Thanks Krista for reminding me that I never even wrote up my birth story! It will probably take a few days. so this is part 1 of who knows how many. I will try to finish it up before Krista has her little boys.
At 36 weeks I went in for my final check-up with the perinatologist. The goal was to see when we could deliver. My OB and I were planning on trying to go at 37 weeks. I was getting pretty big and had been on bed rest for a while (11 weeks). The perinatologist said everything looked good so we scheduled a C-section for Monday, October 10, 2011. Apple (Alyssa) had actually turned head down during that last week, but we were still concerned about Bluebear (Abby) and twins and so we stayed on course for the c-section. We scheduled our surgery for 9:45 am on the 10th. My parents and two of my younger siblings came down late Sunday night (like midnight) from Utah so they could be there. My dad, brother and sister were just going to stay one day and my mom a week.
Sunday night, we were so excited. It was very hard to get to sleep. We stayed up making sure the house was all ready, our bags were all ready and trying to make sure we didn't forget anything. I think it was close to 1 am before we went to bed. So much for trying to get a good night's sleep and be well rested for the day...
About 2 am, I got up for one of my nightly pee breaks. Halfway between the bed and the bathroom my water broke. there was really no mistaking that feeling. It would alternate between trickles and gushes of water. I don't remember how I woke Mark up but we then sat in the bathroom for a while discussing whether we should wait until morning and go in as scheduled. We decided it was time to go to the hospital. Despite all our preparation the night before, it took us a good while to get out the door. I wasn't having any contractions at this point so we didn't feel a whole lot of urgency.
We live about 30 minutes from the hospital and Mark was getting us there as fast as he could. I'm not sure how much was him being anxious to get there or that he finally had a good reason to speed and a completely deserted freeway to do it on.... We called my parents who had barely gone to sleep in their hotel and told them we were on the way. They walked over from their hotel and met us as we pulled up to the hospital. I had started contracting pretty bad during the drive. Starting from no contractions when we left I was fairly consistently 3-4 minutes apart....and they hurt.
We were given a room without delay and the nurse started going over my details and such. It seemed to take forever. The contractions were getting closer and closer and I was just thinking - where is the epidural?! My OB was not able to come in early so her partner came in to check on me. I was at a 2 and 90% effaced. Alyssa's head was either at a +2 or a -2 I just can't remember. But labor was progressing well. We talked briefly about doing a vaginal delivery, but I was already set on the c-section. Sometimes I wish we had talked about it longer and maybe I would have chosen the vaginal route, but maybe with Abby's head concerns we still would have done the surgery. Who knows. I hate what ifs...
Anyway finally about 4:30am I got my epidural. So wonderful. My contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and I was having a really hard time with them. They were making me really dizzy and I was a little worried about passing out. But with the epidural I could just feel the pressure, not the pain. I was a lot more patient after that. We were trying to wait until my OB could get to the hospital to do the surgery, but with my contractions getting closer and closer we decided to go ahead with the delivery. Once we made that call, I was surprised at how quickly things happened. Within minutes I was wheeled to the OR, it took them just a few more minutes to put all the drapes up and such. And before I knew it Mark told me they had already started cutting.
The delivery was also pretty quick. Mark was standing by my head looking over the drape (and taking pictures!). He was so excited. I was a little out of it. I had demanded that they lower the drape when they deliver the babies, but even so I couldn't see anything. They showed me each baby but that was a blur. I started getting pretty woozy and light-headed. I got to hold Alyssa for a few seconds while they worked on stitching me back up. Mark left with the girls. I remember at one point hearing them counting over and over to 20 or 22. I, confused, asked Mark what they were doing... well they were counting how many blood soaked rags were used during the surgery. Needless to point out- I lost a lot of blood. I was pretty pale and light headed for a couple days.
I don't really remember being wheeled to recovery. I remember realizing I was there. Eventually Mark came back and brought me Abby. We decided on their names (who was who). And then Mark left again to go with the girls to the NICU. Since they were so little ( 5 lbs and 5 lbs 5 oz) they required a 6 hour observation in the NICU. Mark and my parents went with and got to spend more time meeting my girls. I was a little jealous.
Whatever they were waiting for in recovery finally happened and I was moved into a post partum room. After the 6 hour stay both girls were brought down to my room! I finally got to see both of them together and hold them. My family was there and it was a lot of people. Mark's parents joined us as well. It was fun to have so many people celebrating but I didn't get a whole lot of personal time with my babies, but I was sure there would be plenty of time for that.
I was totally dazed still. I didn't really know what was going on. I hadn't registered yet that these were my daughters. After a while, they went back to the nursery - I don't remember why... pediatrician wanted to see them? I don't know. But that night they sent Abby back up to the NICU. That story next time.
At 36 weeks I went in for my final check-up with the perinatologist. The goal was to see when we could deliver. My OB and I were planning on trying to go at 37 weeks. I was getting pretty big and had been on bed rest for a while (11 weeks). The perinatologist said everything looked good so we scheduled a C-section for Monday, October 10, 2011. Apple (Alyssa) had actually turned head down during that last week, but we were still concerned about Bluebear (Abby) and twins and so we stayed on course for the c-section. We scheduled our surgery for 9:45 am on the 10th. My parents and two of my younger siblings came down late Sunday night (like midnight) from Utah so they could be there. My dad, brother and sister were just going to stay one day and my mom a week.
Sunday night, we were so excited. It was very hard to get to sleep. We stayed up making sure the house was all ready, our bags were all ready and trying to make sure we didn't forget anything. I think it was close to 1 am before we went to bed. So much for trying to get a good night's sleep and be well rested for the day...
About 2 am, I got up for one of my nightly pee breaks. Halfway between the bed and the bathroom my water broke. there was really no mistaking that feeling. It would alternate between trickles and gushes of water. I don't remember how I woke Mark up but we then sat in the bathroom for a while discussing whether we should wait until morning and go in as scheduled. We decided it was time to go to the hospital. Despite all our preparation the night before, it took us a good while to get out the door. I wasn't having any contractions at this point so we didn't feel a whole lot of urgency.
We live about 30 minutes from the hospital and Mark was getting us there as fast as he could. I'm not sure how much was him being anxious to get there or that he finally had a good reason to speed and a completely deserted freeway to do it on.... We called my parents who had barely gone to sleep in their hotel and told them we were on the way. They walked over from their hotel and met us as we pulled up to the hospital. I had started contracting pretty bad during the drive. Starting from no contractions when we left I was fairly consistently 3-4 minutes apart....and they hurt.
We were given a room without delay and the nurse started going over my details and such. It seemed to take forever. The contractions were getting closer and closer and I was just thinking - where is the epidural?! My OB was not able to come in early so her partner came in to check on me. I was at a 2 and 90% effaced. Alyssa's head was either at a +2 or a -2 I just can't remember. But labor was progressing well. We talked briefly about doing a vaginal delivery, but I was already set on the c-section. Sometimes I wish we had talked about it longer and maybe I would have chosen the vaginal route, but maybe with Abby's head concerns we still would have done the surgery. Who knows. I hate what ifs...
Anyway finally about 4:30am I got my epidural. So wonderful. My contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and I was having a really hard time with them. They were making me really dizzy and I was a little worried about passing out. But with the epidural I could just feel the pressure, not the pain. I was a lot more patient after that. We were trying to wait until my OB could get to the hospital to do the surgery, but with my contractions getting closer and closer we decided to go ahead with the delivery. Once we made that call, I was surprised at how quickly things happened. Within minutes I was wheeled to the OR, it took them just a few more minutes to put all the drapes up and such. And before I knew it Mark told me they had already started cutting.
The delivery was also pretty quick. Mark was standing by my head looking over the drape (and taking pictures!). He was so excited. I was a little out of it. I had demanded that they lower the drape when they deliver the babies, but even so I couldn't see anything. They showed me each baby but that was a blur. I started getting pretty woozy and light-headed. I got to hold Alyssa for a few seconds while they worked on stitching me back up. Mark left with the girls. I remember at one point hearing them counting over and over to 20 or 22. I, confused, asked Mark what they were doing... well they were counting how many blood soaked rags were used during the surgery. Needless to point out- I lost a lot of blood. I was pretty pale and light headed for a couple days.
I don't really remember being wheeled to recovery. I remember realizing I was there. Eventually Mark came back and brought me Abby. We decided on their names (who was who). And then Mark left again to go with the girls to the NICU. Since they were so little ( 5 lbs and 5 lbs 5 oz) they required a 6 hour observation in the NICU. Mark and my parents went with and got to spend more time meeting my girls. I was a little jealous.
Whatever they were waiting for in recovery finally happened and I was moved into a post partum room. After the 6 hour stay both girls were brought down to my room! I finally got to see both of them together and hold them. My family was there and it was a lot of people. Mark's parents joined us as well. It was fun to have so many people celebrating but I didn't get a whole lot of personal time with my babies, but I was sure there would be plenty of time for that.
 |
| A little drugged still... But finally holding both my girls! Abby is on the right, Alyssa is hiding on the left. |
