It’s Twin Time: Jessie Webb's Birth Story

"It was the most terrifying and amazing thing I have ever been through but to then have them ripped away from me and being told that I couldn’t fit in the helicopter with them was traumatic."

It’s been nearly an entire year since meeting the two who bring me more joy than I ever knew existed. My two funny, happy little boys turned one on the 9th of November and it feels like the craziest thing to not only have survived but absolutely thrived during this time. I never imagined such happiness, being the most un-maternal person on the planet. Friends used to laugh at me when I was near a toddler or baby knowing I would be battling to know what to do or say!

People did try to explain how incredible it was but even though we were trying for a baby, the moment I found out there were two in there, it was instant shock that hit me and I was immediately terrified of being incapable. I asked for an early scan as I’d just had Covid at 9 weeks and at 11 weeks I felt I just really wanted one. Luckily I did, because while the sonographer was focusing on my right side near my navel and as my husband and I were all happy tears and letting the news really set in, the sonographer moved the wand slightly to the left and then another sac appeared – I may have yelled out “holy shit are there two?!!” We laugh about it now but the silence between my husband and I on the trip home was very surreal.

I should have had an inkling – my pregnancy test showed really early and my sister was a twin (mum lost the other one really early on) I had also seen the exact scan with two sacs in a meditation I did months before getting pregnant so I really should have listened to my intuition!

Having twins where I live in one of the most remote but beautiful spots on earth isn’t the most straightforward process with the closest hospital being a 3.5 hour drive away. Early on I decided on a c section to minimise my stress as much as possible as the most terrifying part was going into labour and it all happening too quickly. My midwife assured me that they would get me in a helicopter as soon as I went into labour if I did want to have them naturally, but my worry was with the weather as choppers don’t fly when the weather is rough and it gets extremely windy where we live.

My fears grew and grew over the months and this was really down to the rubbish I was absorbing through the Facebook twin groups and the stupidity of unnecessary opinions from others. We all forget to listen to our guts when influenced so strongly by those around us. I should have known better but it didn’t take me long to realise the Facebook group was there for those who were crying out for help and the opinions from anyone else were just of what they had heard happens with twins.

Aside from the local man I knew who I saw in the supermarket when I was almost 4 months pregnant and his twins were 3 months old – he explicitly said to me that it is the worst experience ever and it’s super super hard. Basically leading me to believe that I wouldn’t cope. I came home and bawled my eyes out. When I look back, I just think what an absolute prick. Why would anyone say that to someone who is 4 months pregnant? Since that day, it has been my mission to spread the word about how amazing it is, especially to anyone expecting, I love encouraging them to realise they will cope and thrive too.

When I switched that group off and realised that not all of us have to have a negative experience, I started to feel better. Until the day I went in for my 20 week scan and the sonographer mentioned that my obstetrician would be in touch because one of the twins (twin A – who is now Henry) is a little too small. This was really alarming and from that day on I had to have weekly scans. I was secretly stoked about that – I got to see my twins every week and it made me feel more at ease.

They monitored the twins closely all the while trying not to reveal the genders to me as we wanted a surprise. I desperately wanted a boy and a girl but as the days grew closer to my booked in date I thought I had seen a bit more indicating two of the same gender. It was tough being under such heavy surveillance and hard to explain to my friends, especially that I actually wasn’t even really meant to be leaving the house.

During that time I had a close friend’s hens party to celebrate on a boat while I was terrified underneath about what would happen to Henry and knowing that if I overdid it I could end up going into early labour. People do not understand how different being pregnant with twins is. It’s not uncommon to go into labour any time after 20 weeks and I couldn’t explain it to my non mum friends or the ‘tough’ girls who were at that event. New Zealand has this ridiculous culture about toughing things out, when there is absolutely no need to make things harder for yourself.

Throughout my pregnancy from about 3 months, I struggled with indigestion. To the point where I couldn’t even drink a glass of water. I think that was the reason Henry ended up not progressing as well as he should have, I could barely eat or drink a thing. With twins you are meant to drink 4L of water a day and eat around 3000 calories. I could barely drink 500ml of water let alone eat! So I was put on omeprazole and immediately after that I could eat and drink again. Probably too many almond croissants from Pembroke Patisserie, but when you need to up your calories you do what it takes! I can’t eat them at all now, ha ha.

The one thing my obstetrician could not understand is how I never once felt like vomiting – he had never come across this with someone expecting twins. We put it down to the strong prenatals I was taking from NaturoBest – these were amazing! I was able to pretty much continue my life working from home, going to Pilates and walking the dog for an hour each day which was great! You can get them here: https://naturobest.com/

My c section date was booked for bang on 38 weeks which was Friday 11th November. The last three weeks were so tough for some reason. I had a blocked ear from about 23 weeks and I couldn’t hear properly. It was really frustrating, but those last three weeks I struggled to even walk to the toilet and sacked out on the couch with my laptop most days. It was brutal!! I had family stay so had to set up a spare room and cook them dinners etc, but aside from that I felt the pinch. Henry was up a different way every time I had a scan and the other one was up under my rib digging into me for that last bit. If I pushed on a certain part on Henry’s side he would give me a little push back, it was super cute!

6 November (3 days before labour)

I started getting braxton hicks the week before my date and then one night they just didn’t go away. The little critters had of course decided they were not going to wait! I went into early labour just 2 days before we were booked in for the c section. Of course it had to be at 10pm so after my midwife checking me out at our local clinic, she offered to call a helicopter but as it was only just the very beginning, I decided to hop in the car with my husband and we drove through the night. It was more relaxed than the drama of a helicopter.

There happened to be a 40 minute detour that night as they were working on the main road, so we got to Dunedin Hospital at 5.30am. My labour felt like it hadn’t progressed that much and we waited around in our own room for hours on end getting checked on every so often. All of a sudden the pain ramped up and one lovely nurse “accidentally” left the laughing gas behind in the room for me. I still don’t know how I would have coped if she didn’t leave that there!

Me sucking back the gas in labour before going under the knife.

The obstetrician on duty checked me over at about 10am and told us to drive home back to Wanaka – I’m not sure she had a clue it was a 4 hour trip back, but we flat out refused to leave and when she came back I couldn’t straighten out or sit down or walk and didn’t know what to do with myself so she said i’d get my c section that arvo. By 2.45pm I had not one but two tiny alien like babies in my arms. Henry weighing 2.8kg and Spencer weighing 3kg It was the most relaxed and easy part of the entire process.

Spencer Jack Jones (left) Henry Mckenzie Jones (right)

We didn’t get to hold Henry long before he needed to go down to neonatal and l didn’t really know much about that, but the plan was if one needed to go, my husband Chris would go with them so he did, they cleared him up and he returned not too long afterwards. Spencer (the larger twin who came out first) seemingly was the hungriest baby in the world and latched right away.

Not long after Henry was returned to me it was time to get him latched, he struggled but got on eventually. We were advised to combination feed them and ended up feeding some bottles with formula and some breast. It was extremely hard and the majority of the nurses were from a different ward so didn’t have a lot of experience with feeding and babies. This was the first of me feeling like I was failing but of course I understand now that my breast milk wouldn’t just come and getting Henry on was really tricky. It was all such a blur as I was on Tramadol for the pain and it made everything feel so tiring and surreal. It took me a few days to realise it was better to be in a bit of pain than be a zombie and make mistakes.

We made the long drive to Alexandra maternity home which took around 4 hours with a few stops where they have 24 hour on-duty midwives to help you learn how to be a parent and deal with any issues. We were still struggling with feeding Henry, he took the bottle fine but didn’t latch well on me and I remember feeling like a failure thinking aren’t we designed for this?!

We made it to our comfortable home an hour drive away after 3 nights there with their old furniture including a broken chair and a very low bed which was difficult for someone who has just had a major operation. Trying our best to make sure we were doing everything right and caring for our precious boys as best we could, we were absolutely side swiped when the midwife told us they were losing weight and we would have to go back to hospital. This was one of the worst days ever and I broke down feeling like I was the worst mother ever and I had completely failed at this.

So off in the chopper the boys went inside their incubator without me, it was extremely emotional and I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest, I couldn’t stop shaking and the nausea was overwhelming, the tears feeling like constant hot water running down my cheeks but we somehow managed to make the long 3.5 hour drive from Wanaka to Dunedin Hospital.