‘Our parents had to meet the twins from a distance’

Louise Randall is getting used to being part of a family of four after the birth of her longed-for twins, Bear and Luna.

If this year has taught me anything, it’s that life rarely goes as planned. I always imagined I’d have the typical nuclear family with 2.4 children, but I didn’t meet my partner, Ben, until was 35. We met on a dating app, and we bonded over similar upbringings and family values, plus our shared love of outdoorsy sports. Alongside our busy jobs in marketing and finance, we loved skiing and heading to the coast.

In the early days, we talked about having children in a blasé way, but in 2016 when I was 38, we started trying for a baby. As I was getting older, we decided to start IVF after a year. We weren’t expecting much for our first round, which was available on the NHS; we knew the odds were against us. But when I took my test, I found I was pregnant. We were ecstatic, but our dreams were shattered at an early scan when the doctors couldn’t find a heartbeat.

I was devastated. It felt like I had been given a taster of our future, only for it to be cruelly snatched away. We didn’t tell anyone about our fertility journey at that point, which made the loss harder.

A year later, we felt ready to try again. We started a private round of IVF and we had multiple viable embryos. It didn’t work the first time, but a few months later, two embryos were implanted to maximise our chances. Two weeks later, my test was positive – this time we felt anxious rather than excited. But at our six-week scan, we saw two tiny heartbeats on the screen, and I burst into tears. We called our families, who had been rooting for us – everyone was so delighted.

I was enjoying my pregnancy (bar some back pain) when lockdown came into force in March. The risks surrounding pregnant women still seemed unknown, so we escaped London to live in Hove for a few weeks, using a friend’s empty house. It was such a confusing time, but I loved spending every day with Ben, who was working from home, dreaming and planning for the arrival of our babies.

One of the babies was breech, so we booked a C-section for May. As the day approached, I felt increasingly scared that Ben wouldn’t be able to come with me, as the rules kept changing. Thankfully, he was by my side when we welcomed Bear and his sister Luna into the world. Yet, that moment wasn’t as joyous as I’d hoped, as I developed pre-eclampsia, so I was placed on a drip to stop me from fitting. Ben held his new babies in his arms for five hours while the doctors rushed around and made sure I was okay.

WHIRLWIND EXPERIENCE

To add to that, Bear was unwell. He was taken to the neonatal unit for monitoring; the doctors were being extra-careful because of Covid, and I was so grateful.

Five days later, we left hospital to begin our whirlwind experience as a family of four. It was a blessing to have Ben home all the time, yet we were sad we couldn’t show our beautiful new babies to our family and friends, but we relied on Zoom calls and sent lots of photos. When they finally met their grandchildren – outside, from a distance – our parents wore visors, masks and gloves! It was strange, but special and moving in its own way.

Having twins is a juggling act – when one of them stops crying, the other starts! But even if they cry all night, seeing their little faces in the morning makes my heart burst with love. Every day, Ben and I are in awe of how gorgeous they are. We often ask, ‘How did we manage to make these two?’ It makes me so happy knowing that they’ll always have each other.

It makes me so happy knowing that they’ll always have each other