Birth Story if you're bored :)

TeacherTiff · February 2012

(C&P'ed from my blog if you are a follower)

After 12 days on hospital bedrest, I got to go home for a week before my water broke. I had slept on the couch Sunday night due to my husband having a cold (snoring!) and me not being able to sleep in there. I woke up around 4:30am and went to the bathroom. I came back to the couch and couldn't get comfortable... I even remember thinking "maybe my water will break today" because I was SO uncomfortable. Lo and behold, a few minutes after 5am on February 6th I shifted positions, felt a strange sensation, stood up and knew my water was breaking. There happened to be a towel on the couch from a water spill earlier that night so I grabbed that and hobbled to the bathroom before I ruined our carpet. After it stopped flooding (seriously, it's a lot of water- and it was only Baby A's!) I went to our bedroom, shook Dan awake and said "this is it for real, my water broke!" He got out of bed and we went to work figuring out what to do next. We decided to call his parents to watch Nolan since we figured my mom would want to be with me. I called my doctor and my mom while he did that. We finished packing our things, I gave Nolan some smooches and we were out the door after his dad arrived around 6am.

When we got to the hospital we went upstairs to L&D where I checked in. I wasn't clear that I was having a c-section so they took me to a L&D room to get things rolling, whereas normally they would have taken me to a small recovery room. The next hour or so was such a whirlwind. I thought that it would be kind of low-key because it wasn't an emergency but things moved fast. They reviewed my history, checked my progress (5cm, 90%), called my OB, inserted my IV and catheter, took some blood, etc. People were in and out of the room constantly. Shortly after 7am we were told that my OB was on his way and that it would be happening soon. My mom, step-dad, brother and grandparents were in the waiting room so they came in 2 at a time to say hello and good luck. My friend Lindsey arrived shortly after to take pictures after the girls got there. Around 8am they told me it was time. They wheeled me back to the OR and Dan waited outside while I got prepped.

Once we were inside the OR the nerves really set in. Looking around at all of the supplies and everything is a little overwhelming. They had me sit up to get the spinal inserted. That was by far the worst part. Compared to my epidural with Nolan which was a piece of cake, this hurt 100x worse. The doctor missed and hit my bone not once but twice... it was excruciating. Once she finally got it in the right place my legs started to get warm and they layed me down. They checked my numbness with a broken piece of wood and then went to work cleaning my stomach and hanging drapes. Before much longer Dan was allowed in the room. By this point I was totally numb, very nervous, shaking & freezing. I got nauseous at one point so they gave me something in my IV which worked almost instantly. I couldn't feel anything- not even the pressure and pulling they warn you about. I could tell they were working but couldn't pinpoint how it felt.

It didn't seem like much time had passed at all when Baby A, Adelyn Claire, was born. It was 8:27am and they held her around the corner of the blanket so we could take a quick peek. In that same moment Baby B, Delaney Paige, was born as well. Both went to the warmers for assessing and cleaning. After they were cleaned up they brought them over for me to see and Dan to hold. He held them as they finished up with me and moved me back to my original bed. That was a strange sensation! I could see them moving my legs but felt nothing. Once I was in bed they gave me both girls to hold skin to skin. We were told they were observing them "grunting" and that they were keeping an eye on it but that skin to skin helps. They wheeled us back to my huge L&D room and on the way I could see my family through the doors up ahead- I waved to let them know we were okay.

I was in recovery for about 2 hours and got to keep the babies skin to skin for the first hour of that time, which is also when we got to breastfeed for the first time. It was so surreal to hold two babies and know that these precious little babies were inside of me that whole time. One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn't be able to love them as much as I love Nolan but just like every mom of more than one child will tell you, your heart just grows. In that moment, my heart tripled in size.

After recovery was over and I was eating ice chips and drinking fluids and keeping them down, they m0ved me to our mother/baby room. Shortly after, they brought Adelyn to me but told me Delaney hadn't improved and was taken to NICU for further observation. I will blog about our NICU experience later.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. My recovery has been considerably better than I ever imagined. I wouldn't want to have another c/s though and I'm very glad I also had the opportunity to experience a vaginal birth with Nolan. Having experienced both, I can definitely say that both are rewarding, amazing experiences but a natural birth (to me) felt very empowering whereas the c/s was just kind of routine if that makes sense. In any case, I'm glad to have had the experience and I feel like my team of doctor's and nurses did an amazing job of taking care of us.

And in the end the only thing that matters is these precious babies arriving happy and healthy.