What an eventful day, February 2, 2013!
Below is the LONG version of a really quick event....if you want the short version...90 minutes total labor, we had two babies within 15 minutes of arriving at the hospital. Bennett was born 3 minutes before his sister Emberlynn, all natural. Now if that is all you would like to know you can quit reading this post. If you want the long version, read on...
I had been on 'bedrest' for a couple weeks. Well, let me re-phrase.....I had been on 'chair-rest' for a couple of weeks. I could not lay flat or I would not be able to breathe, and I could not lay on my side or pain would shoot up and down my legs and spine as well as my hips popping out of place. Imagine sitting in a recliner day and night for weeks....back pain only begins to describe the side effects.
We were hoping to make it to 36 weeks, especially Feb 9th (Saturday) so that the babies would share a birthday with my grandfather. The house was not quite ready, my bags had been packed but had kind of been un-packed some, we had not gotten Annaka's big sister gift, etc. I was not really 'prepared' for them to come. (as if we can ever really be prepared) I did however, admit for the first time out loud on Friday evening that my body has had enough and I did not know how much longer I could handle this. I thought the babies would have to come soon.
Well, maybe the babies heard that and thought that was a welcome to begin the process. I woke up at 1am to pee (not unusual) and told Clint my back hurt and I was ready to not have to sit in the chair 24/7. He rubbed my back for a minute or two, I felt a little better so we both went back to sleep. I woke up at 2:30 (to pee again...not unusual) and decided to get in the shower so the warm water would help my back. (This had worked at relieving back soreness in the past couple weeks) Well, in the shower contractions started. Nothing huge, just uncomfortable. I told Clint he better hop in the shower when I get out, and asked him to plug in my blow dryer and flat iron. I dried my hair and while flat ironing my hair I ended up on my knees in pain and knew we needed to head to the hospital.
After grabbing our things and getting to the van between contractions, we ran every red light and made it to the hospital in 9 minutes. Time 3:50am. Clint pulled up to the ER door and ran in to get a wheel chair. A nurse pushed it out to the van and as I started to get out of the car another contraction hit. I sat at the edge of the van until suddenly I started shaking and had to push. I ended up delivering my bag of waters right there between the van and the wheelchair but did not realize that was what happened. It did not break and was like a balloon which made me think it was Bennett's head. The nurse told me to quickly sit down to which I loudly replied that I could not sit on his head. With very large eyes she said "sit down now, we are going upstairs". I half sat, half stood in the wheel chair. As we cut through the ER to the elevators. Every nurse that passed us by would do a double take and would get very large eyes and a surprised look on their faces. (I was wearing Jeans but you could tell something had been delivered)
Expecting twins, I was supposed to deliver in the OR in case of an emergency. We did not make it that far. They wheeled me into a delivery room (which was closer) and somehow got me on the bed. I have no idea how they got my pants off but I do remember telling them "I dont care, just cut them off"... we found them folded in the window area after the delivery was over. They popped the bag of waters and Bennett was born within a couple minutes at 4:01am. As soon as he was born the NICU nurses did an immediate assessment, wrapped him up and brought him to me for me to kiss his little face before they took him to upstairs. While the nurses were working on Bennett, a tec brought an ultrasound machine to our OB to see where Emberlynn was positioned. The Monday before she was head down (like she had been the entire pregnancy) but three days earlier, Wednesday, an ultrasound showed she had flipped around and was transverse with her head at Bennett's feet. She must have followed his feet because she was perfectly positioned to come next. While the OB pulled the ultrasound machine to my stomach, one nurse grabbed my left hand to put an IV in it and another nurse grabbed my right hand to take fingerprints. They had barely finished when our OB told me to push. I was surprised as I thought labor would have to kind of start all over again to move our little girl into place. Here came Emberlynn 3 minutes after her brother at 4:04am. I was admitted to the hospital 45 minutes after the twins were born.
There are other random details, but this is the basics of it. One thing we are very very thankful for is that our OB was already at the hospital. Otherwise she would have never made it on time.
Whew, 90 minutes of labor only 11 of which were on hospital property.
Like I said in the beginning, the long story of a quick event. This quick event started our journey as parents of three, parents of twins.....and a reminder of what it is like with no sleep:)
We have had quite an experience the past two weeks with our sweet babies in the NICU. I have learned a lot and will post more about this in the next post.
