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Macsyna King told the jury in the Auckland High Court she took her twins to the family doctor after learning that baby Cru had stopped breathing the night before.
Ms King said she also found a fresh bruise on the cheek of baby Chris after returning in the morning after a second night out with her sister.
Ms King said she had "a go" at Chris when she got home and was told that baby Shane, then about one year-old, had crawled into the nursery, climbed up on the couch and "gotten at the boys".
She said she accepted Kahui's explanation. She said she was concerned on hearing that Kahui had had to give baby Cru CPR after he had stopped breathing.
The twins died on June 18 2006, within about 14 hours of each other at Auckland Starship Hospital, after they were admitted to Middlemore on June 13.
Father Chris Kahui is charged with their murder.
Ms King said the boys had not woken that morning and did not wake up during an argument she had with Kahui or while they were being strapped into their car seats.
She also said she remembers seeing two full bottles of baby formula on the bench and that Chris had told her that the babies had not wanted their feed.
Ms King said the family went for a meal at McDonalds before going to the family GP.
She said the doctor's facial expression changed while he was examining one of the baby's with a torch.
"It looked like shock, his eyebrows raised. He still had the light on the boy's face, I remember if he's looking like that and he's a doctor, then what else is wrong," Ms King said.
Taking the stand at the High Court at Auckland on the second day of Kahui's murder trial, Ms King described how the former couple would fight when she told Kahui to get a job so they could move from his father's house.
"I would yell at him, I would shout and swear until I got my way," Ms King said.
She told the jury she got violent at times, and had kicked Kahui in the shins and slapped him in the face.
Ms King told the jury how she swore at Chris, telling him to "get f'd, to go get f****d" after he woke her up, two days before the twins were admitted to hospital.
Ms King described how the two had argued the two days before the twins were admitted to hospital with injuries that would eventually prove fatal.
She said she told Chris that she needed some time out after looking after the twins virtually by herself, while he had been visiting his mother in the Intensive Care Unit at least every other day.
"I wanted to go and have some time out away from home. When I talked to Chris he didn't like the idea at first, he didn't want me to go," Ms King said.
She said she went to her sister's house before going to Kahui's father, Banjo's, place.
"I fell asleep in the lounge at Banjo's house on the double bed," Ms King said.
She said she had her son Shane with her and was woken around 11pm by Kahui shaking her.
"He was boiling, irate, he was angry as, really angry.
"He was shaking me and swearing at me to get my ass up and get my ass home," Ms King.
She said she swore back at him and told him that he had a part to play in "making" the twins.
She also described Kahui's personality as quiet and not easy to start a conversation with because he was not outspoken or outgoing.
Kahui would "bottle things up", she said.
As a father, Kahui was careful and loving with their eldest child Shane and their twins Chris and Cru, she said.
The 31 year-old painting contractor told the jury that she met Kahui sometime in 2004 before moving in with him, his father Banjo and Kahui's younger brother and sister.
She gave birth to their first child Shane the next year in May, 2005.
Ms King also revealed that she had three other children with two different fathers. She told the court that the two fathers were caring for the three children, the eldest of which is now 13.
Middlemore social worker Nadine Ingram earlier told the court she had met Ms King in May 2006, when the twins were in the neo-natal unit, to discuss concerns about the lack of visits by their parents.
Ms Ingram said there were no "hard and fast rules" about visitation but ideally parents would visit daily, which was not happening.
"But we realise for some it would be a difficult ask."
Macsyna King conceded to the Crown prosecutor that she had not visited the twins often while they were in hospital.
But she said while she was moving house and caring for Shane, the twins were in the best possible care in hospital.
Ms King said the new home that she, Chris and Shane were moving into, was only five to ten minutes drive away from Middlemore Hospital where the twins would later be transferred to from National Womens Hospital.
The court adjourned at about 5pm. Ms King has not finished giving her evidence and is yet to be cross examined.
Earlier, social worker Nadine Ingram also said Ms King had been referred to an anger management course and had told her that she hit Kahui in the body and arms.
Ms Ingram said Ms King made the comments in front of Kahui who laughed and shrugged them off.
The impression she had was he was minimising the situation and it was "not a big deal", she said.
Ms Ingram said she had been concerned when Ms King also told her that she smacked her son Shane - then about a year old -when he hit another person, but never hit him in anger.
Ms Ingram said Ms King had not been happy with the social surroundings and was working on improving the home for the twins.
Ms King was also trying to finish up at work and training the new staff member that would take her job.
"She stated that she was very much looking forward to the twins coming home" Ms Ingram said.
She said Ms King told her that she had good family support to help her care for the twins.
During cross-examination it was revealed that Ms Ingram was to be a defence witness until one week ago.
Social worker Diane Rainey told the court she had visited the Kahui home twice in June just days before the twins were admitted to hospital with fatal injuries.
Ms Rainey told the court that the Kahui house was clean and tidy.
She described Macsyna King as "always respectful" and "always kind".
Ms Rainey said she saw the twins sleeping in their cot, wrapped up in blankets "like sausages".
This morning, the court heard that Ms King appeared anxious and angry before breaking down in tears while the twins were being treated at Middlemore just days before their death.
Kathryn Greenwood - a play specialist who helps settle the siblings of hospitalised children - said she was working when Ms King brought the twins into hospital and went to see her in the resuscitation room.
She said one twin needed assistance to breathe while Ms King looked on.
"[Ms King] wanted to be involved. She was finding it hard to stay still," Ms Greenwood said.
She said Ms King later broke down in tears and told her that the couple's eldest child Shane, then about one year-old, had "crawled up the couch and into the cot and got them."
Ms Greenwood said she had first met Kahui and Ms King when their twins were in the neo-natal unit in April 2006 at Middlemore Hospital and she looked after Shane.
She told the court he appeared to be a normal playful child when at the hospital during family visits.
Under cross examination Ms Greenwood said Shane appeared to have been a happy and healthy baby and "sitting on his Dad's knee, he seemed comfortable".
It was also established that baby Shane's development progressed while his mother was hospitalised for five weeks.
Miss Greenwood's observations of Shane before June 13 was that he was not an "active child" and was not able to hold himself up but could crawl.
Homecare nurse Jane Eyers later told the court she had visited the Kahui home on four occasions and found the twins to be healthy and putting on weight.
She said the boys had their own room and shared a cot. There was also a heater in the bedroom and a couch where they were fed.
Ms Eyers said on one occasion she had given the twins a "head to tail" examination and found no signs of abuse.
But under cross-examination she said that the twins could have had the broken ribs - revealed in the post-mortem examination to be four to six weeks old at the time of their death - but she did not notice anything wrong.
Ms Eyers said on the last of her four home visits to the Kahui house, she spoke to Kahui because Ms King was not home with the twins.
Through a broken window, he told Ms Eyers that Cru had been wheezy and had been seen by the family doctor.
Ms Eyers said she arranged a further visit to see the twins on June 14.
But on June 13 the twins were admitted to hospital.
- With NZPA
