One year ago today

As soon as the boys were born, I got to hold them for about two seconds and they were taken to the special care nursery where they would remain for 11 days. We were welcome to visit them day or night but they had to stay in there with restricted visitors and under the close watch of the nurses. After an hour and a half I felt up to going to the nursery so Jason wheeled me down so we could see them. Although these pictures weren't taken until later on the morning of the 15th, this is what they looked like snuggled up with each other in their little incubator. Ethan was always on the left and Owen was always on the right so the nurses could keep them straight without checking their ID bracelets every time.

At this point the boys still didn't have names and the nurses were calling them "Big Bear" (Ethan) and "Little Bear" (Owen).







Ethan only a few hours old.



Owen only a few hours old.



Random notes on the boys:

They are identical twins. How rare is this? Well only 0.2% of the world population is an identical twin. Identical twins only make up 8% of all twins. That's pretty rare. Only my boys are even rarer than that. They are mono/mono twins meaning that not only did they share a placenta like all identical twins do, but they also shared an amniotic sac which is very rare. Only 1-2% of identical twins share an amniotic sac.

The doctor said they were miracle babies and here is why (facts taken from wikipedia):

Mono/mono twins have an overall in-utero mortality of about 50 percent, principally due to cord entanglement prior to 32 weeks gestation. Mono twins have about a 25 percent mortality due to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (my boys didn't have this luckily). Many times, monoamniotic twins are delivered at 32 weeks electively for the safety of the babies.

When did I deliver? 37 weeks because they had no idea that they were mono mono twins. They thought there were two amniotic sacs. Had they known the sac was shared, they would have been delivered at 32 weeks by cesarian section. The doctor was shocked that I had made it to 37 weeks because he said that I probably should have lost them with it being so late in the game and with the risk of them being tangled being so high (we'd soon find out that yes they were indeed tangled and that Owen had stopped growing as a result). Anyway, it all worked out in the end but it's scary to think of what might have happened.

Just a random note on their stay in the nursery. The nurses told us that because the babies don't wear their own name on their ID bracelets, it was easier for them to remember which baby was which by naming baby A (first baby out) with the name that came first alphabetically and baby B (last out) with the name that came second alphabetically. We ended up following this by coincidence because baby A was always going to be Ethan. There was a set of fraternal girl twins born the next day and they didn't follow the alphabetical trick and the nurses found it very confusing.

I hope that wasn't boring. Just a few random things off the top of my head as we celebrate the boys' birthday.

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking!

Comments

Sheri said…
Happy Birthday Ethan & Owen! I hope they have a wonderful birthday party today!
Melissa said…
It is so hard to believe that it's been a year! It seems like just yesterday, but at the same time it seems like they've always been a part of the family.

Such precious little miracles those boys are! I will never forget the day they were born and sneaking in to the nursery to see them! Can't hold me back!
Unknown said…
Happy Birthday to your boys! Just peeking in here to say hi through a link from Chrissy W's blog:)

Your boys are such miracles! I had mono/mono boys with a frat girl (triplets) in 2006, and my boys had TTTS. Sadly, one is now in heaven, but still feeling so blessed that we have our other son and daughter here with us:) So glad you did not have to go through that and the boys are safe and healthy!!!
Side by Side said…
My girls are fraternal...and I named them in alpha order.

It actually worked out well for us as A was born first but C is taller. It would not have been so good the other way around.

Your boys are little miracles. Thanks for sharing. I love seeing blogs by other moms of multiples. :)