here to go back to the starting page.November 2, 1998
Chloe and Shannon were born at 2:10pm and 2:12pm via Ceserian Section at Scunthorpe General Hospital, since this moment everybody has been asking about them so this web-site has been designed to tell everyone about the life of the twins
The first time we saw the girls was in the operating theatre having all the tests done after this they were taken away to the NICU unit, the next time I saw them was 4 hours later, Chloe was in an incubator because she had a problem with her heartbeat and Shannon was in a normal cot both had tubes going down their noses and also dextrose (10%) drips running at 8ml per hour, this was due to them both having low blood sugar levels which is normal in premature babies.
Fortunetly for us both girls were breathing on their own without the help of ventilators. The staff nurse took two photos of the babies and then told me that they needed to rest so I had to leave them sleeping.
Emma had to stay in the delivery suite over night so that the midwives could keep an close eye on her blood pressure, if she hadn't had Pre-exclampsia she would of gone back down to the Post-Natal Ward. At around 11pm Emma's blood pressure rose to 160/101 so she was given a tablet to push the pressure down again. After this both mother and babies had a good night.
On the second day I arrived at the hospital at 9:30am and was told that Emma would be going down the the Post-Natal Ward at lunchtime and that we could go see the twins at anytime we liked.
November 3, 1998
On the second day I had a slight disappointment to see that Shannon was now in an incubator but was relieved to here that it was just because she was getting too cold in the cot, Chloe was still in her incubator and she was now off continous monitoring for her heartbeat. Both babies were on dextrose still and also having continous feeds at 8mls per hour via a naso-gastric tube.
Both me and Emma were surprised that the Staff Nurses said we could have the twins out for a cuddle (Kangaroo Care) because we thought they would be too ill.
November 4, 1998
I was back at work on day 3 so was unable to see the babies until 6:30pm although Emma was still with the babies - she spent most of the afternoon with them, and was allowed to do Chloe's cares (ie. nappy change and top & tail wash!), when I arrived at 6:30pm Emma was sat down cuddling Shannon and I was just in time to sit and take Chloe, it was then that the Staff Nurse told us that both babies were to go `under the light` to get reduce their bilirubin levels which had rose just above the treatable levels.
The Doctor asked the Staff Nurses to put the twins back into their incubators after about and hour of us handling them so he could start the Photo-therapy treatment, and also so they could increase the fluids going into the babies during their sunbathing time.
November 5, 1998
I took the day off work today because Emma was very emotional the previous night because of the tubes and wires on the babies and the photo-therapy treatment. Both babies today looked very relaxed under the ultra-violet light, Shannon was on her back looking around and Chloe was laid on her tummy with her legs up to her bottom which looked very funny. As that Emma was still an inmate of the Post-Natal Ward she had to keep going back for midwives to do blood pressure tests and other post-natal checks on her, so we didn't spend an awful lot of time with the twins today.
November 6, 1998
Today Emma was discharged from the Post-Natal Ward, she couldn't she the babies until after 5pm because she had to wait until her consultant to check her over, he was busy and couldn't put a time on when he was arriving. I finished work at 4:30pm and went straight to the hospital, and then up to the NICU unit - both babies had been moved to another room but were still under the photo-therapy treatment.
Emma did the cares for Shannon and then we both were told we could hold the babies for a short time but they needed to go back under the light as soon as possible. Shannon also today had a large tummy which the Staff Nurse wasn't too happy about so she called the doctor who said that her tummy was soft but he wanted to do an x-ray on her tummy to be on the safe side. We left the hospital at around 8:30pm, I called back at 11pm to be told that the x-ray should nothing abnormal up and that Shannon had passed a dark stool and no longer had a large tummy and that she was feeding well - she had taken 23ml via a bottle and Chloe was still on continous feeds but only on 12mls per hour.
Click here for the second section of Shannon & Chloe's time in the NICU.
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