Introducing Pebbles and Bambam

Megan and Michael's precious baby daughters came into the world on Friday the 21st of October.
Pebbles was first out at 3.42pm and her sister was just a minute behind her.

Words can't do justice to the wave of emotion that hit us when we first met them. Feelings of joy, responsibility, bewilderment, fear, elation and pure love overcame us.

They arrived via C-Section at just 30 weeks because they had an uneven distribution of goodness from their placenta (they are identical so they shared it). Little Bambam was only getting about 15% of the goodness and nutrition of the placenta and had been growing at a much smaller rate than her sister.

Megan was absolutely brilliant in the operation and was conscious throughout. We were both delighted to hear a big healthy cry from Pebbles and then soon after a slightly more muted effort from Bambam. The delivery theatre was incredibly busy with about 15 people in attendance (and yes they were all doing a job).

Our two specialists who have guided us, taught us and helped make important decisions through the pregnancy were very hands on in the delivery. Fellow Dr Jay Marlow conducted the surgery and was assisted by the head of the High Risk team Jeremy Tuohy. Megan and I joked in the theatre that we got the dream team.

Once born the babies were swiftly taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they were given an amazing amount of equipment to help monitor and nourish them through the next few weeks. It is certainly daunting at first to see all of the gizmos and gadgets but when we look into the incubators we only have eye for our sweet girls.

Megan is recovering well, she's been walking short distances and wheel-chairing all over the show. She is eating and drinking small amounts, and is doing better than either of us could have hoped for. This is no doubt helped by that surge of joy she feels every time we pop down to the NICU and see our daughters.

The twins will be named before too long. So this is the last time we'll be calling them by their working titles. This is Pebbles... her delivery weight was 1416grams. The thing on her head is called a CPAP, and it is like a little gas mask that helps her breathe. The what-sit on her foot monitors the oxygen in her bloodstream. She's doing really well!

And this is Bambam, she weighed in at just 760grams. You'll notice she appears a lot smaller than her Sister and has a much rosier complexion. The NICU team have heaps of tricks up their sleeve to help her start to catch up with her sister, but this means she has more gizmos for now. She has a tube into her bellybutton, a "long line" IV drip in her foot and another in her hand.

Even though we are touching them in some of these photos, it is generally discouraged. They haven't got very good immunity levels yet, so we are going to back off from hands on apart from in the scheduled "care sessions".  In the time ahead Megan and I will learn to help with these six hourly sessions, where they are cleaned, changed, have their temperatures taken and their cuffs popped on different limbs. Then a little later we will get to have cuddle times with each of them (probably with Pebbles first). We can't wait.

For the meantime all of us have to look at them and love them from afar, but that isn't hard.

Next time we update this our girls will have names! Stay tuned.