First Step!

We had a fabulous time at Matthew's Second Birthday Party this afternoon. The boys decided their favourite thing was the slide and here they are patiently waiting their turns...

They were both full of cold, but were so happy all afternoon. I can't believe they are getting so grown up. But they are and it's wonderful to see them starting to play properly with their friends. I have a feeling we are in for lots of fun in the months to come oh and the big news of today was that David (on the right) took his first step at the party! Come on lads, you've been newborns long enough... Mummy realises it's time for you to grow up a little bit. Not too much though. xxx

The scientist, the glazier, the florist and the nanny....

What could these four people have in common?

They are all Mummies of twins and  members of Twintastic and they all went out for a fabulous dinner last night! Who would know we all did such different jobs before having babies?

It was lovely to sit down and have a proper chat without running around after babies!

Thanks ladies for a fab night out.

x

One and a half years!

One and a half years. 18 months. That's how long I have been Mummy.  That's how long it's been since my gorgeous L'il Bundles finally arrived. It feels like only yesterday, but I can't imagine life without them now.

18 months... it's not a long time, but while we were trying to have a family every month felt like an eternity. To be a family seemed like an unachievable goal. But we did it. We got there, with a little help along the way.

I got the most help from my friends on an internet forum that we'll call the PP. We'd all got married and then decided to start a family. Some were lucky and got pregnant within a couple of months. For others it took a little longer. Others got pregnant and then had miscarriages or lost babies later on in pregnancy. Others sadly had to deal with neonatal death. All these women are incredibly strong, brave women who inspired me to keep on keeping on.

My friends on the PP informed me about all kinds of alternative therapies from nutritional therapy, reflexology, acupuncture and hypnotherapy. Without the recommendation to try acupuncture I wouldn't have found my wonderful fertility consultant Mr Watson.

Mr Watson, what a wonderful man. I remember the first time I went to see him. I took my charts and letters from the NHS with the results of all the tests I'd undergone and the medication I was taking. He asked me how I felt on the medication (Metformin) and I remember telling him, as tears rolled down my cheeks, that it made me feel dreadful. That I couldn't face eating as I felt permanently sick, but that I had to eat to take the medication and that the medication was my only hope that I'd have a family one day. He told me to stop taking it immediately and as I was at the right point in my cycle he prescribed Clomid for me. Clomid.. the drug I'd been after on the NHS for 2 years. 20 minutes with Mr W and there it was, a little prescription which could potentially hold the key to my dreams.

The clomid didn't work. It gave me terrible headaches, mood swings and hot flushes. After 3 cycles of that Mr W scrapped that and put me on Tamoxifen, which basically does the same as Clomid but without the side effects. It did work in that I got pregnant, but that was my first biochemical pregnancy and I lost the baby before I even knew it was there.

By this time, I was 39 and Mr W decided it was time for drastic action. IVF with ICSI. I responded well, but slowly to my drugs and it worked! But again it was another biochemical pregnancy and I lost that baby two days after I found out s/he was there.

Never mind, we'll try again... cycle two added some steroids in to the mix and yes, it worked... but no, yet again it was a biochemical pregnancy and again we grieved for what so nearly was.

Mr W said we should take a short break for a few months to let my body recover from all the fertility drugs we'd put into it in the past year. We planned a holiday to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand and had a fantastic time. We discussed adopting a family and did some reading while we were away. One night we went to the Polynesian Spa. This is an amazing hot springs in Rotarua. We bathed in the hot waters beneath the stars and formulated our plan. We'd try ICSI one more time. If it didn't work, that was it. Adoption would be the way to our family.

June 2008 found us back at the clinic with Mr W. We explained that this would be our last shot and we wanted to put everything into it. We didn't want to leave anything to chance. So this time I responded well to the drugs. I produced 20 eggs from 12 follicles and 10 fertilised. When my embryos were 5 days old, two were transferred back into me... 1st August 2008 was the day we found out that I was very, very pregnant. My HCG levels were high and it looked like the steroids, extra progesterone injections and Clexane injections had done the trick. I WAS PREGNANT AT LAST!

Two weeks later we went for our first scan. Mr W asked me how I was feeling... I said, no symptoms at all. Mr W pulled a face but got me to hop up on the couch and began to scan me... "There's a heartbeat," he said

"Only one?" I asked forlornly...

"Nope, there's another heartbeat!"

Oh my goodness my dreams of being a mummy to two children looked like they were going to come true!

The weeks went on and we had a scan every other week in the early weeks to see how the babies were getting on. Every week they were there, still strong and getting bigger every week.

When I was 11 weeks pregnant we went along for our NHS booking in appointment and 11 week scan. It was during this scan, which used a much more powerful scanner than was available at our fertility clinic, that we discovered that the L'il bundles were identical twins and also that there had been a third baby who had stopped developing at 6 weeks. So I had been pregnant with triplets. We had a moment of sadness, but then relief filled us that not only were our bundles still there and still strong, but that there were two of them. Two babies is plenty. Two babies was what I'd dreamed of for years.

The weeks and months went on. The pregnancy was easy. The only problem I had was that my left leg would go numb if I stood or walked for more than 10 minutes. But that was a small price to pay for the joy that was to come.

On the 16th March 2009 David and Joseph were born at 15.33 and 15.34. Two perfect baby boys.

What gorgeousness. Could these beautiful boys really be mine? Surely it's a dream?

No, these boys are my boys. Every day has been a joy since they have arrived. Every day I have smiled. Sometimes I shed a tear of joy because I am Mummy and David and Joe are my sons.

Happy 18 month Birthday boys! We love you to infinity, beyond and back again.

x

Thirteen is our new lucky number!

A couple of hours after we got back from the lighthouse, there was a knocking at our door. It was Gerard to let us know that Bridget had collapsed and they were taking her into the hospital. We asked if there was anything we could do to help, but he said no and he'd let us know in the morning what was going on. Neil was very upset and we were both very concerned. We didn't sleep that much that night for worrying about Bridget.

In the morning we saw Gerard again who told us he was going in to the hospital and he'd let us know how Bridget was in the evening. He'd called his sons and they were on their way to be with him. Luckily one of his sons was in Paris, so  not too far away, however the other son was in Numea which is in the South Pacific... he should be there by now.

Anyway, we decided that we'd take a stroll into the village to buy some fresh croissants for breakfast and another baguette for dinner. As we walked past our hire car, we noticed a scratch at the bottom of the wheel arch that neither of us had noticed before. To be honest, we hadn't checked the car properly when we picked it up and the hirecar man had vanished as soon as he'd handed over the carseats. Neil decided that we'd leave for the airport at 6.30 instead of 7.30 as originally planned so that if there were going to be any problems with the car having a scratch we could sort it out! Once the croissants were munched we quickly packed up most of our belongings so that we didn't have to pack too much when we got back from the beach in the afternoon. We went back to the lighthouse and had lunch in one of the many restaurants there.

Off we went to the beach. A different one this time. It was a lovely beach with fine sand, but didn't have the lagoon our original beach had. The boys were quite tired and didn't stray far from the towels... they spent some time looking at books and bashing a bucket with a spade, but after about an hour we went back to the house.

We made tea for the boys and gave them another bath. Got ourselves showered and made some sandwiches to eat at the airport before we took off. Neil gave the house a good cleaning and we started to pack up the car. Gerard came over to let us know that Bridget had a suspected blocked artery in her brain. She could move, but couldn't speak. We asked again if there was anything we could do or call any of the family, but he asked us not to until he knew more about her condition. We thanked him for the hospitality he and Bridget had shown  us while we were there and said our goodbyes.

Off we went back to the airport... Oh dear, a traffic jam. Neil doesn't cope well with traffic jams... He was worrying about the scratch on the car and whether we'd get to the airport before the hirecar people shut up shop and we had to drop the keys in the late box. Luckily we got there in time. Neil leapt out of the car to find a man while I looked for a space to park the car in... I drove into a space and got out of the car to start unloading... then I noticed it... yes, we were parked in bay 13! Oh no... this would mean bad news no doubt! But no, the man checked all around the car, checked it was full of fuel, finished off the paperwork and all was well.

We munched our sandwiches while the boys drank their milk and then we went into the terminal to check in... The lady checked in Neil and the boys and then asked me what my name was... "Sharon Young" I replied.

"I can't find you on the computer" she said...

Neil handed over all our paperwork which clearly said a ticket was booked and paid for in my name...

"Hmmm," said the French Easyjet lady...

This is not good, thought I....

"Hmmm," the French Easyjet lady said again and wandered off.

Eventually she came back again.

"I can find you on the Easyjet computer, but not this one" She tapped some keys on her computer and apparently I was all booked in... but... the flight was full and it was the last Easyjet flight of the year from La Rochelle to Gatwick and someone would have to be offloaded...

Blimey I felt bad for that person, but hey, we knew we'd booked and paid so it wasn't our fault that someone had left my name off the list. I put it to the back of my mind and decided not to worry about it.

Eventually the boys fell asleep in the buggies. I managed to transfer David from buggy to sling without waking him up. I also held a sleeping Joe while Neil collapsed the buggies and put them in the travel bags. Unfortunately Joe woke up while we were putting him in the sling, but he was very good and didn't cry.

We got on the plane, David still sleeping, strapped myself in, removed David from the sling and strapped him to me... David still sleeping... flew all the way home, got off the plane and David finally woke up as we were getting on the bus to the car park! Joe meanwhile had not gone back to sleep. He made friends with a little girl sitting in front of us called Emily and they played peepo all the way home.

We got home at 1am and both boys went straight to bed and slept through until 7am... followed by a 4 hour nap at 10 until 2pm...

Update on Bridget is that she's moving and speaking a bit, but is still in intensive care. Really hoping she makes a full recovery.

Adventures on Ile de Re

Why don't the hire car companies fit the carseats in the car for you? The one's we were provided with were rubbish. They fitted tightly to the back of the seat, but the front of the carseat lifted up when you tightened the seatbelts... didn't fill me with confidence and I had two to worry about... oh yes, and they were slightly different as well and the only guide we had to go by was the one on the sticker on the side of the seat...

Anyway, once the seats were fitted, off we set for le Pont de Re. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the bridge was just outside the airport. We waved at La Pallise where our ship, Braemar moored last year during the cruise we went on. About 45 minutes later we arrived at Bridgit and Gerard's house in Les Portes. Bridget settled us in and left us to it. We had a quick trip to Carrefour for essential supplies and got the boys off to bed.

Next morning we went for a walk into the village centre and had a drink sitting outside in the sunshine. How very pleasant. A baguette was purchased and we went home to make a picnic to take to the beach.

The beach, the beach the wonderful beach! It was perfect. La plage des Ballaines... it has WW2 bunkers which provided the perfect shade, but best of all, when the tide went out, it left behind a lagoon of water about 2 - 3 inches deep which was perfect for small boys to splash around and crawl in... what a wonderful time they had...

They splashed and crawled in the lagoon for two hours. They got absolutely covered in sand. It was everywhere... they had to be dunked in the Atlantic to get the worst of it off them and good old talc took care of the rest, well until we got home and the bath got the bits that we didn't even know sand could get into! Did we need buckets and spades? No! did we build even one castle? No! All we did was splash and splash and splash.

We had so much fun we went back again the next day and did it all over again.

So Saturday, after the beach, we were back at the house having tea when Auntie Bridget popped over for a chat. The boys loved her and she loved them. They played Peepo together and she really enjoyed watching them crawling around the garden. We had a lovely time together. Then we decided to go down to the lighthouse. We'd tried to go on Friday, but it was really busy and we couldn't get parked, so we thought that leaving it until later in the day might be a good idea... and it was! The sun was beginning to set and it had cooled down lots.

Many years ago, when Neil was a small boy aged about 5 years old, he went to this lighthouse with his parents and brothers Colin and Rob. Neil's parents died 4 years ago and Colin died a long time ago from Muscular Dystrophy. Anyway, when they were there, a photo was taken of the three of them sitting on the steps of the lighthouse... we decided we were going to recreate this photo with our two boys and here it is....

It's not a great photo, mainly because it was taken on my iPhone, but also because we had to rush it as they were both about to go crawling off in different directions, but it means a lot to me that we could take this photo.

Neil then went up the lighthouse and came back down again marvelling at his dad who all those years ago had taken Colin up the lighthouse on his back... 257 steps apparently!

So the end of another lovely day. We like Ile de Re.

Our first flight as a family of four! Went quite well really.

Short version:

So on Thursday the 2nd September we took the boys on their first aeroplane ride to France. They were very good. David sat on Neil's knee and spent the whole flight looking out of the window. I had Joe who spent the whole flight either banging on his window (oh yeah, we had a whole row of seats each as the flight was empty!) or pulling the tray up and down! We spent a lot of time at the beach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and flew back home again late on Sunday evening, we all had a great time.

Long Version:

The weekend started well, we left home at the appointed time and hit no traffic on the M25 on the way to Gatwick. We found the long stay car park and a fabulous wide space for the car. I parked the car and opened the boot to get the buggies out for the boys. I had to drag a couple of bags off the top of the buggies to get to them and as I was doing this said to Neil "where did you put the changing bag?"

"I thought you put it in!" he said desperately. "I thought you put it in" I said desperately. "You always put it in!" he said... "You said you were putting the bags in the car!" I said... actually, all of this was said and not shouted, it was quite a civilised conversation really considering the changing bag contained my purse with my credit card in it which was needed in France for our car hire!

Neil had one of his little Drama Queen moments, where he span around with his hands clutching his head whilst bending in the middle. I waited til he finished his moment. Then said, "let's not waste time having a hissy fit, let's think about this. What's in the bag?"

We came up with my purse, bibs, spoons, beakers, nappies, wipes and the boys' picnic lunch so not too bad then.... but then we remembered.... The CAMERA! Oh no! Neil had asked me not to bring my big new camera as it would take up a lot of space in our already limited baggage allowance, so we'd popped the little point and shoot in the changing bag. Gutted, absolutely gutted. We both checked our watches only to discover that I'd forgotten to put mine on and also the fact that we didn't have time to make a run back home to fetch the changing bag... "It's ok!" I said whipping my hand into the air "I have the iPhone, we can take pictures on that!" So that drama was over then. Neil called Europcar and explained the situation to them. They said so long as we had another credit card and my driving licence, we'd be ok. We did, so that was ok.

So we popped the boys in the buggies, clipped them together with our buggy clips, got the rest of the luggage (blimey you need a lot for a weekend when you have twins) and set off for the bus stop. Luckily the bus was not busy and the driver let us on board without collapsing the buggies. Soon we were at the terminal and hopped, as elegantly as you can when you have twins, two suitcases and one piece of hand baggage, off the bus (don't forget the changing bag was at home, so I didn't have any handbaggage!) I clipped the buggies back together again and Neil acquired a trolley for the cases, we were off to check in... along the way, many people marvelled at the fact that we have twins... yes, it's not unusual for us, please mind out of the way was what I was thinking as I had to ask umpteen people to excuse me so I could get by. Two single buggies clipped together are a lot wider than you'd think!

The luggage was checked in and off we set to go through security. Ooooookay, so pop the one piece of handbaggage on the conveyor, pop the phones and watch in a box on the conveyor, remove shoes, remove babies from buggies give them both to their mother and collapse the buggies, place the buggies on the conveyor, Neil goes through the thingy and beeps... oh cripes, he forgot to take off his belt so he's searched... meanwhile I am still holding two babies... about 42lb worth of babies, they're getting a bit heavy but I have to answer the following questions...

"Do you have any liquids Madam?"

"No."

"Nothing for the babies madam?"

"No"

"Are you sure madam?"

"Yes... we left the changing bag at home... all the liquids are in that on the kitchen table"

"Oh Dear"

"yes" Finally I can go through the thingy and even though I'm carrying two babies I don't beep! Halleluliah... what's that? you want to search all three of us? Sigh, ok. So one baby given to Neil, Davy is searched and given to Neil, I'm searched and Joe is given to me to be searched... Yaaay! the searching is over, just need to put the buggies up again now. Are you exhausted yet? We were!

So, we were through security... next stop Boots. Thank Goodness for Boots. It has all you need when you have left your changing bag at home. Baby food, spoons, bibs, beakers, nappies, wipes and nappy sacks as well as lunch for Mummy and Daddy... oh throw in some suncream as well... Shush Joe, stop whinging, we're nearly finished.... Oh for goodness sakes, who's chatting to him now? Oh, it's Esther Rantzen! She's amusing my child while I shop... marvellous. She's a good egg and much shorter and slimmer in real life! I wonder where she was off to for her holidays!

Finally we could sit down and relax for a while. We fed the boys, who seemed to enjoy their jarred baby mush rather than the philadelphia and carrot sandwiches they were supposed to be eating. We had a quick wander around Duty Free and then meandered our way over to the departure gate. Luckily the plane was mostly empty and once we were on board, which was worry free thanks to the Connecta Slings we sat down to enjoy our flights. David is a little plane spotter and is frequently to be found waving at aeroplanes through our living room window... (we live about 2 miles from the end of the Heathrow runway). He was beside himself with all the planes he could see. I don't think he actually realised he was on one himself though. Indeed, his first word was "Ayer" which is short for Aeroplane. Joe was sitting with me and spent most of his flight pulling his tray up and down or banging on the window. They were both very good.

An hour later and we were there... La Rochelle Airport in France! We got through immigration very quickly and soon had our hire car and two car seats.... the man said he was very busy so if we could see any scratches on the car to come back and let him know... meanwhile, he hopped into another car and vanished... anyway, never mind, we put the car seats in the car along with the boys and all the luggage and set off for Auntie Bridget's house on Ile de Re....

More to come later.....