Our Terrific Twosome!: Twins' Birth Story!

Okay, I'm going to try and sneak this in now. I hope I don't forget too much.

On Sunday at 36 weeks and 6 days, I woke up to a lot of prelabor signs; however, I had been having them for a week & was really sick of it. I did notice that I felt more pressure, but I also realized that that was a vague symptom which could mean absolutely nothing. I tell you, they say that you will know when you are in labor. I didn’t when I went in- that’s for sure!

Jon's grandma and mom were still in town, and they were leaving that night to go back to Toledo. They had really been hoping that I would go into labor before they left town. They had been hinting/hoping for me to go to labor & delivery for about 2 days, but I kept telling them that they would only send me home if it wasn't active labor. After all, they don't just keep you because you're close.

While they were still in town, Jon and I decided to take advantage of the babysitters and go grocery shopping by ourselves (yeah, I know- we are exciting people!) As I was walking around the store, I did notice that my lower back hurt & that I was having contractions every 5-7 minutes. I told Jon "Maybe today is the day," but I wasn't really feeling confident about that or anything.

When we got home, we all sat down to eat lunch together & I casually mentioned that Jon & I were going to leave for the hospital to go get checked out. After all, if we were going to have a false alarm, this was a convenient time. Not only did we have 2 babysitters, but my mom was also en route to Columbus to take over taking care of me & Corbin during the week.

So, I give the doctor on call a heads up, and we get to the hospital. When the nurse hooks me up to the monitors, I was surprised to find out that I was contracting every 1-3 minutes. Not only that, but the tocometer was measuring in the 100's, which was the range that I was in labor with Corbin.But when they did the internal, she said that I was maybe 4 cm dilated at best & still 70% effaced. Figures, I thought. Well, no big deal. I would go home and wait it out.

Because I was 1 day shy of 37 weeks, per hospital protocol, I couldn’t walk the halls or anything. I was certain I was going home. The nurse said that they needed to keep me on the monitor for 1 hour though & recheck me to be certain.

When she rechecked me, I was shocked that I was 6 cm! That is when I texted some friends to let them know. Then we went to my birthing suite & got set up. My doctor had told me that he wanted to be present if possible, so I told the nurse to make sure she called him. She did, but he was “otherwise engaged”. I really didn’t care that my doc wasn’t going to be there for some reason, though. I think I was too hyped up about giving birth.

They confirmed that they were both head down via ultrasound & I was so happy. The doctor was there almost immediately. He said he was going to hang around until I gave birth, which surprised me. For my first birth, I was laboring for 8 hours, and then I pushed for 3 hours. With Corbin, my doctor went home, slept, showered, went to the office to work, etc. before he delivered me.

I got my epidural in a timely manner. The anesthesiologist had a resident with him & she did the actual procedure. She looked like Taylor Swift. I was a little nervous about the epi, because with Corbin’s birth, it didn’t work at first & I needed re-bolused. I also threw up during the entire labor partially b/c of the anesthesia, but I had no ill effects this time. In fact, I did not throw up one single time during the pregnancy or labor with these twins. I was very lucky.

The nurse had checked me right before the doctor got there, and I was 7-8 cm. When the doc came in minutes later, he checked me not & I was already a good eight.

I was comfortable pretty much the entire time up until I started pushing. I did stall out slightly at 8 cm for a while, so they decided to give me a tiny bit of pitocin to push me over the edge. They okayed it with me first, as I had previously said no pit. I decided that with the rate things were going, it would probably not hurt at all, and it would probably help with the bleeding, as I had two placentas that would need to heal. They started it at a very low rate. Jon talked for a minute with my mother on his cell phone at 6:50 pm. Literally, just as Jon was hanging up on her, the doctor checked me & said, “Oh, there is still a rim there” (referring to my cervix). But he also felt the head move down to +2 at the same time, so he immediately re-checked me & I was fully dilated.

They told me to start pushing & I was totally shocked. It barely registered, but I started pushing as hard as I could right away. I couldn’t make it all the way to ten every time they counted because I was trying hard to use every bit of effort in me to get baby A’s head out. I was, in fact, bearing down so hard on those handlebars that I strained my back pretty badly (realized this the next day).

After about 20-25 minutes of pushing, the doctor said that the head wasn’t budging at all. He asked me if I wanted to be assisted with suctioning & I consented. From there on out, it was much easier.

Cameron Dean was born at 7:19 PM, October 18, 2009
Weight: 5 lbs 14 oz
Length: 18 ¼ inches
Head circumference: 13 ¼ inches
Apgars: 9 & 9

They put him on my belly & I welled up. I was so excited to have successfully delivered him the way that I wanted & that he was finally here! He had a head of dark brown hair. After his initial couple of cries, he was very quiet and calm.

Jameson Richard was born at 7:38 PM, October 18, 2009
Weight: 7 lbs 4.8 oz
Length: 18 ¾ inches
Head circumference: 14 inches
Apgars: 8 & 9

Jameson also had some dark hair, although his had a little bit more of a wave to it & it was not as plentiful as Cameron’s. In contrast to his brother, he screamed the entire hour after his birth. Jon jokingly said that he had poor coping skills.

My birthing experience was just great. I ended up loving the doctor who delivered me & I had an excellent nurse, Kathy, who followed me from triage to delivery & even stayed 45 minutes over her shift to see the delivery through.

We had our first night at home with the twins last night. Although it wasn't easy, it was exciting. I feel very blessed to be the mommy to 3 wonderful, beautiful little boys.

laboring... and updating facebook!