Felix and Freya: Our Sunrise and Sunset Twins

Trigger warning : This story discusses baby loss / twin loss / loss during pregnancy

As told by mum, Eleanor.

I have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) also known as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) and conceived dichorionic diamniotic (di-di) twins with the help of letrozole. At 20 weeks we found out that they were boy / girl twins – my husband Caleb and I were overjoyed. Everything with both of my twins was going amazing until it wasn’t. At a routine 24 week ultrasound our daughter, Freya, didn’t have a heartbeat, she had passed away at around 22 weeks of my pregnancy. We were crushed. 

We got sent straight to our local maternity unit at Kew Hospital in Invercargill and had a lot of testing and found out that my little girl would have to stay put until my son was ready to be born. The obstetricians were confident that I would be able to stay pregnant until 38 weeks and that because I hadn’t already gone into labour I would be fine.

Fast forward to 28 weeks, I went in for another ultrasound, my cervix was short, so back to maternity at Kew I went. I was then transferred to Dunedin Hospital because if I was going to go into labour the Dunedin NICU was better equipped to look after a 28 week baby.

Thankfully my parents live in Dunedin, so I was around my family. I was also given steroids to help my son’s lungs in case I did go into labour. After staying 2 nights on the maternity ward in Dunedin with Braxton Hicks contractions, I was allowed to be discharged to my parents’ house and set up with a Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) in Dunedin. 

I was able to spend 40 minutes at my parents house before I discovered I was bleeding. On the way back to Dunedin Hospital my contractions started and when I got checked out, I was 6cm dialated. I was then given magnesium to help my son’s brain and rushed off for an emergency c-section. 

My sunrise and sunset twins were born at about 6.30pm 

My son Felix weighed 1250g and my sleeping girl Freya weighed only 380g. 

Felix was sent to the NICU and stabilized on CPAP. I got to see him 3 hours after he was born and I was stable enough after my c-section. It was so surreal looking at this tiny little boy in the incubator knowing he was mine.

After a couple of days recovering, I managed to get into a routine spending all day at the hospital and I threw myself into pumping and making sure I was producing enough milk for Felix since it was one of the things I could do for him. After a week they took most of his lines out and he was exclusively on fortified breast milk which was amazing. 

4 weeks later (32 weeks gestation) we were able to transfer Felix to the Invercargill SCBU which was an amazing step forward for our family. Before we left Dunedin, Felix did have a blood transfusion as a precaution to make sure he was as healthy as possible for the transfer.

Overall, we spent 10 weeks / 70 days in NICU & SCBU (both Dunedin and Invercargill) and we were able to take Felix home at 38 +3 weeks. The team in both neonatal units were amazing and I don’t know where we would be without the amazing support they provided us, even just sitting down and listening to our story meant the world to me.    

As of writing this Felix is now a happy healthy 16 month old (13 months adjusted), causing all sorts of chaos. 

Thank you so much for letting me tell our story and thank you for the Little Miracles Trust for all of the amazing support you provided during our stay in NICU.