Life With Twins: The First Two Weeks Part 1 – The Hospital Stay

Joanna Fowler February 27, 2015 Family, Twins

collage 2Day 1. C-Section Day.

My girls had finally arrived safely after 37 weeks and 4 days and I had just finished the most blissful two hours of skin to skin with them to regulate their temperature.  Coincidentally a family member had delivered her baby earlier that morning in the same hospital just a couple rooms down.  This meant that there was a parade of family hanging out in my extra large deluxe room cooing over our new twin girls.  I was okay with this chaos because of my incredibly protective nurse that kept the girls on my chest and was very clear that no one holds them.  My girls just melted into my body and my post c-section shivers finally subsided as the epidural wore off and the pile of warm blankets took affect.  This will go down as one of my favourite memories of all time.collage 2After a couple of hours I was getting pretty tired, (and a little sweaty).  My nurse finally allowed Mike and the eagerly waiting family members to take our girls into the hallway while she instructed me to have a nap… greatest post c-section gift (second to my little bundles).

After my two hour nap I was ready to jump back into things.  I nursed Mia and Everly and then relaxed and enjoyed a popsicle while Mike and the nurse gave our girls their first baths.  Because I already knew how to bath a newborn, I knew I better use that time to enjoy watching from my bed while resting as much as possible.  collage 1It was very soon after this that my IV was taken out and my catheter removed.  This process wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable and gave me instant relief.  The rest of day 1 (and the following week) I felt a lot of pain in my ribs stretching across my back.  It was a combination of my body recovering from carrying twins as well as residual gas pains from surgery.  In fact, the sharp rib pain was almost the only pain I felt for the first day.  Sure, my body felt heavy and exhausted but there really wasn’t much, if any pain, from my c-section incision.  It was more of a numb feeling.

Mike and I spent the rest of the afternoon cuddling and getting to know the two newest members of our family.  They were so peaceful, predictable and easy to please.  Every nurse that entered our room mentioned how happy our girls were and credited it to me being so relaxed.  Sure, I think that contributed, but these being my third and fourth babies, I can honestly say these girls have very easy going personalities.

We ended day one with a walk around labour and delivery proudly showing off our girls.  Yes, I forced myself to walk which has been proven to help with recovery… and it did.  I enjoyed a proper meal, and introduced Mia and Everly to a few more visitors.  By 9PM I sent Mike home to get a good sleep and with the help of the nurses I had a pretty successful first night sending my girls out to the nurses station and having them brought back to me to nurse so I could grab little bits of sleep.

Side note: when I had my first, Holden, I had Mike sleep in a pull out chair next to me in the hospital while I lay awake the entire first night just staring at him in awe.  I think this is pretty typical when you have your first.  But the next day Mike and I were zombies.  When I had our daughter Beau I sent Mike home to sleep and I slept with Beau on my chest, which was one of the most incredible experiences.  With our twins I had always planned on doing what I could to utilize my longer hospital stay and ensure a speedy recovery.  This meant using the nurses as much as possible.  Let’s face it, I had two more kids at home to parent as well.  I needed to be as rested and healed as possible.

Day 2.  The BAD Day.

I found that I could start moving around a little better after my c-section on day 2 and I was able to enjoy a hot shower that morning (and every day after). But the after birth contractions set in and my nipples started to blister from all of the tandem nursing.  The pain of both of these was much worse than any incision pain and after asking for more medication I got some relief.

This was the day our girl’s doctors let us know that Everly’s weight loss was hitting the 10% point and Mia’s jaundice was still apparent so they recommended that I supplement with formula after each time I nursed Mia and Everly.  We were okay with this and just wanted what was best for our girls.

This was also the day our two older children were to visit and meet their long awaited baby sisters.  Each met the babies accompanied by their grandparents, with whom they were staying with with.  When our five year old son, Holden, first visited with my parents he was excited and confident while holding them, insisting he didn’t need help.  The visit ended with tears and Mike helped redirect his excitement as he left.  Next was Beau, our energetic three year old.  She held the babies like a little mommy and couldn’t get enough of them.  Her exit was a bit more dramatic.  Tears and a full blown meltdown is an understatement.  I had to get her to the hospital doors and ask Mike’s parents to grab her from me and carry her away wailing.  I knew I had to be strong and not let these emotional good-byes get to me.  My mother-in-law is still scarred from this and Beau gets nervous every time I wear those same pj pants with the elephants on them.  Mike and I made the decision together to not let them visit again for the rest of my hospital stay.  It was too hard on everyone and that ended up being the right decision.collage 1

Weeping is very common for the first week after having a baby but unlike after having my older kids I had been tear free.  Suddenly the biggest bully I have encountered in my adult life entered my hospital room.  A blonde thirty-something hospital lactation consultant (LC) with a monotone voice, dead eyes and who was incapable of smiling, started ripping my parenting choices and I to shreds.  From my breast-pump, to me supplementing, to listening to the doctors and nurses that Everly was underweight and needed a little help.  I sat there wide-eyed, while my sweet nurse sat quietly behind her helping me bottle feed Everly and watching me with a knowing merciful look.  Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against lactation consultants, in-fact my mother used to be an LC.  But this woman was soul-crushing.  While I thought if I just keep my mouth shut she will finish and go away, but Mike the chatty cathy that he is, began engaging her in conversation.

Once the warlock finally left, I started bawling.  You know that guttural cry that escapes your mouth without your permission, it was like that.  I was fuming!  My nurse began to comfort and agree with me, telling me to ignore her.  Mike quickly caught on and realized what had just happened… Oops!  Just while I was taking a breath between my shocked, ranting and whaling cries, my O.B., the most calming presence on earth entered the room for my post op check up.  The sweet, loveable, highly respected doctor who often uses the phases “snug as a bug” and “happy as a clam” while describing how well your fetus is growing, looked shocked and beyond embarrassed with this LC as I described in sobbing detail what I had just experienced.  She apparently “dealt” with that LC and banned her from my room.

After sending Mike home to rest in the evening, my girlfriends visited me.  We all sat in a circle passing the babies along every few minutes.  It was a wonderful break from the traumatic day I had experienced and it was exciting watching them cuddle and bond with Mia and Everly.

Day 3.  The Bonding Day.

This day was much quieter as far a visitors go.  Mike and I spent the day cuddling and really getting to know Mia and Everly.  We enjoyed some outside food Mike brought, (a nice break from the hospital food) and many walks around the maternity ward.  It was so nice to be able to move again without the weight of my pregnant belly sending my heart into overdrive.  By this point we knew all of the wonderful nurses so well and my confrontation with the evil lactation consultant had become an urban legend.

collage 3

This was also the day that we started to really get to know Mia and Everly’s personalities.  Mia was and still is such a cuddle bug and Everly is so smiley and such a ham.  Mike got such a kick out of watching her sleep because she would make such a variety of hilarious facial expressions.

Day 4.  The Extra Hospital Day.

We were all packed and ready to head home on day four when the paediatrician and nurse came in with a concerned look on their faces.  They weren’t yet satisfied enough with Everly’s weight gain and wanted to keep us there one day longer.  This was a hard pill to swallow.  My nurse still went ahead and removed my staples from my incision and applied the steri-strips (little vertically applied bandages applied to my c-section scar).  Although I had been dreading the removal of my staples it wasn’t bad at all.  I was instructed to let the steri-strips fall off naturally but by day seven remove the rest that haven’t come off yet.  At this point a fair bit of bruising had settled in around my incision making it look worse than it felt.  As long as I had baggy string drawn pants I could pull up over my incision, I was fine.

This was the day we were supposed to reunite with Holden and Beau and give them the gifts we had put away from their baby sisters.  We made the decision for Mike to head home and give them their gifts while I facetimed them.  In the end it worked out well and our kids were happy to be home with Daddy.  I made the best of having an extra day in the hospital by having one of my dearest friends hang out with us.  We actually had a really fun time and she stayed way past visiting hours just laughing and cuddling babies.

Day 5.  Going Home.

This day couldn’t come fast enough.  Although I was still moving slowly and exhausting quickly, I was eager to get home and create my own routine with our family of six.  We placed our teeny tiny girls in their carseats, said goodbye to all of the wonderful nurses and ventured outside.

collage car seat

We made the decision to stop at a baby supply store on the way home to buy more swaddling blankets which we realized we didn’t have enough of.  It was kind of nice to delay our entry into real world with our older kids but I quickly became tired and was ready to get home.  Although I thought I was prepared for real life outside of the hospital… living it was a whole different story. To be continued…

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16 thoughts on “Life With Twins: The First Two Weeks Part 1 – The Hospital Stay”

  1. Thank you for writing this! My wife is 31 week pregnant with twins and we have two other children at home so this will be a great conversation starter for us as to what we should plan for.

    1. Congrats Shannon. I will be writing soon about heading home and starting life as a family of six so stay tuned!

  2. Thank you so much for sharing this experience. I am 19 weeks with boy/girl twins and know that this delivery, as with my other two, will be a c-section. It was really nice to read through your experience with two in the hospital. I have a lot of anxiety about the start of our journey with our twins and adjusting to being a family of 6. Your word definitely helped calm some of my nerves!!

    Erica

    1. I am so glad reading about my similar experience has helped calm your nerves Erica. It is pretty crazy at first but take one day at a time and you will surprise yourself at how much you can manage at one. Don’t forget to take care of yourself too!

  3. Thanks for all your wonderful posts. My partner and I are just about 13 wks pregnant with di-di twins. They will be our first and second children. 🙂 Initially we were quite shocked but we feel so lucky and excited to be on this adventure together. I appreciate all the things you’ve shared. It’s hard to find twin info and a lot of people think it’s just the same as single pregnancies. Since it’s my first, I have no comparison, but I sure had a ton of symptoms which were severe and started almost immediately. They were so bad that my mom guessed we were having twins right away. When we called her after the first ultrasound, she said, “I knew it!” And laughed and laughed.

    1. First a huge congrats Sarah! I hope that some of those symptoms subside after a few weeks. I was suspicious too and sure enough… twins. I also laughed for days!

  4. Wow, 5 days in the hospital is a long time! I didn’t have a C-section with my twins. But I DID have a warlock LC! Mine came by and told me I was latching them on wrong, then wouldn’t help me with the latch (evil L-word!) because she said I’d have to do it in my own when I got home, so better learn now. They also don’t take babies from mothers here, like to a nursery or anything. So it was no sleep from day 1. I value your openness about your experience with twins. It helps to know that other twin mommies have also struggled along the way.

    1. Thank you so much Nikki. I tend to be an open book so I am glad other moms appreciate my honesty! I was grateful for having the five days in the hospital to recover after my c-section. Very different from my previous vaginal deliveries!

  5. I am so glad I found your blog. I just found out that I am pregnant with twins. I have a 4 year old a 3 year old and a 10 month old. I’m nervous about how to do this. Your step by step story and tips is helping me feel more like I got this.

  6. Thank you so much for sharing all the details of your pregnancy, labor, delivery, and hospital stay. I’ve had 5 unmedicated l deliveries and just found out we are having twins. This is a whole new world for me and I really appreciated hearing your story, especially about the c-section. I cried when you talked about seeing the warming beds, and your skin-to-skin time.

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