Every day is groundhog day for Mitch "Revs" Resevsky and Emily Bell.
The couple had twins, Bodhi (a boy) and Bobbi (a girl), on January 17 at John Hunter Hospital, born premature.
Bodhi was 835 grams at birth, and Bobbi weighed in at 1565 grams. They were in the John Hunter Hospital for eight weeks, including the first five weeks in the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit). Now, they are up to three and four kilograms respectively.
The home routine is a feed every three hours.
Bell says, "I will get one up - I give a bottle at night, it makes them calmer. Change them. Feed them. Burp them. Calm them. Then get the other one up."
Revs calls it "groundhog day". By the time both are fed, it's time to start the process over again.
For Revs, a thriving commercial artist with a national reputation, and Bell, a school teacher, having the twins has been a huge, emotional roller-coaster ride.
Bell could not contain the secret of her pregnancy very long from Revs.
"She was so excited to tell me there were two lines on the stick," Revs said of the morning she came screaming into the bedroom. "It all started from there."
Bell had pre-existing medical conditions which meant the couple knew there was a good chance of premature births.
"Because of Emily's pre-existing medical condition, our obstetrician got us in at week six," Revs said. "We actually got scans every fortnight up until 30 weeks, which was nice for us. We were able to see them every fortnight."
But things didn't go to plan. They made one trip away from home, to spend the day at the beach at Shoal Bay (Little Beach), which changed everything.
"It was a pretty easy pregnancy up until Christmas Eve," Bell said. "It was the first time we left Newcastle for the day. We decided to go there because both of our Christmases got cancelled on either side because of COVID, so we decided to go to the Bay to the beach because it was a nice day."
Revs told what happened next: "We just sat down at the beach. It was the most picturesque, postcard day, on the back beach. I went for a swim, got back, laid my towel out to lay down and looked at Emily and she was just freaking out, she felt like she wet herself. She was having a bleed.
"We both assumed the worst, that she miscarried and we lost them."
Acting quickly, they headed for their Kombi in the parking lot.
"The beach was absolutely packed, and I'm carrying Emily with an umbrella over my arm and all our bags and she is wrapping a towel around her waist and there is blood everywhere, like a crime scene," Revs said.
Bell was on the phone for emergency help, and an ambulance was only five minutes away and met them on the nearest corner. Revs followed the ambulance with Bell in it to John Hunter Hospital.
"With Emily's condition, we always had it in the back of our mind that something was going to go wrong because we wanted so bad," Revs said.
"They thought we were going to have them on Christmas Day," Bell said. The twins were at 26 weeks at that point.
But they didn't have them on December 25.
Instead, Bell spent the next 24 days in John Hunter Hospital on bedrest, with daily cardiotocography (CTG) scans to check on the babies' health.
"That month felt like a lifetime," Revs said. "I was only able to visit twice a week because of COVID ... it was at a point where COVID was all through the hospital and staff were getting it. And they were running out of RAT tests so they had to cut visitors back. So it was really hard for us at that point when Emily kind of needed support the most we couldn't have it. But we also understood the system and how it worked. There were people a lot worse off than us."
Revs would sneak in takeaway food and they would play Rummikub at night until staff would eventually kick Revs out. They tried to keep Bell content with her favourite foods - chocolate and sweet fruit like mango and watermelon.
During the wait, Bell was being given steroids to help the babies' lungs and other organs grow.
The medical team made the decision to deliver the babies on January 17. Bodhi had stopped growing inside the womb.
Once a decision was made, Bell had an emergency caesarian operation within an hour. Again, it was complicated - because of her medical condition, she could not have strong dose of pain-killing medication.
On January 21, Revs posted on Instagram:
"Our babies are here. Our little girl Bobbi & little boy Bodhi arrived 17.01.22 at 6.10pm. Both teeny tiny, cute and healthy. Em is already back on her feet and doing well. I am so proud of her, the last few months have been a roller coaster but she did it with a smile."
The challenges continued, as the babies stayed in the John Hunter Hospital for eight more weeks.
"You can only hold each baby once a day," Bell explained. "Because they can't regulate their temperature. I could hold Bobbi one day, Bodhi the next."
Bodhi was on a CPAC machine, blowing air into his lungs to keep them open and help them hold shape.
Even though only one parent at a time was allowed at bedside, the couple would take turns reading to them and holding their tiny fingers.
"I only had one twin cuddle in six weeks," Bell said of the first days in hospital with the babies. "It was so hard."
The babies themselves only laid side by side three times while they were in hospital.
Meanwhile, Bell started pumping her milk supply. Even though she could not feed them directly, the milk, plus donor milk used at the hospital, was pumped into the babies' feeding tubes.
Now, with the babies home, Bell is both breast and bottle feeding the babies.
Homecoming was a big step forward, of course.
"In the last week they've come leaps and bounds. So expressive. They are funny," Bell said.
"They are very cheeky."
Of course, it's now bedlam at home for mum and dad.
"They are so instinctual. When one cries it set the other off. They know the second you want to go to sleep," Revs said.
While he has spent the last week completing a mural project at Newcastle Race Club, for the first time in his art career, Revs has had to slow down the workload.
"I'm really struggling with that," he said. "My brain never stops. Priorities have switched from work life to parenthood."
Because of their fragility, anybody near them must wear a mask and sanitise. Family and friend visits have been limited. Nobody has held the babies.
The couple has only gotten away from the babies once for dinner for two hours, at Kinn Thai on the rooftop at Westfield. Even then, they were concerned by the lack of people wearing face masks.
Last week Bodhi was taken by ambulance to John Hunter Hospital, as he had developed a wheezy cry and cough, but he was home two days later.
Revs is already dreaming of their first artwork: it will definitely be a collaboration.
