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June 2012 Moms
allisonmarie22
member
Yes, yes...my babies have arrived!
allisonmarie22
member
Hey June Bugs!! I'm so sorry I haven't posted here sooner, but whoa!! Twins keep you busy! As some of you noticed on a post I made earlier today, my little bundles of joy have arrived. Benjamin Michael and Emily Katherine (Emmie Kate) made their arrivals one week ago today on May 17th at 10:07am and 10:40am. Here's the first draft of my birth story. I've been trying to work on it for the last week and get it posted to their baby blog, but it's pretty far down the priority list at the moment.
When I saw my doctor on Monday the 14th I was at the end of my rope physically, so I talked to him about inducing me at 37 weeks instead of 38 weeks. I originally wanted him to strip my membranes, but he couldn't because I was GBS positive. He agreed that physically I had had enough, so we scheduled the induction for Thursday morning. I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday nigh, and when I went to sleep I was 2-3cm dilated and 80% effaced. I had 2 doses of Cytotec, 1 at around 10pm and 1 at 2am Thursday morning. When I woke up Thursday morning I was amazed that I had slept so well (thank you Ambien)! When my OB came in to break my water he checked me and said I was pretty much 100% effaced and 4-5cm dilated. SCORE!! He broke my water and left to go perform a procedure in day surgery. When he broke my water I felt IMMEDIATE relief from all the shortness of breath I've had for so many months, and that was just one baby! As he broke my water he told me that there was meconium in the fluid and said "glad we didn't decide to wait until next week." I was so very close to waiting not knowing that hazard was lurking!!
I almost immediately started having strong contractions about 2 minutes apart. I just closed my eyes, tried to get in as comfortable a position as I could find and breathe with them. Just like Dr. Bradley said. Mike and my mom were there and they were both great at reminding me to breathe and stay calm. At some point my OB came back in to check on me, but I don't know what time it was. He just basically poked his head in and said he'd check back in later. I was having a pretty big contraction so I hardly remember him being there at all. At around 9:15 I asked my nurse to check me because the contractions were right on top of each other and they were BAD. Well, she checked me and I had not progressed at ALL. Well, I'm not proud, but I broke down at that point and asked for the consent for the epidural. Well, in this time, which was probably about 5 minutes my contractions didn't stop at all and I started feeling the urge to push. I'm not going to lie. After all the big game I talked about not being a screamer, I was howling in pain. Asking for the cervix check completely destroyed my focus (and the dumb thing was that I knew better!!). Anyway, when I said I felt like I needed to push the nurse told me she wanted to check me again. She checked me and just looked at her aide and said "get Dr. Pohl on the phone now." I had dilated from 4-5cm to almost 10cm in about 15 minutes. I was begging to push and they were begging me to wait for my doctor. For those of you FTMs who may wonder exactly how strong the urge to push is at 10cm, let me tell you that it's one of the strongest forces I've ever felt. By the time my OB walked in Baby A was starting to crown. He immediately sat down and started working on massaging my perineum with oil and warm towels.The contractions were still right on top of each other, literally and I was pushing with each contraction. The pain was amazing. It was primal and that's really the only word I can think of to describe it. I didn't even recognize the sounds that were coming out of my body. I, of course felt baby A's head when it popped out, and after one more push the baby was out! This may sound weird, but that gush of fluid and blood that rushes out when your baby is born is amazing. I can't describe how, but you all will have your chance if you deliver vaginally. Also amazing was the sound of the love of my life telling me that our firstborn child was a son.
Unfortunately, my uterine contractions were really slowing down and I desperately needed them to help me push out baby B. So, I literally got to hold my son for about 2 minutes before they took him to do all of his well baby checkups with the NICU team.
I got busy pushing again, but my uterine contractions were, like I mentioned, slowing rapidly. Also, another very discouraging thing that happened is that it labor moved into my back. Trying to push out the second baby was pretty difficult work. My doctor went ahead and had them give me a dose of Pitocin to try and stimulate my uterus, but after several minutes it was obvious that baby B was going to need a little help. Although my labor was so very fast, it had still hit me like a ton of bricks. The whole theory of approaching child labor as a marathon was not at all helpful in my case. I definitely should've at least prepared for the contingency that could possibly turn into a sprint. OK, so bottom line is that I pushed and pushed with no real progress, and when my OB asked my permission for him to assist with the vacuum I said YES! 2 more pushes and lot of pain later, Mike told me that we had a little girl. She was born with a lot of mucous, but in no distress. Of course we had her looked over by the NICU folks, and she was just fine, but as it turns out she was born sunny side up. That's what caused the back labor and all that additional time between their births.
After that, my OB delivered my placenta, which the hospital had no issue putting on ice for us. My mom took it to our house and put it in the freezer, and I will call the doula that is going to do the encapsulation one day next week, While the doctor was stitching up my tear (1st degree only) both babies attempted to nurse. Ben was much more successful than Emmie Kate, but they've both shown great progress over the last few hours. They still just seem perfect to me in every way. Emmie Kate's hair is the color of mine and she has my mouth, but I really do think they both have Mike's nose. Ben has his dark hair and darker skin tone for sure. It's so amazing to look at them both and see such a mixture of our features, and already even personalities. Ben is very laid back and likes to sleep sprawled out with his arms above his head just like his daddy and Emmie Kate is already a spoiled little princess. She has a huge bruise on her head from the vacuum, and I know that her birth was a little more traumatic, so I admit I am coddling her a bit, but not by much. I held them both all night last night. Not even an Ambien ever made me go to sleep!!
So, there you have it! I will write a blog post eventually for their baby books, but I had to get all of this down before I forgot any of the details. It was a wild and crazy ride and I can't believe that it was so FAST, but I also can't believe how painful it was. I honestly didn't know that kind of pain existed. I also find myself unprepared, though, for this new kind of love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Since the story above we are, of course, home. They were born on Thursday and we came home on Saturday. Being home with twins is wonderful and amazingly stressful all at the same time. Breastfeeding is going really well, but keeping up with 2 is a lot of work. My husband and my mom have been lifesavers. 
They just had their one week check-up today and Emmie Kate's jaundice issues are all cleared up, and while they are still below their original weight pretty significantly (7 oz for Emmie Kate and 10oz for Ben) they have put back on 1 oz since Monday. Better than nothing.
So, there you have it. Now I'm going to sneak in a nap before they are awake and needing to eat again.
Edit: Emmie Kate weighed 5 pounds 13 ounces at birth and Ben was 6 pounds 13 ounces. Left that part out.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Yes, yes...my babies have arrived!
DD born 6.13.11 at 37w5d
DS born 5.23.12 at 36w5d
BFP 6.9.13|heartbeat of 128bpm 7weeks|7.23.13 ultrasound revealed no heartbeat|natural m/c and d&c 7.25.13
DS born 5.20.14 at 38 weeks
All are welcome
Allison Marie, I've been thinking about for days wondering where you went and if your babies made their entrance yet!
So Congratulations!!!!! They are absolutely beautiful and you did a heck of a job bringing them into this world! Vaginally-delivered twins is so amazing to me, and I'm so happy for you that you successfully avoided a c-section.
Have a ton of fun and try to get some sleep!
See you on the newborn boards, I hope
Oh and I LOVE the names!!
And as a PP said, real tears here. I'm so inspired!
Gorgeous babies.
I love that picture of them! So precious.
congratulations! they are beautiful!