Ella and Hailey's Birth Story

As most of you know, I had been having complications since about 16 weeks. Monday the 18th I went to my high risk doctor as I had been doing every 2 weeks since 16 weeks. At that point my cervix was extremely short and baby A's head was very much engaged. He said to me, "Well if you're still pregnant in 2 weeks we will see you then." I was pretty confident that if I took it super easy I could make it. My body was telling me something different. Since the Thursday prior my nausea had kicked back up, I was starting to swell something fierce, I had gained 10 lbs in just over a week, and I was having some serious pressure. All of these were signs of pre-term labor. In fact I was in labor and delivery that Sunday with what I thought were contractions. By the time I had gotten there nothing was showing on the monitor. I think the nurses thought I was crazy.

Well Tuesday I just didn't feel good after dinner. I can't really explain it other then saying I had that icky feeling you get when you are coming down with something. I went to bed and woke up the first time around 11 with what I thought was the babies "balling up." My belly was incredibly hard but the nurses said if there wasn't pain then it wasn't a real contraction. I woke up again around 130am. My belly was again rock hard. I woke Geo up and told him that I just didn't feel good. I was having some sharp pain, which I thought was Round ligament pain. On Sunday when I took a shower things started to slow down so I thought I'd give that a try. When I got out I was still having the "balling up" feeling with the sharp pain. I thought I might throw up too. I was sitting in the girl’s room, petting bobo, eating a poptart and I just thought if this isn't something real I'll feel like a real idiot...again. But if I wait and George goes to work and it is something then I'll be up the creek. So I called. I tried to explain to the doctor that it felt similar to Sunday but now I was having a little pain, thinking he'd tell me it's nothing just go back to bed. But he had me come in.

So after I had a mini panic attack, crying like a fool (mostly because I was worried and less about the pain) wet hair, no makeup, lookin r-o-u-g-h, into the hospital we went. When we got there the girls who came to get me said weren't you just here! I said yeah, it's probably just me being a crazy pants again. I was so worried that they were starting to think I was making it up. The nurse I had was so sweet though. She put me on the toco monitor first to make sure I was contracting. When the first one showed up I was celebrating....YAY I'm not crazy! But when the next one came 2 minutes apart and then the next one and the next one, we knew it was something more real. She found the babies, who were doing great, started fluids to help slow the contractions, and called the doctor. He ordered a medicine to help stop the contractions but asked to check my cervix first. The nurse checked me and at first said...1.5 cm....I thought well that's more then I though but that's not so bad. Before I could finish the thought she said wait no no you're 4 cm. Oh crap! She called another nurse to confirm. By the time she came I was 5cm with a bulging bag. No meds for me. They made me lay flat, which increased the contraction "pain." It was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought I'd be screaming for an epidural at 5 cm but it was more pressure then pain. The doctor came in and joked..."Why'd you wake me up!" He checked me again (have I mentioned that isn't pleasant in the least.) Sure enough still 5 cm. He did an ultrasound to check the position of the babies. Baby A was head down, Baby B was transverse. He said it was time to start talking delivery options. I still at that point hadn't really acknowledged this was it. I told him I'd like to try vaginal, thinking he'd say no way in hell. But to my surprise...and every nurse in L&D he was willing to try and agreed to a breech extraction. I had to sign consent that I might need an emergency C-section for B.

 Things moved very fast from there. I hadn't planned on calling any family until later in the morning but once delivery was confirmed I thought it better to at least call my mom and dad. They whisked me away from triage to my labor room. Shortly there after I got my epidural. Had this not been a twin pregnancy with the potential of a c-section, I don't think I would have asked for one just yet. I was surprised at my tolerance for the pain. Mostly I just wanted to pee! The epidural hurt was worse then the contractions. After about an hour on the epidural I got checked again. I hadn't changed and my contractions had started to slow a bit. Since we were committed to delivery and I had no prior plan of taking the al'natural route, the doctor broke A's water an hour later I was 7cm. He started me on pitocin to get my contractions a little closer and about an hour after that I was 9cm. They switched me to a room that could accommodate the twins and the team it would take to deliver them. The neonatologist came to visit and gave us the low down of what would happen. Then it was time to push.

 I was super surprised that the only 2 people at first were the nurse and a surgical tech. Once I crowned the whole slew of people showed up. I pushed for 20 minutes with baby A. I giggled the whole way through. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like my head was going to pop off. I giggle in the most awkward times. The nurse finally told me to shape up. I couldn't even look at George or I'd start to giggle. Baby A plopped out without me even knowing, one of the only upsides to delivering premature babies. A GIRL! The whisked her away to the other side of the room. It didn't even feel real until I hear her little cry. I looked and George and started crying. We waited so long for that moment in time. Words just can't even express. While all this was going on the doctor was working on getting baby b out. The anesthesiologist gave me an extra dose of meds so I wouldn't be feeling them try and turn her. They pushed so hard on my abdomen I still have bruises, but I was distracted. You could definitely feel the tension in the room though. This kind of delivery is very rare. The nurse even told me they don't do them at this hospital. But the doctor agreed, I trusted him (even though I'm pretty sure I was his guinny pig) and I preferred a vaginal delivery. They were unable to turn the baby to head down so feet first was how she was going to come.  The doctor said every time he went to grab her she would slap him away. The whole time the nurse had the sono on my belly trying to keep track of where the baby was moving. They had a very short amount of time to get her out before my cervix would start to close. Finally he grabbed her feet and started to pull her out. George said he pulled her straight out and her arm got stuck so the doctor had to reach back up and pull her arm out. Then her head got stuck. I swear you could hear a pin drop. The doctor lifted her legs straight up and all I saw was purple feet. I was never so scared. I could tell she was a girl though and got to announce that to everyone (Even though that shouldn’t have been my priority.) Then the doctor looked at me straight in the eye and said you need to push hard, in the sternest way possible. Then everyone started yelling at me to push as hard as I can. Seeing her purple feet and hearing the seriousness in everyone’s tone was all I needed. I’ve never been more motivated to do what someone told me to do. Finally she came out! It felt like at least a half our but they announced they were only 6 minutes apart. The stabilized her and both the girls went off to NICU. We didn’t even get a picture of baby A before she was whisked.

George was amazing. Everything I could have ever asked for. He was just so calm, even though I know he was freaking out on the inside. We only had to wait an hour to go see the girls. We didn’t want to pick their names until we saw them. Ella was pretty much a given but we were torn about baby B. We had fully anticipated her being a him, of which we would have named him Jackson. But she threw us a curve ball. I was pretty set on Delaney and so was George until she was born. We talked about Hailey…. Well actually we typed on my phone since my mom was in the room and we wanted it to be a surprise. Now that she is a Hailey I just can’t see her as anything else. We were so sure she was a he George kept calling her a he! But now it’s all about his baby girls. Ella was on the CPAP, but she did have to get intubated quickly for some surfactant. Hailey was intubated (my worst fear) but she did so well that they extubated her that night.

After such a horrible way to get pregnant, a not so easy pregnancy, and the fact that they were in the NICU, I couldn’t have asked for a better birth experience. I had minimal pain, I had fantastic nurses, while it was dodgy there for a few minutes with Hailey, it was darn right perfect. I am so grateful I had the only doctor in the hospital that would attempt a breech extraction and allowed us to deliver in a normal room so my mom could be there. The girls are doing remarkably well for their gestational age. I feel fantastic. My muscles are really sore but that has to do with being on bed rest for so long. George is more then I could have ever hoped for as a daddy. He is so gentle and loving. I have had several nurses tell me how great he it. The girls respond to him far more then me. They know his voice, they’ll open his eyes for him, and he’s the only one who can get the smiles. I didn’t think it was possible to love him more, until I saw him through my daughter’s eyes. They are very lucky girls. Now we just wait for them to continue to mature. They will probably be in the NICU for about 5-6 weeks. Then they will be home where we can spoil them rotten!!!!