Born

I awoke at 1:00 a.m. with contractions on Wednesday, May 16th, although I didn’t know it at the time. I woke up again at 1:30 a.m., then 2:00 p.m. and from that point on about every half hour until I got up around 7:00 a.m. At some point in the night I realized they were contractions, and decided just to sleep between them.

I remember waking up that morning and looking at Josh.

“I think I’m having contractions. You’d better stay home.”

Josh looked at me and replied, “I’m getting nervous.” I thought I’d be too, but I wasn’t, now that the big event had arrived.

After getting a shower and eating a light breakfast, the contractions started coming a little closer together, and as I moved around the house, Josh recorded their frequency and duration. They were rather sporadic, some coming around 5 minutes, others 12 minutes and I had no other signs of labor. We took a walk around the neighborhood and then I started bouncing on my birthing ball. That thing was great! It took the pressure off my pelvis and I believe it also helped me to progress. While on the birthing ball, my contractions started coming every four minutes and reached 11 contractions an hour. We decided to head to the hospital.

I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in the car during contractions, but as it would be, they actually died down to about 15 minutes apart and less intense. Then I started worrying that we’d left for the hospital too soon! While on our way we stopped at a park and decided to take a walk to see if we could jump start them again. The day was beautiful: sunny, fresh, and warm. There was a group of kids with butterfly nets doing some sort of nature hike. It was so lovely outside I hated the thought of going to a cold, sterile hospital and thought how nice it would be to just stay outside for the rest of the day and give birth outside! We walked along a path that followed a stream and my contractions started up again a little stronger. So back we went to the car and continued on to the hospital.

When we arrived at the ER my contractions died away again and I just sat calmly watching TV, waiting for L&D.

Once going up to the Labor and Delivery unit I was checked in and pronounced to be 7-8 cm dilated with my bag of waters bulging. The staff was very congratulatory and positive about how well things were going. I was delighted to be so far along!

I was taken to my labor room and I asked about going natural through labor. My doctor had long ago recommended an epidural, which I really didn’t want, and since I was so far along and really didn’t feel intense pain, I asked again about going through labor without drugs. (We’d talked about it before but hadn’t reached a decisive conclusion.) However, my doctor highly recommended an epidural, not for me, but Baby B. Due to the fact that complications often occur after Baby A is born, they felt that an epidural would save time if emergency procedures had to be done. Sometimes, after Baby A is born, Baby B turns flips and changes positions, or gets tangled in the cord with all the extra room, and they have to do an emergency C-section. I really wanted to experience natural birth, but decided to go ahead with the epidural. I felt like maybe my pride was getting in the way of choosing what may be best for Baby B.

I was really nervous about the epidural but it went okay. Thankfully, I could still move my legs, although I had to stay in bed. I feel like it might have slowed things down, but my contractions kept coming at 2 minute intervals. Regardless, from that point on it took about 5 hours to finish dilating. Also, my water never broke, so it had to be broken by my doctor, and they hoped this would help me progress the last bit needed before pushing.

At one point the babies’ heart rates dropped when I was turned on my side, so an internal monitor was placed on Baby A and they gave me some oxygen just to ensure they were getting a good supply. Not long afterwards, pushing began. After 20 minutes of pushing I was moved to the OR to finish delivery. This is standard practice for twin births, just in case one of those complications I already mentioned arises.

The OR felt completely different from my labor room. In the labor room it was just Josh, my nurse, and doctor in a comfortable and dimly lit room. In the OR there were about 12 people bustling around and there was an exciting feeling in the air as everyone ran around taking care of their assigned tasks. The light was bright and shiny. Now I was supported by two nurses who acted as coaches along with my doctor, plus Josh and the anesthesiologist at my head, two nurses per baby, and other people who were tending to miscellaneous activities. In the OR I pushed for approximately another half hour and then Duncan Reed was born.

I heard just tiny mews from him, that sounded like a kitten crying. I saw him for an instant before he was whisked away to be cleaned and I concentrated once again on pushing for the next baby. My contractions started dying down and becoming less intense so they gave me a little pitocin to keep them coming so I could keep pushing. I was starting to feel tired at this point. But only a half an hour later Owen Lee was born. He was plopped on my tummy so Josh could cut the cord.

We were taken back to the labor room for recovery, and I was glad to hold Duncan and Owen and nurse them. I was overwhelmingly tired and ended up with uncontrollable shaking, which they said was normal and due to hormone levels. I also got sick twice afterwards, which one nurse said could have been from the epidural, but another nurse said epidurals don’t make you sick, so who knows!

Anyway, once all that was over with, we settled in for the evening. Looking at Duncan and Owen together at first, they seemed identical to us. However, over the next day or so we began to see distinct differences. We aren’t sure if they’re identical or fraternal, but will get the pathologist’s report, which will give us an almost positive idea of what they are. The only way to be 100% sure is to do genetic testing, which we won’t do.

The whole experience was very surreal, yet very satisfying. I’m thankful most of all that I didn’t have to be induced or have a c-section. Although I would have prefered not having an epidural, I’m not unhappy with my experience and will simply try that again next time. It was probably best that I had it for this delivery. The staff at the hospital were great. My labor nurse had had twins and was awesome. I felt very confident in my doctor’s hands. Although I’d been nervous about delivery in the weeks prior, when it came down to it, I wasn’t nervous at all. I felt like all the research and reading paid off and I knew what was going on at all times, even when it wasn’t explained to me, and that also helped me be confident and calm. Looking at these little guys, I can’t believe they were inside of me just two weeks ago today! There are so many other thoughts and feelings I could share, but I think for now, I’ll just say, what a miracle and a blessing!