Twice Upon a Time

Sean already provided a good rundown of the day(s) that lead up to the birth of our sons but I wanted to tell things from my own perspective before I forget much more. And with more detail than you'll probably care for.

So on Monday my doc declared that I should be induced the next day. Both babies were head-down and she didn't want to give them time to switch it around. So we had to wait until the hospital called us that night to find out when they had time to induce me. We finally found out at about 11pm that they wanted us to come at 7am!

So after a night in which I did not get a whole lot of sleep, I woke up extra early and got ready, eating breakfast at about 5:30 am. At 6:15, the hospital called to tell us that they couldn't fit us in at 7am and would call by 9am to tell us a new time. After lots of back and forth calls, they finally called us in somewhere in the 11 o'clock hour. At least we got to take a little nap during the whole ordeal, but it was somewhat of a frustrating morning.

Once we got the official call, I started to get lots of contractions. The excitement must have triggered something. Once at the hospital and in the room at noon, the nurse put all the monitors on me. That was one of the worst parts about the whole thing. They had to keep tabs on the babies' heart rates and on the contractions at all times, so I was stuck in bed on my back at a slight recline. It was such a terrible position, every contraction hurt wildly. I just wanted off my back, at least on my side. But the nurse wouldn't have it. Plus, I was really starting to feel the hunger pangs of eating such an early breakfast (they told me at home that I shouldn't eat, the meanies).

So when they started me on Pitocin at 1pm, I could really feel it. And the doctors that periodically stopped in kept saying that there was no reason to wait for an epidural, so I didn't. I had it put in by 2:30. Sweet, sweet relief. Sean was annoyed that he couldn't stay to watch, but it was hospital policy. Getting an epidural was not as big of a deal as I was expecting. There were some pains when they did the numbing shots and some weird sensations as the cannula was put in, much easier to handle than the labor pains.

Then I sat around for about three or four hours, mostly sleeping, I think. And munching on ice chips. When they finally checked my dilation, I was only 3cm- pretty much how I had started out. Realizing the Pitocin wasn't doing it's job, they upped the amount.

That delay in getting enough Pitocin allowed for one wonderful occurrence... we got to watch LOST. Complete with interruptions from nurses and the intercom. But it was a great diversion. And holy cow, can you say coincidence? I don't want to spoil anyone if they haven't seen the "Across the Sea" episode, but the opening series of events were just so nutty in relation to our situation. I should be careful to not mistake coincidence for fate.

So, somewhere in the evening, I was declared to be 5cm dilated. Progress is good. Oh, and my water broke, yay! By around 11:30, I started feeling really uncomfortable, so they checked again: 8cm. I guess they are reluctant to check frequently because when I told the nurse a half hour later that I was SUPER uncomfortable, feeling the urge to push, she wanted to wait to check. The next half hour was miserable. I'd try to sleep but wake up every minute to try with all my might not to push. I finally convinced the nurse that I needed to be checked again... yep, 10cm! Thank goodness!

Sean had been asleep and was jarred awake to change into scrubs. All twins in this hospital are delivered in the Operating Room because of increased risk of complications. They wheeled me in as I started feeling more and more delirious. The pain/discomfort I felt combined with not eating for FOREVER made me feel very weak. Then they made this frail, epiduralized woman switch beds by crab walking over. Mean mean meanies.

Finally everything was set and I got to start pushing at 1am. It took about an hour of slow progress but Liam was born at 2:16am. They put him on me and he was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. It was so distracting that it was hard to put all my effort into pushing out Dash. But then they took away Liam to check up on all his vitals and such so I got back to work and Dash was born 11 minutes after his brother. And so there was somehow another thing equally as amazing as the babe I had beheld just minutes earlier.

Sean was great the whole delivery, saying sweet things and holding my hand, while I kept my eyes closed and just focused on breathing. And oh he was so happy when he met his sons. He cut the cords like a champ and followed around the babes as they were being checked on. He radiated happiness.

After they were finished with me, they made me switch beds again (I know!) but put a magnificent warm blanket over me. But I had already started shaking and quivering and the blanket didn't get rid of it. Yes, I was cold but the exhaustion of pushing and the lack of food just utterly put my out. They put me in a temporary room while they finished up with babies. The nurse finally asked if I wanted some food (YES) and took, I swear, at least a half hour to bring me a juice box. Geez.

Then I got taken to the recovery room. That's where I started getting a headache. I tried to stay awake as another nurse gave my babies a little sponge bath. By the end, my headache was raging. They gave me some medicine and about two minutes later I had a huge wave of nausea. If I had had any food in my stomach, it definitely wouldn't have stayed there for long. That's when I curled up and had Sean rub my head. I desperately wanted to be with my new babies but I couldn't function at all. Sean was super exhausted as well. So we had them go to the nursery. I felt terrible at sending them away but there's no way I could have cared for them that early morning. That's when I felt my first moment of despair- I had just become a mom and I'm already not able to take care of them? Man, it was awful.

But I somehow fell asleep around 8am and when I awoke at 9am, the headache was gone and no sign of nausea. Hallelujah! And it's a good thing I felt better by then because minutes later, the start of the parade of 800 hospital personnel visits began. I wonder how many of those visits I don't even remember.

We got the babies back and over the next several days started to figure out nursing and diaper changing and all the other things they needed. And we stared at and held them. And tried really hard to get some sleep, which was awfully elusive.

On the second day, blood work showed that Liam had a bit of jaundice, so he had to be put under lights.

Gosh, that was so hard. Liam would be in there crying and crying and I couldn't pick him up to comfort him. That's when I had my first good cry. He had to stay under the lights for about 24 hours but thankfully his bilirubin levels improved so he could be discharged without consequence. And I could cuddle him whenever I wanted.

It was great to go home and not have people interrupting our sleep every few minutes, though it was so hard to get any sleep the first several nights. But we've gotten in a pretty good swing and getting decent sleep most nights. Boy am I glad my mom's here to help.

So that's how it happened. I am so grateful that everything went relatively smoothly. And that my boys are so perfect.