Hey! Elsie and Delia are one! We had a crazy morning running around doing annoying errands and a peaceful afternoon with long naps, presents, playing outside, and dinner/cake (well, muffins). I can't believe its been a year! Here are a few photos of our year. More coming soon!
Two Weeks Old:
Three Months:
Five Months:
Six and a half months:
Nine Months:
Eleven and a half months:
Happy Birthday Elsie Olivia!
Happy Birthday Delia Grace!
The day before the babies were born:
Oh, the hugeness! So glad to have them on the outside now!
Since I never posted this here last year, I thought I would now, on the eve of their birthday. Warning! This is really long, boring and gross if you are not into this kind of thing! But, when I was pregnant with twins I really loved reading twin birth stories (especially ones that were not c-sections) so here it is:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had worries that this story might begin in mid April, when, at 32 weeks and some change (three days after we had moved to a new house!) I started getting contractions that landed me in the hospital for a few days, then home on meds and bedrest for several more weeks. After that, however, nothing happened! We somehow ended up at 38 weeks, despite on and off contractions for weeks, negotiating an induction date. It was Memorial Day Weekend, and the doc wanted to induce Thursday, to have the birth on Friday before the holiday. And while I was SO huge and uncomfortable and ready to get things going, I also felt like scheduling a birth around a holiday for the doctors convenience, with no pressing medical reason to induce earlier, was not the right move. So, we opted to wait until Monday night, to give nature a few more days to get things going.
I had on and off contractions over the weekend, but nothing big. We said our goodbyes to Emma and Grandma, marveled at the oddness of how it felt to know This Was It, and checked into the hospital's antipartum unit for cervical ripening on Monday evening. We expected a long and boring/uncomfortable night in the hospital, but when the Dr. checked me she sent me home! I was already dilated to 4cm and there was no need for anything further! Yahoo!
We were instructed to come back in at 7:30 am to check in, but ended up not getting there until 8. They had already called home to check on us when we got there, ha! Triage was short, and it seemed like there wasn't much happening that day – unlike Emma's birth where the floor was filled. We met the perinatologist from my clinic on duty that day (someone new to us), and liked him immediately. He agreed that we could start by rupturing membranes instead of starting with pitocin. Hooray! They moved us into a L&D room right down the hall from the ER, which was where the actual delivery would take place. We settled in, they hooked me up and started an IV bag of antibiotics and all the gear to monitor the babies and my contractions. Already totally tied up and we had barely begun!
I expected this, but kept stressing to our nurse how I really wanted to be mobile as much as possible. She hemmed and hawed about that, and admitted that she had never really seen a twin birth work without constant monitoring in the bed (!). While the hospital did have cordless monitoring units, this particular room only had one, and we need two, for the two babies. We met with the hospitals OB on duty, and had to reiterate the No Pitocin thing yet again – they really wanted to give me the pit! She checked with our doctor and finally agreed, and around 9:30am, came in to check me (still 4 cm and 80% effaced) and break the first sac of water. We then realized we had better call our doula!
She was expecting the call and hurried right over. Pretty soon after the water was broken the mild semi-regular contractions I had been having started gradually ramping up. She arrived soon and we all hung out, listening to music, chatting, and answering questions and signing things while the nurse filled out huge amounts of paperwork. The contractions were getting stronger and I started having to concentrate harder on them, mostly through breathing at this point.
Several times in the first few hours or so, I needed to get up to use the bathroom. It was always an ordeal, bringing the IV pole along, plus unhooking all the monitors, with cords dangling as I walked. It felt good to stand up & move around, though. After one of those trips, I asked to stay up to labor awhile upright. The nurse was still hesitant, but offered to try to get the heartbeat monitors going while I stood next to the bed. They really did not want me off them for more than a few minutes, but she was willing to give it a shot. There were so many times in the past weeks where it was such a struggle to find and keep the heartbeats monitored, even when I was perfectly still, so inside I was not very hopeful about this....
But, it worked! The babies obliged by staying on the monitors (woohoo!) and I was able to stand for awhile and then sit and rock on the birthing/yoga ball, leaning during some contractions onto the bed. We started this around 11:15, and by 11:30 the contractions were getting stronger – I remember having to close my eyes and focus on breathing. My water was leaking a lot, and we had towels under me and on the floor to help with that. My doula was great during these contractions and she and Lonnie gave counterpressure on my back while I leaned over and braced myself on the bed.
I was pretty much in a zone at this point – the Indigo Girls were playing on the stereo which always makes me feel strong, so I was sort of listening to that, too. This was around noon, and I really don't remember much of that next hour – I think I was vocalizing and doing “loose lips” like I remember reading in Ina Mays book. At some point I got off the ball and stood up. I started bracing myself by leaning over the bed during contractions and things really seemed to ramp up from there. Thank you, gravity!
Around 1pm, the pain started really getting to me and I really wanted to be DONE with this! It was always in the plan (my doctors STRONGLY recommended it) to get an epidural before the delivery phase, and I felt ready. They (we? I?) wanted to check to see how dilated I was before getting it, and it seemed like FOREVER until the OB was able to get there to do a check. I got back in bed and was overwhelmed with how much harder it was to cope lying down. I was checked and at 1:30 I was 8cm, 90% effaced, and the baby was +1 station. My doula put down in our notes “in transition and coping beautifully – what a gracious labor!” but to that I say Ha! Because I distinctly remember screaming, writhing, lots of moaning, whining and complaining, and some begging and insisting I could not go on.
After eons (Lonnie insists it was not) the anesthesiologist appeared. I was feeling the urge to push and was instructed to pant through it but Not! To! Push! And that was incredibly difficult, especially as the epidural was being placed. Apparently he was amazingly fast at getting it in but it didn't feel like that at the time! At 2pm the epi was in, at 2:01 I was checked and complete, and was immediately wheeled into the OR down the hall for delivery (required for twin deliveries in case emergencies arise).
In the OR, there was a LOT of people but I barely noticed them. A NICU team for each baby, nurses and nursing students, doctors and med students, 17 people in total! The epi started to work and the haze began to clear for me. Relief! It felt really real to see two warming units and all the gear set up to receive the babies. Once I was “in position” I started pushing – this time (unlike my previous birth) I could feel when I was having a contraction and knew when to do it, too. At 2:33, Elsie Olivia was born, weighing 6lbs 12oz, with apgars of 9/9. They brought her to my chest for a quick visit, Lonnie cut the cord, and she was moved across the room to be tended to.
The next 20 mins were kind of a blur to me – I was mostly watching Lonnie over with Elsie (he kind of bounced between the two of us while the doula stayed with me). They didn't want me to keep pushing so I took a break, and they quickly upped the epi some and the perinatologist “dove in up to his elbows” to turn baby B, who had stretched out lengthwise, and broke her water sack. This is where I was REALLY glad to have the meds – I barely knew what was happening! She was showing some signs of distress from all this so they put an oxygen mask on me for awhile. After he had turned her, he put a vacuum on her to rotate her into position (she was “sunny side up”) and then with a few pushes Delia Grace was born, at 2:55pm, 7lbs 5oz. She also came to my chest briefly, Lonnie cut the cord, and then she went over to be checked by her team. Apgars of 8/9.
I watched her for a bit and was told when to push out the placenta, and was then stitched up (I tore again in the same place as before, a second degree tear). There was some concern over excess bleeding so they gave me some pitocin to help contract my uterus and control that. We were shown the placenta, which was very cool, and it was passed around a lot to all the med students – there was a semi-velamentous cord insertion and it showed that Elsie and Delia had in fact several “shared” vessels that could have caused big problems with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. But it did not! Hooray!
We were soon all wheeled back to our room where I was immediately able to try breastfeeding (they both latched and sucked great!) with each baby while the other got bathed and wrapped up. I got to order food, we made phone calls, and everyone was in good spirits. It was pretty much exactly the birth I'd hoped for, except for that bit of manipulation with Delia at the end, which at the time I was fairly unaware of. Big sister Emma and Grandma came for a visit after another hour or so, and we all came home after two days in the hospital. And from there, the crazy chaos began!
