Giving birth to twins

So - I wrote that the twins were born back almost a year ago, but I want to remember more than just that my water broke and the twins were born the next day.  If you aren't interested, don't read. :)

First I have to say that I am jealous.  I have seen pictures of people, after giving birth, holding their new bundle of joy looking beautiful and radiant.  I personally know ladies who this describes.  I do not fit in this category.  When Jacob was born I had just spent the past 9 days in a row laying in bed at the hospital with the energy seeping out of my body.  In fact, someone even commented to my mom after seeing pictures of me holding Jacob (fresh from the womb) that I didn't look very good.  Being on bed rest is exhausting, if you didn't know.  Being exhausted makes it difficult to look good.

So when the twins were born and I had been on light bed rest for 4 weeks, I was not looking good.  In fact - the last belly picture that was taken a week before the twins were born is a great representation of me looking terrible at the end of the pregnancy.  And even though there are no pictures of me the day before they were born or the day they were born, I know I looked terrible.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, February 21st and going to the doctor completely wiped me out (going somewhere and then being completely wiped out the next day was not uncommon during the pregnancy).  So the next day I could hardly function.  I slept on the couch on and off all day long.  Jacob would bring me books and I would force my eyes open to read them to him.  And even though I was out of consciousness off and on all day, it wasn't restful.  So I was completely exhausted when I headed upstairs for bed that night.  And then while getting ready for bed, my water broke.

This was a lot different than when my water broke with Jacob.  With Jacob I kept trickling amniotic fluid, with the twins I kept experiencing gushes of water.  I hoped that this meant they would take the babies when I got to the hospital, but no such luck.  Instead I was put into a bed and monitors were strapped on and basically told we would see how things went through the night and I would have the babies the next day.  The nurse even told me to try to sleep.

Ok.  Are you kidding me?  Even laying in bed, I kept leaking amniotic fluid so I was laying in a pool of yuck.  And every time I asked the nurse if I could have a towel or dry bedding she told me it was pointless because I would keep leaking fluid and that it couldn't be too bad.  Not only that, but she had me in the bed like normal - on my back with it slightly inclined and the monitors strapped to me.  After an hour or so my lower back started really hurting.  At first I could feel little contractions starting, but the longer I lay in that position the more my back hurt.  I asked if I could lay on my side instead and was told no because of the monitors.  I asked if I could sit up a little more to take the pressure off my lower back and was told no.

After a few hours I finally asked to go to the bathroom, not because I needed to, but I needed to get out of the position she had me in.  I could tell she was a little annoyed because me getting up and moving around meant the monitors would need to be adjusted when I came back.  And when she helped me up she was shocked at the amount of fluid I was laying in bed with.  "Yeah - that's why I have been asking you to change my bedding or give me a towel lady."  When I came back to bed I asked to lay on my side instead and was again told no.  But she did change the sheet on the bed and got me a towel out of the cupboard.  But she told me it was the only clean towel on the floor and I could see she had pulled it from a stack of towels.

The nurse would come into my room throughout the night and ask how my contractions were.  But the pain in my back was getting so intense that I could no longer feel any contractions.  Instead I could only feel this intense pain in my back.  And so I told her that my back hurt too badly to be able to feel contractions.  No response from her.  It seriously got so bad that I was almost crying from pain.  And unlike contractions, the pain did not come and go - it was constant, intense pain.

When I first got to the hospital I liked my nurse, but as the night wore on and my pain was getting intense she was really starting to bug me.  Luckily once we hit 6am I got another nurse and she was awesome!!!  She kept helping me move into different positions so I wouldn't get too uncomfortable and to also move my labor along (seriously - positions I never would have thought to get myself into, as strange as that sounds).  It also helped that around 8am I got my epidural. 

Just before getting the epidural we made the decision that we would try to not have a C-section.  This was a big decision because the last thing I wanted was to give birth to Baby A (who ended up being Joel) and then have to have an emergency C-section to get Baby B out (Jeremy).  We almost just went with a C-section overall.  With the epidural and a pitocin drip, I was sure I would have a mega fast labor like I did with Jacob.  You know 40 minutes from first contraction until they were saying I was ready and they started prepping the room (which by the way took them 40 minutes).  

Sadly, it was not that fast.  But finally about around 12:30pm I was dilated to 10 and ready to go.  Here is where things get a lot different having twins.  Justin and I were taken into the operating room - even though we had decided to try not to have a C-section you still give birth to twins in an operating room in case an emergency C-section is needed.  

Not only was I to give birth in the OR, but we had quite a group in there.  I seem to remember when Jacob was born we had a doctor and 2 nurses in the room.  However for twins we had 2 doctors, 4 nurses, an ultrasound tech and an anesthesiologist.  The U/S tech was keeping an eye on Jeremy while Joel was being born to make sure he wasn't going into distress.

After Joel was born everything happened so fast - they had Justin lean forward and cut Joel's cord.  Then I remember them commenting on how Jeremy's water never broke - it was only Joel's.  Wow - that was A LOT of fluid to only be for one baby.  Then I could feel my doctor reach in and grab Jeremy's feet.  In the meantime a nurse was pushing on my belly with all her weight.  Whatever was going on - they were getting Jeremy out fast.  They pulled him out and called the time - only 3 minutes after Joel was born.  Justin leaned forward to cut the cord, but they had already cut it and taken him over to the isolette.  

I remember them saying something about getting my bleeding under control.  And then I remember everyone pretty much congratulating everyone - me for having the babies, Justin for being the dad, the doctors for delivering vaginally.  It was crazy.  Only at this point did everyone start making a big deal about the fact that there was no C-section.  When we were trying to decide, the doctors and nurses acted like vaginally birthing twins was no big deal.  Afterward we heard things like, "I think you are the first to give birth to twins in this hospital without a C-section."  I have to admit - this probably would have swayed my decision.  We were not trying to make history here.

I have to admit, if I had it to do over again, I'm not sure if I would do things the same - or just go for the C-section to start with.  First of all, I was told once we were out of the OR that I had a 4th degree episiotomy. I didn't know then what that really meant - but I tell you it was horrible.  One of the nurses described it as a mini-C-section.  I was sore walking after Jacob was born - after the twins I was in so much pain I would cry.  And it took about 6 months to fully heal.

And months after the babies were born we got a bill in the mail and on it was a charge for newborn resuscitation for Jeremy.  After making some calls I learned that Jeremy had to be have an oxygen mask put on him for about 30 seconds to get him to breathe after he was born.  We're assuming that the rush to get him out was because they saw on the ultrasound that he was in distress and they didn't want to alarm us because it seemed like in the end he was ok.  I have wondered if things would have been different if we had gone with the C-section to start with.

Just in case anyone was wondering what it was really like when the twins were born, but really this is just for my own memories.