Alfie & thomas born 27+5 weeks

[mummy to be86]

i've not posted much round here but have been lurking alot & reading all of your stories... well it's time to tell the story of alfie & thomas

we had been trying for 5 months before i got pregant and found out that i was acctually pregnant towards the end of february, and at the 13 week scan found out i was expecting twins, instantly though our midwife had concerns as we had a high risk kind of twins (MCDA) so i had to have regular checks every 2 weeks to check both babies progress, our little boys were not due until November, but i got rushed in to hospital on aug 7th with my back waters breaking.

the babies were only 25+2 so instantly very worried. first thing they did was give me steriod injections to help them devlop lungs quicker, i then got taken from my local hospital (wigan) to salford as wigan do not deal with prem babies before 28 weeks. i then spent the next 2 & a half weeks in salford being monitored daily and felt like there was nothing wrong with me and wanted to go home....

during that 2 & half weeks my waters broke properly when the babies would have been 25+6 and this scared the life out of me as i thought i was having the babies that night... cue a very calm midwife telling me that as i had no contractions that i need not worry, i then got to the 23rd august where they discharged me at 2pm

a whole 12 hours after being discharged 27+5 weeks i felt period pains and just thought it was something i ate. 2 hours after that i woke my boyfriend and after he did a quick google it was apparent i was having contractions.... he then rushed me to hospital and we were admitted to the delivery suite at 5.15.

we were greeted by a midwife who was in no rush and was not 100% convinced i was going in to labour. i had a canula (i think this i the right word) put in at 6.30 and speculum by the doctor telling me i was 1.5cm dilated and he will see me in around 4 hours. at this time i had been given some pain relief which really didnt do much. after around an hour i was demanding my boyfriend give me gas & air. after much reluctance & seeing me have contractions every 30 seconds he finally give in and called the doctor aswell as i also felt like i needed to poo. doctor give me another examination & told me i was 9cm dilated and NOT under any circumstances could i push as they were not ready for me.

the next hour went really quick, seeing people rush all around me getting me ready to give birth... my first child Alfie was delivered head first normally at 8.28 weighing 2 pound 11oz and my second child Thomas was delivered breech at 8.41 weighing 2 pound 5oz.

the last week has been quite stressfull i got discharged within 2 days, but the first 2 days were very worrying for us, alfie had a bleed on his lungs and thomas has been pretty good since day one.

the only things to report going forward are that thomas doesnt take to coming off the ventilator too well and had to go back on to 60bpm & 30% O2 support as of my typing this he has increased milk feeds everyday for the last 4 days & is currently on 5ml of breastmilk every hour.
alfie has recovered well from his bleed & is now on 30bpm @ 21% O2 which is minimal support, alfie however is not taking too well to the breastmilk as he had reduced bloodflow in the few days before birth to his belly, so his belly isn't working too well yet

there are pics of our little boys here https://photobucket.com/twinbabies

but heres 2 pics to wet your appetite
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0099.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0091.jpg

 

[sequeena]

They are absolutely gorgeous congratulations I really hope they keep thriving, come on little ones!!

 

[proudmumgoth]

congrats great pics may they BOTH grow up big and strong x xblessed be x x

 

[AmandaAnn]

Hope they grow quickly. My boys are 3 weeks now and I thought them being born at 32 was stressful, I can't even imagine them being even smaller. Praying for your little men.

 

[AP]

Awwww look at em!!!! They are beautiful! I have a 27+4 preemie who's just turned two in the blink of an eye, I'm happy to chat xxx

 

[mummy to be86]

thanks for the replies

small update for the pair of them, alfie's gut is still showing no signs of infection & was completely empty earlier today so they are trying him on 0.5ml of breast milk every hour again to see how he gets on.

the doctors have finally decided that the reason thomas cant get his presures down are because he has PDA, so they are trying him on ibuprofen to get him over this.

 

[cat81]

Congratulations on your gorgeous boys. xx

 

[EmSmith1980]

Congratulations on your beautiful boys. They are absolutely gorgeous. xx

 

[vermeil]

oh gosh they are absolutely beautiful! A huge congratulations to both of you! I had my little guy at 27 weeks too, a year ago - though it seemed like absolute hell back then (he had many complications, didn't even receive milk for weeks) your pictures just reminded me what a magical moment that was.

Keep us posted! Come on little guys, grow and make momma proud

 

[MummyIwanabe]

Hiya,awww i hope they continue to do well, it's a bumpy road, you're doing so well! I had my twins at 28 + 6 they are nearly 6 months actual age now. Your twins were great weights! That should really help them I'm here if you need to chat xx

 

[mummy to be86]

i've been meaning to update this but it's been a long week so i forgot, i'll paste some extracts that my other half had put on another forum & date them ..
p.s. this is just copy & pasted i know most of you will understand some of the things he is explaining

4th september 2011

lil update alfie is starting to take to the milk a bit better.... currently he is on 1.5ml per hour.. he needs to be on 7ml per hour to be dependant


thomas has been diagnosed as having PDA which is explained much better here https://www.suht.nhs.uk/Media/SUHTI...ntInformation-PatentDuctusArteriosus(PDA).pdf

so hopefully he'll get over that soon and it will sort his breathing out, basicly he is the opposite of thomas... he's currently on 7ml of milk but cant breath by himself & they think its cuz of this PDA.

one scary thing today though, we turned up to do cares and i noticed straight away thomas's tubes to his belly button looked new, i asked nurse about this & basicly it turns out thomas had pulled out the lines sewn in to his belly button that provide him with direct food which by-passes his stomach, and the other line is good for blood presure and taking blood samples for testing (something they do alot when they cant breath without aid)....

so basicly they are removing the tubes, the food one could come out anyway & the blood one (they can do without cuz they can do tests by heel prick for blood) all because he ripped them out himself.... i think he is gonna be the trouble maker myself...

here are before and after pics of his lines

this picture shows the black of his umbilical cord ending at his belly button

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0127.jpg

this pic you can see 2 yellow lines and a black attachment to them, the black is his dead umbilical cord attached to them

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0145.jpg

6th september

alfie is now marching on fine, he's on low flow breathing for an hour or 2 a day which basically means he's breathing by himself with very little assistance and is up to 6ml of milk an hour


thomas however has been on the decline pretty much since my last update... i will try to explain as best i can here...

basicly the PDA can cause lack of blood flow to other organs in the body... one of which is the bowel, to treat the PDA they can have 3 shots of ibuprofen over 3 days which is supposed to seal up the valve or the PDA and one of the side effects of ibuprofen can also weaken the bowel...

so basically around 12 hours after the 3rd dose of ibuprofen alfie started looking pale and yellowish and basicly not looking great, and within the hour we were visiting his belly became really bloated, next hour or so they did blood tests and xrays & found he has a perforated bowel.

so thomas has been transferred from salford to manchester children's hospital to have surgery which all happened over night.
he has had 10cm of his small intestine removed which fortunately was from the later part of his intestines, so the plan is to make him nil by mouth for 10 days, the end of his small intestine is now poking through a hole in his belly (stoma i beleive this is called) to which they will stick a colostomy type bag over the hole, then after the 10 days of nil by mouth they will slowly build him up on milk, which will pass through the rest of his small intestine and waste out through the bag.
for the time being he will be fed and hydrated via a drip and the large intestine will still process this how it would normally and pass it as normal.....

so now he has to stay in childrens hospital for who knows how long, away from his brother and will more than likely fall behind in progress and not look anything like the identical twin he should be and we will probs be visiting him with his brother at the rate alfie is developing.... i really hope more than anything he is out before xmas...

today's update

just got back from seeing them today, alfie is still on c-pap sometimes his sats are good for hours at a time & then sometimes they keep flicking up & down & causing the nurses some concern... we've had him out for cuddles & he really really likes this... i think all he needs is his mom & dad looking after him 24/7. he's took really well to the milk is now on 10ml/hour of breast milk with caffine & vitamins added to it when needed.
the only bad thing to report about alfie is he has a small bleed in the fluid part oft he brain but they dont expect this to do any harm just yet and whilst scanning the brain they have found a small white spot on the movement side of the brain & basicly give us the heads up on possible cerebral palsy but we wont know untill he starts crawling & walking how badly it's effected him

thomas is just chilling, starting to breath better now so maybe the pda is starting to get better and has had a brain scan with the smallest of bleeds in the fluid part again but nothing else to report there, he's just waiting to basicly get back on to the milk, all 3 parts of his bowel are now working, they seen movements from all 3 areas so they are just waiting for him to get more comfortable

so thats a huge update for you all... i hope you can take the time to read through it all


oh & a picture of each of them

alfie on low flow with a dummy in

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0217.jpg

thomas in his new home

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/wilf2k/Thomas%20and%20Alfie%20born%2024082011/IMAG0219.jpg

 

[kimbotrav]

beautiful babys congratulations xxxxx

 

[kimbotrav]

i really hope they are home in no time and they grow stronger evryday xxxxx

 

[25weeker]

sounds like you have had a rollercoaster week.

Sorry to hear Thomas has been transferred but glad he is on the mend. My lo had a PDA and they treated it with medication. The first dose didn't close it and they started a second but she developed sepsis so they stopped it. When she had finished the antibiotics her PDA has shrunk as well. It didn't fully close until term but was small enough to not affect her.

Until my lo came off oxygen at 38 weeks her sats swung a lot. For the nurses that knew her they would leave her to self correct but when a new nurse came on she spent the shift turning her oxygen up and down.

My daughter had a big bleed and we were also told she had a high chance of CP. She is 20 months now and to date she is not showing any signs the bleed has affected her.

I hope next week is much calmer for you all xx

 

[PleaseBaby]

Massive hugs. Sounds like you need them. It must be so much tougher having to go through this twice at the same time. My little girl had a PDA but it looked like its closed on the last echo. She was 36 weeks then. Shes been left with other heart problems though. I hope your boys continue to be fighters. They are absolutey gorgeous! x

 

[mummy to be86]

another small update thomas has started back on the milk and they are very happy with his stoma

alfie on the other hand is on 22ml of EBM every 2 hours, is holding his own temperature with clothes & blanket on, still no sign of him coming off CPAP.

one small worrying thing is alfie & 2 other babies in the unit have managed to get MSSA which is a strain of MRSA... very annoyed about this... anyone else have this kind of problem with their babies in SCBU???

 

[vermeil]

oooh what a tough week... but overall sounds good! Thank you so much for the updates! Come on little guys, rest up, gain some strength and make your parents proud!

My little guy also had multiple infections while in the nicu - they just seem inevitable, what with all the tubes and manipulations these poor guys get in a day but they are easily treated. I remember well the ups and downs of desats! Some days were great, others he would dip to 40 constantly, making all the machines beep It`s amazing that alfie is already being weaned on cpap! It took my guy months to get to that point. And glad to hear thomas is recovering well from his operation! Isn`t it amazing what strong fighters these little guys are. My son was a 27 weeker too so I always follow other mom`s stories closely, it`s sort of an odd kinship, can`t really explain it haha. Keep us posted!

 

[Agiboma]

congrats on your beautiful babies