My doctor sent me for my first ultrasound to see how far along I was as I was already showing at barely 3 months. The person doing the ultrasound turned and asked me if I took fertility pills or have twins in my family, I told her there are twins and triplets in the family. She then said well you are having twins. There are two heartbeats. I did not believe her so she showed me the two babies separately and together. I was overjoyed, my mom had suspected I was having twins because of my size.
I quit work 2 months before my due date which was Dec. 16/00. My first day off work which was Monday Oct. 23 I went shopping. At 12:00a.m. Oct. 24 my water broke. I called my doctor and he said to go to the hospital. When we arrived they said I wasn’t having contractions but my water did break and they were going to keep me in and try to stop contractions from starting. However at 3a.m. I started to dilate and was 1-2 cm by 5a.m.
At full dilation, twin A (Devin) was comimg out on his own and the nurse quickly took me over to the delivery room where the doctor was in attendance but the team from the N.I.C.U had not arrived. The doctor tried to hold Devin in until everyone was there and all set up, but he could not hold him in any longer so Devin was delivered at 5:11a.m. He was breathing on his own and weighed 4lbs. At 5:24a.m. Ryan was born however he had a harder time as he had turned and was [therefore] delivered bum first. He also weighing 4lbs.
During the night both boys went into distress and their lungs collapsed so they had to be ventilated and given drugs to inflate their lungs. Devin and Ryan were then transferred to a level 3 Hospital for three days then returned to the Hospital they were delivered at for the remainder of their Hospital stay.
[In total] they spent 23 days in the hospital with ups and downs from jaundice, oxygen levels, tube feedings and a bad diaper rash. I spent these days going to the hospital for feedings as many times I could in between picking up my other two children from school.
We made it through and the boys are now 3 yrs old and very active. The only outcome of being premature is that they have asthma and are on a compressor. They have been hospitalized at the same time for a severe asthma attack and they are small for their age. Devin and Ryan are happy boys, we just recently had DNA testing done to determine if they are fraternal [dizygotic] or identical [monozygotic] as I had two sacs and two placentas. I was told at my ultrasound they were fraternal, however the doctor who delivered them and the nurses in the N.I.C.U said they were identical. The results confirmed that they are 99.994% identical.
Our family is very busy with four children and both of us working and we just go from day to day. The birth of Devin and Ryan 2 months early was a difficult time for us and especially their siblings. Nevertheless, they all have a great bond with each other. We are lucky that everything turned out okay and it was an experience I will never forget.
Heather Kenning
Jumelle: Prenatal, Postnatal & Beyond 