10 lbs 6 oz of perfection

July 24, 2012

It was finally here. After all this time, and all of this pain, the day was here. They started the induction at 6am. I had barely slept for more than an hour the night before, way too anxious for things to get started.

I was exactly 35 weeks along, meaning the babies wouldn't be required to go to the NICU when they arrived, but still there was a good chance of it.

The nurse came in at 6am to start the pitocin. By 9 am my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 60 seconds each. Surprisingly, I was doing really well with the contractions and pain. Remembering back to my labor with Peyton, I would have already been screaming for pain medication at this point.

I sat in the rocking chair they had in my room with those wonderful hospital socks on, rocking back and forth through each contraction. I was sick of being in bed, since I had spent most of my time in that bed for the last couple weeks.

My wonderful nurse, the same one that had been advocating for me this whole time to be induced, was on shift until 7:30pm and we were determined to have her there for the delivery. She was the one person at the hospital keeping me somewhat sane through all of this, and that I knew cared.

At this particular hospital they have anesthesiologists specifically for the Labor & Delivery floor, because of the high number of births they have there every month. They told me the average number, which I of course can't remember, but it was something ridiculous. They had one of the anesthesiologists from the L&D team come and talk to me about the plan for pain medication once I needed it. They wouldn't let me not get an epidural, or a spinal (whichever I chose), because of the high chance that they would have to do a c-section. It's not like I would opt NOT to get one anyway. I am not that crazy.

I sent a text to Caryn shortly after Adam (my soon to be best friend with the drugs) came in to discuss the epidural and risks associated and told her he was "HOT!" It definitely doesn't hurt having hot doctors helping you out when you're in labor. Not really the best time to flirt, though. "Hey, I know I'm a whale right now and about to deliver twins... but maybe we could grab coffee sometime?" Yeah, RIGHT! If only.

The plan was for the doctor to check my cervix for dilation at 9:30am, but my contractions had slowed down for awhile so they turned up the pitocin and would check me around 10 instead.

Unfortunately, at 10 nothing had really changed with my cervix. I was about 2 cm dilated and that was not going to cut it. They would have to turn up the pitocin even more and hope that it did the trick. The OB (not MY actual doctor) that came in said that there was a chance that I could be stuck at 2 cm for awhile and that the induction (pitocin) might not even work. That was not what I needed to hear!

At around 1pm, what seemed like an eternity later, MY OB came in to check on how things were progressing. I was having "wonderful" contractions, still no medication at this point, but when she checked my cervix I was only about 3-4 cm dilated at that point. So, in 3 hours I had progressed maybe 1 to 2 cm's. We needed to get this thing going, or I wasn't going to have my nurse for delivery.

E & S were still not in the U.S. yet, nor had they even boarded the plane. The whole time difference was making things a little difficult, and it wasn't that easy to find last minute flights from Paris to Seattle. (They were flying to Seattle because it was a direct flight and they couldn't find one to Portland.) It was becoming apparent that they wouldn't be there for the birth of the twins, but I could only have one person with me when I delivered them, anyway.

Because it was twins, because there was a possibility of a breach delivery, and because of the high risk of a c-section, I would deliver the twins in an operating room. All of my laboring was done in my room, and they would wheel me to the operating room when it became time to push. So the plan was for my mom to be with me. As soon as the boys arrived, whenever that happened, they would get arm bands to be able to have the babies in their own room (which I thought was awesome the hospital provided) and be able to go to the NICU, if that's where the twins ended up.

My OB decided that to get things going quicker she would break the water of baby A and hopefully that would speed things up. It was the strangest feeling when she did it, and soon the bed was soaked. My water broke on its own with Peyton, so I never had experienced it this way. I think they probably changed the bedding a few times after that.

Less than an hour after she broke baby A's water, the contractions were getting more and more intense. I asked for my hot doctor friend to come in and start the epidural. It went way more smoothly then when I had gotten one with Peyton, and I started to feel better pretty quickly.

At about 4:30 they checked my cervix again and I was at 5 cm dilated, but I was already starting to feel pressure from baby A. I went from a 5 to a 7 in less than an hour and was certain the twins would be there soon.

Around 6pm or so is when it really started to get intense. The epidural was working wonders on the bottom half of my body, but I suddenly had the worst pain I have ever experienced, ever, in my left arm. I described it as a charley horse multiplied by about 1,000 times worse pain. Adam came back in to try and give me more pain medication, and more, and more, but nothing seemed to help. I was screaming, very loudly, and began to panic. I told my sister I couldn't do it, that I wanted them to just do a c-section and get the babies out.

Another nurse came in to help with everything, to try and get me to stop screaming, I'm sure, but literally nothing at all would make this pain I was having go away. I could feel the affects of all the pain medication they gave me everywhere but where I needed it.

She checked me again and I was at 10cm ready for the babies to be delivered, and it was time for me to be wheeled to the operating room. I was panicing, still in extreme pain, but I knew my mom wouldn't be able to handle what was coming. I was crying, sobbing, really, begging my mom to be okay with my decision to have Sarah come in the room with me instead. I felt terrible, this had been the plan all along for her to be there, but she didn't do well with the kind of pain I was in. Sarah was a CNA, she had to be my rock.

Once I made it to the operating room, they wanted me to push. Once baby A was delivered, they would see what baby B was going to do and either deliver her breach or do a c-section. I didn't want a c-section and would do anything I could to avoid it. As scary as a breach delivery sounded, a c-section seemed so much worse.

Because of the enormous amount of pain medication they had given me to try and help with my "charley horse," I couldn't feel anything that was going on "down there." The doctors and nurses telling me to push did no good because I couldn't tell if what I was doing was the right thing or not, everything was numb.

There were a crazy amount of people in the operating room, two OB's (mine and another), nurses, Adam, my sister, more nurses, etc. They were all "encouraging me" to push and "hard" to get baby A out. I wanted to scream at all of them to shut up! I had no idea what I was doing, and my arm still hurt extremely bad. And of course they wanted me to try and use that arm to pull back on my legs while pushing to make it more effective. Didn't they know that I was in pain and that arm was pretty much useless?

By the time I got angry enough at everyone for not understanding, I finally got a hang of the pushing thing and used all that anger to get baby A out. He was beautiful, absolutely perfect at an even 6 lbs. Such a big baby for being 5 weeks early!

His sister was born only 6 minutes later, even though to me it felt like an eternity in between the two of them. My OB had to reach for her feet while looking at her with an ultrasound machine they brought in the operating room. She wasn't turning, and they wanted her out ASAP. She grabbed onto her feet, and I pushed and pushed continuously for what also seemed like forever until she was out. Feet first and arm up next to her head, but she was out! 4 pounds, 6 oz and she was just as perfect as her brother. A little discolored, but still so perfect.

7:22pm and 7:28pm, finished just two minutes before my nurse was done for the day. I was exhausted, still in pain, but incredibly happy. Seeing them made everything else disappear.