Ben and Ella have arrived!`

Soooooooo i'm finally home from the hospital! Ella and Ben arrived on the 16th May at 7.06am and 8.49am and it was a long day!!
I went into hospital on the 14th for a blood pressure profile as i'd had all the signs of pre-eclampsia apart from the high blood pressure - they were just basically waiting for this before they were going to induce me. After joking with the midwife, who had held the record for giving birth to the largest twins in the UK for years (10lbs and 12lbs!!) about getting it after my 6th profile it turns out that i did have it!! They asked me to stay in over night so that I could be monitored and so I did. I saw my baby doctor friend Rachel and she said that they had to induce me today because it was getting silly! She wasn't actually my doctor but she did manage to swing it for me, as they had decided that they were going to induce me on the Friday but wanted to try gels first to shorten my cervix but Rachel had examined me previously and said that there wasn't really any need, so at 2.10pm Rachel broke my waters and apparently it was a huge amount even for twins!! A canular was inserted in my hand on their third attempt to get the contractions going and then the waiting began.
Didn't really feel anything for a while, apart from my waters trickling, which was nice :s but after a while the twinges began - they're like short sharp bursts of period pains. Asked the midwife how long it would take for me to get an epidural from asking for one to actually getting one and she said it would take about 10 mins... they took an hour to get to me, so i got pretty uncomfortable until it was given, especially as I wasn't using the gas and air properly for it to have much effect - take long deep breaths ladies!! I was 2cms dilated when I was induced and by 6pm I was 3cms dilated... bit rubbish so decided if it's going to take a while why stay in pain for ages - I'm no super hero. I think I ended up getting the epidural around 7pm having pretty much overdosed on the gas and air after the long wait!! It definitely helped when they were putting the needle in. Catheter went in shortly after that - not too bad but not the best thing to have!
Contractions had really started picking up by this point and according to the monitors I was have 1 contraction every minute for about 30 seconds but couldn't really feel anything apart from a little tensing every now and then. Husband and I just chilled and watched telly for a while... very strange doing something so normal when you're going through such a lifechanging event. I was measured again at around 10pm and I was 5cms dilated. Decided to try and sleep and managed some kind of sleep / snoozing until about 2am. I was then measured again and i'd jumped to 10cms! Scary moment! They then said that even though I was ready to push they wanted to give the babies a bit longer to descend so we were going to start pushing at 4am.
So 4am came and I started to push. Kept an eye on the readings and pushed each time one was pushing but I found it really difficult to work out how to push - i was pushing more into my stomach than my cervix so there wasn't much movement at all! After a while I didn't need to look at the readings as I could feel them... and then I looked at the filter on the epidural and the tube had come out. I wasn't getting any pain relief and the epidural was wearing off - Gaaah! Started to panic as it wore off quicker and quicker and I was waiting for the anaesthatist (sp?!) to come back but he was busy with someone else. Pain was getting worse and worse and I started to majorly panic - hubby was freaking out a little but he was great. Started attacking the gas and air again but I was convinced it wasn't working, but really because I was so much further down the road in labour it wasn't as effective as it was the first time I had the epidural so this time the epidural was a lot more painful although they managed to place it in the same space.
After that I don't really remember much. The panic attack pretty much took me out!! At some point they decided that because I wasn't pushing properly and I wasn't really 'there' anymore they were going to attempt forceps. Ella was the first to arrive at 7.06am with forceps and it was so amazing. Her head came first and then they had to wait for the next contraction so I was sat there for a minute or two waiting (they'd slowed down by now... typical!!) and I could feel her head and her shoulders in my pelvis.... such a bizarre feeling but it was amazing. Another push and a bit of pulling and she was here! Hubby looked as she was coming out and he said it was amazing - so very very bizarre that he's seen me giving birth and I don't know what was going on down there!!
Couldn't take my eyes off her as they sorted her out. She was delivered onto my tummy and then taken to a heater to be sorted out and she was just amazing.Ben was a whole other kettle of chips. After Ella was born they broke my waters on Ben and held him in place whilst they waited for the contractions to kick in again. I started pushing as they did but he wasn't descending. After 30 mins the doctor wanted to try forceps again but wasn't 100% sure about it. He tried and couldn't get a good grip of him so they then decided that they were going to take me to the operating theatre to perform a C-section on him. I was so out of it that I pretty much said nooo but in a defeated kind of way because I knew they had to do what they had to do. So I got wheeled down to the operating theatre, and told Dan to stay with Ella no matter what - I didn't want her being alone so soon after birth and I knew the doctors would look after me. They then gave me a spinal block in preparation for the C-section, Daniel went to recovery with Ella, and the midwife then said that they could go into a side room to the operating theatre and we'd all be within eye sight of each other. I was so amazing of them to do that. Daniel had to get into scrubs and it was so good to see him. Lying on the operating theatre I could see them and it was so amazing. I was then moved onto the operating table and my legs were then lifted into the stirups. For some reason they said they wanted to wait another 30 minutes to attempt forceps again rather than the C-Section and after some good pushes from me Ben was delivered onto my tummy. They whisked him off to get sorted out and it was so amazing to see them both there.
I'd suffered a pretty rubbish tear with Ben, as well as the cuts they had to do for the forceps, and I was suffering a pretty big bleed and ended up losing around a litre of blood so they took about 45 minutes stopping the bleed and stitching me up. We all then went to recovery where I attempted breast feeding with them, but Ben was having none of it and Ella wasn't taking enough and needed to be topped up with formula. I was hooked up to a lot of machines at this point as well and felt like robocop!
I was then taken up to the ward and slowly started to recover of the next week. I had to have a blood transfusion because of the blood I had lost in labour and I'm now on iron tablets and blood pressure meds as well as painkillers. Blood transfusion came after I'd gone for a shower the day afterwards and had to be rescued in the hallway because I was about to pass out - standing up can really take it out of you, especially when you're in need of blood and your blood pressure is up the creak! They had to wheel me back to the ward and I had to hit the call button each time I wanted to go to the loo!! Then decided to do a blood transfusion and it helped lots and lots!!
I got moved to a private room on Tuesday when one became available and it was so nice getting to know them and not feeling bad that they were keeping other babies awake in the night!
After being examined by the doctor in the morning she said that she wanted to keep me in another night as I still looked pale but I was so ready to go home. Attempted to come home but felt really light headed and went to pass out so obviously she was right... went back into the hospital but they pretty much said the same thing - stay in and be monitored but i really didn't want to so hubby is on strict orders to make me not do anything that isn't baby related... no cleaning, no tidying, nothing.... so he has to do it! He's been really good and did all the feeds last night so that I could get a good nights sleep after doing all the feeds at night time whilst in hospital. So there you go and here are some pics

My pics: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=585...mp;id=585450704
Hubby's pics: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=585...6355&ref=mf

Thanks expecting forum and see you in the first year!!
Rachel

 

:Clap: Congratulations Rachel!!! Welcome to the world Ben and Ella!!! :wub: They are beautiful!

 

OMGOSH! Congrats! You sounded like such a trooper and it paid off! Your babies are gorgeous!

 

So cute! Looks like you had a lot of help in the hospital! I hope they let you rest some!

:welcome: to the First Year!

 

:Clap: Congratulations!! Enjoy them!

 

Wow whata day. Congrats on your new babies. They are beautiful!!!

What were their weights and lengths? I read the whole thing but couldn't find that part.

 

:welcome: to the First Year. Congrats on your babes.

 

Congrats and welcome to Ben and Ella!

Good to hear you were able to avoid the c/s after vb and sounds like everything is going wonderfully.


Take care and enjoy!

 

Totally forgot to put their weights!! They both weighed the same at 5lbs 10.5oz... and sorry it was such a long birth story... kinda added to it between feeds and didn't realise how long it was!

 

Congratulations on your beautiful babies!! :yahoo:
They are just darling & the picture of them in the Moses basket it just too too cute! :wub:

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!

 

[SIZE=12pt]Congratulations!!!!!!! They are just goreous :wub: :wub:
Sorry you had such a rough experience of it though, hope you are all doing well now :hug: [/SIZE]

 

Congratulations Momma!! Welcome to the 1st year!! They are adorable!! :wub:

 

CONGRATS!!! Happy to hear that you all are doing well. How far along in your pregnancy were you when they induced you? (full-term?)

 

Congrats on the babies...

 

Congratulations... They are tooo cute!

 

Hey. I was induced at 37 weeks Rachel

 

They are both gorgeous! Congratulations. And thanks for telling your story, you should be quite proud of yourself, you did a great job!

 

Congratulation!!!!!!! and thank you for such emotional birth story. I am glad that you didn't need the c-section....

 

Congrats on the lil ones! Sounds like you had quite the adventure. They are adorable! :wub: