So, this may get a little too detailed for some, you might think it's boring or that I overshare a bit, but I love birth stories, and this one was pretty miraculous, so if you're up for all the nitty gritty details, feel free to read on.
On Tuesday, August 15th, I had gone with Byron before work to my parents house where my Daddy helped Byron give me a blessing. I'd had some bloody show and was headed into the OB's office to get checked out. During the blessing my Daddy had said that I would have a normal delivery with no complications. I still didn't believe that it would actually happen that way. I assumed it mean I would have an easy c-section, but after this delivery, I have no doubt that a miracle was performed. At the appointment I learned that I was dilated to a 3, 80% effaced, and at a -1. So, basically, I was moving toward labor, but there was no way of knowing if it was going to be a couple of days or a couple of weeks.
On Thursday, August 17th, I had gone in for an OB appointment and since I was dilated to a 4, they had kept me for observation. They discovered that Hannah was no longer breech, and tried to keep me in the hospital overnight, but since I wasn't in active labor and had only dilated up to a 5 in the 8 hours I had been there, I was discharged and got to go home. Saturday I went to Caleb and David's first soccer games, Sunday I attended church and spent 3rd hour walking in the hallways. Monday my mommy humored me and went walking at the mall with me, and none of it pushed me into labor.
Finally, at 36 weeks and 6 days, on Wednesday, August 23rd, I dropped Caleb, David, and Ezekiel off at my mom's house, then drove myself to my OB appointment. I expressed to my OB that I
really wanted him to deliver these babies, so since I was already dilated to a 5, and was only a day away from being 37 weeks, he finally agreed to augment labor and strip my membranes. Our original plan had me delivering at the main hospital, since they had a Level 3 NICU, but my appointment that day was at the south hospital, he was no longer concerned with them needing a high level of care after birth, and he didn't feel comfortable asking me to drive myself 20 minutes down to the other hospital, so he just had me go to triage in the south hospital. On my way out of the office, he joked that he got off at 6, so I needed to try to have them before then. As I walked down to triage, I was hoping against hope that they really would be here before then, but my labors before had been notoriously long, so I wasn't
certain it would happen.
It didn't take me very long to walk over to the maternity ward from his office, so the nurse at the desk hadn't gotten the message yet that I was coming down. After filling out my paper work and getting me checked in she let me through to the maternity ward. The nurses back there
had gotten the message, and were totally ready for me. They got me hooked up to the monitors, I was finally having consistent contractions, and they brought in my labor and delivery nurse Betsy. I was thrilled to see her. She was the nurse that was there for Caleb
and David's deliveries, and was my postpartum nurse with Ezekiel. When I texted Byron that she was there he jokingly said that is must be time for them to come since she was at work. We found out later that she usually works nights and just happened to pick up a day shift that had her there for my delivery. How crazy is that?! An hour after I had gotten to triage Dr. Wood came down on his lunch break to check for progress. I had dilated to a 7, so he was ready to break my water. Fortunately the nurses stopped him and reminded him I wanted an epidural, so they got me into a room (Byron finally arrived! We had left a car full of car seats with my parents for the boys and I had taken the other car, so when I texted him that they were admitting me, he got a ride from his co-worker Kerry. She was excited to get to be a part of our super fun day, and I will forever be grateful that she got Byron to the hospital!) They placed my epidural, made sure I didn't have an adverse reaction to it, and left to go take care of other patients. Fortunately the anesthesiologist didn't go very far, because about 20 minutes later I felt super nauseous and my ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. I called the nurse back in, who paged the anesthesiologist. I remember being aware of what was going on, but feeling super foggy and nauseous. They dropped my bed back, pumped some medicine through my IV, and gave me some oxygen. When I was looking good and feeling more alert I found out I was super dehydrated when I had been admitted (do you have any idea how hard it is to stay hydrated when pregnant with twins?! It's crazy) and even though they had gotten a whole bag of fluids in before they placed the epidural, it still hadn't been enough to flush the local anesthetic and that is what I had reacted to.
It seems like right after everyone dispersed my mommy and sister Alyssa waltzed into the room all sunshine and smiles. I was so excited to have them there. Alyssa was wearing my favorite bright pink and my mommy was there with her smiles, reassurances, excitement that fueled my own and her camera in hand. It meant so much to have them there. Shortly after they arrived Dr. Wood came in to break my water. He said I went back down to a 5 after he broke the water because it had been bulging and pushing my cervix open to a 7, so when he left we figured it was just time to wait. It had only been about 15 minutes when I felt rectal pressure. It had been 2 years since I was in labor last, so I wasn't
positive I had remembered things correctly, but I paged the nurse and asked if it meant Hannah was coming. She came down to check my progress and discovered Hannah was already engaged in the birth canal! She paged Dr. Wood, started handing out masks to the nurses that would be joining us in the OR, and gave Byron his sterile suit, hat, and mask as well. Unfortunately, since I was delivering in the OR my mom and sister couldn't come in with us for the birth and had to stay in the delivery room. I was really bummed to be wheeled away from them, and the OR was packed with my nurses, a team of nurses for each baby, and
freezing cold. We were all waiting anxiously for Dr. Wood. It had been about 10 minutes before they saw him poke his head into the OR, just to leave again. He came back in a couple of minutes later all suited up and as soon as he was there, it was only a matter of a gentle push before I felt Hannah sliding out. I guess my memory is a little fuzzy on that part though because it was accompanied by a huge splash of amniotic fluid. Her head was plugging my cervix when they broke my water so a lot of it was stuck behind her and gushed out behind her. The OB was pretty thoroughly soaked, and Byron, who was standing
beside me even got some on him.
They placed her on my chest and I got to look at her beautiful little face and hands for a minute while they waited to clamp her cord. At one point during the delivery I looked up and saw another man standing over me. He looked like hospital staff, dressed in scrubs, and was asking questions, but wasn't actually involved in any of the stuff going on around me, so I couldn't figure out who on earth he was, but there wasn't time to figure it out since I was trying to listen to Dr. Wood. He asked for a scalpel at one point, but I had no idea what it was for, and they got the vaccuum out, but I couldn't really see what was going on and was distracted by Hannah. As soon as she was pulled away to be wiped down, weighed and measured it was time to deliver Gideon. Another little push and he was here! They placed him on my chest and I just got to marvel at my beautiful little miracle. It seems like as soon as he had been delivered my mom and sister were there. Once Gideon had been safely delivered a nurse had gone to the room and brought them into the OR. Feeling my mom's amazingly cool hands wiping hair away from my face and her telling me how beautiful they were was such a balm. Dr. Wood sat at the end of my delivery bed and just grinned. He told me I made him look really good, that they hadn't had to use the vacuum, Gideon had just fallen exactly where he needed to be after Hannah came out. There hadn't been any tearing, and he said asking for a scalpel had been an accident, that he hadn't needed it at all. He said it was the easiest Twin birth he had ever seen. I couldn't stop smiling. It was over, it had been beautiful, and my precious little twins were here!
After they had taken Gideon to get wrapped up and weighed the man standing behind me introduced himself as the Dr. on call. He had been paged while they were waiting for Dr. Wood (Hannah was so ready to come out, they weren't sure my OB would make it in time for the delivery) and was amazed that Dr. Wood had beaten him to me.
Since I had been carrying twins, my uterus had been a little distended and they had to give me some pitocin and medicine in order to get me to deliver the placenta and to jump start the contractions that would get my uterus to start shrinking back down, but when they were done they wheeled the three of us back to the labor and delivery room and Betsy helped me get them latched for some tandem nursing. It was a little hard. Newborns are so squishy and wiggly, but they got to eat a bit, and the time it took for the epidural to wear off seemed to fly by. Before I knew it they had put me in a wheel chair, handed me my sweet little bundles of joy, and wheeled me off to my postpartum recovery room. The hospital has a beautiful ceiling covered in fiber optic lights that you get to pass under on your way from the Labor and Delivery wing on your way to the postpartum rooms. When you press a button on the wall the ceiling lights up and plays a beautiful lullaby. I teared up as we approached it and my mom got to push the button for us. It was just so beautiful, and perfect, and I felt so blessed. Heavenly Father had given me such a beautiful delivery and my babies were safe in my arms, surrounded by their Daddy, Granny, and Aunt Alyssa.
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