A Mom's Story: My Twins Came in With a Bang!

A Mom’s Story: My Twins Came in With a Bang!

Last updated on August 13th, 2023 at 11:43 am

Nothing my husband, Steve, and I do in this life is ever traditional or boring. I could go on and on about the bizarre things we’ve seen and done but for now I will tell the crazy story of how my second set of babies came into this world. Brace yourself for a long story.

On December 19, 2013 we woke at the crack of dawn, headed to the hospital, ready to make this little family of four into a family of six. Something just wasn’t settling right in the pit of my stomach. I’ve had my share of surgeries and never seemed to get nervous. But this time I was full of anxiety. I just felt deep down inside that something was not going to go right.

While I was on the table during the C-section I had two major panic attacks. I was crying and the brilliant anesthesiologist was a little shaken because I couldn’t calm down and I NEEDED TO! Luckily Steve walked in and immediately calmed me. I heard the first wail of cries and calmed for a second but then the second stinker was taking longer to pull out and I panicked again. At one point the anesthesiologist was tapping my face saying, “Mrs. Bergeman, are you with us, Mrs. Bergeman?!” I think I passed out for a second and then heard the beautiful sound of my baby crying. They were both here and alive, very alive. I started crying again but this was of relief and joy.

I recovered quickly and enjoyed the girls in a way I didn’t or couldn’t enjoy the big girls. With my first set I was overwhelmed and unsure of what to expect. With this new set I knew how much happiness being a Mom brought me so I sucked up every second of the birth this time around.

A few hours after being settled in my room, Steve left to eat and my Dad went to get a cup of coffee while my Mom kept me company. I was looking at the girls in their little hospital bassinets when I noticed J looked off.

Me: Mom does J look blue?
My Mom: Oh my god!

I started frantically pressing the nurse call button over and over yelling for them as my Mom scooped her up and ran from the room. All I could see where nurses rushing AT my Mom and taking my baby. She looked dead, wasn’t breathing, foam in her mouth and her little body purple and lifeless. I was bawling and so was my Mom. All I remember is my Mom’s forehead pressed to mine telling me she was going to be fine over and over. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that if I was alone in that room my baby would have died because no one responded to my calls or the call button. It’s weird how in situations like this I couldn’t stop focusing on the “what ifs” instead of focusing on “she’s fine!

Thankfully, J was fine but had choked on all the leftover “gunk” from the delivery. That was Thursday and how the girls entered the world. But that’s not the end of the story. The story carries on for nine glorious days. Thursday and Friday I felt pretty good. However, by Saturday I started feeling very bloated. I couldn’t go to the bathroom and my stomach started to expand; distending to be exact. I was drinking water and Gatorade by the gallons, literally. I no longer looked like I had the belly of a woman who just gave birth. I looked like a woman who was 6 months pregnant, then 7, then 8 and by the late afternoon I looked like I was still 9 months pregnant. My OB called in a surgeon because he knew something was wrong. I will not rehash the insane and horribly painful tests I endured that afternoon. What they found was a serious blockage and my intestine was twisted. I was immediately rushed into emergency surgery.

During the C-section the doctor noticed that part of my intestine had attached itself to the scar tissue on my abdomen wall. Once the babies were removed and all that space opened up, the attached sections literally catapulted and flung itself around and around causing the severe twisting. They were able to untwist it without losing any of my intestines. It seems that the twisting was probably happening for a while based on how much my insides were shifted. My gallbladder was shoved as far up in my chest as possible-which explains much of the discomfort my pregnancy presented.

But no story should stop at this point; that would be too easy and boring. No, the next ugly part was that my colon was lazy. That sucker wouldn’t wake up and since it wouldn’t wake up I couldn’t poop or fart. Therefore, I was stuck in the hospital until further notice.

Now, I’m a very shy person in the personal field, if you know what I mean. My family still teases me by saying bra and underwear to see me squirm. Immature, I know. But after this situation and nine days of a dozen doctors and nurses asking me daily if I’ve pooped or farted, shoving enemas and suppositories in places no one should touch. Well let’s just say I have no shame anymore.

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I met wonderful nurses and people, had interesting conversations and mystified the doctors. The surgeon said there were only 73 cases ever reported like mine. Seventy-three; that’s CRAZY. My surgeon said he learned a lot from this experience. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It was a scary experience for everyone. Once again Steve sat by not sure if he was going to be a single Dad for the third time in just as many years.

My older girls were scared but luckily had plenty of family visiting to keep them occupied. I missed their birthday and Christmas but we celebrated when I got home. I went seven days without seeing them. That broke my heart the most. I spent days without seeing the new babies which broke my heart into even smaller pieces. But Steve was with me every day and that mended much of the damage. There are many more stories to pull from this situation but for now that sums up how my girls came in with a bang!

Kerry Bergeman is the founder and the mastermind behind New2Two.com peek at my life as a Mother of fraternal AND identical twins! Kerry is a full-time stay at home mother of six year old fraternal twin girls and one year old identical twin girls. She also teaches part-time at the local community college and runs Mommies of Multiples on Facebook (a group dedicated to helping moms of multiples with their daily questions and concerns). Her blog, New2Two is about life with twins, dealing with infertility, raising awareness for bully prevention and the challenges of having a daughter with a severe intolerance to dairy. What does she do on her time off? She is the Brand Ambassador of the Twingaroo twin carrier- the first and only ergonomic twin carrier that features a built in diaper bag (yes, that’s her on the box)! She sells Usborne Books to help encourage all to read! She’s bringing the book back one kid at a time!

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