I was due on August 23. In the wee hours of the morning on June 12, I was awoken by what I thought was an urgent need to use the bathroom. (Not too uncommon for a pregnant lady!) But something seemed...different. I started having suspicions that my water had broken so called the on-call doctor who told me to go the labor & delivery to get checked out. I woke up DF and we headed to the hospital.
The medical staff confirmed that my water had indeed broken, but I wasn't in labor. They informed me I'd be staying in the hospital until the babies were born. Whoa, that was not what I was expecting! They gave me a couple different medicines to help the babies lungs and brains develop, and then I settled in for some bed rest. I was almost at 30 weeks gestation. The doctors said that the goal was to keep 'em cooking until 34 weeks.
A few days later, I was scheduled to have a baby shower. Since I was stuck in the hospital, the hostesses and guests were kind enough to bring the party to me! That was a nice distraction from worrying about everything for a couple hours.
I wasn't on strict bed rest - I was allowed to get up a little bit, but I was supposed to be taking it easy. I kept having contractions. They put the babies on the monitors twice a day to make sure they were doing ok, and they never showed any signs of distress. A nurse from the NICU came to see me and answer my questions about having preemies. She wound up taking care of the boys a lot and was their nurse on the day they were discharged!
After a week of bed rest, on June 19, suddenly my sporadic contractions became more regular and intense. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was probably in labor for about 2 hours before my doctor came in on rounds. I told her, "If this is how bed rest feels, I'm going to need an epidural to get through it!" She examined me and said, "It's time to have these babies!" I was like, "Whaaaaat? No, no, it's too early!" I called DF who hurried over from work. My doctor did a quick ultrasound and determined that based on the babies' positions, a c-section most likely wasn't necessary.
They wheeled me over to the delivery wing. The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me about an epidural but there wasn't enough time. Soon I was in the OR (they do all twin deliveries in the OR in case an emergency c-section becomes necessary). My doctor asked me if I felt like I needed to push, but I was like, "Where are the NICU people?! We have to wait for them!" Luckily the NICU team showed up just moments later.
After a few pushes, Baby A arrived weighing 3 lbs 1 oz, and he let out a little cry. I was so surprised and relieved to hear him cry because I'd had visions of a "blue baby" flashing in my head.
[OK, this part is a little bit TMI but it's interesting!] When Baby A was born, Baby B's legs popped out too - they had their legs tangled up together!
I was wondering if they were going to say they had to do a c-section to deliver the second one, but the next thing I knew, they were telling me to push again. Baby B was born 2 minutes later, breech, weighing 2 lbs 14 oz. After they cleared out his airway, he also squealed a bit. Another sigh of relief from Mom! I was 30 weeks 5 days along when they were born.
The babies were whisked off to the NICU. I spent the next several hours having various complications (because that's just how this pregnancy went for me), but I finally got to visit them the next day. Life in the NICU, though, deserves its own post.
I'd heard that we should go to a birthing class early because "you just never know with twins." We attended 2 out of 4 classes before the big event, so I guess I was 50% prepared :) I asked the doctors why I went into early labor, but they weren't able to determine exactly. They said I might have had an infection, or also with twins sometimes your body just runs out of room. It certainly wasn't how I expected the birth story to unfold. I'm glad it had a happy ending!
My room was the one in the middle there, where I spent the week on bed rest.
File under: NaBloPoMo Day 1
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