My Birth Story

I am choosing to forgo a nap for this post... and am crossing my fingers that two sleeping babies don't wake up and thwart my plans. I can't believe that my twins will be one week old tomorrow (!) so if I don't get to the birth story now, I have a sneaking suspicion that my blog writing days might just slowly fade away. I don't want to stop blogging, so here you go:

Tuesday morning I woke up around 4 am and had pretty frequent contractions- about 1-2 minutes apart, but not super painful(which was not unusual). What was different that time was that I couldn't fall back asleep through the contractions and they kept up for 3 hours. I waited until my husband was just about to get up for work at 7 am and mentioned what I was feeling. We hemmed and hawed whether we should call or not to see if we should go in. After my husband called, the nurse said maybe wait and see if they increased, but then said my doctor was actually at the birthing center so she would go ask him. My OB said to go ahead and come in (and make sure to bring my bags). So I put all the last minute things in our bags feeling the whole while that I was jumping the gun and didn't want to drive the 45 minutes one-way just to turn around and come home. I had two appointments that morning: physical therapy and a lunch date with a friend and I knew that I would have to cancel them; which I hated to do if we were just going to come back home.

When we arrived at about 9:45 am, I saw the bus for my class sitting in the parking lot near the ER. They were there for a field trip at the emergency room. I didn't stop by to say hi, mostly because I was full of nerves and didn't want to get their hopes up that today was the day, either. At one point several weeks ago I thought it would be really fun if I delivered while they were at the hospital because my hospital plays lullaby music right after a baby is born for the entire hospital. Little did I know at the time that I would be only an hour and a half too late!

While walking to the room, the nurse leading us said, "big day today, huh?" And not wanting to jinx it, I said, "maybe..." But she replied with, "Oh, I talked to Dr. AJ- yes, it is going to be." And my adrenaline started racing. The whole way to the hospital my husband kept saying he thought Dr. AJ would say we could go ahead and do the c-section, but I didn't think so. My doctor examined me at about 10:30 am and said that I was not progressed enough to proceed with a vaginal delivery but did say that we could do a c-section that day if I wanted to. He typically does scheduled c-sections on Tuesdays and Fridays and if you remember, was leaving for a conference that afternoon and would be gone until next week. He was comfortable with doing the c-section because I was past 37 weeks and we had scheduled one for the following Tuesday. Several thoughts went through my head: 1.) I really wanted him to deliver the twins, and I was afraid the babes wouldn't hold out until next week. 2.) If I did make it to the following week I would be having a c-section anyway 3.) I was tired of being in pain and miserable 4.) but scared to death of making that decision on the spot! I'm not a good decision maker- I like to vacillate several times before I am forced to decide anything. BUT I went ahead and said okay, let's do it.

My doctor told the nurse to schedule it for 11:30 am, and then left. My nurse began scrambling around and said that only an hour didn't give her much time to prep me for the surgery. During that time, I laid there soaking in every last little kick in my belly; knowing I would never again experience that feeling. I ended up in the OR getting ready for the spinal at about 11:45 am. The spinal wasn't that bad at all- I had an awesome anesthesiologist who was super kind. After I laid on the table and couldn't feel my lower half and the sheet went up, I really started to second guess my choice. I told my husband, " I guess it's probably too late to change my mind, huh?"

The only bad part of the whole c-section was some of the meds the anesthesiologist gave me. I guess my blood pressure got too high, so she compensated the meds, then my blood pressure went really low and she gave me something for that. All of a sudden my lips got really, really tingly and numb (like the feeling you get when you're getting drunk but without the fun part).

And then I heard the first cry.

And then I thought I heard a second cry.

But then the sound got really weird and I could hear everyone talking but I couldn't at the same time. I knew my husband was talking to me but his voice blended with the anesthesiologist's and the cries blended with the doctor's and nurses' voices but in a really discordant, scary way. I imagine it was like tripping out on some bad acid- it felt like I was in a horror movie fun house. And then I started to freak out. But my husband and the anesthesiologist talked me down.

Then it all got better from there on out. I asked if they were both out and if they were both okay several times. They brought over Sam and said, "this is your son." And that word son hit me so hard I started bawling. Then they brought over Anna and held both of them close to my head. I will never forget that moment; the first time I saw my son and my daughter. I listened closely to all the talking so I could hear that Sam scored 8 and 9 on his Apgars and Anna scored 9 and 9. Both really good for c-section scores. Sam was born at 12:07 pm and Anna at 12:08 pm- only a few hours after we arrived at the hospital.

My husband went with the babies to get weighed, cleaned up, get their first Hepatitis B shot, etc. while I got stitched and cleaned up. I vaguely remember getting wheeled back to my room and waiting for the babies to get done, which seemed like an eternity. Then they were finally brought to my room and I got to hold them together for the first time. We attempted the first breastfeeding... but breastfeeding is at the least, a post unto itself. Stay tuned for that.

Overall, I think the c-section went really well (except for the scary sound issue). I don't regret not laboring one bit. We were really surprised at how small they both were; especially since our last u/s weight estimates were almost 5 lbs over 3 weeks earlier and were both always almost the same at every u/s. It just shows that those weights are just estimates. I think if I had known that Anna was only 5 lbs I might have delayed the c-section for the following week to give her one more week to grow. I love that our babies were "perfect"- no squished heads from the birth canal. I love that I didn't have to go through all the pain of labor to bring them into the world. I am so glad that I didn't have to have both a vaginal delivery and a c-section. My recovery so far has been pretty great. From what I've read it sounds like it could be much much worse. The worst part, now that I'm home, is the gas pain and the pain when my colon/intestines kick it into high gear.

So this was really long, and maybe you didn't want that much detail. I wanted to record every detail that I could remember feeling or thinking at the time. Kudos to you if you read the whole post! Some pictures of the preceding events:

Seeing them for the first time

Holding them for the first time

Samuel Jacob: born first

Annabel Marie: born second