Happy Birthday

So here’s the story.

We showed up for the induction at 7am. It took an hour to do all the paperwork and check-in. The doctor showed up at 8am and broke Baby A’s water. What a strange feeling! He let me labor without Pitocin for the first part of the day. About an hour after he broke the water, the contractions started. I thought, “WTF are these?” About half an hour later, I realized that OMG THESE ARE CONTRACTIONS AND THEY REALLY REALLY HURT. You guys, seriously, it was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. I moaned my way through it for several hours, insisting to Chris over and over that I was for sure going to DIE. Finally I gave in to a shot of Nubain and promptly crashed for an hour and a half straight. Loved it. Then after feeling the contractions again for about half an hour, I asked for the epidural. I slept pretty much the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. They put me on Pitocin for a little while at that point.

My progress was great. They shut off the Pitocin in the late afternoon/early evening because there were two emergency c-sections ahead of me and I was already at 6cm, but I was having good contractions on my own. At about 8pm, I was 8-9cm and my cervix was so thin they could barely even tell it was there. It was almost showtime. We called up the parents and said it was time to get to the hospital. They hung out in my room for the last hour. It was totally awkward. I was tired, uncomfortable, and feeling some discomfort from the contractions through the epidural. I really just wanted to be with Chris. Luckily, it didn’t last long. By 9pm, the nurse ordered everyone out, checked me and announced I was complete and it was time to roll on out. They wheeled me into the OR with Chris.

The OR was full of people – two NICU teams, several nurses, the OB and my husband. At this point, I was so full of adrenaline and hormones that I was shaking uncontrollably. I just couldn’t stop. Baby A was far down into the canal already, so I started pushing as soon as everyone was in place. It only took about 4-5 pushes before I felt the unmistakable burn of her head crowning. Chris was frantic: “SHE’S COMING OUT! SHE’S ALMOST HERE!” Me? “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN AFTER SHE’S OUT???” Yeah, I was joking in the middle of delivery, but honestly I was so so so focused on getting this girl out safely and avoiding a c-section that I just worked on pushing correctly and following directions. One more solid push and her head was out. Another push and I delivered the rest of her. She came out cooing and giving little cries. I grasped at her slimy little feet, saying “Hi little girl! Hi little girl!” She was absolutely the most perfect thing I’d ever seen. The nurses took her over to the warming table, checked her out and swaddled her while the OB worked on me. Chris and I looked over at her and she was staring straight at us as though she was waiting for us to bring her sister. Even all the nurses remarked on it. It was wild.

With Baby A delivered, it was time to really work for Baby B. The doctor palpitated my uterus and did an ultrasound and determined that Baby B was still head down. Phew! They started me on a heavy dose of Pitocin to get contractions going because my uterus was so hyper-distended, it couldn’t contract around just one baby. I pushed and pushed and pushed while the doctor guided the baby down to the canal, then I pushed and pushed and pushed to get her to descend. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, never been so focused on anything in my life than getting Baby B out. Every time I wanted to rest, I just thought of the dreaded half-vaginal, half c-section twin delivery and I would push some more. Finally, I felt her head crowning. A few of the hardest pushes you could ever imagine, and out came Baby B. Later, I found out the doctor used a suction cup to help pull her out.

The whole room was clucking with excitement. One nurse thanked us – she’d never attended a double vaginal twin delivery before. Everyone said what a great job we did. The doctor had a huge grin on his face and kissed my cheek. It was total euphoria.

After the delivery, they wheeled me back to our room to nurse and do some assessments on the girls. Baby A’s blood sugar was so low, she was at risk of brain damage without immediate intervention. They had to feed her 10mL of formula twice due to super-low blood sugars. She then had four normal blood sugar tests in a row and they didn’t have to do any more formula. Breast feeding has sustained her levels fine. Baby B had high sugars at birth, but didn’t need any treatment. Both girls are now doing perfect.

I developed a fever that lasted about 10 hours, but thankfully that’s gone now and the shaking has mostly stopped. I still look about 20 weeks pregnant, but thank god I can sleep on my back now! And eat! My god, the appetite I have! I even got to indulge my cinnamon bun craving, thanks to a certain someone on the board. The scary part is that my legs, from the tops of my thighs to the tips of my toes, are swollen the same width all the way down like tree trunks. Ugh.

Anyhow, here are the stats:

Both girls born at 37 weeks 5 days gestation on 11/17/08

Elise (Baby Formerly Known as A): 6lb 13oz, 19 ½ inches long, born at 9:35pm

Althea (Baby Formerly Known as B): 6lb 1oz, 19 ¼ inches long, born at 10:03pm

We haven’t transferred the better pics from the cameras yet, so here is a camera phone pic for now.

Welcome to the world, little girls!

P.S. Chris, thank you for being the best coach ever. I couldn’t have done it without you, especially the conception part. xoxo

Elise on the right, Althea on the left