My birth story

Well, I guess it's about time I got around to writing my birth story! It will be long...

I guess the best place to start would be with my appointment the night before on Sept 23. I was supposed to see my OB in the afternoon, but I called and asked if I could make my appointment for later, so they slotted me in for the end of the day. It was easier that way because then my DH could drive me to the appointment.

Of course, my OB was REALLY far behind! It was also REALLY hot that day (around 34C) and the building's air conditioning shuts off at 5 pm! So there were a pile of us super preggo women in there all sweating and waiting. We started joking that the heat would put us into labour and that we should just walk across the street to the hospital and deliver our babies! One of us asked the nurse to bring in some fans, which she did - and I told her that we loved her and that she was the best nurse ever. Lol - about 20 minutes later she came back and asked me if I would put it in writing! I wrote something like "Darlene is the best nurse ever, and deserves a HUGE raise" and then all of us in the waiting room signed it.

When I finally saw my OB at 10:45 pm (after parking myself in front of the fan in the exam room) he examined me and said that I was now between 4 - 5 cms. Now, he is "known" for measuring "big" but he said that he really wasn't stretching the truth here because he didn't WANT me to be that dilated. My cervix was of course still thin, and Baby A was now at 0 station. He talked about admitting me right away due to how fast I went from 5 - 10 last time with my water breaking - we figured it would also be really fast this time. I asked if I could go home for the night and then get admitted the next afternoon, and asked about what we would do about my ultrasound that was scheduled for Friday. He decided that we would just wait until my ultrasound, and then I would go and get admitted after.

While he was printing my prenatal records (the nurse had already gone), we were joking about the note all of us preggos had signed - he said that they had put it up on the back wall and were going to get it framed, lol! He said I had gotten him into trouble, HA HA!

When I got home it was about 11:30. I think I posted an update about my appointment, but I can't remember anymore! I called my doula and gave her an update on the situation. I tried to go to sleep, but was totally starting to stress about going back to the hospital - not so much about being in the hospital, as I felt safer about being in there, but about what I was going to do as far as childcare and all that. My mom was just recovering from surgery, and my doula friend that had been coming since my mom had her last day for Friday, and had other clients scheduled for the next week, since I would have been off bedrest.

So as I'm lying there stressing out, I'm starting to notice that I'm having some Braxton Hicks and they seem more frequent than normal. It's now 2:40 am. I drank some water, and started timing them. when they were 5 minutes apart, I tried seeing if the warm water in the shower would settle things down - nope. Shortly after I got out of the shower, the contractions started to feel a bit painful. I timed a few, and they were 5 minutes apart. I called my doula, and my IP's and then woke up my DH (how he had managed to sleep through me getting up, being on the computer timing contractions, and showering, I'll never understand). DH called for the ambulance for me, since my OB and I had decided this was the safest for me in case my water broke.

By the time the ambulance came, the contractions were 2 minutes apart. They still weren't really intense or anything, just active labour contractions. Apparently (according to the nurses that I saw at the hospital) the ambulance dudes were cute, but I didn't notice, lol! I got an IV started in the ambulance, and was very happy that I made it to the hospital without popping! I got to the hospital around 4:15, I think, not too sure. This is where my birth plan really came in handy - I was alone, and not really in a talkative mood, but the ambulance dudes had read it, and passed it on to the nurses, so everyone knew the important details.

My doula was the first to arrive, and I was so happy to see her! My IP's arrived sometime around 5 or so. I continued to labour, and napped a bit between contractions. They kept me on the stupid fetal monitor the whole time, and I was pretty uncomfortable until I laid on my side. I was checked and was told that my cervix hadn't really changed from my exam at the OB's.

My OB came and checked me around 9 am. At first he said that it hadn't seemed to change much, and was considering moving me to the antenatal floor to wait this out, but he decided to check me during a contraction - and I was stretching to 6 cms. He figured it would be better to keep me there, and when the OR was free, we would take me back there to break the water and deliver.

He also told me that he was going to be in a different office today, and so he wasn't sure if he would make it back in time if my water broke before they planned, but he would definitely try. THEN he tells me that one of the OB's that I really don't like is the on call OB - ugh! An epidural was brought up for doing a breech extraction of Baby B. I DIDN'T want an epidural at all, and if I knew for sure that my OB would be there, I wouldn't have gotten one, but since Dr. Dopey (not his real name) was on call, I didn't want to risk being knocked out and not knowing what he was doing. So I reluctantly agreed to the epidural catheter being placed.

The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me about my reluctance to have it, and I told him that when I got it with my first, I was way too numb, couldn't feel a thing, and hated feeling like I had zero control while pushing (pushing was really difficult with my first because I really felt nothing). A resident came in and started getting things set up for the epidural. I had no idea that she would be doing it! I think the epidural was very poorly placed, and it HURT!!! I actually screamed/cried when she placed the catheter in - and that is NOT like me at all! She wasn't even sure if she had gotten it in the right place and had muttered something about possibly needing to redo it - ummm, yeah - NO!

They added some of the meds to see if it was working, and they SAID it was, but I could still feel everything - from my pelvic floor up. My legs, crotch, and butt were tingling, though, and I hated that feeling - like my vajay-jay had gone to sleep - ewww! I was really happy when it wore off and I could feel everything again.

They also noticed that my IV was seeming to leak a bit, so they tried 2 other sites, neither of which worked. The anesthesiologist (not the resident that botched my epi)n came in and tried flushing my IV or something, and OMG that HURT too - I wasn't prepared at all for that level of pain from a stupid IV, so I cried again. Seriously - I can go through labour and birth without freaking out about the pain, but the epidural and the IV made me cry?!?!

At about 1:30 they took me back to the OR, and my water was broken for Twin A. they told me that i could only have one support person in there, which surprised me since I've done a couple of twin deliveries with 2 doulas and a dad. Since my IF is also a doctor, they did allow him to be in as well, but I wish my IM would have been able to come in too. My OB was called so that he could make it in time. I had one normal contraction after my water was broken, and then transition contractions hit. I think I only had about 8 - 10 of those, and then my doula says she needed to pee and wondered if she had time. I had just finished a contraction and told her to go NOW and hurry. She peed in record time, lol, and came back and told me that she had just seen my OB outside the OR, already in scrubs. It was like as soon as I head this, I knew it was ok to push, because the next contraction I was feeling pressure. My OB came in, and with the next contraction, I was saying I needed to push soon. And then with the next one, I said I needed to push, and told my OB, who was talking to a nurse, to hurry up, because she was coming NOW!

Baby A, Hayleigh, was born with that push, at 2:11 pm. They then broke the bag of water from Baby B. At this point, the anesthesiologist was SUPPOSED to have pushed the epi meds for the breech extraction. In case you don't know what is involved with a breech extraction, let me tell ya - the OB reaches up into the uterus and grabs the baby's legs for the delivery. Well, they did and the meds did NOT work as fast as they said they would, and I felt it all! The breech delivery was so fast, the OB was telling me to push her head out before I even realized her body was out! Baby B, Teagan, was born at 2:15 pm.

When the placenta was delivered, I started to hemorrhage, and so more meds were added to my epi, which again did nothing, except that now everything from my pelvic floor down was totally and completely numb. I asked for morphine to help with all of the nasty uterine massage they had to do to slow the bleeding. I was so numb that I had no idea when they were even stitching the small tear or washing me off. I was also exhausted, probably from the combo of morphine, not sleeping all night, not eating, and hemorrhaging, so I was in and out of sleep at this point. they showed me the babies, but I was having a hard time even keeping my eyes open. My legs were falling off the narrow OR table, they were still so numb. They ended up keeping me in recovery for awhile after the birth to keep an eye on me - I guess I looked pretty pale! And now my IV site was burning every time they adjusted the drip rate. I was given some antibiotics as well due to the extraction, when they did this, it seriously felt like I had a charley horse in my hand.

So, all in all, the birthing part wasn't too bad, even with the breech extraction - it was the stupid epidural and the IV that were actually the worst of it all! Even now, a week later, my IV site is sore, and my back feels like I got kicked. I spent the rest of the day mostly napping, although I did perk up a bit after I was able to eat something.

I didn't get to see the babies until the next day, because I was too tired to get up, and they wouldn't let my IP's remove them from the nursery. I did go and see them the next day, after pumping a tiny bit of colostrum, and I helped my IM with feeding Teagan, then cuddled Hayleigh.

As soon as I was discharged, we raced to a lawyer in order to get some legal paperwork signed that we needed to send in right away. Then I came home and crashed, lol!

I've been pumping milk for the twins, and so I saw my IP's on Tuesday night briefly. They came over here but didn't bring the twins because they want to keep them at home as much as possible for the next few weeks. They brought me a gift- a Cricut machine along with 7 different cartridges for it!!! I LOVE it, since I'm a scrapbooker ( if you aren't, this machine cuts paper into shapes, letters, etc, and is pretty expensive, so it's hard to splurge on something like this for yourself). I'm planning to take the kids and my mom to their house next Wednesday afternoon so they can see the babies, and to drop off more milk. Can't wait to see them again!

 

Who what an ordeal you had with the IV and epi, I feel for you momma, I hate needles. Congrats on your babies and doing such a great job. :hug: :good:

 

:Clap: Congratulations! I think it is wonderful what you did for this family. :wub: So nice of them to get you a gift.

 

:wub: Congratulations again!!! :hug: :hug:

 

Thanks for sharing your Story!! :yahoo: It is such an amazing thing you did for this family! :wub: Congratulations!!

 

Great birth story! Some of it was funny!
Sorry about the epi and the other complications.
What awesome gift(s) you gave to the new parents. :yahoo:

 

You are seriously SUPER AWESOME! What a story and what a thing you did for that couple. Way to go!! Out of all the stories I read here, yours just made me cry. Such a great gift to give.

 

Awwwww!

 

You are a star! what a great story. :bow2:

I'm mad that your IM didn't get to be in the delivery room, though. :angry:

 

:clapping: Congratulations! What a fabulous gift you have given that couple :bow2:

 

Thank you for sharing your amazing story!! You are truly wonderful, i hope you are recovering well

 

That is amazing. You are a very very generous women for doing this for that family. Glad to hear all went well.

 

Congratulations!

 

Fantastic story! I totally hear you! They had to try 4 times to get an IV in me ... I couldn't believe how much it hurt! The next day when I was in the ICU, they gave me another one in my other arm, and it was the easiest thing EVER! The nurse told me it was because I was dehydrated before the c-section, and that makes it really hard to start an IV. In the ICU, they were pumping me full of fluids, so it was much easier to do the IV. Good to know!

I'm so sad that your IM wasn't able to be in the room with you! I was able to have both my sis and her DH in the room with us, but maybe that's because I didn't have a doula, so they let me have 2 people. Although I had to fight for the 2nd person.

So glad to hear that everyone is healthy and doing well!