Our Twins Early Home Birth & NICU Journey

After more than three years of struggling with infertility due to PCOS, my husband and I miraculously conceived naturally, two months before we were planning to start fertility treatments. We got an even bigger blessing when we found out we were having twins, a boy and a girl.

I was having a pretty smooth pregnancy- not many uncomfortable symptoms, and all of my appointments were going well. My last appointment was a level 2 ultrasound at 24 weeks. The night of 25 weeks 5 days, I had trouble sleeping, had very mild lower back pain (which my doctor had said was normal) and I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. At 5am, I got one cramp, rushed to the bathroom, and my mucus plug fell out. My husband woke up, called 911, and began to help me.

My husband and I delivered both babies by ourselves, before paramedics arrived. My son, Baby A, came first, right after the mucus plug, and fell in the toilet. It was so fast I wasn’t able to catch him. I did not expect him to be alive. I saw him move and I grabbed him and began to try to help him. Within a couple of minutes, my daughter, Baby B, started coming out of me, breeched (feet first). I had to carefully pull her out of me. The babies were not breathing, so I opened up their mouths, tapped on their chests, and they both began to breathe. I sat on the toilet and my husband on the floor, both holding the babies in shock.

While we were on the phone with dispatch, the dispatcher told us to cut the umbilical cords by clamping them. We were not comfortable with this, so we went with our guts and did not cut the cords. We later found out from our doctors that this helped save the babies’ lives, since they continued to get nutrients and blood flow from the cords.

Paramedics finally arrived and rushed us to the nearest hospital in 3 separate ambulances. The babies were then transferred to a Level 4 NICU in the nearest big city. I stayed at the first hospital for a few hours, where I delivered the placentas and got checked out by my OB.

James Robert was born 2lb3oz and 14.4 inches long, Vera May was 2lb1oz and 13.8 inches long. James was in the NICU/ICC for 112 days, Vera for 99 days. They both overcame many serious health problems, with James having a lot more complications than Vera. We had many days where we did not know if we would ever be able to take either baby home.

James and Vera are now 14.5 months old. They are happy, healthy, and thriving! They are involved in Early Intervention through our local school district, and are still followed by many specialist doctors. They are only supposed to be technically 11 months developmentally for their adjusted age, but our therapists say they are ahead of that. Vera is walking, and James is close behind!

Our doctors and nurses have called James and Vera true “miracle babies”, and I believe them. I cannot believe what our family has been through, but I am so fortunate and proud of what we have overcome.

-NICUMama Dana