Birth Story

Well, since my babies are 3 months old today I suppose it’s time to finally get this out!

Wednesday, 7/13
I blogged about feeling strange. I knew things were changing but I thought this was probably very early stages of labor and that we’d probably be having babies within a week, as in next week sometime. I was still working from home so that helped keep me distracted.

A big storm blew in that afternoon and we saw a double rainbow! A sign? I guess it was! 🙂 The full moon was going to be Friday so I was hoping the gravitational pull would do it’s thang.

Thursday, 7/14
I felt pretty much the same. I was uncomfortable. Laying down didn’t feel good. Sitting up didn’t feel good. Walking didn’t feel good. Only being on all fours gave me some relief. When I woke up I felt like it would be a good idea if I got ready. I took a shower, got dressed, put on make up. I also decided to strip our bed and start doing laundry. Work proved to be a good distraction again. I ate a bit of lunch but didn’t have much of an appetite. I took a work call around 5:15pm. I was sitting on the couch and I started to feel like I was peeing so I ran to the restroom (while still on the phone). I sit down to pee and quickly realize I can’t control it and there’s so much and I swear I didn’t have to pee that badly. I look down and see blood. I quickly end the call and call out to my husband who just so happened to be working from home that day (thank god!). I’ve never called him into the bathroom while “peeing” so he was a little taken aback I think. There was still a steady flow of bloody fluid. I was standing up at this point FREAKING OUT. Then my husband was also freaking out.

We expected the process to go: lose mucus plug, slight water leakage that I confuse with urine, contractions start and begin to get closer together, hubby comforts me through the beginning stages of labor — all previous things potentially taking place over days — we have a champagne toast to our babies, hail a cab NOT during rush hour, arrive at the hospital, labor, push, meet babies.

Instead we have a few signs things are progressing and then suddenly a huge gushing, bloody water breaking (all over the bathroom), no contractions, and all during RUSH HOUR. I call my doctor at 5:40pm. He doesn’t return my call until 5:50. In the meantime, I call my MIL who reassured me that blood is normal (I did NOT expect my water breaking to be bloody) and suggested we head to the hospital. My doc (Dr. Salt – not his real name) calls and tells me to head to the hospital. Our hospital bag is packed except for the last minute things which my husband is frantically trying to finish. He won’t let me get up (by now I’m sitting on plastic with a huge pad on the couch) so I’m directing from the couch. Finally we have our shit together, our apartment is a disaster (bed is still torn apart, bathroom looks like a murder scene, remnants of lunch are still out since I picked at it all afternoon), but we manage to slow our roll for long enough to toast our babies. We are bawling happy huge tears by this point, kissing. (Damn, I love that man.)

We head outside (I’m sooo thankful I got prettied up! I managed to get NO bloody stuff on my cute dress I was wearing!) and hubby has me sit on a bench outside while he goes to hail a cab. It’s a beautiful day and I enjoy the fresh air. I’ll admit, I was worried about finding a cab during rush hour. It’s particularly hard during this time anywhere in the city but compound that with cabs changing over (so lots of off duty cabs) and the fact that we live near a very busy intersection that is always a clusterfuck. My husband was about to pull someone out of a cab and tell them that’s their good deed for the day when an off duty cabby stopped and asked where we were heading. He couldn’t turn us down even though the hospital was very far in the opposite direction of where he was heading.

Once we’re in the cab, we’re finally exhaling, joking and laughing, and I’m still not contracting. We arrive at the hospital, and the security guard makes everyone waiting for elevators step aside, he puts us in our own, holds everyone else back and sends us to our floor. Now that’s service! I’m not surprised. I mean, I was HUGE (47″ around with my ute all the way up to just below my breasts). No one wanted babies in the lobby. We check in and Dr. B stops by as everyone had heard twins were on the way. We were excited because we wanted Dr. B to deliver us but quickly realized his shift was over and he was on his way out. We got moved into triage and I was instructed to pee in a cup and get changed. Peeing was impossible because I was still leaking a lot of bloody fluid.

After I got hooked up the monitors, you could tell I was contracting but I still couldn’t feel a thing. About 7pm, Dr. Salt came to check on me and I was dilated to 1cm and fully effaced. I was moved to a labor room which was much more comfortable. A bit later a resident came by to do my epidural. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I asked for an attending. The attending came in and did his thing. I’m glad I asked for him because my epidural was a bit challenging — I mean, hey! It’s hard to curl up in a ball when you have a huge ball on your front and can barely breathe! I requested it be set on the lowest possible setting so I could feel the contractions. Eventually, at my doc’s urging, I did end up pushing the button a few times later in the evening.

My husband and I tried to catch some zzz’s.

Friday, 7/15 – BIRTH DAY!!! (and full moon!)

Around 3am, Dr. S checked me again. I was 4cm dilated. I knew this could go on for a while yet but I also knew you can go from 5 to 10cm rather quickly. Contractions were getting more intense but not really closer together. Dr. S came again to check me around 7am and I was fully dilated!!! I think he was in total shock because Dr. S doesn’t usually do deliveries any more and I think a vaginal twin delivery was daunting to him. He’s the older guy in the practice and he was filling in for one of the regular doctor’s who was on vacation. He said I had to wait to start pushing because the floor was in the middle of a shift change and we had to wait for the new nurses to arrive.

Pretty soon, in walks Dr. B. Dr. S was waiting to be relieved! Hahaha. We scared him. He’s practically retired so delivering twins was not his cup of tea. Dr. B was who we wanted anyway, so win-win. I started to push. After an hour or so, my contractions weren’t getting closer than 4 minutes apart so Pitocin was ordered. Man, did that really increase the back labor! Finally, contractions were getting closer and my hard work was starting to pay off rather than push, make progress, then baby retracts because of the length between contractions. To help keep me motivated, the nurse got a mirror so I could see Baby A making progress. So awesome, by the way!!! I reached down and felt the baby’s head, which was so so cool! Finally A’s head was crowning and we were moved into the OR.

Once we were in the OR, things moved very quickly. There were probably 10 people in there besides my husband and I: my doctor and nurse, surgeons in case of emergency c-section, pediatrics teams for each of the babies, anesthesiologist. Once everyone was ready, I said “Let’s have some babies!” which elicited a round of laughter from everyone. It was go time. I pushed maybe three times and out Baby A came! IT’S A BOY! He was placed on my chest and my husband and I both cried. He was crying and wriggling around and oh so cute! And his face and head was all squished from delivery! Poor little guy! He was whisked away to get cleaned up while we focused on Baby B.

All of the sudden I feel something very strange in my abdomen and I realize that Dr. B has his entire arm inside my uterus. I feel tugging and pulling and it was not comfortable. One or two pushes later and I look down and see feet, legs and another penis coming out! ANOTHER BOY!!! Baby B was born three minutes after Baby A. B was placed on my chest and he looked so scary because he was covered in vernix and blood since he didn’t have to go through the birthing process. He wasn’t crying yet but he was moving, which was reassuring. Since he didn’t have to go through labor, his entrance into the world was probably a big surprise to him. Here he was minding his own business, swimming around in his amniotic fluid. Then the next second, he loses his water, gets manhandled and is pulled into a cold room with bright lights. Poor guy! They whisked him away too, and within seconds he was crying, too.

I was a joyful, crying mess. The love I felt for my husband at this moment is indescribable. We looked at each other and said “We did it!”. My husband went back and forth between checking on the babies, and checking on me unti I told him to stay with the babies! I’ll be fine!

I could hear my boys crying from across the room. What a beautiful, long awaited sound. Baby A got a 9/9 on his apgar and Baby B got a 8/9. Both got 9/9 on the second apagar. Both babies weighed exactly the same at 5lb15oz. A was 19 1/2″ and B was 19 3/4″.

I delivered the placentas and then I realized the doctor was spending a lot of time doing something down there, so I asked if I tore and he said I got a second degree tear but only after Baby B. Darn it! Oh well, it was totally worth it.

Once the babies and I were cleaned up, they brought me the babies to hold as we headed to recovery. I was so weak, I couldn’t hold them! I had to ask the nurses to take them. It broke my heart, but it was the right thing to do. They were put in a bassinet and we were wheeled to recovery. Because I had GD, the babies’ blood sugar had to be constantly monitored. Baby A’s was low so we had to supplement with formula right off the bat. I insisted we cup feed to avoid nipple confusion since I was set on a successful breastfeeding experience. I did try to nurse them for a minute, but obviously my drops of colostrum wasn’t going to make up for a bit of formula. I was fine with it. After about half an hour, the babies had to be taken to the well baby nursery as protocol. I could get them back as soon as I got to my postpartum room.

Recovery took way longer than I expected because I was having pulse issues. I guess my pulse was faster than they would have liked and they wanted to keep a close eye on me. Finally, I got to go to my room. My husband got us a nice private room with a view of Central Park. It was a perfect place to be reunited with my family. Happy birth day, my sweet baby boys!

The doctor later explained to me that Baby B was coming out hands first and he had to go in, break B’s water, turn him around and deliver breech. And he had to do it quickly before my cervix started closing so we could avoid another laboring session. Can you imagine? What if I would have had to move back to the labor room to labor down for B? I guess it can happen. Crazy! I guess that or an emergency c-section. Both situations I would have wanted to avoid, so thankfully I did. I am SO glad I got the epidural because the whole arm in vag slash breech delivery thing would have been pretty brutal.

Whew! That was long! If you made it this far, I should buy you a drink or seven. Haha.