I have already posted this on FaceBook and Twitter and told family and friends, nonetheless I want to mark the occasion here on my blog:
On Monday the 23rd July 2012 my girlfriend of some 10 years Tash gave birth to our twins, and our daughter Luca and son Finlay were born at 04:51 and 04:53 respectively.
Our hospital was Kings in London, England (for the benefit of any international readers). Tash and I had made a birthing plan which included using a birthing pool for pain relief and delivering the twins naturally unless there was a medical reason not to at any point. Unfortunately during the later stages of labour Finn's heart rate became elevated and didn't return to normal after a period of monitoring, so our best made plans somewhat went out of the window as an emergency c-section suddenly became our only option to ensure safe delivery of the twins. Tash was an absolute soldier and the staff at Kings mostly did a fantastic job, apart from the moment when they left me waiting alone outside theatre without first having told me what the plan was (i.e. that someone was getting me some scrubs and I would be able to enter theatre shortly to support Tash). Our midwife Jean from the Paxton Group Practice was an absolute hero in providing fantastic continuity of care to Tash, before, during and after the labour. Jean's colleagues Jackie, Emma and Veronica have also provided fantastic post natal support and advice for which we are incredibly grateful.
We ended up staying in the post-natal ward for a few days before being discharged, Little Finn had some blood sugar issues at birth and had to spend a couple of days in the special care ward (SCBU), however he was quickly put right and was discharged from SCBU so he could rejoin his sister and us in the post-natal ward. Tash has coped with everything brilliantly and is recovering really well from her c-section, she was up and moving around the day after the birth which is testament both to her courage and the advances in c-section techniques.
One thing I will not miss was sleeping on the hospital floor for the 4 or 5 nights we were at the hospital, that combined with the lack of sleep, canteen food and the constant activity of the staff coming in and out made it a pretty tough few days in terms of keeping our heads together whilst we were adapting to being new parents, so we were pleased when we were told that everything was in order for us to be discharged and to go home and start our new family life together.
As I'm writing this we have now been home for 2 weeks, Tash and I are absolutely knackered but despite the lack of sleep we are loving every moment of getting to know the twins. They don't do much other than eat and sleep at the moment but already their individual personalities are so apparent and we're loving getting to know them whilst we learn the parenting ropes. I have been really fortunate that my current client has agreed to me taking 3 weeks leave from the project, this has been an invaluable time and I am feeling both sad and yet also super excited to be returning to work this coming Monday.
So without further ado I would like to welcome Finlay and Luca to the world and our family, here's to many many happy years together!
