Once I hit 37 weeks with the twins I was beyond ready for them to make an appearance. Starting at about 35 weeks, I was feeling so big and swollen and exhausted that I couldn't imagine making it much longer. My Dr. had told me that he wouldn't let me go past my due date and hopefully not past 39 weeks. Since I was a VBAC, they didn't want to induce me, but they also didn't want to do a C-section if they didn't need to since both babies were head down. So, it was that balance of wanting to keep them in as long as possible, but also praying that I'd go into labor on my own.
For three weeks in a row, I had pretty regular Braxton-Hicks contractions, but wasn't making any progress in terms of dilating or effacing. Granted, my body waits until I'm in labor to get to dilating. Even so, by my 37 week check-up I felt my body was telling me they were never coming. I went straight from my appointment to pick up my Mom from the airport and then the efforts to induce labor began in earnest. We starting walking, eating spicy foods, bouncing on my exercise ball, with a whole lot of putting my swollen feet up in between.
On Sunday I got the kids up and ready for church and sent them on their way with my mom. I had no desire to sit through three hours on a hard bench, and honestly, I had pretty much nothing that fit me at that point anyway. The whole time everyone was at church I was feeling super crampy. I had this feeling that the babies were going to come the next day. As soon as everyone got home, though, all of my cramps went away. I had almost no contractions the rest of the day, but I did start to feel really nauseous after dinner. I rarely feel sick, so I was hoping it was related to the babies, but I couldn't be sure.
We went to bed and I woke up at about midnight to got to the bathroom. After I laid back down, I was having some contractions that I was sort of dozing through. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking "I think I'm starting labor" and then I'd doze back off. At 1:30 I had a sharp contraction that woke me up and I headed back to the bathroom. After I stood back up I had a trickle that made me do a double-take. I wasn't sure if it was my water breaking or if I was just incontinent. I started walking to the closet to change and felt another small gush. So, I went to wake Chris and tell him my water broke. I got to the bed and just started laughing because it was now literally trickling down my leg.
He got up and started packing my hospital bag (because we're so prepared) and I hopped in the shower. Then we woke up our parents and told them we were heading to the hospital, and we'd keep them posted on our progress, but not to expect news anytime soon.
We got to the hospital and parked by the Birth Center, not realizing that at 2:30 in the morning, you have to go to the emergency room to get checked in. We walked all the way over to that entrance and by the time we got there, my water had soaked through my clothes. I was so ready to get changed and have some babies! They wheeled me into Labor and Delivery and confirmed that my water had indeed broken and it was time to get me set up in a labor room.
After they checked me in and set me up, my contractions were still really inconsistent in their timing, but they were getting progressively more painful. A nurse finally checked me at about 4:30 am and I was dilated to a 3. I was discouraged thinking I still had so much labor ahead of me and I was already in so much pain. Chris and my mom could tell that I was in pretty bad pain, so Chris encouraged me to go ahead and ask for the epidural. I was hesitant because I didn't want to get it too soon and have it slow my labor down or anything. Around that time, our friend Alina who works as a L&D Nurse at the hospital popped in and commented on how intense my contractions were on the monitor. That did it; I was ready for some drugs.
I asked for the epidural and the anesthesiologist showed up to place the epidural at about 5:30. It took a long time for it to take effect and I was worried that I was going to have a repeat of Elodie, where the epidural didn't take effect at all. He topped off the dose and hung out in my room for about 45 minutes to make sure it was working. It finally started to kick in, but I could still feel my contractions, just not as strong as before. It was the perfect epidural. It took the major pain away, but didn't leave me numb and clueless as to what was going on with my labor.
At about 7:00, my pain was increasing and the nurse suggested we call anesthesia for a top off. Before she put in the order, she thought she'd better check my progress. She checked me and she was like "oh, you're at a 9, we better get you into the O.R.". All twins are delivered in the OR in case of the need for emergency surgery. My mom couldn't come in with us, so we said goodbye to her and suited up for surgery (just in case).
They wheeled me into the OR and it was teeming with doctors and nurses. There was a nurse and a doctor for each baby, two nurses and two doctors for me. A scrub nurse, an anesthesiologist and maybe even some other ones I missed. The funny thing, though, was how relaxed the environment was even with all the doctors. They were blasting the classic rock and making jokes about my uterus and the fact that we were about to have double the daughters.
As soon as we got set up and the doctors were up to speed, everyone sort of looked at me and were like "so, why are you pushing?!". It was much less of a production than with Elodie, just sort of like "go for it whenever you're ready. You got this." I pushed through two contractions and the first baby was out. It was such a tangible, physical relief to have her out. They handed her to me and all I could think was how much she looked like Elle to me.
The doctors hinted at the fact that they needed to make sure everything was good with Baby B before I could push again, so I was waiting for a green light when the nurse looked at me and said "you can push, you know" (or something like that). I was like "oh, alright, you got it!" Another two contractions and she was out. They handed her to me and I said "they're identical!" They looked so much alike to me, it took me by surprise.
They were born at 8:39 and 8:49 am, just ten minutes apart, my easiest and quickest labor and delivery of all. I couldn't believe it. When I was pushing the second one out, the doctor said "you should have ten more kids, you're a pro." All of my laundry list of fears about delivering twins never even came close to being realized. They were both perfectly healthy and beautiful. We were discharged the very next day, after many long hours of discussing what to name them. We landed on Nora Beth and Tess Ada, their middle names both family names. The more time we spent with them in the hospital the more convinced we were that they weren't identical, but honestly, the jury is still out. They have moments where they look so much alike and others where they look totally distinct from one another. If nothing else, they're definitely sisters.
I feel like their delivery has been indicative of the whole experience of having twins so far. It's a million times less scary and awful than I thought it would be. Truth be told, their first week of life I was a complete hormonal mess, mostly over the fact that I couldn't believe how much I loved them. I feel for them hard and fast. During my whole pregnancy, I hadn't really ever let myself get excited or too attached to them, but after they were born it was like all the months of worry and fear and doubt just dissolved and I was so absolutely sure that they were mine and that it was always meant to be that way.
We got to the hospital and parked by the Birth Center, not realizing that at 2:30 in the morning, you have to go to the emergency room to get checked in. We walked all the way over to that entrance and by the time we got there, my water had soaked through my clothes. I was so ready to get changed and have some babies! They wheeled me into Labor and Delivery and confirmed that my water had indeed broken and it was time to get me set up in a labor room.
After they checked me in and set me up, my contractions were still really inconsistent in their timing, but they were getting progressively more painful. A nurse finally checked me at about 4:30 am and I was dilated to a 3. I was discouraged thinking I still had so much labor ahead of me and I was already in so much pain. Chris and my mom could tell that I was in pretty bad pain, so Chris encouraged me to go ahead and ask for the epidural. I was hesitant because I didn't want to get it too soon and have it slow my labor down or anything. Around that time, our friend Alina who works as a L&D Nurse at the hospital popped in and commented on how intense my contractions were on the monitor. That did it; I was ready for some drugs.
I asked for the epidural and the anesthesiologist showed up to place the epidural at about 5:30. It took a long time for it to take effect and I was worried that I was going to have a repeat of Elodie, where the epidural didn't take effect at all. He topped off the dose and hung out in my room for about 45 minutes to make sure it was working. It finally started to kick in, but I could still feel my contractions, just not as strong as before. It was the perfect epidural. It took the major pain away, but didn't leave me numb and clueless as to what was going on with my labor.
At about 7:00, my pain was increasing and the nurse suggested we call anesthesia for a top off. Before she put in the order, she thought she'd better check my progress. She checked me and she was like "oh, you're at a 9, we better get you into the O.R.". All twins are delivered in the OR in case of the need for emergency surgery. My mom couldn't come in with us, so we said goodbye to her and suited up for surgery (just in case).
They wheeled me into the OR and it was teeming with doctors and nurses. There was a nurse and a doctor for each baby, two nurses and two doctors for me. A scrub nurse, an anesthesiologist and maybe even some other ones I missed. The funny thing, though, was how relaxed the environment was even with all the doctors. They were blasting the classic rock and making jokes about my uterus and the fact that we were about to have double the daughters.
As soon as we got set up and the doctors were up to speed, everyone sort of looked at me and were like "so, why are you pushing?!". It was much less of a production than with Elodie, just sort of like "go for it whenever you're ready. You got this." I pushed through two contractions and the first baby was out. It was such a tangible, physical relief to have her out. They handed her to me and all I could think was how much she looked like Elle to me.
The doctors hinted at the fact that they needed to make sure everything was good with Baby B before I could push again, so I was waiting for a green light when the nurse looked at me and said "you can push, you know" (or something like that). I was like "oh, alright, you got it!" Another two contractions and she was out. They handed her to me and I said "they're identical!" They looked so much alike to me, it took me by surprise.
They were born at 8:39 and 8:49 am, just ten minutes apart, my easiest and quickest labor and delivery of all. I couldn't believe it. When I was pushing the second one out, the doctor said "you should have ten more kids, you're a pro." All of my laundry list of fears about delivering twins never even came close to being realized. They were both perfectly healthy and beautiful. We were discharged the very next day, after many long hours of discussing what to name them. We landed on Nora Beth and Tess Ada, their middle names both family names. The more time we spent with them in the hospital the more convinced we were that they weren't identical, but honestly, the jury is still out. They have moments where they look so much alike and others where they look totally distinct from one another. If nothing else, they're definitely sisters.
I feel like their delivery has been indicative of the whole experience of having twins so far. It's a million times less scary and awful than I thought it would be. Truth be told, their first week of life I was a complete hormonal mess, mostly over the fact that I couldn't believe how much I loved them. I feel for them hard and fast. During my whole pregnancy, I hadn't really ever let myself get excited or too attached to them, but after they were born it was like all the months of worry and fear and doubt just dissolved and I was so absolutely sure that they were mine and that it was always meant to be that way.
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