Lawgirl

Hi! Babies are here. I'm dying for a nap, so I'll try to keep this short.

Scheduled to be induced 3/22, but had NST on 3/18. My swelling was worse, and bp was slightly up, so they decided that that day was as good a day as any.

Straight to the hospital, more monitoring, a few blood tests, doctors officially decided it was a go. Pitocin started at about 5:30, broke my water at about 6:15. I got the epidural around 8:00 or so. It took me 4 hours to go from 3cm to 5cm. I decided since it was such slow going, dh and I should try to get some rest. About 40 minutes later I woke up moaning and nauseated and learned I was complete! We had to wait about 45 minutes for my doctor to finish with another patient, then I was wheeled into the OR (they like to deliver twins in the OR, just in case of an emergency).

The atmosphere was like a circus. As the nurse pushe me into the OR, she ran into a nurse she knew and asked "Are you here to see the twins?" The other nurse replied "Yeah- I've never seen twins delivered before!" So apparently I was a novelty! There were 14 people in the OR, not counting me and dh.

The nurses started me pushing befoer the doctors got there, and suddenly Jack's heartrate dropped REALLY low- like to the 50s. They put me on my side, gave me oxygen, and told the doctors to get there fast. The oxygen helped, but they were still eager to get Jack out. I pushed for about 10 minutes, and with the help of the vacuum, forceps and an episiotomy, Jack was born at 12:55am, 3/19. He weighed 4lbs 11oz. His breathing was a little fast and his color was alarming, so I got to have quick snuggle and he was taken to the NICU. They worked on him in the room, though, for the entire time I pushed with Max before they took him.

I don't know why they were so hurried to get Max out- his heartrate was never problematic, but he got the vacuum/forceps treatment as well. He was born at 1:10am, weighing 4lbs 15oz.

Dad went wth the babies while I got stitched up. The anesthesiologist told me afterwards that they turned the epi off so I could push better , but then he turned it back up for the stitching.

I shook like MAD right after, and then had horrible horrible contractions, so they gave me morphine in my IV (to stop the shaking) and Tylenol 3 by mouth (for the contractions). Dh and my folks went home around 3:30, because I was so sleepy and somewhat incoherent.

At 4am the nurses wheeled me to see baby Jack, then to pick up Max. They took Max and me to a recovery room, where we stayed until Monday afternoon. Max started nursing immediately that night, and has been doing well at it ever since. Jack was moved to the Intermediate Care nursery later that morning, and we were able to visit him. He took all his nutrition by an iv in his scalp for the firt day, but by Sunday I was able to nurse him. His first meal by mouth was colostrum from the breast, so I feel really good about that.

Both babies were able to come home with us, and have nursed exclusively since then. We're doing well, but the doctors are still a little concerned about their weight gain and bili levels. Jack is over his birth weight, and Max is still 2 oz shy of where he started. So I'm "force-feeding" them by breast about every 2 hours. We have a weigh-in appointment on Tuesday, so I'm hoping to see some improvement.

I was sore for a few days, but by 5 days post-partum, I can honestly say my whole body felt better than how I felt for the last few weeks of the pregnancy. I didn't even realize quite how uncomfortable I was until I started to feel better. I'm not taking any pain meds for the episiotomy, and the strongest thing I ever took was 2 ibuprofin a few times a day. All in all, I feel pretty good, and I'm happy I was able to carry them so far.

That's our story! Thanks for checking on us!

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Married 8/16/2003
Identical boys, Max and Jack born 3/19/05!