Welcome to the World

The Birth Story....

About 7am on Saturday June 20th James got up to go to the bathroom and told me he was going to sleep in the guest bedroom. I do not believe this, but James said pregnancy caused me to snore. Despite his claim, he never attempted to sleep in the guest room before, but for whatever reason on this day, he did. About 9:15 or so I got up to go to the bathroom and waddled down to the guest room to peek in and see if he was awake yet. He wasn't and even though I wanted to wake him up, I decided against it and headed back down the hall to our bedroom to watch tv until he woke up. At this point, Bailey decided she wanted to go down the stairs to sit at the door to go out. I stopped at the top of the stairs and tried to get her to come back upstairs and at that moment I felt warm water start to run down my legs. It wasn't a gush, more like I peed myself but it wouldn't stop. I had to think it out in my head....I had just gone to the bathroom so I knew it wasn't urine leaking....OH MY GOSH, this is it....my water just broke. So in shock standing in the hallway I yell out, "Hey Babe". He said "yeah". "I think my water just broke." Out he runs. He grabbed some towels and I waddled as fast as possible to the bathroom. It just kept coming and coming. He hopped in the shower quickly and I sat on the toilet because it just wouldn't stop coming. We gathered up the few things left to throw in the suitcase, I called the dr, then started calling family to let them know it was time.

My water broke at 9:30 and by about 10:30 we were checking in at the hospital. Of course most of my family was already there. We went to triage and no one was at the desk. We waited for like 10+ minutes for a nurse to check us in, but she was super nice so it was ok. She was going to test to make sure it was amniotic fluid that was still leaking out but when she looked she laughed and said there was no reason to test, my water had definitely broken. Holy Crap! That was my reaction. I was in triage about an hour and then they wheeled me back to a L&D room. All the while I'm barely feeling the start of contractions. I was still 3-4cm dilated. Dr. B came in and said she was only on until 6 then Dr. H was on so unless things progressed very quickly, she wouldn't be delivering. Okay. After about another hour I had started to feel the contractions but they were only about a 5 on the pain scale and I was breathing through them successfully. Dr. B said if I was wanting to get the epidural to go ahead and get it soon before the contractions became too much stronger because there wasn't a reason to suffer through it. My nurse was was able to grab the anaesthesiologist before he went in for a c-section so we could get me nice and comfortable.

I have to admit, even though I knew I wanted the epidural, this was the part I was most afraid of. I was nervous about labor, but I was afraid of getting the epidural. I hated that they made James leave. I prayed so hard that God watch over me and protect me and calm me and He did. I had the best nurse and the best anaesthesiologist, thankfully. It took two tries to get it right though. The first time when he did the test dose my heart started to race and my ears started to feel weird, like I was hearing through water. It really scared me. Dr. V said it wasn't a common reaction, he must've gotten a vein. FREAKED OUT. He explained everything as he did it and when he tried the test dose the second time, it worked. I think if it hadn't, I may have tried to skip the epidural. (not really but it made me that nervous) After that my legs started to go numb and I no longer felt the contractions. I was super fine. I couldn't complain either because I really only had about an hour and a half of contractions that only got up to a 6 in pain.

I went the rest of the day feeling relaxed, but not up for a lot of visitors. Family members were trading off coming back to visit. Then we were told by the surgical nurse around 8pm that since we were trying vaginal delivery we could have one additional person in the operating room with us, especially if we wanted pictures. Of course if it turned into a c-section, they had to leave. So at this point I started to stress because I didn't want to have to make that decision. I knew someone would be upset, hurt, or pissed off by whatever decision I made. I do not like that kind of pressure. We ended up asking my sister to go in with us.

About 9:30pm I was finally at 10 so the nurse went to call the dr, she was about 30-40 minutes away. Uh, what??? They got us ready and wheeled me back to the OR. That was a bit overwhelming. The room was so brightly lit and as silly as it sounds, it felt sterile and hospital like. We did some practice pushes while waiting for the dr and I knew this was going to be even harder than I expected. My sister was standing back by my head trying to avoid a money shot but the nurse pulled her in and had her help hold back my leg as I pushed. Dr. H finally made it and I pushed and pushed and pushed. I was hoping some of the epidural would've worn off enough for me to have some feeling so I could feel to push. I was totally numb and couldn't tell how hard I was pushing or if I was doing it correctly. They put a mirror down by the dr so I could see. I could see Ethan's head and boy was it full of dark hair. Dr. H kept trying to turn his head because it was sideways and we needed it face down. Apparently my pelvis is narrowly shaped so it meant I had to push even harder, but Ethan's head was just stuck. He may have come out if I pushed harder, but it didn't.

After about an hour and 40 minutes of pushing, Ethan's heart rate started to drop a bit (he didn't like being stuck) Dr. H said it was time to do an emergency c-section and get him out. In the few minutes it took to get me ready I felt all kinds of emotions. I was afraid and nervous for Ethan, I was scared of surgery, I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to experience seeing the babies come out through vaginal delivery, I was anxious to have it over, I was a lot of things. I did not like when they made James leave. Dr. V came in and explained his part as the anaesthesiologist and turned up the epidural. After he turned it up, it felt very hard to get a full breath from my chest being numb. I prayed and prayed to make it through surgery-I was extremely nervous. It went quickly though. They were already cutting me open when they brought James back in. When they say you'll feel a lot of pressure, I think it's an understatement. It was the weirdest feeling I've ever experienced. Then I heard Dr. H say here's Baby A at 11:29. I heard him cry immediately and that was a big relief. Then I heard Baby B 11:30. I heard him cry too. Of course I was crying too. That was the happiest moment of my life. They were finally here. James got to hold Ethan and he brought him over to me so I could see him. I couldn't believe when they said 6lbs 6oz. Big baby! I heard one of the nurses say Lucas was 5lbs 14oz. I was surprised there was that much difference between the two weights. James took Ethan back and the next thing I saw was the two babies being wheeled out. The neonatologist came over and said a few things but it was all a blur. I knew they were headed to the NICU.

After they stitched me up, James went out to tell our families and Dr. H explained since it was an emergency c-section they didn't have time to take inventory of the surgical supplies so they were going to do an xray to make sure nothing was left behind. EXCUSE ME? Uh, ok I guess. That was weird. I did not like James being gone. After they took the xray, it was a good 20 minutes later before we heard anything and when we did, the radiologist saw something on the xray. WHAT?? So they came back to take another xray and brought the original film for my dr to look at. Dr. V (anaesthesiologist) looked at it and didn't think it was anything but they took another xray and after what felt like another 20 minutes we got an all clear. Thank the Lord!!! Believe me, I did!

Finally, they wheeled me into recovery where I got to see James and the pictures he took of the boys while I was still in the OR. While in recovery they discovered I had seriously high blood pressure and determined I had developed preeclampsia. So after an hour in recovery, they wheeled me back to a L&D room and hooked me up to IV Magnesium Sulfate to relax my central nervous system and lower my bp. I had to be on that for 24 hours which meant I wouldn't get to see my babies until I came off of it. That was the worst thing to hear. I didn't get to see Lucas at all and now they were telling me that I couldn't see or hold either of them for a day. About 5pm the next day we got a call from the NICU that Ethan needed holding to send dad up. I had the best nurse ever because she wasn't going to have that. She decided that since my bp had been down all day that she was going to take me up to the NICU herself so I could see my sons. I will be forever grateful to her for that. It was amazing to see them. I got to hold Ethan and then Lucas, eventhough they were both hooked up to things. It hurt so much to leave them there as I was wheeled back to my room.

Monday I was put into a Mother Baby room on the same floor as the NICU. Tuesday we started to see a little spike in my bp. Wednesday I was going to be discharged but my bp was still up and the dr decided to keep me but they were closing the unit so we were moved from the 6th to the 2nd floor. Thursday bp was still up so they decided to keep me again since the babies were still there. Thursday night about 4:15am I woke up to pee and thought I heard the shower running. I walked to the bathroom, opened the door, and saw tons of water gushing from the ceiling. So they moved us back to the 6th floor since the unit was open again. Friday the neonatalogist said he wanted to keep them for one more day so since my bp was still up, my dr kept me again so we could be with the boys. The nurse called and said since the boys were doing so well and going home the next day, she could wheel them down to stay in the room with us. I was so happy. We were able to keep them in the room with us until we were al discharged on Saturday. I was SOOOO happy to be leaving.

Now the boys are 12 days old and I couldn't be more in love with them! We are breastfeeding and even though it's a challenge doing two at once, right now, I am glad I'm doing it. There's lots of crying, feeding, pooping, peeing, but there's also more joy and excitement in our house than we could've imagined.