April Lynn and Rachel Elena Wise

14^th February 2014

Week 30 +6 til now 33+5 or 18 days old 

We know most of you know that our beautiful little girls have graced us with their presence and are still wowing us with their strength and fight, which they need to do to be able to grow and put on some beef so that we can all go home. But to start with, let’s start with the scan on Tuesday before Birth Day.

On Tuesday, the professor was still away and wasn’t coming back to the hospital til the next day, so that meant we were getting Doctor and we weren’t looking forward to that. I had given an update about Friday’s scan to Lee and Aunty Lorna, so we can brace ourselves to what will be happen throughout the scan. When we got called through, there was an urgent scan that had to be done so that we had the learner Dr (the one that Doctor was flirting with the week before) and just a midwife. She was lovely in the way that she done her scans and talked us through everything that she was doing and everything that she scanned was coming up good. Which is good, even the Doppler that was not good on Friday was better this week. She was making up time as she was waiting for Doctor to come in and check the screen dumps that she done, so she asked if I would like a 3D scan. But unfortunately, she couldn’t get a clear shot as Twin 2’s hand was in front of her face and could only get half a face, so never got to have a picture of one in 3D.

Doctor came in after a while and went through everything and told us that everything was good and I asked even the brain Doppler in Twin 2 and he told me that it was always fine, as the scan on Friday was good. Bloody Liar I say, even Lee asked when we left, but it wasn’t fine. No it bloody well wasn’t. This to say the least had my blood boiling. I was not a happy camper after that. But onto Friday’s scan.

The night before the scan, you can say that not much sleep was had by me, Rohan and mum. Me (in Perth) mainly due to what to say to Teresa when we see her in regards to Doctor and asking whether we can have him off our service as I am not confident in his judgement and just can’t stand the look of him anymore. For Rohan (in Kalg), it was mainly the drive he had to do, plus with everything that had to be done at home before the bubs arrive. And Mum (in Kalg), making sure that she was up early for Rohan to drive to Perth for the scan. So bout 4 hours sleep each was had and it will make for a really long day Friday. We were happy to know that Professor Jan will be doing our scan and high fives were all round for that reason. But no Teresa around too asked to talk to her after the scan in regards to Doctor. So we went in for the scan instead. Twin 1 was fine and dandy, the heart was still the same with a leaky valve and also thickening of the walls, but still happy to keep her in for the time being. Twin 2 was another story, the brain Doppler from the Friday before wasn’t reading all that flash, and Prof thought that it may be due to getting a bad read as she is a wriggler. Then onto the one that was in the body and that also read not flash at all. So she went back to the brain one and then asked me, when was the last time you ate? That would have been breakfast at bout 10am, she then said yep this afternoon, we will be delivering them this afternoon, Twin 2 will not survive til Tuesday. It was like – WOW, Shock and YAY we have a date. We are going to meet our babies today/tonight WOW. So we were moved to the counselling room, the room that started this journey and will now end it, and we were still in shock, but excited and all of us on the phone texting family to say that the babies will be here this afternoon. We had Doctor come in and go through the whole c section with us and when he asked if there was any questions, I said, thank god the Professor was here, let’s just say his face dropped when he heard it, I did say sorry, but I just had no confidence in him with being able to make that same decision as the Professor.

Mum started the water works, but for Rohan and me, I think it was more of the case that we now know a date, there is no more hoping we will last another week or wondering if it will happen next week. It was happening today!!!!

So I won’t go into the nitty gritty of the caesarean section, but I did not like it at all. Well the epidural and spinal block, I am not a fan of at all. I had a junior drug doctor and it was three times lucky on getting the right spot. It bloody hurt, I was going all clammy and faint throughout it all, plus not eating or drinking anything for a while didn’t help. It was amazing to see that all the stuff that we learnt at the course did happen that way, but we had the Professor doing the surgery and we got to see our perfect girls before they were taken away to be cleaned and helped out. I was still in a wow mood that it didn’t really feel real or that they were even mine as I couldn’t touch them or cuddle them and I got to see Rachel (twin 2) before they were taken away, that she took one look at me and started to cry. I must of looked that great for her to burst into tears, but they were both so tiny

Twin 1 is April Lynn, born on the 14/2/2014 at 5:03pm weighting 1370 grams 39cm long and 27cm head circumference, once she was born, she needed help with her breathing and was on CPAP for 3 or so days to keep her lungs inflated to help her to breath. She was to come off the CPAP for 2 hours every 6 hours, but she went so well the first time, they just never put it back on.

Twin 2 is Rachel Elena, born 14/2/2014 at 5:04pm, weighting 860 grams, 30cm long and 25cm head circumference. Even though she was the reason we had to deliver, she needed no help with her breathing and was a ninja in every way. All she needed to do was put weight on and grow to catch her sister.

How did we come up with the names, we hear you ask??? This took us half an hour to come up with after the laser surgery, I mainly wanted to have names for them, as if one of them did not make it, I wanted to be sure that they were known as a person, not as just a fetus.

Well April was for two reasons, one because they were meant to be born in April and second, the TV reporter’s name out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also April. Lynn is because of the two strongest willed and loving people we know, other mothers.

For Rachel, well for starters, I thought that Rachel was the TV reporter from TMNT but when we googled it, it was actual the lady out of Batman, so we thought why not stick to the vigilante lady cartoon theme and stick with Rachel, plus it does sound nice with April. Elena is something we had already picked out when we were going through names that we did and didn’t like, Elena means shining light and with the journey that Rachel had done from the very beginning, she is our shining light.

So the girls had spent 10 days at King Edward Hospital, moving from the nursery 3 NICU, to Nursery 2 and then to the HDU and finally being together at last but, throughout the 10 days we were asking for a doctor to look at April’s heart as it had the leaky valve and the thickening of the walls in utero. The first time it did go on deaf ears, I think mainly due to everything else that she had going on and with the breathing and so forth, then once she was in the HDU, and the only thing to do is watch the monitors they are attached too (as well as having the baby blues) I noticed that nothing had been done with her heart and also the monitor did not look right to me to be a normal heart beat. But with some tear and asking questions, we got the nurses and coordinator to get one organised, it did take a couple of days to get one, but one did get done. The EKG was getting done as we were wheeling Rachel in, as the HDU was saving a spot for her right next door. Then we got the news that April has what is called a Severe Pulmonary Valve Stenosis, which means that the valve that opens and closes between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery is not opening fully and that is the valve that carries the blood to the lungs to be oxygenated. The severe only due to something has to be done to correct it, if it was mild then no procedure will be necessary. So to correct this, a procedure is done when a balloon is inserted through the groin artery and blown up to stretch the valve to open it up to the correct size. This will only need to be performed once and that should be fine. If not then, it will be done again at a later date, and worst case, it will lead to surgery. So with this and so she can be monitored by a cardiology team, we were have to transferred to PMH. Just when we got them together too! But PMH were lovely enough to give us our own little room, where both the girls live now and til they put on some beef and the procedure can be done and we can then be transferred home!

With the scans that the girls get every 1, 7, 14, 28 days old, they scan their head to ensure that here is no bleeds or problems that come up from either the delivery or being premmie. Poor April cant seem to catch a break and it seems that her head scan had cysts in the white matter of her brain on both side. This is called bilateral Periventricular leukomalacia or PVL, which is a type of Cerebral Palsy that will hopefully affect her lower limbs and not the upper limbs. Thankfully it won’t affect her mentally, so just a lot of physiotherapy to be done to keep her limber. It was heartbreaking to hear this as we were told in the NICU that no news is good news in regards to these scans and we weren’t that lucky. Little Rachel scan found one cyst in her white matter but it isn’t something to worry bout at this stage.

And that is where we are at now. We have also learnt after the first week, that we cannot be at the hospital all day and into the night as it is exhausting being there and stressing about them, so we have learnt that it is ok to go home and rest, as the girls are in the best possible hands. Everyone, from Professor Jan and the Gold Team, to the NICU & SCN nurses and doctors at both PMH and King Eddy, they have been a pillow of support and comfort in knowing that are girls will be there tomorrow.

Rohan is now back home working and will be travelling up for the weekend to be with his girls and I will be in Perth from now on until the girls are coming home. It is another long journey as it probably won’t be until their due date of 19/4/14. But it will be worth it.

It is also amazing on all the different foundations that are round, with Miracle Babies Foundation, to Heart Kids, to Boulder Rotary (which I need to ask about) that are here to help and make it less stressful on us through this time. There is going to be a lot of fundraising coming throughout the years, I say, so be prepared :o)

So sorry if this is a bit all over the place, trying to put 3 weeks into an essay and not be bogged down in all the details of hospital life. We are also trying not to put photos and information on social media at this point as we will want the girls to be home before we go nuts with that. So sorry if you haven’t seen photos yet, they will be coming. If you would like one, let me know and I can email one to you.

Please also be sure that you will get to meet them in person in Perth and Kalgoorlie. There might be a chance that we will be transferred to Kalgoorlie Hospital.

Rohan and I will really like to thank everyone both on this list and beyond for all your positive thoughts and prayers and encouragements throughout this time and the whole pregnancy! I don’t think we could have done it without your support and also allowing us to vent to you weekly through this update. It was a good release and also helped us nut out all of the details, to make sure that it is correct at the time it was emailed out. Also to all the people behind the scenes, for helping with the dogs and the house, and phone calls and helping to distract us from our own thoughts, it will not be forgotten!

Lot of love Bobbi-Jo, Rohan and the Ninjas April and Rachel.

xoxoxoxo

April and Rachel at 17 days old.