Saturday, July 28, 2012 - 1:15am - I woke up from a dead sleep to the feeling of a slight "pop" and a small amount of fluid running down my legs. I was very still for a moment, thinking I was dreaming, before jumping into action. You see, my water has NEVER broke before and I've only gone into spontaneous labor with Savannah and Mary. Luke down to Teddy were all induced because I always went within a week of my due date with no contractions and babies born between 8.4lbs and 9.3lbs. Well, I moved a bit and sure enough more water went dripping down my legs. I quickly patted Daniel, staying very still, and whispered his name. No response. I quickly patted him harder this time and said his name much louder with "I think my water just broke!" He immediately rolled over and asked me if I was serious. Ummm, yes, pretty sure. He asked what we should do. I told him he should probably get me a towel so I can make my way to the bathroom before I ruin our bed. This threw him into action and he hurled himself toward the closet for a towel. He helped me out of bed and into the bathroom and slid back under the covers. I called his name, asked him what he was doing, told him that yes indeed my water broke. He said, "okay, just a few more minutes." I found my paper with directions of what to do in this predicament and called my doctor's office. I spoke with a very kind lady who immediately took my name and number down with the promise of a doctor returning my call shortly. In the meantime, I started to pack my bag. Yes, I said pack my bag. Remember, I don't go into labor spontaneously! The whole time I kept thinking, "I can't believe this happening! These babies are supposed to come next Thursday on my late Uncle's birthday for a scheduled c-section. I can't believe this is happening!" Phone rings. Daniel is still in bed. I talked to Dr. Youkilis, not my Dr. Duncan who has delivered 8 of my 9 kids, and tell him that yes my water has broken and that I am scheduled for a c-section on Thursday. He asks me when I last ate. Ummmm, 9:45ish. What did I eat? Ice cream. He tells me not to eat or drink anything and go directly to the hospital. I agreed and hung up. Packing just about done. Daniel is still in bed. I announce how thirsty I am and that we have to go to the hospital! Daniel jumps up, throws on some clothes, talks to Luke about covering up Teddy if he hollers and then tells Savannah where we are going. He carries my things out to the car and away we go, finally.
3:00am - Daniel drops me off at the emergency room and I wait on an outside bench while he parks the car. We go inside and I tell the guy behind the desk that my water has broken. He jumps on the phone with labor/delivery and then orders a wheelchair for me. I'm still thinking...."this can't be happening!" Wheelchair comes and off we go to the 2nd floor of Central Baptist. Everything is soooo quiet, not much action and I am put into a room. I sign my life away, answer all the same questions I answered on the hospital's website when I preregistered, and finally put on a gown. The nurse can't find baby a's heartbeat with the fetal monitor. She goes to ask for help and in walks someone with an ultrasound machine. Then, the nurse is on the phone with the doctor. I lie there for a little over an hour as this guy tries to distinguish which body parts go with which baby, checks me and rechecks me again and again - NOT FUN - and tries to help her locate baby a's heartbeat for the fetal monitor. I am dilated to 3cm at this point, which is good because not 3 days earlier I was 1-2cm. At one point he sounded hopeful that I could have a vaginal delivery, checks me again, looks at the ultrasound monitor again to find that they have moved into a completely different position. He is still stumped. Dr. Youkilis comes in, introduces himself, sits down and studies the ultrasound monitor, checks me and feels feet and decides that it must be a c-section because baby a is still breech and they think baby b has his head down, but is lying in a really weird position. And guess what? I am 5cm dilated! Really? Now I'm mad! My water finally breaks with one of my pregnancies and I dilate to a 5 with little to no pain and I have to have a c-section! Blah! Everyone moves really fast when he states I am 5 cm dilated.
4:45ish am - I am wheeled into the operating room with the hopes that Daniel will follow in his blue garb after I am given the spinal. After 3 attempts and me practically yelling at Dr. White that he is not in the right space, the spinal is in place and they help me lie down. A blue curtain is put up and in walks a very tired Daniel. Apparently, in the time frame that they took me to the OR and then the nurse came to get him because I was ready, he fell into a deep sleep, as did his legs. The nurse entered the room, told him it was time, he stood up quickly and nearly fell down. She asked if his legs were asleep and he laughed and said yes. Thankfully, he did not fall down and recovered rather quickly to join me in the OR. What relief I felt when I saw him sit down near my right shoulder! The doctors asked if I could feel this or that and as soon as I stated no, they started the surgery. Those who know me, know I have never wanted a c-section because of the idea of someone cutting through my skin simply freaks me out. I am actually pretty surprised I did not pass out. There were times I thought I just might, especially when my body started shaking so hard, which is completely normal by the way. Okay. Daniel tried to amuse me by peeking over the curtain and making funny faces, but I could feel so much tugging, pulling and pushing that I really thought I was going to pass out. The doctors were talking nonstop about the Olympics and Daniel made faces about that, too. Then it happened!
5:12am - The room suddenly became very quiet and a cry could be heard! Clare Lorette was born. She weighed 15.5lbs and was 18 inches. Daniel stood up and watched what they were doing.
5:13am - After a minute of tugging and pulling, another cry could be heard as the nurses were working with Clare. Patrick Lewis was born. Little stinker was wedged underneath my rib cage! He weighed 7.2lbs and was 19 inches.
What sweet music to my ears as both were screaming their lungs out! Daniel watched the whole thing and was amazed. He even took a picture of the doctor taking out Patrick. As soon as Patrick was over with the nurses, he looked down at me to check on me. I could tell what he wanted to do and I told him. "Go see the babies. I'm okay." He practically sprinted over and started taking their pictures. After they were cleared, Patrick had an Apgar score of 10, practically unheard of with early babies, Daniel brought the babies over to me while the doctors were sewing me up. The nurses helped take pictures and hand babies to me so that I could see them. What precious faces!!
Daddy helped take the babies to the nursery while the doctor continued to sew the incision. It felt like it took them forever, to finish, then the nausea set in. A nurse had just asked how I was feeling when I had an overwhelming urge to puke. She told Dr. White and he immediately put some Zofran in my IV line and then held a kidney shaped bowl under my mouth. As much as I tried to puke, I couldn't because I could not feel anything below my chest. Dr. Youkilis then told me that as soon as he was done with "this particular area" the nausea would cease and it did. The uncontrollable shaking slowly stopped as well. Finally I was taken into a recovery room for an hour. Daniel rejoined me in there. It was the longest hour! I had to wait to be moved to another room before I could see our babies. Finally, we were moved to our very small room and settled with the promise from the nurse to retrieve our babies. I couldn't wait and asked Daniel to go get them. He went to the nursery, but they would not allow him to take them to our room. We had to wait for the nurse. And she took a solid 30-45 minutes! My poor babies. I've always been able to feed my babies right after delivery and here it had been close to 3 hours. Finally they arrived all clean, smelling good and fast asleep. I nursed Clare first and she latched on vigorously! She's a great nurser!! Patrick was a bit slower, still wanting to sleep and he's still that way. For some reason he latches on the left side better than the right, so although I do switch breasts with him, I tend to put him on the left side more. Funny little tidbit....one afternoon both babies were screaming and hungry. I told Daniel it was time to try tandem nursing. He laughed and said, "good luck!" We positioned the big boppy pillow in my lap, laid Patrick across it and helped him latch on. Then laid Clare across it, partially lying on Patrick and latched her on. Instantly, both babies stopped screaming and nursed, perfectly content. I picked up my phone to take a picture and in walks the lactation consultant for the first time. She couldn't believe it and laughed all the way to the door. What timing on our part! :)
Daniel left me for a short while in the evening to go home and have dinner with the kids and then returned after putting them to bed. This was the first time he has stayed with me in the hospital after having a baby. He really didn't have any choice this go around. We had the babies at 5:12/5:13am and by 4:30pm they wanted to take my catheter out. I couldn't imagine standing up and had such an understanding nurse who agreed and said she wouldn't want it taken out either. Well, 7:00pm came along with the shift change and my new nurse wouldn't take no for an answer. I convinced her to wait until Daniel returned so he could help me to the bathroom. She patiently waited and upon his return, the catheter was removed. She and Daniel helped me to the potty and boy was I regretting this decision! After asking me countless times if I could go or was I done, she turned on the sink faucet and finally I peed a little. They helped me back to bed and that is when the unbearable pain began. I had shooting pain straight to my pelvic area that rivaled contractions. After talking with the nurse, we decided my bladder could still be full so back to the bathroom for me. After 3 successful trips, pain finally disappeared. Now's about the time I finally broke down and asked for pain medication. I ended up being more swollen than when I was admitted (and I was pretty swollen going in) and peed a lot, so much in fact I had 2 nurses comment on my activity. All this up and down was not easy, but what the doctor ordered. Needless to say, I took Percocet and Motrin every 6 hours and boy did they help with the pain!!
By Sunday night I was moving around pretty good, thanks to the pain meds. My nurse asked if I had plans to return home Monday or stay another night. I couldn't believe my ears!! I just knew they were going to make me stay the full 3 days. I told her I would rather go home and she smiled and said she would write that on my chart. Daniel was thrilled to hear all of this after returning from dinner with the kids. Our first night with the twins was challenging to say the least and our second night was not much better. Maybe it's all babies, but my babies never seem to want to sleep in their bassinets. They want to snuggle with us all night. After 1 1/2 nights of screaming, we let them do just that! Not one nurse reminded us of their no co-sleeping policy, probably because they could hear the babies screaming all the way down to the nurses' station.
Monday morning came with a flurry of activity to discharge us. We had a terrible time naming the babies because we couldn't agree on names. I was leaning to Francis Lewis and Clare Lorette, but Daniel didn't like Francis and not a big fan of Clare. My Bunco sisters came up with Patrick and Clare and I loved it! Daniel continued to come up with names like Amos and Amelia. Finally, he relented (muttering he had dibs if we had another one) and on Monday we made it official when the lady came with the birth certificates, for the second time! Daniel went home to change cars and the babies and I were ready for him when he returned in the afternoon. How good it was to be leaving and going home!!
The kids met us at the van and helped bring everything inside the house. First thing Teddy said, "hold baby, me hold baby." And hold baby he did! Patrick screamed and Teddy wasn't quite sure what to think of his screaming and quickly gave him back. :) Savannah and Mary quickly claimed which baby was their baby and they have been nothing but great help since. Luke and Grace are super helpers and love to hold the babies. In fact, Luke can already tell the difference between Patrick and Clare's cries. Mrs. Gagnon arrived later in the evening and was thrilled to see all the kids. What a HUGE help she was for the week that she stayed with us. Patrick and Clare ended up with jaundice, not unusual with our babies or with twins, and Patrick came very close to the number they hospitalize. However, he peaked at that number and was finally cleared almost a week after leaving the hospital. I think in the first week we were home, we went to PAA for bili sticks and weight checks every day except Thursday and Sunday. What a stressful week. I don't remember much, except trying to feed them as much as possible and going to PAA with Daniel's help. Not being able to drive for 2 weeks was the pits, too! Thankfully, the pain of the incision is fading though it still hurts if I do too much around the house. I am trying to find a delicate balance between rest and activity. Thank you, Jesus, for terrific kids who haven't minded helping me more around the house, especially now that Grammy has returned to Maryland. :)
Yesterday, 2 weeks from the day we were discharged, both babies passed inspection at PAA. Clare is back up 15.5 lbs and has grown to 19 inches! Patrick weighed 6.10 lbs and measured 20 1/2 inches. He's not all the way back up to his birth weight, but gained a significant amount of weight in the past 7 days that Dr. Riley was content. How strange to hear babies were in the 2% and 4% percentile for weight. We are so used to being up in the 80th percentile with all of our other large babies, we kind of panicked for a moment. Dr. Riley assured us it was fine and they both looked great! What a great relief to hear him say, "See you in 2 months!"
