Warning: If you have c-section anxiety, be cautious reading this.
The last week of my pregnancy was getting pretty rough on me. I was fighting pre-eclampsia and knew the babies would be coming sooner rather than later. That whole 'everything hurts and I'm dying' thing wasn't too far off.
The night I went into labor I was having weird dreams about the babies coming and everything I needed to do. I just had a weird feeling and felt off. I woke up to go pee for the 800th time around 2am and as I was rolling my whale body to get out of bed I felt a little "pop". My body decided to not be a dick and waited until I actually made it to the toilet before my water broke. At first I thought "wow, this is the moment you've finally pissed yourself uncontrollably" but then realized that it was my water breaking. Slow. Learner.
I went and woke up hubby, who was sleeping on the futon (whale body, remember) and I asked him if he was ready to meet his daughters We called our parents who were ready to immediately meet us at the hospital, but first we took showers, finished packing our bags, gave the dogs love, all that stuff.
I'll add here that I'm one of those really annoying people who apparently don't feel contractions until I'm far along. I promise you I was miserable in other ways, so don't hate me too much.
At the hospital, labor progressed really well. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and dilating/effacing steadily. I walked around, watched TV, chomped at my ice chips loudly at my family as they ate breakfast in front of me. I didn't need pitocin or anything, but I did need my friend Tom, the anesthesiologist, who hooked me up with an epidural when I was about 5cm. I quickly decided Tom needed to be my new BFF.
Everything was setting itself up for a nice, easy peasy vaginal delivery. I wasn't a "freaker outer" and stayed pretty calm throughout, which freaked out my freaker outer family. People came in and visited and we were all super excited to meet the babies!
The only problem was that my body doesn't handle pain meds well, which I kinda knew going into this. The epidural kept wearing off every hour or so and I needed my BFF Tom to come and give me a "boost" shot.
By 11am I was good to go and around noon started practice pushing. With twins, you labor in the L&D room, but you have to actually push in the OR. While pushing, the nurse went from saying "go, go, push, push!" to "wait, wait, stop, stop!". She became quiet and said she thought she felt cartilidge where the baby's head should be and went to go get the doctor. Still, I was pretty calm but my family started getting a little worried.
(This is where things may start being a little more disturbing)
The doc came back and there were a few more faces with her this time as the OR team joined her. She reached up and confirmed that baby A was coming down ear first and her neck was a little kinked. She decided to have me push one more time and see if she could manually maneuver baby A into position.
It didn't work. I don't know exactly what happened but baby A's heart rate dropped drastically from the 140s to 60s. The next few minutes were a blur, with alarms going off, my family crying, the nurses unhooking me and calling Code C (which apparently stands for C-Section) and people around me just generally freaking out. The doctor barked to get me into OR now. It all happened so fast that hubby didn't even get to go with me.
In all seriousness, at this point, I was scared.
The team in the OR moved fast. I didn't know this at the time but DH and my dad had followed me down to the OR and waited outside for me. While in OR I knew I was screwed. The epidural has worn off significantly and it was past time for my next "boost" shot. My BFF Tom was there and was giving me more meds as quickly and safely as he could, but meds take a little while to kick in, which we didn't really have. They kept doing the "do you feel this poke?" test, which I was failing, and said that I may need to be put under for this. Unfortunately by this time, baby A's heart rate was plummeting again and my blood pressure was scary high.
Basically we needed the babies out ASAP... so, c-section happened without all the good drugs.
At some point they finally went and got hubby. They hadn't brought him in because they didn't know if I was going to be put under general or not. By the time he was there they were announcing "We got baby B out!". Him and my dad had heard "We got baby A!" from outside the OR. He technically missed their births because things just happened so.freaking.fast.
Tom was a godsend, and not just because he physically took care of me. Without hubby there and with the nurses all really busy he was the one who was talking to me and keeping me calm. Hearing the babies cry helped push through some pain. Seeing DH hold them and bring them over to me helped too. First moment baby love is seriously the best drug out there and they should bottle that shit up!
When hubby got there he found they actually mixed up the babies. Baby A is determined by
who is closest to the cervix. But in c-sections, baby B is actually
delivered first and becomes the new baby A (yeah, confusing). In the rush to get the babies out they got confused on who was who. Hubby was
able to tell them apart though because baby A had a bruise on
her ear/temple from getting stuck in the birth canal. Poor baby!
We stayed in the recovery room for 4 hours. All the meds finally kicked in (helloooo, a little late) so they had to monitor the crap out of me. We were in our own area though and the babies stayed with us the whole time. I got to cuddle and love them and pretend that I wasn't falling asleep when the docs and nurses were checking on me. They usually don't allow people in the recovery room, but they let my family come in and see me and the babies. Then we moved to our PP room where we stayed the next three days and were babied and cared for by some of the most awesome nurses ever.
I didn't make my goal of 36 weeks but the girls were healthy and avoided a lot of late preemie issues, for which we're eternally grateful. Delivery was not how I had envisioned at all (hahaha), and in hind-sight it's easy to say "should have just done a c-section off the get-go". But honestly looking at my little girls now all I see are two healthy, happy, hungry little babies. And in a few years, we'll probably re-do this whole shindig... but this time with a spinal
After nearly three years of infertility, two years of treatments, nine months of a difficult pregnancy and a few minutes of a painful delivery... I can honestly say it's all worth it and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Being a mom totally rocks
Here are the loves of our lives.
TD;DR... delivery was a bitch, but babies are healthy! Also, make friends with guys like Tom!
Thanks so much for sharing! SO happy you and your girls are doing great and even tho your delivery was scary, that all worked out ok! Congrats again mama!! What a crazy ride!
Me: 37, DH: 35 :: TCC since 2/11 SA: Perfect! CD3 HSG = Blocked Right Tube
April- Femara 2.5mg + Trigger + IUI = BFN May- Femara 5mg = CX - No Response on Left = BFN June- Femara 7.5mg + Trigger + IUI = BFN August- Lap & Hysteroscopy = Blocked & Partially Blocked Tubes September- Femara 5mg = CX - No Response on Left = BFN October- 100mg Clomid + Trigger + TI = BFN IVF # 1: Stims 11/30 ER 12/12/12! (10R, 10M, 8F, 2T, 6 F) :: Beta #1- 176 c/p @ 4w4d FET #1 February 26th :: Lost 4 to Thaw, Transferred 2 = BFFN IVF # 2 Stims 5/10 ER 5/21 (15R, 13M, 13F, 2T, 7F- 6d3 & 1d5) :: Beta # 1- 15 c/p @ 4w
FET #2 Cancelled, Right Tube Developed a Hydro 8/28 Hydro & Scar Tissue Removed Cleared for FET FET #2.2 Scheduled for September 20th 2 Thawed, 2 Transferred! Beta #1- 96, Beta #2 906! :: EDD June 10th 2015- 2 failed FET. We are done SURPRISE! BFP 8/8/16 EDD 4/1/17
They are perfect and beautiful and everything else wonderful. I'm so sorry delivery was what it was, but so grateful it all ended well. Congrats mama!!!
Me: 33, HSG & b/w normal; partial septate uterus DH: 33, SA good but low morphology (3%) Started trying to make a baby Apr'12 Aug'13 DX: Unexplained Infertility Sept'13: 50mg Clomid + IUI #1 (13m + 11m post wash) CDs 11&12 + 200mg progesterone 3x daily = BFP!Beta 16dpIUI = 391 EDD 6.14.14 Delivered 6.13.14
The girls are perfect! Congratulations to you and H! And I so can relate with the Tom, mine was a Tim (same name as H so easy to remember) and he was awesome. Hugs!
So glad everyone is here safe. So sorry you had a scary birth.
Our 3 Precious Angels That Left Us Too Soon BFP #2-EDD 07/05/13 - Tater and Tot passed at 12w3d. D&C 1/17/13 BFP #3-EDD 12/19/13 - Peanut passed at 9w1d. D&C 05/31/13
Winner winner chicken dinner! Best L&D story EVAH!!! I vote all birth stories have gifs from now on Also, those baby girls are ADORABLE! I just want to squish the little cheeks
June '14 September Siggy challenge- Favorite things about fall
Re: katekat's (long) gif-eriffic birth story
June- Femara 7.5mg + Trigger + IUI = BFN August- Lap & Hysteroscopy = Blocked & Partially Blocked Tubes
September- Femara 5mg = CX - No Response on Left = BFN October- 100mg Clomid + Trigger + TI = BFN
IVF # 1: Stims 11/30 ER 12/12/12! (10R, 10M, 8F, 2T, 6 F) :: Beta #1- 176 c/p @ 4w4d
FET #1 February 26th :: Lost 4 to Thaw, Transferred 2 = BFFN
IVF # 2 Stims 5/10 ER 5/21 (15R, 13M, 13F, 2T, 7F- 6d3 & 1d5) :: Beta # 1- 15 c/p @ 4w
FET #2.2 Scheduled for September 20th
2 Thawed, 2 Transferred! Beta #1- 96, Beta #2 906! :: EDD June 10th
2015- 2 failed FET. We are done
SURPRISE! BFP 8/8/16 EDD 4/1/17
BFP 10/8/2013
Miss Camryn Marie arrived 6/20/2014
Me: 33, HSG & b/w normal; partial septate uterus DH: 33, SA good but low morphology (3%)
Started trying to make a baby Apr'12 Aug'13 DX: Unexplained Infertility
Sept'13: 50mg Clomid + IUI #1 (13m + 11m post wash) CDs 11&12 + 200mg progesterone 3x daily = BFP! Beta 16dpIUI = 391 EDD 6.14.14 Delivered 6.13.14
Married DH 7/30/11
CSC arrived 5/7/12
CHC arrived 6/2/14
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe
DD2: October 2016
DC3: coming May 2019
Turns out I'll read the whole thing if there's gifs. Plus, it was a good story!
Congrats!! They are so cute!!
Our 3 Precious Angels That Left Us Too Soon
BFP #2-EDD 07/05/13 - Tater and Tot passed at 12w3d. D&C 1/17/13
BFP #3-EDD 12/19/13 - Peanut passed at 9w1d. D&C 05/31/13
Diagnosed with Hypothyroid 05/20/13
BFP #4 - 09/22/13 - DD#2 born 05/27/14
All Alers Welcome!
IVF/FET #1 - BFP!!
CJW 6/15/2014
DX - PCOS 2004
FET #2 - scheduled for 11/24/15
#3 DD June 2014
CP December 2015
M/C 8/2016
Rainbow & Babe #4 EDD 7.28.18