It begins about 4 weeks before, when I was 27 weeks pregnant.
I was getting ready for work & had already taken a shower. I am a creature of habit & I usually jump back into bed for about 10-15 minutes to watch the news or play on my phone. Seeing as my time was up in bed & I actually had to get ready, I hopped up & bam...something's wrong.
We quickly & calmly gather my things & head to the hospital. Baby A's sac has ruptured which I will later understand is called pPROM {preterm premature of membranes}. I'm in the hospital till the babies are born. The chance of infection & too great & I am given the gambit of antibiotics.
What the what? I felt great! My mind might have been wonky from losing the previous pregnancy, but physically? Amazing!
I was in denial for a long time & to this day the doctors don't have a definite answer to what caused the rupture. It could have been the baby, infection, who knows. The first 48 hours were pretty hairy. I was contracting but my cervix was still closed. They were able to stop the contractions at first with tocolytics & later fluids. I was also given 2 rounds of steroids, just in case the babes were going to make an early appearance.
My hospital stay, after the scariness of my first few days, was going great & the nurses called me their model patient. My goal was to make it to 34 weeks {7 weeks away} and I was pretty confident this was going to happen. Whenever I was monitored, I barely had contractions & the babes always behaved. At each ultrasound, baby A's fluid levels were holding steady & the doctors were impressed. However, 4 weeks into my stay {31 Weeks Gestation}, I woke up at 4am with another rupture of the same sac! Baby A was obviously ready to go. Once I had reached around 30 weeks, the doctors had prepared me, that if I went into labor that they would not stop it.
So after the rupture, I called the night nurse {of course it happens to be a woman I have never had before} and she sort of "poo-poos the situation. I get monitored & only small contractions are showing up here & there, but the babies look great. However, compared to my first rupture, this is a lot more fluid & there was blood as well. This time seems different. I'm pulled off the monitors & told to sleep till the doctor arrives. Sleep. Yea right. I quickly dive into a natural child birth book that I had been putting off reading. I quickly realize I am going to learn nothing and play on twitter till the doctor arrives.
The doctor arrives & I am having full on contractions. My midwife was also there & they began prepping me for labor. Now this whole time my babies both have been head down. So I was told that there would be a good possibility of a vaginal birth. This stuck in my head & I was going to get it done. There was no way, that after 4 weeks of bed rest, was I going to have a c-section, which in turn would make me bed-ridden even longer.
I can honestly say my Midwife was my savior. She convinced the doctor, {who kept telling me I should do a c-section, and all the risks there were, & I still could end up in surgery, & blah blah blah} that I was capable of a vaginal delivery. My favorite line was "look at her, she's 6 feet tall, she's an athlete, she can do this." Love her.
I was promptly rolled down to L & D with raging contractions and the fleeting idea that I wanted to do this naturally. I hopped up onto the bed & holy uncomfortable. Y'all, I'm 6 feet tall, that thing seemed like it was made for a child. The giant hole in the middle, where it all converted into a birthing bed, was so awkwardly placed, I couldn't find a position that didn't make me feel like hell. So in about 2.2 seconds, I gladly agreed to an epidural.
Yea - it wasn't so hot going in, but wow did it work. I was then administered pitosin, but I was dilating so fast, it was hardly necessary. Those babes were ready...or should I say Baby A was ready, since she was so far down the birth canal at the last check, the crew was scrambling to get me into the OR {Yes, as the doctor reminded me several times, the OR was standard, since so many things could go wrong. For example - After I gave birth to Baby A, Baby B could flip resulting in me having a c-section anyways to get her out}.
Whatever doc, let's get the show on the road.
Now because of the whole going into labor thing was so quick & crazy, the idea of them being born at 31 weeks didn't hit me until I was rolled into the OR. The amount of people in the room, 4 people for me, 4 for Baby A, & 4 for Baby B, made me realize that things still could not go so well.
Now because of the epidural & the fact that the babes were smaller, the whole pushing part was pretty easy. Baby A was pretty much already there so I really didn't have to push for long. Madeline Bridgewater was born at 5:34 PM. She was swept immediately away, but she did really well. It's like she really was ready for the world! I quickly had to return my attention to Baby B. I had a nurse on my stomach holding her in place & she was ready to go. Again after a few quick pushes Amelia Frances was born at 5:37 PM. She had her cord wrapped around her neck, but all was well & the doctor removed it easily. Next came the placentas {my girls were di/di twins}, which were bagged up and sent off for testing. I did have a 1st degree tear, which the doctor sewed up, but I was focused more on Amelia to worry.
Madeline was able to breath on room air, & after she was assessed she was brought back to me so we could snuggle before she had to go to the NICU. We snapped a few photos & sadly watched Amelia get wheeled by. It was heartbreaking and I couldn't see her face. It was covered by the CPAP since she was having trouble breathing. It was then time for them to take Maddie away as well.
Worst feeling ever. I can honestly say that my whole birth experience was wonderful, but that moment when you can't stay with your children is completely overwhelming. You can barely recover from their birth & you are swept into the world that is the NICU...but that's another story. Someday I will blog about that. For now, {after 7 weeks} I'm finally enjoying these amazing NICU Grads!!
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