The Birth Story

Although the boys were due on September 30th, many of you will remember that all I really wanted was to make it to September and make it to my first class. The boys must have been listening, because they were born on September 1st at 2:33am and 2:35am! We just made it!

I went from this: (approximately 32 weeks pregnant, so this plus almost 4 weeks)

to this:

I actually went into labor on August 31st around 5:30pm. I was 35weeks and 5 days pregnant. Mom and I were waiting on Blake to get home for dinner and I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions where my belly was tightening but it wasn't hurting. The doctor had told me to call if I had more than 6 in an hour. I was keeping track of them with an app on my iPhone (of course). When 5 had been recorded, I called Blake to let him know I was going to have to call in if I had one more. He took this as a come home now, babies are imminent message. That was probably for the best.

Blake came home and we attempted to eat dinner (delicious chili made by my mother-in-law, Patti). I got about two bites in and couldn't eat because I was having that magical sixth in an hour contraction. We called the hospital and they said to wait an hour, drink some water, and rest, and hopefully the contractions would pass. If they didn't stop, then we would have to come in to be evaluated.

When the contractions didn't stop, I knew we were going to have to go in. But I never DREAMED I was actually having babies. I mean, everyone goes in for false labor at least once, right? I calmly directed my husband and my mother to finish packing our bags (of course we weren't packed all the way, I wasn't even 36 weeks for heaven's sake!). This was mostly to make my husband feel better, since I knew we were going to be checked and sent right home. I even convinced him to stop for a couple of hamburgers (for himself) on the way to the hospital because he had skipped dinner and we would probably be at the hospital for a couple of hours.

We got to the hospital around 9:30 and it took forever to get signed in and everything even though I had preregistered all of our information. I was hooked up to two fetal monitors for baby heartbeats and a contraction monitor. Baby A (Ethan) was very good at staying on the monitor but Baby B (Connor) kept squirming away and we had to readjust the monitor. The nurse said she'd never seen a baby as high up as Connor (who was tap dancing in my ribs, thanks kid). I drank water and rested as best as I could, but the contractions kept getting stronger and more painful and just would not go away! Labor was progressing.

As I was almost 36 weeks I was too far cooked for the doctors to think about stopping labor, so I had a choice between just letting things progress and getting a c-section. As Connor was transverse - that is, sideways in my belly and not head down or even breech with his feet down - I elected for the c-section. As it turns out, Connor was also tangled up in his cord so the c-section was the smartest and safest option. We made the decision for the c-section around 12:30 and things progressed rapidly from there. Before I knew it I was in the OR getting a spinal. The spinal caused my blood pressure to drop several times so while I was not in pain I was very uncomfortable and claustrophobic about not being able to move my legs, but the OR staff was able to give me medicine to counteract all of that.

At 2:33 am, Ethan was born. I burst into tears the moment that I heard him cry. I couldn't believe we had a real, live baby! Blake exclaimed that he had never seen a baby with so much hair. I couldn't see them right away because of the set-up, and I was so jealous. At 2:35, Connor was born. He started crying right away as well and also had a ton of hair. They checked the babies (APGAR scores of 8 and 9 for Ethan and 9 and 9 for Connor) and let Blake and I hold the babies and kiss them before taking them to the NICU. Nothing was wrong, but all babies born before 36 weeks (even though we were at 35 weeks and 6 days at this point) have to go to the NICU to be checked out. Blake went with the babies and I stayed behind so they could finish putting me back together.

Almost as soon as I was in recovery they were able to bring Connor out to see me.

Ethan had to stay in the NICU for a few hours because of his breathing. He was making an "enh, enh" noise when he breathed because all of the fluid had not been squeezed from his lungs as it would have been for a normal delivery. He was just monitored and came up to join us very soon.

We stayed in the hospital until that Sunday and we were all very ready to go home and start being a family.