Amanda and Jade met in the Neonatal Unit of New Cross Hospital and have remained friends ever since. They are now getting their kids - who have become besties - ready for their first day of primary school.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, we wanted to tell the story because there's not many babies.
00:04They were all born under two pounds.
00:06Yeah.
00:07And now they're all starting reception.
00:09Even when, like, Steph, when we first got out of hospital,
00:13I would always call Steph to say,
00:15you're already going through this, what's happening,
00:17how do I do this?
00:18Who do I call?
00:19Hi, my name is Steph, I'm 36.
00:22I am mummy to, what's your name?
00:24Freya.
00:25Freya, and you are how old?
00:27Four.
00:28Four.
00:30Hi, I'm Amanda, I'm 41.
00:32I'm mother to Leonardo and Kimberly.
00:36How old are you two?
00:38Four.
00:39Four.
00:40So I found out that I was pregnant in June 2019.
00:45Surprised.
00:47Everything was fine up until I was 23 weeks pregnant
00:52and my waters went.
00:56I was in hospital then for about eight days.
01:00Obviously I didn't go into labour.
01:02But then I got an infection at 25 weeks and four days.
01:09I was admitted into New Cross Hospital
01:13and then they had to bring Freya at 25 weeks and six days
01:17due to the infection and the risk to her.
01:21Well, you'd have to do it now.
01:23That's it, yeah.
01:24I had an emergency C-section and she was born.
01:27I found out I was pregnant in June 2019
01:32and then I was having a girls' trip to Jamaica.
01:36It was a planned girls' trip and I was like,
01:38oh, this is great, first girls' trip ever.
01:41I'm pregnant, so no alcohol.
01:44And then we came back and then my doctor at the time,
01:51the consultant at the hospital, kept saying I was
01:55geriatric pregnancy, yeah, geriatric pregnancy.
01:59And then, so constantly I was in there every week,
02:02every week checking my blood pressure,
02:04but they said I've got white coat syndrome
02:07and then I'd be off sick at work, on sick at work,
02:13back at work, off work.
02:15And then eventually my consultant was on annual leave
02:20and my blood pressure had gone up.
02:22I don't know if it's because my brother gave me Nandos.
02:24I don't know.
02:26My blood pressure was up and it wouldn't come down.
02:29And I was in the hospital and then they came down that morning
02:32and said, you're going to have to go into labour.
02:34I said, no, no, no.
02:36My consultant told me I've got to get to 28 weeks.
02:40It was like, no, no, no, you've got to go now.
02:43And that was 27 weeks, five days.
02:46So that was quite early.
02:49My brother was a kilo and Kimmy was 650 grams,
02:57their weight when they were born.
02:59Tiny, you could hold them in your hand.
03:04But I didn't see him that, after having C-section,
03:07emergency C-section, I didn't see them for the day.
03:11I had to wait till the next morning and went downstairs.
03:16The shock, oh, yeah, the shock.
03:19I went to a Birmingham hospital and I was like,
03:22OK, let's go and see because, oh, God, only God knows.
03:26And then they said to me, yeah, it's two.
03:30And I was like, oh, God, only God.
03:33Only you, God, could do this, only.
03:36And then I called their dad and explained to him.
03:39I said, oh, it's twins.
03:41And then my cousin was there at the time and I was like,
03:44it's a twin, it doesn't matter, it's a blessing.
03:46I was like, yeah, but we're going to Jamaica.
03:49And from what I found out, it felt like I just blew up.
03:53From that point, I just blew up.
03:56Sorry, I couldn't hide that I was pregnant.
03:59But, yeah, it was quite a rollercoaster,
04:02but it was an emotion rollercoaster.
04:06These were the nappies that they used in the neonatal.
04:09And they actually came up to their armpits.
04:11Yeah, and then you had to fold it and tuck it under.
04:14They were the best.
04:15Little dummies as well.
04:17I remember when they offered them the dummies
04:19and I was like, it would help them with crying.
04:21I was like, but why not tend to their need?
04:23Why do they need to stop them from crying?
04:25Because that was to help with their suckling
04:27and their breathing with the oxygen, that was, which we didn't know.
04:30Yeah, so I'd been in there about three weeks
04:33when the twins were admitted.
04:35And then it was about two weeks after that we got talking
04:38In the neonates, you move, as the babies get, shall we say better,
04:43as they progress, they get moved down from intensive care
04:47into higher dependency.
04:50Into higher dependency and then from there into,
04:54I don't know what these ones are called.
04:57It's just like a standard hospital.
04:59Yeah, less nurses, isn't it?
05:01So when they're better, they're in the room where there's less intervention.
05:04Because in the intensive care it was all sisters, wasn't it?
05:07Yeah, yeah.
05:08So I had one sister to two babies.
05:10Yeah.
05:11And then each, it seems like there was one sister to two babies.
05:16So then when we moved down into the high dependency room,
05:20that was when we started speaking
05:22because I recognised one of Amanda's relatives that I knew.
05:26Yeah.
05:27And that was like, I know that girl.
05:29Yeah.
05:30And that's how we got to speaking.
05:31Yeah.
05:32It got to the point where the nurses knew that we were such good friends.
05:36The twins were able to move down into the room with less intervention,
05:40but they didn't move them until Friar was ready.
05:42I was ready to move, yeah.
05:44So we moved together.
05:45Yeah, so all our beds were next to each other.
05:47So they all came home on oxygen,
05:50and Friar was tube fed for three months, all in all.
05:55But you didn't, I didn't feel that Friar was coming home
06:00probably until when you move into the last room.
06:04So that would have been January time, so only like four weeks before.
06:08It's so hit and miss, they're so up and down.
06:10Yeah, because you just don't know what's going to happen.
06:12No, and like the weights, blood transfusions that to have.
06:15Yeah.
06:16It was just awful.
06:18Yeah.
06:19The reason that I'm so proud of how far they've come
06:21is because I didn't think with all the complications
06:25that they came out of hospital with,
06:27there would be such fighting fit children,
06:30so educated, so into everything.