Officially a MoM (belated birth story)

McGibbon51311 · January 2012

On Sunday the 15th I woke up to painful contractions. I called my birthing coach who told me to call over to L&D and head to the hospital. After being hooked up to IV fluids, FHR monitors and a contraction monitor (which showed I was having strong and frequent contractions), the doctor did an internal that showed I was 4 cm dilated. They gave me medication to stop the contractions but prepared me that if they could not get them to stop, I would be transferred to the hospital down the road because the babies would be preterm- the hospital I was currently at had a level 2 NICU and the hospital down the road has a level 3. The doctors did an u/s to figure out the positioning of the babies and since my last u/s just days before, B had flipped and was now the presenting baby because he (literally) slipped his foot in front of A's face. Unless B moved during the time between hospitals I would be getting a c/s in stead of the vaginal birth I had planned (and hoped) for. Throughout the next couple of hours the contractions slowed, but didn't stop, and eventually picked back up again. Another internal showed that I was now 4.5 cm dilated and the doctors told me that they had already called the ambulance to transport me. Now we were just waiting for them to arrive.

DH got to ride with me in the ambulance and after arriving at the other hospital I was taken up to a room on the maternity ward and hooked back up to the monitors. Another internal showed that I was now 5 cm dilated. In order to determine how the babies would be coming they re-did an u/s which ended up taking 5 doctors and one hour and ten minutes because the entire time the babies ended up flipping back and forth. Inbetween each doctor's turn, the boys would go from breech-vertex to vertex transverse and every combination possible. The OB who was on call at the hospital came in to do an u/s and found that A was breech and B was no longer presenting. So a c/s it was. They supplied DH with scrubs, a hair net and covers for his shoes and wheeled me down into the operating room. Once in the operating room they hooked me up to a blood pressure cuff and began prepping my back for the spinal all while I was having more intense contractions. By the time they actually had the spinal placed and I was laid down for the drugs to take affect, I was in full transition. From then on the procedure moved pretty fast: the doctors tested to make sure the spinal worked, they placed the sheet and then DH was allowed to come in. We talked so that I would be preoccupied and I was only vaguely aware that the procedure had started when they pulled B out - turns out he jumped on top of his brother once they started and again became the presenting twin. So Rourke Benjamin was born at 3:58 pm weighing 5 lb 7 oz and was 19" long. The doctors took him to the assessment room to be cleaned and he received APGAR scores of 7 and 9. Next, at 4:01 pm weighing 5 lb 4 oz and also 19" long was Dezmond Kenneth. After he was cleaned up we found out his APGAR scores were 6 and 8. I briefly got to see the boys as they wheeled them out of the OR and down into the NICU. I was only 32 weeks and 2 days so they would likely be there for a while.

The rest of my stay was rather standard with vital checks and meds every four hours, DH was allowed to stay with me in the hospital every night and I was encouraged to get up and move around as much as possible to help reduce the swelling. The day that I was supposed to go home (day 3) I ended up developing some serious dizziness that made it impossible for me to walk without falling. It turned out that I had post delivery hypertension and vertigo and would spend the next 5 days getting the blood pressure medication doses just right so I could go home.

The boys have made it a very long way. They both came out breaking on their own so they never needed oxygen but were put on a couple days of CPAP and a couple days with a nasal cannula to increase the amount of room air that they were receiving. They each had a day of phototherapy for high billi levels. Both boys will have been taking all PO feedings a week from tomorrow, both have their IVs out and both had their NG tubes out. Yesterday they were transfered from the level 3 NICU to the Special Care Nursery at the hospital where I originally went when I was in labor. The hospital is much closer to where we live and the environment is much less serious; for all of the babies here it is a matter of when, not if they go home. The night before/the morning of being transferred both boys ended up having brady events so their countdown was restarted. They can now come home as soon as they've gone 7 days without any events. We haven't visited yet but I am hoping that last night went smoothly and that this is now day one.

I'm trying to focus on how lucky we are that the boys are so healthy, but it is still hard. I now have a new found appreciation for NICU moms. Not having these babies there when I wake and when I go to sleep after having them be inside of me, a part of me, for so many months is undoubtably the most difficult thing I've ever had to do. I am so excited to bring them home soon and to really feel like a MoM.