The birth of our twins!

I'm baaaack!

And - I'm not pregnant anymore!

You probably have guessed from my blog hiatus - the babies are here! They are one week old tonight, in fact.

Introducing....

In case their shirts didn't give it away - Maddox is on the left, Kellan on the right.  Photo taken 6/11/11

Maddox James (Baby A)

Monday, June 6, 2011

11:45 PM

7 lb, 0 oz, 19 3/4 inches

and

Kellan Thomas (Baby B)

Monday, June 6, 2011

11:52 PM

5 lb, 15 oz, 19 1/4 inches

I'm going to share our birth story - with lots of pictures.  My mom was in the delivery room and she is a great photographer!  She captured the birth experience perfectly.  The birth of our twins is truly a moment I will never, ever forget.  It was so beautiful, despite the quickness and despite the epidural not being on board (horrendously painful!).  It is such a special moment in my life, and would you believe there have been times this past week where I find myself missing the pregnancy?  It drags on and on, and then is over SO quickly.  Labor and delivery is such a surreal experience. The births were truly something I can't quite describe...if you are a mom of multiples or will soon be a mom of multiples, you may understand me a bit more.  I don't have words for it.  It was amazing, painful, beautiful, emotional, and miraculous. 

I am a mother of 3.  I am a mommy of twins!  It still seems unreal!

So last Monday, I had a doctor appointment right away in the morning.  A biophysical profile was done on the babies, and the results weren't at all reassuring.  They give a fetus 30 minutes to demonstrate movement and fetal breathing.  We watched Maddox for 30 minutes, tried the stimulator, everything - and got not even one movement.  We stared at a fetus with good cardiac activity but no movement for what seemed like eternity.  I knew right away that it wasn't good and I asked the tech - she said she had to go get the doctor.  At this point, I called Travis and asked him to come over right away.  The tech came back and told me that since the first baby failed, she wasn't going to spend time waiting for Baby B to pass the test either - and that we should prepare to go down to Labor/Delivery to meet our babies.

Shortly after, I met with the doctor.  My regular doctor(s) were gone, so this was a new doctor to us, but a seasoned veteran to the department.  He was so nice and very reassuring.  He introduced himself and more or less told me it was time to get the babies out...that they likely were just caught during a period of fetal sleep, but given the fact I was 36 weeks and 4 days pregnant (dang near full term!), that there was no use in waiting 12-24 hours to repeat the test for verification.  We were going to induce labor and get the boys out - "they will do better outside than inside at this point".

I cried.  I was scared - for the babies and their health.  I cried because I wasn't the least bit prepared to have all of this happen that exact day.  I cried because I left the house and kissed Emersyn goodbye that morning, not realizing it was my last morning as a mommy of one.  I was very excited but also felt like a failure - so close to 37 weeks - but no cigar.  Then I felt guilty because of all the complaining I had done with the pregnancy.  Maybe that is what brought all this on?  I cried because - well - I was hugely pregnant.  That's what pregnant people do.  They cry.  For far less reasons than failed biophysical profiles!

So we checked into L/D and things moved very slow after that.  The pitocin was hung at 3:30 and didn't have much effect on my contractions.  Same thing as my labor with Emersyn.  Around 8, I asked for the epidural.  I hadn't progressed in dilation or effacement one notch, but I could feel the contractions picking up.  I tried watching The Bachelor during the epidural placement.  It wasn't much of a distraction - I have no idea who didn't receive a rose.  Ha!   I apparently am a hard epidural start - it took several tries - and it was mighty hard to get into a tight "C" shape with the size of my belly plus contractions.  Ugh!  Finally the epidural was in and working beautifully.

Until....

I started sweating bullets, was nauseous as all get out, and felt like I was in a spinning room.  My blood pressures were falling, and got as low as 80/40s.  Keep in mind I had gestational hypertension, so even "normal" blood pressures were making me feel miserable.

Kellan was showing us that he wasn't appreciative of the low blood pressures either.  I felt like I was floating in and out of the situation - and woke up at one point to several doctors around my bed discussing the plans.  They said they were going to stop the Pitocin and shut off the epidural (responsible for the blood pressure issues) and we were taking a break for a bit.

Boo.

The plan was to re-introduce the Pitocin (at half rate) and break my water when appropriate to speed up progression.  My cervix remained unchanged at 5 cm all this time.

So we went forth with the plans - and everything was just very low-key at this point.  Travis and my mom were there, we were watching TV, talking, and of course I was texting all day long.

Because who wouldn't text and FB throughout labor?

Travis and my mom got geared up to attend the delivery - and since it was being done in the OR just in case, they had to scrub in.

Paging Dr. Strobel!

Around 11 PM, they came in and broke my water.  Since the epidural was shut off, I could feel them but oh so slightly.  The Anesthesia team was working on a different combination of epidural drugs - and told me that I am a horrible narcotic-addict candidate as my body doesn't tolerate narcotics in the least.  Ha!  Since the pitcoin was being resumed at half dose and I hadn't been feeling my contractions at levels that low, we didn't feel it was an urgent need to have the epidural on board ASAP and risk the whole low blood pressure issue all over again.

Oops.

Around 11:35, I started to feel a lot of low pressure.  I called the nurse in and asked her if she could let Anesthesia know that I needed them to get the epidural back on board.  Like NOW!

Anesthesia came in a couple minutes later, as I was grasping the side of the bed moaning in pain, and turned on the epidural.  She said ... "I will check back in about 30 minutes, it should be working pretty good by then".

By this time it was about 11:40.  The Anesthesiologist had just left the room and I told Travis that I couldn't wait that long for pain relief - and that I felt the baby was VERY low.  This was followed by a huge scream - which cued the doctors and nurses back in my room.  The doctor said that she was going to check my cervix.  I was still grasping the side of the bed screaming.

She didn't even need to do that cervical check.  One look and she said - "okay we're going down to the OR to deliver right now!"  (My delivery had to be set up in the OR in event of an emergency c-section...which is normal procedure for multiples delivery)

Let's get this party started!

Things moved SO fast after this. I honestly don't remember it all completely.  I do remember them moving my bed out the room, and I wanted them so badly to leave the bed alone and let me deliver right where we were.  According to Travis, I grasped every corner or doorway in my reach to stop them from moving the bed.

The death grip on the bed rail - as we were wheeling into the OR.

Yep like that would work.

Not being allowed to push when the overwhelming urge is there is, in my opinion, one of the crappiest things in the world.

"Breathe, Amber...breathe!"  I loved our nurse, Jessica!

So we got to the OR, literally just steps away.  According to the OR clock time from the pictures, we got in the OR at 11:41.  I was screaming my way through it while teams of people around me worked at amazing speeds to get things ready.  There was a team of people ready for a c-section just in case - plus Anesthesia ready to knock me out in that case, a team of help for each baby, plus my delivery team.  It was a full house.  A very well organized full house.

The doctor doing this delivery is a fellow North Dakotan and it turns out we had a few mutual acquaintances - small world! 

I got the go-ahead to start pushing with my next contractions.  I pushed for less than 2 minutes and Maddox James made his way into the world - screaming, pink, and beautiful.  Travis cut the cord and Maddox spent some time getting looked over. He was here!  Big and beautiful and healthy!

I felt a sense of relief after that first guy was out, and it was pretty relaxed in the OR for a few minutes.  I was able to joke about having to push hard and fast for the next baby so as to avoid them having 2 separate birth dates.  We were just 15 minutes away from midnight. The doctors were busy doing an ultrasound of my belly at this point to check position of Baby B.

They told me that Baby B went from head down to frank breech (butt first) and was fully engaged in my pelvis.  Ready for takeoff.  I found out later that had he not engaged so quickly, I'd have been knocked out and a c-section done.

Thank GOODNESS for Kellan recognizing how badly momma did NOT want a c-section.  He knows whats up and he put his little butt in the right place to help that cause!  Well now buddy, even though that wasn't the safest escape route, momma is so happy to have avoided the knife.

The doctor told me that Kellan was going to be butt first and that I needed to push harder than ever before.  I was running out of steam at this point and pretty unsure I'd be able to do it.

But I was wrong!

Kellan's little butt was delivered first.  His feet were up by his ears, and his right arm was wrapped behind his head.  The delivery staff was really coaching me through the final pushes to get his head delivered safely.  I gave it all I had and he was out in 3 pushes.

He came out white, limp, and not breathing.  This picture is so hard for me to look at.

I freaked out when I saw him like this

 I started crying and repeatedly screaming "he's not breathing!".  The staff didn't say anything in response - until we heard an ever so slight little wimper.  I saw Kellan for just a few seconds as they quickly cut his cord and hauled him away for a little TLC.

And there he goes...

He needed some oxygen but was soon kicking and screaming just like his brother!

Getting some TLC

While Kellan was getting some love, I got to meet Maddox!

{love}

And pretty soon, Kellan got to join us!

My heart was exploding!

We did it!

And couldn't be happier!

So, that's how  my life has drastically changed in the last week!  I will keep this "short" (HAHA!) and save the hospital stay details for another day.  For now, we're all home and healthy and I am loving my family of 5.

Bear with me if I go on another blog hiatus.  The boys have bilirubin checks again later today and if still elevated, we may have to be readmitted to the hospital.  Otherwise, I do plan on getting back to the blogging world as best as I can!