Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy.....

Oh Boy!

We have been blessed with a beautiful healthy Baby Boy

Flynn Alexander

Born last night, Wednesday 28th November 2012 at 8.55pm, 3.6kg


* * * * * * * *

What a whirlwind 24 hours! 

After hitting publish on my last Post I never expected I would be giving birth that evening. 

I went to see my Obstetrician for my regular weekly appointment in the afternoon expecting him to say "see you in another week". However, a scan revealed an issue with the placenta and the baby was unlikely to continue growing as rapidly it should. It was far from an emergency but it was decided it was better to have the Baby out now while it was strong enough to get through Labour. An excellent decision as the cord turned out to be paper thin at birth and the placenta was on the small side.

 I was told to be at the hospital in an hour.  I was induced at 6.00pm and it was an otherwise normal and drug-free labour lasting 3 hours. It was intense and wonderful and I tried to take it all in as much as possible. It was also a posterior Labour and birth which was so much more painful than the other births. Hello stitches! However, we are both well and Flynn is perfectly fine and healthy and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

I was too excited to sleep last night but the 4 hours i did get were the best sleep I've had in months. The kids were little balls of excitement when they had their first cuddles this morning. Such a surreal experience. I'm now resting up and enjoying every minute of this special time with my new little Lad. 

I'll be back on board soon.

Mel xx

Overdue

Hello lovely Blog friends. 

How is your Wednesday going?

I'm still here. 

Still waiting.

Overdue.

Still a Mum of 4.

Taking things slow.

Enjoying long walks around the farm.

Embracing the calm.

Watching the echidna cross the driveway.

Marvelling at all the Ants crawling over its back.

Walking up to the top of our hill after dinner with my Love when the kids are in bed. 

Admiring the view.

Wondering whether we will have a Spring or Summer Baby.

Hoping everything is OK.

Getting very uncomfortable.

Almost cried when I dropped the soap in the shower.

Can't sleep.

Distracting myself with some monotonous crochet*.

Doing a bit of preparatory reading. 

Dusting off the only birth book I have after 8 years and reminiscing about life before Kids and being a couple with just a Whippet puppy who had a fetish for chewing book spines (or a dislike for the impending new additions?). Poor Remy Boy.

So any day now.....

We are so excited and ready to meet you Baby.

Hope you are ready for us!

Anyone want to play the gender guessing game?

Any tips on how to spend these last days?

Mel x

* I decided to make the Kids little crochet gifts from the Baby and the overwhelming request was for Minecraft characters. Minecraft is a game. This is the Creeper. I had to google what a Creeper was and found this pattern.  I created a bit of a stir after posting my Creeper on Facebook yesterday. Apparently it resembles an appendage of the male anatomy. Totally didn't see that in my 40+ week pregnant state! But just in case you did, I included an image of the real Creeper in this Post :-)

Anticipation

Still here.

39 weeks with 5 more sleeps to go until I'm officially due. If my past history is anything to go by, the baby will make it's appearance fashionably late by about 10 days or so past the due date. 

However, the Whippet is telling me differently. He is on high alert and will just not leave my side. He's making me anxious. Or maybe it's the other way around. He follows me everywhere and has even started running down the long windy driveway behind the car in a final attempt to not be left behind. He's been with us through every pregnancy so we have seen this behaviour before. I just wish he could talk and tell me what time-frame he was operating on. Are we hours, days, still a week or 2 away? The anticipation of a baby is very humbling indeed.

The Kids have been learning the art of patience and anticipation from the Welcome Swallows that have been nesting appropriately above the front door. A few weeks ago the tiny eggs were found in the nest and have been checked daily to see whether they had hatched. The other day, the four babies had hatched and I can't help feeling there is some symbolism going on. Each baby chick symbolising each of the kids but only 4 because a 5th chick would be 'counting chicks before they had hatched' which is something I don't like to do. One by one they open their hungry little yellow mouths. The 4th one opened its mouth this morning and I cried - such is the fragile state of mind I'm in at the moment. 

The feminist in me doesn't really like the term "Confinement" as used to describe the post-natal rest period however after an exhausting week of 'nesting' activities last week I am very much looking forward to my little "Holiday" in hospital. Instead of experiencing the calm before the storm I'm hoping last week was the storm before the calm. 

It started with the freak Tornado that swept through the Valley. The windy weather that came afterwards ripped one of our doors off its hinges. Luckily this could be fixed ourselves. There were final visits to the Obstetrician, Orthodontist, Vet and Hairdressers. We started weaning the lambs and harvesting produce from the veggie patch (finally!) - all creating a lot of work. I had two spinning sessions at The Spinners Guild, with marginal success but I'm confident I'll be able to practise at home now I have the basics. The Whippet has been bathed and all farm pets have been wormed, as have the children. The water tank has been emptied, cleaned and re-filled. The dishwasher, iron and vacuum cleaner had an Appliance AGM and decided to all break down in the one week necessitating urgent and costly replacements. The lounge room got its final coat of paint. I set up the nursery and washed some baby clothes. Everyone has been treated to brand new white sheets on their beds and I have scrubbed behind the fridge and washing machine. I'd be feeling a bit more virtuous if all of these items were not so long overdue. Sadly, they are entirely related to my crazy 'nesting' compulsions.

Needless to say, I am doing nothing but nice and relaxing things for myself for the remaining days. The Pianoman and I enjoyed a final night out last Saturday night. We walked around the harbour, had a lovely Indian meal and took a bunch of silly gratuitous 'selfies' to mark the end of being parents of 4. I've cancelled out of a lot of social things but our friend was performing in the Bawdy Pantomine "Crapunzel" and seeing him dressed up as the evil stepmother, playing guitar and dancing Gangnam style simply could not be missed. It was naughty and hilarious and although I didn't laugh myself into Labour, we had such a fun night and what little stomach muscles I have left were truly sore by the morning.

I also finished making my ornaments for the Handmade Ornament Swap and have them all packaged and ready to send off to my secret swap partners. I've never done anything like this before and gifting something I have made to someone other than my children was a bit intimidating really, especially because these two ladies are very very crafty themselves. However, it was so much fun, and it really got me in the spirit of Christmas as well as providing a much needed creative distraction during these final days. The best thing about it though has been the lovely new bloggers I've managed to find who are involved in the swap.

There has also been some lovely mail coming my way in the form of this absolutely gorgeous little vintage suitcase which I won in Roberta's giveaway. Roberta is the talented lady behind Rowantree Design - vintage inspired handmade clothing for babies and children. So if you are in the market for something special pop over and look at her gorgeous range of clothing. She has been spending lots of time with her business in New York and picked up this little case on one of her recent trips there. I will use it every single day. It is the perfect nappy bag for me because I don't do nappy bags and this is clearly no ordinary nappy bag. It's teeny tiny but big enough to hold my little Macbook Air, normal daily paraphernalia and a small nappy wallet in the future. Thank you so much Roberta!

I was looking for a nice book to accompany me on my hospital 'holiday' and after reading not one but two recommendations for The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, I just had to pick up a copy which happened to be the very last copy in the whole of Hobart - testament to its popularity maybe? It's set in Alaska, a place which holds a special place in my heart as it is where I spent one of the best 6 weeks of my life trekking around as a 20 year old and I can't wait to be transported back to this gorgeous part of the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So, another text-heavy Post however I can 100% guarantee the next couple of Posts will be very very short.

Finally, thank you to everyone for their lovely comments on my last Post and 'hello' to any new readers that have joined the ride recently. Look forward to visiting you all and hopefully sharing some news soon.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week!

40 sleeps...........

34 Weeks Pregnant - heading out to Dinner (without Kids :-) )

If you fancy a speedy pregnancy, I can highly recommend having 4 pre-existing Kids to keep you busy because this pregnancy has been the quickest one on record. I'm 34 weeks already! How did that happen? Which means there is only 6 weeks to go, give or take. Or in language the kids understand best, only 40 sleeps until I am a Mum of 5!!!!! Oh my goodness, pass me the paper bag NOW!

I thought it might be time for a little update on how I've been travelling so far. I could have posted weekly or monthly updates on the pregnancy to save you from what will now be a lengthy Post but like many good intentions, it just didn't happen. Never mind.

Well, so far so good. It's been a pretty normal, textbook pregnancy for which I am grateful. Emotionally it has been the best pregnancy yet, not least because I have the joy of sharing it with the Kidlets, who at 4,4,6 and 8 are at an age where they can truly appreciate and get involved in what's happening. The gang are super excited and I am so proud at how well they have coped with the prospect of a new sibling along with all the other changes they've endured over the last 12 months. Also, worrying about one little soul is much less stressful than worrying about two at once and contrary to what I was expecting everyone has been really positive about me having a 5th baby. As my sister said everyone now figures I must really love kids. Now that came out a bit wrong but you know what I mean.....

We don't know what we are having. Of course I can't wait to find out and understand why people do. It's very exciting! We had a surprise for the first baby and for the Twins but found out for the second and I just personally preferred having the big reveal at the birth. For me, the gender is just a small part of their little personalities and if you've been touched with the loss of a baby or have been devastated by the loss of your closest friends' beloved 5 year-old, everything gets put in perspective and I just can't enter the gender conversation. However, when people ask I usually say it will either be another girl or another boy but NOT another set of Twins :-D

But it hasn't all been Beer & Skittles. Physically, it's been quite tough. The so-called normal pregnancy related complaints of morning sickness, fatigue, back pain, Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD or separation of the pubic bones), mood swings and heartburn that barely caused an eyebrow raise during my first pregnancy seem to be taking their toll on me this time around.

Or maybe I've just turned into a bit of a sook now that I'm 35 and entering that dreaded Advanced Maternal Age bracket. Or maybe the Twins are responsible for my current body failings. Or maybe it's just the culmination of having a few previous pregnancies. Or maybe I'm just a sook.......

I sailed through my first pregnancy at age 26. I was working in a law firm in Melbourne diligently accounting for every 6 minutes of my existence. I walked the 40 minutes to work every day, would make a dash to the bathrooms around 10am when the wave of nausea appeared. I'd return to my desk without anyone noticing, remain cheerful, make an appearance at Court, brief the odd Barrister in Chambers, then pick up a greasy toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and polish it off with a chocolate paddle pop on my way back to the office, finish off the day, walk home again, take the Whippet for a walk, crash into bed and do it all again the following day. I did not miss a single day of work and no one knew I was pregnant until I was about 6 months along. Shortly after, I handed in my resignation as we decided to move back to Tasmania and raise our new family there.

This time around has been slightly different. All efforts to keep the news to ourselves for as long as possible flew out the window when the first bout of morning sickness hit and I inadvertently christened the flower bed in the Car-park at School drop-off. I had to chase the parent down who witnessed the ordeal and explain myself, which would have been fine had I not been wearing Ugg Boots and my husbands daggy tracksuit pants. It was then decided he would do the school drop-off and leave me and my morning sickness at home where the only people I would frighten would be the boys. They too started to get really frightened by the violent nature of morning sickness, asking questions like  "Mum, are you dying?" to which I responded "no, not today darling". My attempts at humour failed because the next day I would get "Mum, are you dying today?". "No, my love, we are having a baby and this is all completely normal, yep all very normal".

The sickness caught me completely unawares at any time of the day and night. There was also the evening when we were attending a function at the Athenaeum Club, a posh gentlemen's club in Hobart, where I christened the antique carpet on the way up to the dining room. I eventually made it to the bathroom and came out seeing my husband valiantly mopping up the trail of destruction with paper towel. Mortified to say the least. We continued on the evening as if nothing had happened but I decided I needed to keep myself at home to avoid further embarrassment.

There were a couple of weeks of feeling semi-human where we enjoyed a gorgeous little trip to Vietnam but short;y after that my pelvis packed it in due to SPD which meant I could barely walk without immense pain. Again, a normal condition of pregnancy which will go away as soon as the baby is born. Normal but annoying and painful nonetheless. I am finding myself increasingly couch bound which is hard with two energetic 4 year olds all day every day but they have been so great about it and I'm doing my best to keep things normal. Not that 'normal' is something that we carry off very well around here. To give you an idea of what normal for us entails, let me tell you about my last obstetrician appointment.

Picture, if you will, a serene environment where first time mothers sit anxiously in the waiting room with their beloved partner, holding hands and gushing over the pregnancy magazines while they wait in anticipation to see their growing Fetus on screen for the first time.

Then there is me with my entourage of 1, 2, 3, 4 'exuberant' sidekicks.

Before we even enter the waiting room, I have to clean up the boy who has watched me too many times apply make-up in the car at traffic lights because she is always in a rush after having to get a million people ready. He is pleased with his efforts until I explain that the 'lipgloss' is in fact lipstick and all the other kids start teasing him.

We enter the waiting room and the other boy chooses the 3D glasses from the 80's toy box to match his Batman outfit and proceeds to tell everyone he can see their brains. Charming!

I keep boy 3 occupied with my iPhone while I ditch the pregnancy books and brochures and enjoy some time catching up on trashy gossip from the surprisingly 'in date' women's magazines. I see a pattern for the baby jumper I knitted last week and ask for my phone back so I can take a photo, to which boy 3 states in the loudest voice "But I'm in the middle of playing Fancypants!". Eyebrows were raised and I'm still not sure if it was because he was playing Fancypants or because I took a photo of a magazine that would only cost $3 for me to buy myself. I pretend they are first-time Mums and don't try to explain the hassle of finding a car park, getting kids in and out of seat belts, fumbling around for change, avoiding arguments over chocolate bars at the counter when I can take a quick photo right now. I reason with myself that I could probably memorise the pattern except I'm suffering 'pregnancy brain'......

Meanwhile my daughter is waiting patiently, but her time to steal the limelight is still to come.

We finally 'escape' to the Obstetricians office. I adore him. We have known each other for 9 years and he has delivered all 4 of my babies. By 'delivered" I mean he made a presence at the end of each birth but he is there if things turn pear-shaped which makes for a stress-free pregnancy and birth. He is also blessed with an excellent sense of humour, and during my first scan this time around, he put his monitor on a split-view screen which showed 2 big circles indicating Twins. You have to be pretty confident of your Patient's sense of humour to carry that prank off!

He gathers 4 extra chairs around his desk, gives each of the kids a clean specimen jar and proceeds to fill them up with lollies while we wax lyrical over the state of politics in this State and his latest sailing adventure.

The kids chomp away as he starts doing a quick ultrasound. We are just about to see the little baby on screen when my daughter screeches that she just lost the big fat molar in the red jellybean. It has been wobbly for at least 6 months so there is applause all around.  The ultrasound is abandoned as the Obstetrician reaches into his pocket and hands her some loose change. There is much excitement and clearly the going rate in his household is 3 times more than ours.

Everyone recovers from that and we finally get back to the ultrasound, the moment we've all been waiting for. A picture emerges from the computer and there is another uproar as all 4 kids start squealing "Evil Eye. Evil Eye. Scary baby!". Sigh. Poor baby, already labelled by its siblings before its born.

This will simply not do so the obstetrician takes another photo, "Look, it's now blowing you all a kiss!". Crisis averted. Did I mention I adore my Obstetrician?

See, never a dull moment! Anyone else in the same boat at the moment?

My Local Village

If you turn left at the bottom of our windy driveway and travel a few minutes down the road past historic homesteads, hillside wineries and green pastures full of sheep and dairy cattle, you will arrive at the historic village of Richmond. This area was originally known as The Coal River Valley, named so after Coal was found at the mouth of the River in 1804. However, as the township grew it was proclaimed Richmond in 1826 and is now known as Historic Richmond Village, the hub of the Coal Valley Wine Region. It is a must-see if you are travelling to Tasmania. It is home to the oldest everything - the oldest Catholic Church in Australia, the oldest Bridge in Australia, the oldest Gaol preserved in its entirety, the oldest Post Office, Primary School etc. It is said that a British Convict by the name of Ikey Solomon was housed here and was the model used by Charles Dickens when he created the Character 'Fagin' in Oliver Twist.

I absolutely adore our local village. It's steeped in history as well as being a picturesque and quaint Georgian Village and the locals are the loveliest bunch of people around. The Petrol Station attendant will enquire about your Kids, the Grocer will notice when you're having a bad day and the Hairdresser knows everything and everyone. Like most small places, it's a close knit and supportive community.

However, the main reason we love to come into the Village is to feed the bossy ducks. It is another of my favourite activities to do with the boys while the other kids are at school during the week. We try to avoid weekends because the Village is swarming with tourists. We love the Tourists but they increase the Ducks' diet a million fold and by Sunday the Ducks won't even give you a sideways glance. And there is nothing more disappointing than breaking tiny pieces of bread and throwing them into a river of ambivalent Ducks.

Our little outings are incomplete without a play at the park and a coffee. The best coffee is found at The Richmond Wine Centre but the Bakery keeps the Little People happy with Babycino's and Chocolate Duck Biscuits as well as boasting the most amazing pies, my favourites being the Scallop Pie and Chicken and Brie (which I'm not supposed to be having while pregnant but one does tend to get a bit laissez faire by no. 5). 

Finally, here are a few snaps of 31-weeks pregnant me. The Boys did a pretty good job with the iPhone today, chopping off the odd head and limbs but managing to get the 'bump' :-)

And don't forget to enter my Giveaway mentioned in my last Post. It closes tomorrow night and I'll let you know who the winners are over the weekend. Good Luck!

Twin Pregnancy and Birth and the Mid-Air Emergency

If you are the slightest bit interested in Twin Pregnancies and Birth then grab a cup of Tea as this is one of my longer Posts. If not, then please just wait till tomorrow when I can delight you with my orange-centred daffodils and latest knitting creations :-)

Following on from my last Post, I decided to go ahead and write about my last pregnancy and birth. I never envisaged these topics being written about when I started my Blog last year but seeing as I currently find myself 28 weeks pregnant with baby number 5, I feel it's not completely incongruous to enter the 'pregnancy and baby' space here on this Blog. I'm also feeling a little nostalgic and realise if I don't write about it here it will be lost in my memory. 

Twin Pregnancy - Early Signs

I suspected I was having Twins the very day I did the home pregnancy test to confirm my 3^rd pregnancy. 

After hopping in the shower and feeling like my chest was being hit by a stream of high pressured cement I just knew I was pregnant.  We had visitors staying with us so I made an excuse to go to the pharmacy and then was too excited to wait till I got home so I stopped on the way home at the fast food establishment that is trashy but has clean bathrooms and did the test there. I'm all class, I know! Instead of the usual faint blue or pink line, this line was even darker than the control line and it appeared in a matter of seconds. This was very unusual for someone like me who wastes a small fortune on home pregnancy tests a few days in a row before it finally comes up positive with the faintest of blue or pink lines. It dawned on me then that maybe my hormone levels were really high and I might possibly be having twins.

Around week 6, morning sickness had started with a vengeance greater than the other pregnancies. I did whatever I could to function so I could look after the other two children, which meant a daily trip to the local corner store for their greasiest, most revolting hamburgers to keep the nausea at bay.

By week 12, I was seriously looking like I was a few months further along. Everyone kept saying it was just my 3^rd pregnancy and you ‘pop’ out quicker and you are more tired if you have other children to look after, but I just had a feeling it was Twins.

My “Google-chondria” took hold and every day I was looking up “signs and symptoms you are having Twins”. Hoping. I was definitely one of those people that always thought it would be great to have Twins. I seemed to tick every box on the symptom front, except there was no family history of twins, a fact that is irrelevant in the case of identical twins but I didn’t know that at the time.

Needless to say I was counting the days until I could have my first scan. 

It’s Twins!

I will NEVER forget the day I found out I was really having twins. It was one of the most exciting days of my life. I tell people it's like winning the lottery but even better because you didn't even know you had bought a ticket. I just never thought I'd be a candidate for Twins. 

My obstetrician was away for a month at the time I would normally have had my first appointment and scan, around 12 weeks. Although I was initially happy to wait until he returned, I was getting anxious that maybe something was terribly wrong with the pregnancy. So at 14 weeks, I opted to have a scan at an external place and because I was so worried, The Pianoman decided to come along too.

This place was super fancy, with a massive TV screen and they darkened the room so you can see the first images of the Fetus.  Two big circles appear on the screen. The Pianoman says "Is that what I think it is?" There is the obligatory joke about the two-headed Tasmanian baby. I burst into tears, happy tears, and all I could say is "I knew it I knew it!!".  I tell the receptionist I'm having twins and she tells me to go home and have a stiff drink. I opt for a walk along 7 Mile Beach, up and back the entire length. I ring friends and family and tell anyone who would listen. 

In hindsight I wish I left my Twin news to myself for as long as possible because as I suddenly found myself at the mercy of people's (well-meaning?) responses:

"Oh you poor thing!" (Actually I'm pretty happy about this news)
"Wouldn't wish Twins on my worst enemy!" (Really? Why?)
"I knew someone who had Twins but lost one or both of them during the pregnancy, at birth, after the birth, at age 1, 2, 3..........." (Yep, there are no guarantees. Thanks so much for your supportive comments!)
"How will you cope with 4 under 4?" (No idea. Will do my best)
"That's high risk, you'll have to have a Caesarean" (So what? Couldn't care less how they come into the world, healthy Mum, healthy babies and all that)
"Are you sure you still have 2 in there, you don't look big enough?" (Um, well, there were still two at the last scan, will have to wait till the next scan and the next and the next........Ahhh please go away!)

Normally I wouldn't care about what people say but when you're pregnant and fragile a lot of rationality flies out the window. After 2 standard pregnancies, I really worked myself into quite a lather with the Twins. My obstetrician told me to tell everyone to bugger off, that we will proceed as normal, that given my previous normal births and pregnancies a normal delivery is recommended as long as the Twin closest to the starting line has its head down, that he won't let me go over 38 weeks, that he is quietly confident all will be OK. Relax. Enjoy.

As far a Twins go, mine were Di-Chorionic/Di-Amniotic Twins meaning they had their own Sacs and Placentas and as far as Twins go they were the least risky. Having separate sacs is normally indicative of non-identical Twins but if an egg splits in the first few days Identical Twins can also have their own sacs. So based on their presentation it was 60% likely the Twins were non-identical and 40% likely they were identical. Obviously if they were boy/girl twins, they would be 100% non-identical but we didn't want to find out what we were having so the Obstetrician didn't give that information away. In my mind I thought they had to be identical since I didn't fit the criteria for having non-identical twins. So I guess I was expecting 2 boys or 2 girls.

The pregnancy progressed as normal until my pelvis packed it in at the halfway point when I developed Symphysis Pubis Diastasis, a normal but painful condition during pregnancy. Basically, the pubic bone loosens up for the birth and starts to separate, causing great pain, even while walking. This is great for childbirth but not so great for the months prior.

And then there was the Mid-Air Emergency scare.

The Mid-Air Emergency

At 26 weeks pregnant, I was on a flight from Hobart to Heyman Island in The Whitsundays for my friends Wedding when I started feeling light-headed and dizzy. I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face and I start de-robing myself to cool down. Suddenly I felt like I was about to faint. Just prior to fainting I pressed the big red Emergency button. When I came to there were 2 flight attendants standing over me. I was wearing nothing but those ugly compression stockings and I'm on the floor of the revolting toilet and quite embarrassed. They tell me I've fainted and see that I'm pregnant and ask if I'm having contractions. No. One flight attendant tells me she went into labour at 27 weeks on a plane and this information causes a wave of panic to come over me. They put my dress back on and carry me to a chair and there is a call over the loudspeaker for a Doctor or Nurse. 

A Nurse comes over and starts taking my blood pressure etc. She says she can barely feel a pulse and my blood pressure is dangerously low. She looks concerned and I experience another wave of panic. I was on my own, the Pianoman back at home with the Kids for the weekend. I really start thinking I was dying or something. There was chatter about diverting the plane to Canberra instead of Sydney but they couldn't get clearance and we were almost there anyway. Sit tight. There's an ambulance on the Tarmac waiting for you. Oh my goodness! I have never been so worried in my life - 26 weeks is way too early for Twins to be born.

We touch down in Sydney and I'm carried down the stairs by 2 Ambo's into the Ambulance and we are on our way to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, sirens blaring and everything. First trip in an Ambulance. They start performing some basic tests on me and tell me the instruments the nurse was using must have been faulty. I wasn't dying. My heart was fine. More tests and Ultrasounds were performed at the Hospital. I had low blood pressure and was treated for severe dehydration but the babies were fine! Must drink more water! A few hours later I was discharged and Jetstar arranged to have me put up in an airport Hotel and my flights were changed to the following morning. It happened to be the same flight as my friends' parents and some other friends, which was great because I was slightly nervous about getting on the next 3 flights to get to our destination after my little adventure the previous day.

The Wedding was gorgeous and the final 12 weeks of the pregnancy was thankfully uneventful.

The Birth

By 38 weeks I was so huge and uncomfortable that I could barely walk or sleep or eat without immense discomfort. I was beside myself and didn't think I could cope any longer. At my final Doctor's appointment, the Doctor looked at me and said "right, come in tomorrow and we'll get this show on the road!". Thank Goodness! If I could, I would have jumped over the table and given him a huge hug right there and then. 38 weeks is considered full term for Twins so I was not the slightest bit worried about being induced.

This was the last photo taken of me pregnant with Twins - a day or two before they were born. I still can't believe how big I got - not even my clothes would fit anymore!

38 weeks pregnant with Twins

I was told to be at the hospital at 8am the following morning to be induced. However, I started having contractions in the car during the 20 minute car trip and burst into tears (as one does) because this time things were supposed to be a bit more planned and controlled.

We arrived at the hospital and went straight to the birthing suite where "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" was playing on the TV. The sight of Liz Hurley exposing her melons certainly broke the ice. The film was so inappropriate for such a momentous occasion but the distraction was somehow relaxing so we kept it on.

The Doctor was there waiting as well as a lovely midwife. Due to it being a Twin Birth, there would be an additional Midwife and a Paediatrician making an appearance as well. There was actually a few more people in the room at the end but I honestly couldn't care if the entire medical faculty was there as long as the babies would be OK.

The Doctor wanted to monitor the babies heartbeats while I was in labour which was fine by me as long as I could wear the monitor in the shower. The hot shower is my drug of choice and I generally stay in there until right at the very end. I like to be alone and I'd find having The Pianoman fuss over me quite irritating and distracting. Pampering during the Pregnancy is an entirely different matter though :-)

After an hour or so in the shower things were getting intense so I came out and told The Pianoman it was time. There was a flurry of activity as no one was expecting it to happen so quickly. It was all going to be done and dusted within 2 hours! I close my eyes and focus through the contractions. I then hear The Pianoman tell the midwife to get the Doctor quickly because "she get's like this at the end". He's helpful like that. I don't like happy gas as it makes me queasy but I was offered to suck on the oxygen mouthpiece. I grabbed that thing and practically chewed the entire end off it. The Doctor arrived just in the nick of time and the first baby is born. I finally open my eyes.

"It's a Boy!", I hear someone say.

I am completely overwhelmed with joy as he is brought straight up to my chest. I forget about everything else and the fact that there is another one to be born until I hear the Doctor say, "OK, lets get the other one out. Give me another push". You've got to be kidding me! It felt like an eternity but only 4 minutes later the contractions start again and I give birth to the second baby. It was not as painful as the first twin, very similar to the placenta being delivered - another thing I totally forgot about until the Doctor kindly reminded me there was one more push to go before it was all over.

Birth photos are not particularly flattering but I'm ever so grateful for the extra midwife in the room who saw the camera there and took these shots. I don't think you'll ever see a photo of me looking so relieved and happy.

With one baby in my arms, this is my surprised face as I hear someone say,

"It's another Boy!!!"

 Of course I launched into the "ugly" cry too.

So two healthy boys, around 6 1/2 pounds each. It was all over within 2 hours of arriving at the hospital. I couldn't believe it!  I was so high on happy hormones I told the Doctor I wanted to kiss him, to which he replied "I better wait till your Husband has left the room first". Funny guy. His parting words were "you're going to have so much fun with these guys!". Incidentally, he has identical twins boys himself and he certainly wasn't wrong about the fun bit. I also remember him looking at their ears and saying that he's pretty sure they're identical, which I thought was funny. A blood test and DNA test later down the track confirmed it.

I hop in the shower again, this time quickly so I could get back to my babies. I then had to decide which baby to wheel back to the room while the other was wheeled by The Pianoman, a decision that stupidly tore me up at the time. However, it would be the first decision of hundreds I would have to make over the next 4 years and I still struggle with. Who gets picked up first, who gets fed first, who gets the good cot, who gets the dodgy cot, who do I now make a knitted toy for first, who will get his brother's hand-me-down soccer boots and who will get brand new ones..........it never ends!

I settle into my room where I stay for the next 4 nights, loving every second of my babymoon holiday in the hospital and getting the hang of breastfeeding two babies at once.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics were on TV and all I could think was that I had my own 2 Gold Medals right here.

The Kids meet their new baby brothers

The home-coming - Let The Games Begin!

However, little did I know that the real games would begin when I stepped inside my front door for the very first time with these two boys.

The rest, as they say, is history...

So, did anyone make it to the end? 

Is your tea still warm? 

Do you like birth stories?

Is anyone pregnant with Twins or do you have a similar Twin story?