. He cried straight away and I saw him - tiny, but a perfect little boy. A short while later the paediatrician brought him over briefly for Dawn to see.

I asked Dawn if she'd heard him and she nodded and smiled weakly. There was another still to go. This one was higher up, but still head down. A couple of pushes were tried but progress was slow. The doctor finally managed to reach up and break the waters. This happened during a push - the results were quite impressive. This baby was definitely going to be harder work. Dawn was really getting the hang of the pushing, however and in three more pushes, Beatrice was born at 19:40.

Dawn was recovering her breath, blinking and shaking slightly but I was just tense, waiting. Finally, after what seemed like ages, I heard her cry weakly, and then again much louder - she was alright.

The placenta came out almost by itself. An exhausted looking Dawn asked "Do I have to try and push out the placenta now ?" and couldn't quite believe it when the doctor told her it was already done.

We saw the babies a few hours later in the special care baby unit. Although very premature and therefore at high risk, both are doing well so far with no nasty surprises.

Pictures here and here

(Page owners no longer under construction !)

At 26 Weeks

Something of a surprise for all concerned. One of the boys turned out on closer inspection to be lacking a willy. Indeed, after a number of ultrasound technicians had been brought in to verify the diagnosis it was decided that LT was, in fact, a girl !

This meant that the original impression that the twins were identical could not possibly be correct. The twins do seem to be sharing a placenta, but presumably this must in fact be two placentas very close together.

RT, however, is definitely a boy and spent much of the scan playing with his willy to prove it.

Both twins were head down at this scan.

At 22 Weeks

This was the major scan which mothers of singleton babies also receive. Sometimes called the 'abnormality scan', checks are made all all aspects of growth including internal organs. One of the twins chose the moment when it was displayed on the monitor to empty its bladder, so we're sure that's working correctly !

LT was head down and RT was head up at this scan.

All important organs and things appear to be in good condition (the scan showed heart operation clearly).

Also, we now know the twins are boys !

At 18 Weeks

Both the same way up this time ! Both twins were very mobile during the scan and caused considerable difficulties by refusing to 'face the camera'.

These sizes are all between the mean values for this stage in pregnancy and mean + 2 standard deviations. All values are above mean levels, particularly head measurements ! Basically, this means they're both still doing well.

At 15 Weeks 5 Days

Somersaults are fun... at least according to LT and RT, both of whom decided to turn upside down before their second scan.

These sizes are considered normal for a singleton pregnancy, so the twins are doing well so far.

At 13 Weeks

See also scan of 'LT' and scan of 'RT'.

('RT' is shy and tries to avoid having its picture taken !)

Note that, being twins, the birth will typically take place around three weeks before the estimated delivery date above, which is for single births.