Water break & Josh is born

Jon had just left for work & I was still in bed when I felt fluid trickle down my leg. I called my midwife who told me my membranes may have ruptured and to go to the hospital. Choking back tears, I fought to call my dear friend Joy who lived around the corner. She somehow understood that I needed her to take me to the hospital & came to pick me up. The boys were just over 23 weeks gestational age (GA). We had only known that we were expecting twins for a little over a month. We had just given them names a few days earlier. Twin A was Joshua Michael. Twin B was Jonah David. We soon found out that it was Josh's sac that had ruptured.


Daddy Log (March 17 & 18, 2003)
"Got up and biked to work. Noticed a message flashing while I got my stuff together to go shower. It was Lez saying that she was leaking amniotic fluid. I called her just as Joy was picking her up to take her to McKeller. I biked over and met them there. Lez got checked in and got checked by a nice nurse named Shanny. Dr. Siren came and confirmed that her membrane was ruptured and booked her on a flight to Ottawa General. I went home to get her some clothes while she stayed with Sandra (her midwife). They called me at home and told me I could get a flight too, but not the same one. I took two bags (one for lez, one for me) and went to the hospital. Lez and I were separated then as I went to the airport to wait and Lez got an ambulance. We met again briefly while they loaded her into the air ambulance. The next time I saw her was at Ottawa General."

In Ottawa "Dr. Walker did an ultrasound and saw that Joshie’s sac had broken and that he was dry. Jonah was still happy in his sac. Lez’s cervix was still closed so we were hopeful that labour was still a week or more away. Sue, Lez’s admitting nurse got me a chair/bed to spend the night. That night we had a visit from Dr. Bad News. He said that if the babies were born within the next few days their chances would be next to nothing. He suggested that we not ventilate and simply let them die "peacefully". We said we would think about it but couldn’t make a decision. When his voiceless resident came back, we still couldn’t decide. We didn’t sleep well."

"The next morning Lez started having contractions. Dr. Rebecca, a neonatologist fellow, came in to discuss the ventilation question again. She described our options and didn’t make us feel bad about wanting to ventilate. We decided that if the baby had obvious signs of life when born, we would ventilate, but no chest compressions. Contractions kept getting worse until Dr. Walker knew that Joshie was coming. Lez was in pain but more scared. We both knew that at 23 3/7 weeks, it was too early, but Josh wasn’t waiting. He was born at 10:10ish am. He didn’t make a sound, but as the young neonate nurse, Carolynn, took him away I saw his arm move. They would try to ventilate him and give him a fighting chance."

"Dr. Walker’s ultrasound showed that Jonah had moved down the cervix and thought that he was coming too because contractions were continuing. They tried to break his sac to encourage him to come out but it wouldn’t break. He decided to stay put as the contractions came to a stop and the cervix started to close back up. As the nurse, Marilynn, tended to Lez they took me in to see Josh. He was so small, 616 grams, in an incubator, with the ventilator tubes in his mouth. Rebecca let me hold his hand, but only for a few seconds because I was scared. He was breathing quite well. I went back to tell Lez. Lez was put on strict bed rest, hoping that Jonah would stay put for a while."