The afternoon went on, Chris finished up his work and tied up a few loose ends, just in case. Ben and I spent the afternoon together at home, we did a bit of rock painting in the back yard and snuggled on the couch. My sister wondered if she should come over after work to help with anything. Around 4:30 or so, I started becoming more uncomfortable and by 5:00 I asked Jessie to come over to watch Ben. We planned on having Chris' parents take Ben over night for a sleep over if it was the real deal. At this point, I still felt like they could send me home so we decided Jess would come over and watch Ben for a couple of hours and if they decided to keep me at the hospital, we would have Jim and Carol come over and pick up the soon-to-be big brother. My sister arrived a few minutes after my call and I set to gathering a few last minute things, going over some instructions for Ben and breathing through contractions.I had plans to connect with Dr. C. by phone at around 7 to see how I was doing, but at 5:30 I called to let him know we were headed to the hospital, that my contractions were every 5 minutes and becoming more intense. He let me know he was finishing up at the clinic and would meet me there.
Our ride to the hospital was incredibly peaceful. It was a beautiful day, Chris had Ray LaMontange playing in the car, we chatted about how things were about to change, all the while I had no idea how quickly things would happen. Although the trip over was uneventful, it will be etched in my mind forever...it's almost as thought time stopped during that ride, because just hours later, our lives changed forever.
I was a little worried about traffic since we headed over in the middle of rush hour, but traffic was light on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. When we pulled into the parking ramp, I told Chris to leave our bags in the car, in case we didn't end up staying. It must have been the way I had to breathe through our conversation that made Chris decide to bring everything in (smart man!)
We checked into the maternal assessment center, a unit I had become familiar with during my pregnancy, having first spent time in there at 22 weeks when I had regular contractions and again at 24 weeks when we discovered I was at higher risk for a preterm delivery. We were familiar with the staff and the procedures there. The unit was full (did I mention August 31st was also a blue moon?). We were escorted across the hall to the overflow rooms by a sweet nurse named Suzie. As we got to know each other, my contractions started to intensify quite quickly. When she asked me what brought me in, I let her know I had been seen in clinic about six hours prior and was found to be five centimeters dilated at that appointment. She did a double take and couldn't believe I went home from that appointment, given that I was pregnant with twins. I assured her that I wasn't in active labor earlier in the day and that we lived very close to the hospital. She and Chris were joking and carrying on and at first I was able to manage a few laughs here and there and interject a few one-liners, but things changed within 15 minutes of my arrival. Labor had definitely started and my contractions were coming one on top of the other. Up until this point I was considering a natural, drug free delivery but quickly changed my mind. Although I was practically begging for an epidural, I was still surprised when nurse Suzie came in and told me I was 7 cm dilated and definitely NOT going home. For some reason, I just kept thinking I would be going home that night, definitely not having two babies!
We quickly made a few phone calls to our parents before I was wheeled over to labor and delivery. My parents made plans to head to the hospital and Chris' parents headed over to relieve my sister and bring Bennie over to their house for the night.
Once we arrived to L&D we met the nurses who would get me through delivery, Bobbie and Kelsey. The anestesiologist arrived within minutes and got my epidural in place. I asked to have it started at the lowest dose possible, in hopes to be able to push effectively and avoid a c-section if at all possible. My parents and Dr. C. arrived around the same time. Dr. C. broke baby A's water and explained that although both babies were head down and things were looking good for a vaginal delivery, I would deliver the babies in the operating room instead of the birthing suite, just in case. He predicted the babies would be born some time after midnight. My parents and Chris talked politics and joked around. I updated a few close girlfriends and let them know it was really happening.
Sometime around 9:30 or so I started feeling a lot of pain and asked my parents to head to the waiting room. Around 10:30 Dr. C. and nurse Bobbi both came into my room, took one look at me and said it was time to head to the operating room. He didn't check me, just said that the babies were coming soon. I guess he's seen enough mamas in labor to know when it's time. Things happened fast and all of sudden the room was filled with nurses in action. Chris hopped into his scrubs and off we went. The NICU team was called to the OR since the babies would be born four weeks early. I was having a very hard time coping with the pain of the contractions, and felt myself quickly losing my cool. Chris, the nurses and Dr. C. tried to get me to calm down, but their efforts were futile...I was scared out of my mind to deliver not one, but TWO babies! When we entered the OR I was 8 cm dilated, but quickly progressed to complete and by 11:20 was ready to push.
Harper Grace was born at 11:38 pm. I remember the nurses telling me she had lots of hair and I figured she would come out looking like her big brother (she does have hair, but nothing like the locks Ben was born with). Time seemed to stop as I waited for Chris to tell me the gender of our baby A. I heard him say she's a girl and felt my heart skip a beat. Dr. C. handed her to me and I fell in love. She was a beauty at 5 pounds even.
After Harper was born the contractions slowed a bit and there was a sense of calm in the room for a short while. Chris and I took turns holding her, talked about names (we wanted to wait until baby B was born before naming either baby) and Harper nursed for the first time while we waited for things to pick up again. After some time, Dr. C. told me that Harper's placenta had partially detached, causing me to bleed heavily and that he was concerned. He placed an internal monitor to measure my contractions as well as a monitor on Baby B's scalp to more closely monitor the baby's heart rate. About 15 minutes later, the bleeding picked up quite a bit. They took Harper from me and told me they needed to deliver baby B very soon, because the bleeding was becoming dangerous. My doctor told me he was going to give it five more minutes and then would let me know what his plan would be.
A few minutes later he came to the head of the bed, took my hand and without him saying a word, I knew what the plan would be. I wept silent tears, I had been hoping to avoid a c section throughout my entire pregnancy. I didn't want to have surgery...I was scared. I knew there was a very small chance that with any vaginal twin delivery, you can encounter problems, such as baby B flipping to a breech presentation. This would be one reason for what we would come to know as the "double whammy delivery," meaning baby A is delivered vaginally and baby B is delivered by c section. Baby B was still in proper position, head down, however because of the issue with baby A's placenta and the bleeding that followed, Dr. C. let Chris and I know that he would need to deliver our baby B by c section, and that it would need to be done very quickly. I was very scared at this point, but the delivery team was amazing and all that mattered to me was the safe arrival of baby B.
Within minutes, on September 1st, 2012 at 12:59 am, Samuel Philip arrived. Again, just as with baby A, I anxiously awaited hearing Chris tell me the gender of our baby. I heard him tell me we had a baby boy and I got my first glimpse at Sammie boy. My first thoughts were: 1. "He looks just like Ben" and 2. "He is very small." The nurses told us he weighed 4 lbs 1 ounce and I remember thinking, "that can't be right, they just told me today he weighed 5.5 lbs at the US." The NICU team took him to the special care nursery almost immediately, but not before we got a quick picture of our precious son.
I spent some time in recovery while Chris took my parents to meet their newest grandchildren. The time seemed to pass so slowly as I waited to be stable enough to be wheeled up to see my two newest beetles. The nurses took me up to the step down NICU in the middle of the night. Although I have spent countless hours in and out of various ICUs as a nurse, I wasn't prepared for my own babies being hooked up to so much monitoring equipment. The nurses walked us thought everything and Chris and I were able to spend a few minutes taking in our precious miracles before I was shuttled back to the post-partum unit to get some rest.
Despite the exhaustion that was setting in from delivery, I couldn't sleep all night. I wanted nothing more than to get back up and see my babies! I spent the night in disbelief that they had finally arrived... our babies were here...We had hoped and prayed for these two little ones' for so very long, and they were here...safe and sound.
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