OUR BOYS ARE HERE!!

Hi, and welcome to our page. Our family consists of Sally, Tracie, Ethan, Benjamin and 2 pussy cats. Sally and Tracie are the parents. We have been a couple for over 3 years and have wanting a family almost all of that time. Our pregnancy story has been saved under the profile of MissZazy. This page will be about our boys Ethan and Benjamin, who are twins and were born on May 3rd, 2008.

BIRTH STORY:

After what seemed like the longest wait in the world (9months is too long) the day of our boys birth arrived. Our OB booked us in for a c-section at 8am on Saturday May 3rd, 2008. (37weeks gestation). We got to the hospital at 6:30am and check in. We were seen by the midwives and Tracie was prepared for theatre. We had about a half hour wait before the theatre porter came to get us. During that time Tracie went to the toilet and on the toilet her waters broke!! We thought this was great..... timing could not have been more perfect! When we arrived to the theatres, Tracie was having mild contractions, but the anaesthetist (a good friend of Tracie's) put in the spinal and epidural and the pain went away (replaced by the shakes and shivers). Tracie was then wheeled into the theatre (Sal was there too) and the operation began.

At 8:18am Ethan Stuart was born. He weighed 2330g (7lb1oz) and was 47cm long. He came out screaming and has done very well. He is a little chubby baby with brown hair. As soon as we saw him we both thought 'he looks so much like Tracie'. Ethan is a name that means strength, as he was the quiet one in the womb and still is. Stuart is Sal's father's name who died almost 20 years ago.

At 8:19am Benjamin Graham was born. He weighed 2690g (5lb15oz) and was 48cm long. He also came out screaming but required a little oxygen for the first 10mins of his life. He has also done very well. He is a skinny little baby with very fine blond hair. He was born covered in vernix. Benjamin means 'son of my right hand' and coincidently sat on the right side of the uterus. Graham is Tracie's brother's name.Benjamin's name came to us one day when we were talking to him inutero..... it was like he told us what to call him. He was the dominant one inside, and still is!

We were able to hold both boys in the theatre and look at our beautiful sons. We were so happy and overwhelmed with the emotion of the birth. Tracie is a nurse who works in the theatres where our sons were born. She was able to choose some of the doctors and nurses that were in the operation. It was nice to have some friends at the birth.

As the operation was coming to a close, Sal and the babies were sent out to go back to the maternity ward and Tracie was sent to recovery (PACU). Back on the ward Sal watched the babies get weighed and measured and dressed for the first time. She waited and waited and after about an hour our OB came up to the ward to tell her that Tracie was still in recovery as she was having trouble stopping the bleeding. After another hour Tracie was still in recovery and still bleeding. Tracie does not remember too much about this day, except for being scared that she was bleeding and that she wanted to see her boys. Sal was allowed to go back down to recovery to see Tracie, but the boys had to stay on the ward with the midwives. Sal got the shock of her life to see Tracie lying there, white as a ghost, cold and having a blood transfusion. Our OB was still there keeping an eye on Tracie and pumping her full of fluids, blood, drugs for pain and drugs to help the uterus contract. The drugs to help the uterus contract were supposed to help the bleedng, but it was not working. It was at that point that they decided that it was time to take Tracie back to theater to stop the bleeding. They said they may have to do a hysterectomy. Sal was sent back to the ward to look after the babies and didn't hear anything for the next few hours.

After 2pm Sal was now extremly worried and could not sit there waiting any longer. The midwives rang recovery and found that Tracie was back there and Sal was allowed to go back and see her. The OB had not needed to do a hysterectomy, but had inserted a balloon into the uterus and gave Tracie lots of drugs to cause severe contractions. When Sal arrived in recovery Tracie was in EXTREME PAIN from the baloon and the contractions.....it was awful. After about 20mins Tracie was sent to intensive care for monitoring. Tracie spent the next 24hours in ICU and had minimal futher bleeding and the pain slowly became more managable. Overall, Tracie lost 3.5L of blood and had 6units of blood transfused. Her BP fell as low as 50/30 in recovery and her Hb dropped lower that 7. The next day the balloon was removed and Tracie was sent back to the post-natal ward. We were both very happy about that. A few days later Tracie was feeling better and able to walk around the room and hold her boys.

Over that first 24hours, Tracie saw the boys for about 6 hours in the ICU that night, but was too sore, and had too many lines attached to her to be able to hold or breastfeed them. Sal stayed in the postnatal ward and looked after the boys that night and took them back down to see Tracie in ICU the next day. It was a difficult start to their life, but now (10days later) we are all doing well. We are all home in our new house and the boys are doing great. Tracie Sal are tired, but love being mums to these beautiful boys!

19th May, 2008 - 2weeks & 3 days old

Things are going well with our new life. The boys are great, and already developing their own personalities. The child and family health nurse came to visit us today and check up on the boys. They are both doing great.

Ethan now weighs 3.47kgs and is 50.5cm long. Ethan is our quiet, contented cuddly little baby. He will quite happily lie there and look around and take in the world. He only gets upset when he is hungry, and then his cry is almost like he is panting. Ethan enjoys his tummy time and bath time and LOVES to be cuddled. His favorite position is chest to chest so he can hear our heart beats. His favorite song is 'hush little baby' and will usually calm down and stop crying if you sing him that song and give him and cuddle. He gets called Ethan, Little E and Baba.

Benjamin now weighs 3.03kgs and is also 50.5cm long. Benjamin is the demanding child. He doesn't like to be kept waiting and will scream if he's ignored! He loves his food and eats more than his bigger brother, and then when he's done will often ask for more. Benjamin loves the song '10 little ducks' and usually singing him this song and bobbing him up and down will help settle him. He does not like 'hush little baby' and will cry if you sing it to him!!! Benjamin likes to be cuddled chest to chest but arches his back so he can look up and see your face. He loves it when you talk to him. He never gets called Benjamin..... we call him Benji, Benji-boy and Baba.

Tracie is getting over her birthing ordeal. She is able to move around and pick up the boys without too much pain. She still has some pain from the c-section that varies through the day. She is able to take pain killers that help. She still gets tired easily due to the low Hb from the blood loss. The broken sleep of newborn twins doesn't help the situation. Overall Tracie is doing very well considering everything that happened to her.

In general the mums are going well. We are trying to work out our sleeping and eating routines and settle into our new house. We are almost unpacked (thanks to all our family and friends that helped us unpack and clean the house and garden). Neither boy is very interested in breastfeeding, and prefers the laziness of bottle feeding. Tracie is putting in hours of effort on the breast pump to ensure these boys are getting the best start in life. We are getting into a routine of breast milk in the day and formula at night (as there is not enough milk for both babies for all feeds). The doctors said that due to the large bleed that Tracie had after their birth, her milk may not come in at all.... Tracie is managing to produce enough milk for about 70% of their feeds and we are both very happy with that. During the day we each pick a child and change, feed and settle that child (They feed every 3 hours during the day). Tracie expresses milk between feeds and Sal catches up on housework and unpacking. During the night one of us goes to the kitchen to prepare the food while the other gets the boys up and clean and ready to eat. Sal bottle feeds both boys at once while Tracie expresses milk. We are getting it down to a fine art, but it still takes us about an hour to feed them and then they sleep for about 2-3 hours and the routine repeats its self. We are getting used to this broken sleep, but we're still tired. Overall it's all worth it..... we love being parents and we love our little boys :)

FOLLOW OUR STORY:

We have decided to continue our story on the following webpage as it is easier to edit and add pictures. Please click the link below if you wish to follow our story.

Ethan and Benjamin Grow Up