On April 9, 2003, I delivered Ian Hunter and Gavin Hans at 33 weeks and 1 day. These boys were #4 and # 5 for us, and actually our second set of twin boys (naturally). We were excited to say the least and so were our older twin boys Anders Erik and Hayden Lars and big sister (singleton) Emily Brianna.
The new twins were 6 weeks premature which was new to us. We had never had preemies before. Ian and Gavin weighed 5.1 and 4.7 at birth and stayed in the NICU for 12 days. They were released to finally come home, which was an hour away, on April 21, 2003. The first time our boys would feel the sun on their faces.
Little did we know that we would only have 10 short days with our precious son ~Gavin~ when an evil monster called SIDS would take him from us in the early morning hours of May 1, 2003. My husband and I thought we knew what not to do since these were our second set of twins. We were awaken by the cries of Ian at 5 am on May 1, 2003. The babies’ crib was in our bedroom and my husband got up to start to change and get him ready for me start nursing. My husband then went to pick up ~Gavin~ who had appeared to still be asleep on his back (we had always woken the sleeping twin to feed at the same time to get [them] on somewhat of the same schedule). My husband said the minute he picked ~Gavin~ up it was as if a lighting blot went through his body and he knew we was not alright.
My husband and I took turns performing CPR on our son until EMS arrived. There were at least 6 to 7 adults in our bedroom working on ~Gavin~ for about 30 minutes. They then carried him down the stairs on a back board and my husband went with them in the ambulance to take him to the hospital. I received a call about 30 minutes later from my husband telling me ~Gavin~ was gone. GONE just when we were starting our completed family together. A life I had all planned out. How my older twin boys were going to be best buddies with their younger twin brothers and my daughter, the only princess, in the middle. My dreams for the future gone forever in that instance when we had to leave the hospital without our precious baby ~Gavin~.
It is so hard to leave your baby there wondering who is he going to be with and who is watching him. It has been just 18 months since ~Gavin~ left us to go back and be with his Heavenly Father but not a day goes by that I don’t think about him. How can I not when his big twin brother is just 19 months old. Ian will grow up knowing he has a special little twin brother watching him from the Heavens above!
Julie
Jumelle: Prenatal, Postnatal & Beyond 