My Turtledoves: Erica & Amy

I decided to try and keep some semblance of my usual blog schedule and wait until now to talk about the birth of my beautiful daughters, Erica Grace and Amy Louise. My little turtledoves.

They were born last Thursday, December 13th, by cesarean section, at 1:35pm.

Erica has a lot of Conor's features. She's long and wonderfully chubby.

Amy has long fingers and the biggest eyes I've ever seen!

I was supposed to be on my way to work. But, because I always get into work so early, I often have a lot of time to spare in case of late trains, etc. So on this morning I decided to give myself a half-hour lie-in. I would still be in work by half eight, possibly earlier. Jen had been having what we thought was round-ligament pain and mild cramps from pulled stomach muscles.

I got up at about 7am, and Jen went into the bathroom, still sore but not too bad. I got ready for work and was all set to leave. Instead, I decided to hang on a few minutes and see if the pain went away. It didn't. By 7:30am we were getting Jen, slowly, into the car and were soon on our way to the hospital.

There, the doctors confirmed Jen was having pre-labour contractions. She would be monitored for a couple of hours to see if the contractions progressed into full labour, which they did. We were at 35 weeks and 5 days, over a month ahead of the actual due date, and 3 and a half weeks before the planned c-section date. But the twins decided they had waited long enough.

The procedure wasn't as easy as it had been with Conor last year. The anesthetist, who I'm told was very rough, wasn't able to get the epidural line into Jen's spine, so she had to go under general anesthetic  which meant I had to wait in another room while the doctors worked. I was very nervous; Jen doesn't react well to general anesthetics. But in a few minutes, I heard the first baby cry. It was absolutely one of the most wonderful sounds I've ever heard.

The doctor came in shortly after to tell me I had two little girls. I got to hold them for a moment before they were taken to observation.

Bit of a grump, is our Erica.

Amy's favourite thing is twitching in her sleep.

As I'd expected, Jen reacted badly to the general anesthetic. She had a panic attack going under, and another one coming around. But a few hours later she was feeling better, though it was still the next day before she got to see the girls.

Erica was 7lbs 1 oz and Amy was 5lbs 8oz. Both can breathe on their own and they are very content to sleep soundly when not being fed or changed. Erica was a little fussy to feed, which we think was due to an infection in her intestines. She was taken off all food and put on fluids and antibiotics so she could recover. She responded very well to the treatment and the doctors are hoping to start her back on feeds again today. If she takes a feed and keeps it up for 24 hours, she'll be brought down to Jen, and then once Jen is able, we can all go home, one big family.

My ladies