My girls have arrived

My girls were born at 37 weeks on the nose- February 4th.

Josephina ("Fina") Seay Jenkins
born 4:52 a.m.
6 lb 4 oz
18.5 inches

Tansy Lucille Jenkins
born 5:05 a.m.
6 lb 6 oz
18.5 inches

Okay, so the birth story. This will probably be a bit long but it's a huge thing that happens to you and it's hard to put such a monumental thing into a nutshell. I will post some pics of the birth soon too. They are on my sisters camera.

I started contracting a ton on Monday. I honestly did not think much of this as I was really contracting SO MUCH there at the end. I will say though that I did feel that things were happening I just wasn't sure how long it would take. It felt a lot like the energy you can feel brewing in the air before a storm. You are not sure when but you know that the storm is coming.

Monday night the contractions got more intense and I had a really hard time getting any sleep. I noticed they were about 5-8 apart but just kept trying to sleep. Then at about 2 in the morning I was slammed with what felt like a non ending contraction. It was so intense I couldn't catch my breath and I started trembling all over. I thought "oh my God, I have waited too long. I am in transition. How am I going to move? get in the car?" I cried out for my husband had him help me up. I sat up for a while and tried to catch my breath. Once I sat up the intensity of it eased some and the contractions backed down some so I decided to just wait it out. I was able to go back to sleep around 6 Tuesday morning.

The contractions continued on. I called my midwife around 9 a.m. Tuesday and told her what happened and that I was still contracting but that they were not too bad.. I didn't want to go in prematurely to the hospital but after the intensity of what I felt the night before I REALLY didn't want to have to travel to the hospital in that condition. I also knew my OB was going out of town on Wednesday morning at 6 and I knew if I had anyone but him I would not have near the support and experience I needed to get the natural birth I felt was best for me and the girls. Most OBs are antsy about twin births. And most have nowhere near the experience in natural twin deliveries that my OB has. So I was in a bit of a quandary. Do I wait it out or not?

We decided to call the OB Tuesday evening around 10 and he told me to go to the hospital and get checked out and if I wasn't progressing and we felt I would not go into full blown labor while he was away that I could go home.

When I got to the hospital I was 5 cm and had two bulging bags of water. It was 11.30 pm. My cervix was laboring but because my uterus was so distended it was slow going. They hooked me up to a bit of Pitocin to give me a little nudge and to give my uterus a little help to move around those babies.

Things started to get really hard after Fina's water broke (at 7cm). Moving her down into the birth canal and past Tansy was so, so hard and painful. I had to stay in this semi reclined position in the bed to keep the babies lined up correctly and I really wanted to go on my side. Between 7 and 10 cm I basically just wrapped my arms around my husband in a sort of hug and wept. He was awesome- encouraging me, kissing me on the side of my face, telling me what an amazing job I was doing, reminding me that I was "doing it" as I was sobbing and saying "I can't, I can't".

Finally I wanted to push and was ready. This is usually my favorite part of labor. It is hard for me to just lay there and take the pain. With pushing it gives me something to DO and I like that much better. However, pushing with twins was totally different. It was so incredibly painful. It is hard to explain. Even though Fina was in the birth canal I had the pressure of Tansy on top of her and restricting me in this weird painful way. It sort of felt during the contractions while I was bearing down that Tansy was pushing up.

Finally (though it reality it wasn't long- maybe twenty minutes of total pushing) with a loud cry I got Fina's head out and Dr. Fitzhugh and Nancy (my amazing midwife) told me reach down and pull her up. I did. She was so beautiful and so peaceful. I laid her on my chest and she just stared up at me like "oh hi Mom". Then she started pecking around on my chest looking for the breast. I couldn't believe it. I started laughing and said to her "Can you let me get your sister out before you eat please?"

Pushing Tansy out was much, much easier. Only having one baby in there I could really curl forward and bear down. One or two pushes and her bag burst (all over the doctor!) and I was pulling her onto my chest to join her sister. It was amazing. Unlike Fina Tansy came out crying and sort of startled. I just snuggled her close against me and her sister and told her that everything was alright. Soon she latched right on as well and I was nursing my two beautiful babies while the doctor pulled out the HUGE placenta (they had fused together) and stitched me up. Because the placenta fused together into this huge mass I was bleeding a lot (too much). My midwife told me a few times "stop bleeding Krisstel" and I did. It was cool.

I got to hold them and nurse them for over an hour in the dim lights of the room before anyone even attempted to take them from me. It was so amazing and so different than the typical hospital twin birth (mandatory pushing in an operating room, a team of people for each baby, etc).

I am so incredibly blessed.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s209/kr...204091006-1.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s209/krisstel/081-1.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s209/krisstel/082-1.jpg

 

They are sooooo adorable.. Congrats :wub:
enjoy them .. i loved ur birth story.. thats amazing and so so special! xoxo

 

You were so lucky and the babies are gorgous. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You did an awsome job mama. Enjoy them they grow up soooo fast.

 

:wub: Congratulations Momma! Welcome Josephina and Tansy! I love their names. They are such cuties. :wub:

 

You give me HOPE! I so want a natural birth and I love hearing stories like yours! Big girls too! Congratulations!!!

 

what a great story!!! I am so envious of you! Congratulations on your beautiful girls! Such great weights, latching on so soon! You ARE blessed!

 

Thankyou for sharing your birth story its amazing and love the pics its so neat seeing how close twins are! I am so excited to meet mine! Congrats

 

Wow! Great birth story and beautiful babies, congratulations!

 

what a great experience! and your girls are beautiful - congrats!

 

Congratulations mama!!! OMG I adore that last pic of them when one has their arm on the other, sooooooo sweet!! Makes me want to cry!! :wub:

 

Congratulations! You did a great job and your girls are beautiful. Enjoy!

 

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

 

Congrats on your delievery. Your girls are absolutely beautiful!!!

 

Congratulations! What beautiful names they have! How do you pronounce Fina's mn? I have never seen it before.

 

CONGRATS MAMA :clapping: THEY ARE PRECIOUS!!

 

Thanks so much for your congratulations.

Kim- Fina's middle name is pronounced like "sea". It is a family name (last name) on my husband's side and "seay" is how it is spelled.

 

Your babies are [SIZE=18pt]ADORABLE!!![/SIZE]

Thank you for sharing the beautiful pictures and your birth story. I can only hope mine goes much like yours. Great job growing your little ones and great weights.

Take care!

 

congratulations. your babies are gorgeous!!!!!
i hope you're feeling well!

 

Your babies are beautiful!! Thanks for sharing your story! It's so great that everything went so well for you. It's awesome to know that things can go "smoothly".

 

Congratulations, they are beautiful!

 

Beautiful story and beautiful babies!!! Congrats!

 

Congrats on two beautiful girls! I'm so glad the delivery went well for you.

 

They are just beautiful :wub: !!! What a great birth story, you did really good!!! :Clap:

 

Congratulations!!! They are so beautiful!

 

Great Story! Congrats!