Before I go to bed tonight I want to put up some pictures of the boys from birth, as in the header, Dillan is the darker one, jamie fairer

Well today has been one hell of a day. The twins have been driving me mad all day long. They usually sleep together but today they have been taking it in turns thus not allowing me to get a minutes peace. They started going through the night about 6 weeks ago which was great as before they were up every 2-3 hours and I can honestly say now that looking back, I have no idea how on earth I got through that. My partner always said that he would help during the night with the babies whilst I was pregnant, but now they are here, its a completely different story. Im actually quite sure he just pretends to be asleep because their crying during the night never seemed to make him stir! I do get resentful of this sometimes and his excuse is " oh well i have to work in the morning" Well what the bloody hell do I do from the minute I wake? Anyway we got them into a routine the week after they came back from hospital and made sure we bathed them at the same time each night. It has finally paid off which is great as like tonight for example, I put them to bed at 8 and hopefully they will stay asleep until about 6.30-7.00 Fingers crossed.

15 weeks pewgnant bump

This birth story is by myself, the author of this blog

It was January 31st 2007 when I found out I was pregnant and it was a bit of a shock as I'm a student midwife with only a year to go until qualifying at the time! Anyway i knew it would be tough with another one but thats just life. I kad my first ultrasound scan at arouns 9 weeks and we had another shock when we were told it was twins! I knew it was going to be a tough ride. The early part of the pregnancy went quite smooth, I had slight morning sickness between 9 and 12 weeks and then I felt great. Mind you I started showing at 12 weeks!

AT the 20 week scan we were told it was boys and they were not identical, by this point I was getting so excited but still had so much to do. I was still working and studying- handing in assignments whilst looking after my eldest and delivering other womens babies, phew!

At 26 weeks we had a bit of a scare as we thought the babies were coming. I started getting really strong braxton hicks (practice contractions) and after an over night stay in hospital, everything stopped. I was given two shots of steroids to strengthen the babies lungs just incase.

By 28 weeks I was the size of a woman at full term and felt I had to stop working and defer from my course for a while. At this point I was having growth scans every two weeks and although one of the twins was a lot smaller than the other, he was still growing ok. Well this all changed at 33 weeks when he stopped growing altogether :(

After keeping me in over the weekend when I was 34 weeks 4 days to monitor the heartbeats 4 hourly, I was told I would need an emergency c- section as the placenta was not functioning properly for that twin. I was absolutely gutted as I hoped for a natural birth and seeing women go through the recovery of a c-section, I knew I was going to hate it but I had no choice as the life of my baby was at stake. The operation was planned for that evening and in the meantime, I went home to collect a few more things and make sure my eldest had clean school clothes ( he was due to start a new school the next day). Back at the hospital the midwives checked me over again and listened in on the babies then it was just a case of waiting. Finally I got taken to theatre at 2 am, epidural given and hey presto Dillan was born first at 2.26am weighing in at 4lb 4 and jamie followed a minute later weighing in at 4lb 14. I saw them briefly before the were whisked away to the neonatal unit. They were born screaming their heads off so that reassured me somewhat! After a 3 week stay in hospital, they were allowed home with us. Thats when all the fun began.....

nine weeks scan picture

As promised here are some 4d scan pictures we had done at 24 weeks gestation, twin 1 is dillan, he was cephalic (head down) and twin two was Jamie who was head up (breech):

Im Marley, mother of 3 boys aged 7 and twins aged 4 1/2 months. I decided to start a blog as a way of remembering the babies development as I dont remember much of my first sons early years. Dillan and Jamie were born 4th September 2007 by c-section at 34 weeks gestation as Dillan had stopped growing in the womb. It wasnt the ideal way to give birth but hey theyre here now and are beautiful. I am also a nearly qualified midwife and writing pregnancy and birth articles will help my learning as much as you! If anyone has any queries or concerns, please contact me at marlena_hall@hotmail.com