Day 10 - I’m a Quad Mummy!

Hello!

I’m sorry for deserting you all for so long but as I’m sure you can imagine my days and time have all moulded into one. The last 10 days have been the most special and difficult days imaginable, I don’t really know where to start...

Once again I'm overwhelmed by the support and messages of congratulations! It’s truly incredible that so many of you have shared my journey to this point. 19 weeks of blogging and the day finally arrived, I can’t quite believe that my little stars are now on this earth, nearly 10 days old! Thank you so much all of you, I hope to reply to your comments and emails soon.

I have so much to share with you but I'm going to need to do it in instalments as my energy stores are very low at the moment.

So I’m sure you are dying to know how it all happened... Well go back to Wed the 29th 12pm; I went for my usual weekly cervical scan with my consultant and baby scan with the Professor. The baby scan showed that they were all doing fine and growing nicely, the weights I was given then were Baby 1 (Reu) 2lb 10, Twin 1 (Josh) 2lb 10, Twin 2 (Zac) 2lb 10 and Baby 4 (Sam) 3lb. My TVS scan showed that my cervix was still very short but there was no change. I certainly wasn’t feeling great in myself that morning, very flushed and in a lot of pain. I just put it down to the lack of sleep as the past few nights had been so difficult. The previous night a doctor was called at about 11pm as I was having severe lower back pain and period pain cramps. She did an internal and said that she thought I was about 1-2 cm dilated but that I wasn’t showing any other signs of labour so they would hold out on making any rash decisions at this stage. After my scan showed no change, the feelings that I might deliver that day subsided (it had been a bit of a joke in Fetal Medicine that I would deliver on the leap year). A small part of me had wished that the scans had shown something different so that I would have had an indication as to when my boys would be born, instead I left feeling the same as before, none the wiser.  

Everything remained stable for the rest of the day until I went for dinner at about 6pm. I ended up sitting at a table with a triplet mum and two twin mums. It was crazy to think that between four mums we had 11 babies! It’s was then that the strong and regular contractions started. I had 4 in 30mins, so decided to go back to bed and rest. I didn’t think it was too serious at first as I’d had my scan that day and this had happened in the past and then subsided, however after 2 hours of contractions every 10mins the midwifes decided to call a doctor. She came and had a chat with me and suggested I took some codeine to try and relieve the pain and said she’s be back in half and hour to see how I was. I think she must have felt something wasn’t quite right as between leaving and coming back a midwife came in and asked me not to eat or drink anything (as you would do before an operation). This is when alarm bells started ringing in my head. I had only spoken to Mart just before dinner saying that the boys definitely weren’t coming today, so although I desperately wanted to ring him as I was feeling really scared, I didn’t want to alarm him when the doctor could have come back and everything would had settled down. When she returned nothing had changed so she did an internal. From her face I could see that things were about to happen. She really calmly looked at me and explained that I was 3cm dilated and given that I was showing signs of being in active labour and my history with Luke, there was no question that these babies needed to be delivered tonight. I was told that they would aim to deliver at 10pm.

It was then literally all systems go! I presume from their side all the the thought and planning which had been put into this day now had to come together, and thankfully I felt completely safe and assured that it would. My mind was racing, I couldn’t quite believe the time had come and I would finally meet my stars, the little angels I had been growing for so long. There was so much joy and excitement but at the same time fear and apprehension that they would be ok, knowing realistically how prem they still were. I called Mart and all that came out was ‘are you ready for this?’ he didn’t question me for a second and told me he’d be there immediately. With Luke safely looked after (thanks again Donna for being there!) Mart arrived at the hospital. By that time I was already down on the delivery suite (thanks Becka for staying with me!) and had been spoken to by a number of the team that would be involved in the delivery in some way, from the midwives, paediatricians and neonatoligists to the anesthetists, surgeon and fetal medicine consultant who was on call that night. To be honest it’s all a bit of a daze now. Mart got into his scrubs at about 9:40pm and we were taken into theatre. 

Here we are just before going into theatre 

The room was really busy but it was a quiet calm rather than a frantic mad panic. I was placed on the operating table and could just see everyone busy at their stations getting things prepared. It didn’t feel like the room was over crowed at that stage but looking at the footage that Mart filmed there must have been at least 25 people in there. I'm so glad we have this as it is definitely something to treasure. 

About to get my spinal. The moment of truth...

Here’s some of the team

 
The c-section started at 22:44 with the delivery of the boys at 22:48, it was all over by 22:54. Reuben was the first to be born (Baby 1), then Zachary (Twin 2), then Joshua (Twin 1) and finally Samuel (Baby 4). They all let out a little squeaky cry when they were delivered (which was amazing to hear) as they were rushed to their resuscitators to be worked on. Each baby had a team of 3 people carrying out all the vital checks and getting them ready to be transferred to NICU. 

Reu & Zac

Josh & Sam 

The evidence

 

Me after delivery with my four bands. The first sign of reality!

I wasn’t able to see Ru and Zac before they left but was able to give Josh and Sam a little kiss before they were put into their incubators and taken upstairs. Again it was all a bit of a daze after this. I was given lots of pain relief and waited until all the boys were ready for me to see. They needed a number of procedures to inset arterial lines and be hooked up to all the various machines etc. It was 5am before I was wheeled up to NICU in my bed to see them properly for the first time. I can’t begin to the tell you the emotions I felt seeing my beautiful stars for the very first time!

I will do a full update of the days after and what the boys have been up to in NICU over the last 10 days in my next post, which should hopefully be soon. Just to say though that they are doing so well and are responding and doing all the things that you would hope a 29 week (now 30 week) baby should. There have been no major concerns raised, which is incredible!
 
Special Thank You’s
From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who was involved in bringing my boys into this world and ensuring their safe delivery and care immediately after. There was so many of you that I’m afraid I don’t know you all by name, but very special thanks to my surgeons Ellie who was the one who actually delivered my boys and Mark Denbow (Fetal Medicine Consultant) her assistant. I also can’t express enough gratitude to my consultants Rachel Liebling and Professor Soothill. Thank you Rachel for such professional and empathetic care of myself and the boys over the last 17 weeks, there were points when I didn’t think I could do it and you always managed to bring me back on track. To the Professor, again a huge thank you for keeping my boys in check the entire time. Your ability to measure and assess their well being right up until the last day really was incredible, and you were completely right about their personalities too!