The Birth Story.

This is an journal entry I wrote nearly a year ago documenting the last day of my pregnancy, and the babies' birth story. Sorry for the lengthiness....I just copy and pasted, instead of doing a summed up blog version. No time for that! :P


37 wks. Exactly; 11/24/08.

After a miserable weekend of a racing heart, chest pain, and little sleep, Aaron and I went into see Dr. Larose prepared to beg him to induce me a week early. With the rapid heart rate that had been going on for weeks we had already talked about taking the twins a little early. Knowing that they had a very good chance of being completely healthy and with my resting heart rate staying up in the 150’s much of the time, I was definitely ready to have these babies. Dr. Larose checked me and I was still dilated to 5, which is what I was the previous weekend when we had our “false alarm”. I asked him what the earliest he would induce me was, and he said. “Well I know they are pretty full up there today, but I will check on tomorrow.” So he made a phone call up to the hospital, and was told that they would put me “on call” and if they had room I could be induced. I was supposed to call in at 5:30 a.m. and they would let me know, and if they had room, I would go in at 7 am.

I was so excited to be finally reaching the end. I was huge, measuring 46 weeks along, in measurements of single pregnancy. I was so unbelievably uncomfortable. I had hardly slept in weeks, couldn’t breath and my heart was always racing.

We were trying to decide whether we should have my mom come up that evening or not, since we didn’t know for sure if I would be induced. I decided to call the hospital at 7 pm, to see if they could give me some idea if they thought I’d be able to come in or not. The woman I spoke to on the phone was wonderful. I just told her we were trying to decide if we should have grandma come up to watch the older 2 kids or not, and was wondering if they were still pretty full or if things looked good for us at this point. She told me she couldn’t guarantee anything, but she was pretty sure we’d be able to come in in the morning. So mom came up that night. I woke up at 4 am on Tuesday morning; anxious to find out if I could be induced or not. I waited very impatiently until my clock said 5:30, then I called the hospital. I told the woman who I was, and she says, “oh we were just talking about you”. “oh??” I replied. “Yeah, We were just trying to decide if we wanted to risk letting you come this morning or not because we are pretty full, but they gave me the ok to tell you to come on in”. Whew…I was so relieved. I was so scared they were going to tell me I couldn’t come in, and then I would have had to wait until Friday. And at that point I didn’t think I could make it until Friday.

So I got up, got showered, and got everything all ready to go. We brought Malichi to Kristie’s to get on the bus and then we headed to the hospital. We had to wait for a short while to get into a room; they were pretty packed up there. Around 8:30 Dr. Larose came in to talk to us. Although we had already planned on trying to deliver naturally, we discussed the option of a C-section as well. The nurses had already done an ultrasound that morning, and determined Finley was still head down, and Scout was transverse/almost breech. She had her head by my left rib, and her feet were by my right hip. He discussed the fact that he would have to turn her after delivering Finley, and if he couldn’t turn her he would try a breech extraction, which would basically be grabbing her feet and pulling her out quickly. He also talked about the chance of having to deliver her by emergency C-section after Finley was delivered. He said there was a possibility it could come to that, and he said an emergency c-section would be the last thing we would want. It would mean Aaron would have to leave the room, they would put me completely out, and within 2 minutes of me being knocked out, they would have to have Scout delivered. So basically it’s pretty gruesome he said. He said he’s only seen that happen once, and with delivering 2 previous babies with no complications, he left the decision completely up to us. It wasn't enough risk that we HAD to have a C-Section, but he wanted us to know what could happen. We decided that we would try to deliver naturally. I desperately wanted to have these babies naturally, and I felt good about it. I thought, or at least hoped, that I could do it! Aaron and I also talked about if I would get an epidural or other pain medication. I decided I wanted to try to do it without anything, but if I decided I really needed it, I would get it.

So around 8:30 Dr. Larose broke my water to start the induction. Instead of fully breaking it, he put a pinhole in it so it was a slow leak. He tried to attach an electrode to Finley’s head so they could monitor his heart rate, but when he tried to put it on, Finley kept moving. Dr. Larose said he could feel Finley’s hand, which wasn’t good because that meant it was up by his head and could come out first, so hopefully he’d move it by the time we delivered. Dr. Larose had to come back a few times before he could finally get the electrode attached to Fin’s head. In the meantime they had me up walking trying to get things going. I was having contractions but not anything too strong or consistent. And every so often they would hook me up to the fetal monitor and monitor the babies and my contractions, they would check me periodically as well. I wasn’t dilating very fast though.

Around 11:10 I was still only dilated to about a 6 so they started a pitocin drip. I warned them that after pitocin is started things will probably happen pretty fast. And that they did! I started having very strong and painful contractions that were right on top of each other. They checked me and I was already at an 8. They started preparing to bring me into the operation room for delivery. They had me delivering in the OR with a surgical team standing by in case I needed and emergency c-section.

I remember at one point, after I was already at an 8, asking if it was too late for the epidural. I was in so much pain, I didn’t think I could handle it anymore. They said they would call the anesthesiologist, but it could be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes before she got there. A few minutes after that I was feeling like I needed to push, so they wheeled me into the OR at about 12:20. I was still at an 8, but the nurse told me to start pushing to try to finish dilated my cervix. The pain was excruciating and I seriously had to keep telling myself “you are not going to die, you are not going to die”. The pain was so bad I felt like I was going to. At one point the anesthesiologist came in, and the nurses said it was too late, I was already pushing. Dr. Larose made his way into the room and some point, and shortly after that, Finley was born at 12:44 p.m. They took Finley and put him in the warmer in the left corner of the room. Since I still had to deliver Scout I wasn’t able to hold him yet. But they said he looked good. Aaron took a few pictures of him in between my contractions. He let out a few cries, and then after that, he laid there contently.

After Finley was out, they checked on the ultrasound to see if Scout’s position had changed. She was still almost breech so they had to turn her. They covered my belly in gel and manually moved her from the outside of my stomach. After they got her head down, we had to wait until she moved down into the birth canal more before they could break her bag of water. She was too high up, and Dr. Larose said he could feel the bag of water in the way, and if he broke it her cord could come out first. Strong contractions continued, but I wasn’t able to push or do anything. The nurse had her hands pushed firmly on my stomach to “hold” Scout in place, so she didn’t flip back into breech position. Dr. Larose just sat there waiting, not saying much. They gave me oxygen, because they said Scout’s heart rate started dropping. After probably about 30 minutes, she had finally moved down enough for them to break the water. At one point I was feeling like if I wasn’t going to be pushing her out soon, I was going to pass out. But finally they gave me the ok to push, and after a few pushes she was out too. At 1:22 p.m. we welcomed Scout into the world. I thought the pain would be less after already delivering Finley, but it wasn’t. It was just as intense. It was a long 38 minutes in between the births.

After she was born they took her over to her warmer and cleaned her up a little. Finley was just content in the warmer all while I was laboring and delivering her. But she was a little more vocal. She was in her warmer screaming. They brought Finley over to me, and the first thought I had was how tiny he was. His head was so little, and he had these long blonde eyelashes. The nurses kept commenting on his long eye lashes while I was laboring with Scout. He has this adorable reddish blonde hair, these super long fingernails and distinct facial features, He looked like a little man. Shortly after that they brought Scout to me too. She was tiny too, but seemed so big compared to her brother. She had lots of dark hair, and was wide eyed. I thought she looked like her big sister. She was beautiful.

Both of the babies were healthy and wonderful. I was able to keep them on my chest while I delivered the placentas and they cleaned things up. I was in absolute awe that both of these babies were inside me. Shortly after delivery they brought me back to the labor room I was in. I was able to hold Scout while they had Finley in the warmer for a while, and weighed him. Then while they weighed Scout, I held Finley. Finley was 5 lbs. 8 oz. and Scout was 6 lb. 3 oz. Both babies were 18 inches long. I nursed both babies before they took them to the nursery for their hearing checks. Both babies were having a hard time keeping their temperatures up so they had to be under the warmer for a while before they could be bathed.

Around 3:00 I was able to get up and get showered. I was feeling pretty good, but got really dizzy and weak in the shower. Around 4:30 they brought both babies back, bathed and with these cute crocheted hats on that someone donated to the hospital. Then they transferred me to a postpartum room.

We called my Mom and told her to bring Kinzie and Malichi to the hospital to meet their new baby brother and sister. I was so excited to see their reactions when they met them. Aaron went down to the lobby and got them.

They were so excited to meet the babies. I was so impressed with them. They were wonderful with the babies. They were so excited to give them the presents they picked out for the Finley and Scout. They opened up the gifts for the babies, showing them each thing they got them and reading them the cards they made for them. Malichi picked out a soft blue blankie for Finley and an assortment of newborn toys, and Kinzie picked out a little pink pig stuffed animal for Scout and an assortment of newborn toys as well. It was so sweet. Aaron and I couldn’t get over how big Kinzie and Malichi seemed. Especially Kinzie, she just seemed like such a big girl, and sitting on Aaron’s lap she looked like she grew a foot overnight! And Malichi seemed so mature. He did amazing being calm and gentle and quiet at the hospital. The kids opened their gifts from the babies. They each got a new board game, Pretty Pretty Princess, and Trouble. Malichi got a hat that said “Brother of Twins” and Kinzie got a shirt that said “Big Sister of Twins”. They both loved their new gifts. Malichi was pretty excited about his new hat, which surprised me a little, but he really was proud to wear it and show off that he was the big brother of twins.

After that we started getting visitors. Malichi and Kinzie made sure to remind everyone who came to wash their hands. They were so protective of the babies.

The first day we had my Mom, my Dad and Sisters, Aaron’s parents, Steph and Kristie up to visit.

That first night of sleep not being pregnant anymore was wonderful. I slept great. We brought the babies to the nursery to sleep , and they just brought them in to us every time they needed to nurse.

The next morning Dr. Larose came in to see how we were doing. I was feeling really good. Sore of course, but I could breathe again, my heart wasn’t racing anymore, I could lay comfortably, and I could sleep again! Dr. Larose sat and talked with us for quite a while. He told us that as we were waiting for Scout to move down, he was sitting pretty nervous. He was sure we were going to end up having to do an emergency C-section to get Scout out. He said I was bleeding a lot in between the births, which I guess is not supposed to happen, and the placenta was separating, which is why Scout was losing oxygen, she was taking a long time to move into the birth canal. He was like, “I wasn’t going to say anything to you at the time, but now that you have delivered them both and they are healthy, I can tell you this”.

Wednesday was a busy day. We had lots of visitors; Mom and Randy, Grammy, Jill and Kelsey, The Dustin family, Kim and Georgia, Jenn Ryall, Steph, and Jess Lundgren.
The babies were both doing great. Scout was a little jaundiced but not anything too bad that she needed to be under lights or anything.

Wednesday night we brought the babies into the nursery again. We wheeled them down there and placed them next to a baby that was 9 lbs. 11 oz! The baby looked like a giant compared to our little peanuts. The nursery was packed that night; there were 17 babies, and even another set of twins.

I went back to the room and slept heavily. I woke up at 4:30 am, looked at the clock and realized the babies hadn’t been in to eat yet. It had been like 6 hours! I freaked out and jumped up waking Aaron up. He was going to go down and get the babies and I went to the bathroom. As I came out of the bathroom there was a nurse just bringing the twins in. She started saying something to Aaron about the babies needing to eat and telling him how much formula they took. Aaron was like “um…we weren’t wanting to supplement them”. Just then I was coming out and she looked at me and was like “oh no..I am sooo sorry. I was told you wanted to supplement for the first feeding tonight so you could sleep”. She felt terrible and gave me a hug, and was like, “I always want to make sure we do what the mother wants and needs, and I think it is great that you are nursing”! I don’t know if they mixed us up with the other set of twins, or maybe it was just because they were so busy in the nursery.

We kept the babies in with us the rest of the morning while we slept. Thursday was discharge day for all of us. It was Thanksgiving day. We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!!! I was feeling good and both babies were doing great so we were discharged around 11 that morning. Scout weighed 5 lb. 8 oz at discharge, and Finley weighed 5 lbs. 1 oz. I was so happy to be taking our little Turkey's home!

Mom was still staying at the house with the kids and we were going to have Randy’s wild rice soup for supper because I didn’t want to cook a big dinner the day we came home from the hospital, but Kinzie asked grandma, “are we going to have a big feast today?!” She was so excited about it, and was bummed that we weren’t. So mom called around and found a grocery store that she could order a turkey dinner from at such late notice. So we got our turkey dinner with everything including a pumpkin pie!

About an hour or 2 after getting home from the hospital, I was feeling really sick to my stomach so I went to lay down. I slept for 2 hours and when I woke up I was still really sick. I was dry heaving pretty badly, and my heart was racing again. My heart rate was 140 as I layed in bed. I was having irregular heart beats about every minute that were really uncomfortable, and I was feeling like I couldn’t breath. I called Dr. Larose and he recommended I either go into the E.R. now, or I could try to take some of my atenelol to see if that helped and if it didn’t after an hour, to go to the E.R. We decided to just go into the E.R. right away because I was really worried about what was going on with my heart, and I was feeling really miserable. So Mom helped Aaron and I get the babies all loaded up in the van and we headed back to the hospital. They brought me back to a room right away and told Aaron to get me admitted and then they would come and get him. They hooked me up to a heart rate monitor, and oxygen. They started an IV and gave me zofran for the nausea, and fluids. I asked the nurse a few times to go get my husband and the babies so I could feed them, but they weren’t coming in. Then they took me to the ultrasound room to do an ultrasound on my stomach because I was having pains under my ribs all across my upper abdomen. They determined my spleen was a little enlarged but everything else looked ok. Basically they had no idea why I had the stomach pains I was having. After almost an hour and a half, a nurse finally went and found Aaron for me. He was sitting out in the waiting room, worrying, the whole time. He didn’t have any idea what was wrong, or if I was ok. He and the babies came back in the room with me so I could nurse the babies. I was feeling much better after having 2 bags of IV fluid. Basically they said that I was dehydrated and my hemoglobin was low (around 8) and those things combined were what caused everything. By the time I left I was feeling much better, but exhausted. It wasn’t exactly the ideal first outing for the babies, nor was it my ideal Thanksgiving!

Mom stayed with us through Sunday, helping with the big kids, the babies, and the cleaning and cooking. Sunday night Carolyn came, and spent the next week with us to help. After that Grammy came the following Sunday and has been staying ever since. She goes home on weekends and comes back Sunday nights to stay for the week. Steph was living with us too until just before Christmas, so we have had lots of help, which has been wonderful. I am so thankful for all of the people who offered so much help and support!

I owe MUCH apprecation to my husband as well. He was absolutely WONDERFUL! He was right there with me the whole time, asking what I needed, how I was doing. Making sure I was ok. This labor and delivery, and everything afterwards was by far the best one for me. I really had Aaron by my side. While I was on bedrest he was taking care of a lot of the things I normally do. He was by my side with all of the medical stuff I had going on , and took care of me. He encouraged me to take it easy and rest. He arranged his work schedule so he could be home with me and Kinzie during the day, and get the kids to and from school. With the other stressful things we had going on in our lives during that time too, he was so supportive. He knew that I didn't need any extra stress during this time in my life, and tried to minimize that as much as possible for me. He was supportive of my feelings and truly listened to me. During the labor he was right there with me through every contraction, attentive , and asking what I needed. He was calm, and that helped me stay calm. He stayed by my side, encouraging me and saying that proud of me. I needed that. After the babies were born, he was wonderful with them. He was very involved in their care, and even got up in the middle of the night with me when I had to get up with the twins. He took great care of me afterwards and tried to make sure I was getting enough rest, and just made sure I was feeling ok. He is a wonderful husband and a wonderful Daddy!

2 weeks out now, and I am feeling pretty good. My heart is feeling much better, I am able to sleep when the babies sleep, which wasn't a lot, but more than when I was pregnant, I am even back to my pre- pregnancy weight already too! And I have my 2 precious babies I have waited so long for.
I must say, when all is said and done, I am pretty proud of what my body can do! Carrying almost 12 lbs. Of baby and delivering naturally! And we have 2 healthy, amazing, babies to show for it!