Lenny & Benji, 27 Weeks
Miracle Mum Isabella shares Lenny & Benji's story:
My partner Jack and I had been trying to conceive for over 2 years, we did 9 rounds of letrozole, had a miscarriage and then fell pregnant with our twin boys Lenny and Benji. I was very sick in the first trimester but that finally got better around 14 weeks, at our 20 week morphology scan, they found that my cervix was only measuring 25mm, I was sent to women’s assessment and put on progesterone. After about a week, I was having tightening’s and spent two days in the women’s and children’s hospital being monitored, my cervix did not change. At 23 weeks and 5 days gestation, I went for a MFM appointment and found that my cervix had dropped to only 10mm. It was decided that I would have an emergency cerclage placed to try and save my pregnancy. The next day I went in for my cerclage and it was successful, I was sent home two days later, still on progesterone and having weekly appointments to monitor my cervix. I stopped work and took it easily, trying to stay off my feet and hoping that we could make it to 36 weeks.
At all my MFM appointments my cervix measurements went back up to around 16mm, which was reassuring. At 26 weeks and 4 days, I started to have contractions that where very strong but not regular, I thought that they were probably just Braxton hicks contractions and I took some Panadol and went on about my day. By the next day, I was in a lot of pain, still having contractions that were more regular, and lost what I thought was my mucus plug. I went into women’s assessment again, they did the swab to see if my waters had broken, they hadn’t, but was admitted indefinitely until my babies would arrive as I lived too far from the hospital.
I spent a week in the hospital on the antenatal and gyne ward, still having contractions, I was given nifedipine to help stop the contractions, I was also given the steroid shots to help the boys lungs develop. At 27 weeks and 3 days MFM checked my cervix and fluid around the boys, they noticed my cervix had gone back down to only 4mm and twin A (Lenny) had low fluid. They continuously monitored me. I did notice in the two days before I ended up delivery that I had noticed a slight increase in watery discharge, and at 27 weeks and 4 days I became severely unwell, I was tachycardic, febrile, nauseated and could barely move, they did lots of blood tests and found that I had an infection starting. The very next day, they re-tested my discharge, and it was positive for amniotic fluid. I was then given about 3 different antibiotics for the infection, and told these babies needed to come today.
I was taken up to labour and delivery, where they started magnesium sulphate to help protect the boys brains, when they had the CTG on, they noticed that twin B (Benji) was not recovering well from the contractions I was already having, we made the decision to have an emergency c-section straight away. I was taken into theatre and the boys made their arrival 13:48 and 13:50 at 27 weeks 5 days gestation.
We got a quick kiss with both boys and they went straight up to the NICU.
We knew it would be a touch and go situation as they were born so prematurely.
At four days old Benji suffered from a pulmonary haemorrhage and we didn’t know it he would survive, he was ventilated. He came off the ventilator 4 days later and back onto CPAP. The boys stayed in the NICU for just over 12 weeks, it was the toughest time in our lives, but we are so absolutely blessed to have two healthy boys at home with us now.
At all my MFM appointments my cervix measurements went back up to around 16mm, which was reassuring. At 26 weeks and 4 days, I started to have contractions that where very strong but not regular, I thought that they were probably just Braxton hicks contractions and I took some Panadol and went on about my day. By the next day, I was in a lot of pain, still having contractions that were more regular, and lost what I thought was my mucus plug. I went into women’s assessment again, they did the swab to see if my waters had broken, they hadn’t, but was admitted indefinitely until my babies would arrive as I lived too far from the hospital.
I spent a week in the hospital on the antenatal and gyne ward, still having contractions, I was given nifedipine to help stop the contractions, I was also given the steroid shots to help the boys lungs develop. At 27 weeks and 3 days MFM checked my cervix and fluid around the boys, they noticed my cervix had gone back down to only 4mm and twin A (Lenny) had low fluid. They continuously monitored me. I did notice in the two days before I ended up delivery that I had noticed a slight increase in watery discharge, and at 27 weeks and 4 days I became severely unwell, I was tachycardic, febrile, nauseated and could barely move, they did lots of blood tests and found that I had an infection starting. The very next day, they re-tested my discharge, and it was positive for amniotic fluid. I was then given about 3 different antibiotics for the infection, and told these babies needed to come today.
I was taken up to labour and delivery, where they started magnesium sulphate to help protect the boys brains, when they had the CTG on, they noticed that twin B (Benji) was not recovering well from the contractions I was already having, we made the decision to have an emergency c-section straight away. I was taken into theatre and the boys made their arrival 13:48 and 13:50 at 27 weeks 5 days gestation.
We got a quick kiss with both boys and they went straight up to the NICU.
We knew it would be a touch and go situation as they were born so prematurely.
At four days old Benji suffered from a pulmonary haemorrhage and we didn’t know it he would survive, he was ventilated. He came off the ventilator 4 days later and back onto CPAP. The boys stayed in the NICU for just over 12 weeks, it was the toughest time in our lives, but we are so absolutely blessed to have two healthy boys at home with us now.
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