WoW!

Life is so amazing! We are now proud parents of three baby boys! The twins are here! I went to a normal appointment on Thursday June 4th at Emanuel Maternal Fetal Medicine. I had been having contractions since Wednesday morning but I didn't pay too much attention to them because I had been having contractions for over a month. However when I thought about it I hadn't actually felt a contraction in almost a week. Then I knew that there was a good possibility that I was in active labor. I knew I had an appointment the next day so I just kept my feet up and kept hydrated and all of the things they would have made sure I was doing before they would have had me come in earlier than my appointment. Then Thursday rolls around and I head in for my appointment. They did an ultrasound and checked my cervix and I had gone back to being shorter than they would have liked. The previous appointments measurement said that I had lengthened to around 3 cm. That was good news. But on Thursday they checked it as being dynamic and ranging from 1.7 to 2.1 with contractions. Still at this point I figured that they would send me home because it wasn't below 1. Then I was waiting to see the doctor and was tole there would be a little wait. They hooked me up to the TOCA contraction monitor while I was waiting to see if they could see if my contractions were rythmic like labor contractions and if they were consistent. For the time I was in the TOCA they were very consistent and they had a distinct laboring pattern. Still at this point I thought there was a good chance that we would go home because I had been having the contractions previously. Then I was ushered into a room to meet with the doctor and to have my cervix checked again. They ran a FFN again and we would wait for that result. The doctor debated what to do with me because even if the FFN came back negative and the possibility of us having the boys within the next two weeks was really low he saw that the contractions were distinct and that they were changing my cervix so he decided to have me admitted and we'd wait out the rest of the pregnancy in the hospital. This would have really upset me about a week before but I really felt that we wouldn't be there long until the boys were born. I was wheeled over to Emanuel Labor and Delivery and began the wait. 

Dustin was able to meet me there after he got off of work. When I got to L&D they checked me and I had actually dilated. At the clinic I had not yet begun to dilate. I was at a 2-3 baby A was still pretty high. I was baffled. I still was going to be pregnant for weeks in my mind and here we were in labor with the twins. Crazy! We waited out the night and we kept getting checked and I kept dilating. When I got to 5 cm they asked if I wanted the epidural. I was hesitant because I didn't want to be on the epidural for days but knew that I could also go soon. So I decided to get it. I was lucky because I was the first to get mine and if I had waited  I wouldn't have gotten it in time because there were three other ladies having c-sections that needed the medicine as well. I got the epi and was feeling great. Just pressure with contractions. I kept right on dilating. My parents drove from Sisters to get here. They showed up at like midnight and visited for a couple hours. Then they went to rest and Dustin and I tried to rest as well. We were told that if we did deliver that we would do so in the OR just in case they had to do an emergency c-section. My mom and Dustin would be able to be present but if I had to have a c-section my mom would have to leave. At this point I was still not completely thinking that we were actually going to have these babies. 

Then about 6:00 am on Friday morning I felt this gush and I thought maybe my water had broken. I had Dustin check and there was not a lot of fluid just a little. So we laid back down and tried to rest some more. We were told that a little was okay. Then about a half an hour later I felt another gush and this time I knew it was more but I was numb from the epi so I didn't trust myself to guess how much. I again had Dustin look and then we decided to call a nurse. She checked my cervix and informed us that we were 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced and the baby had come down a little lower. She said we were ready to start pushing when I felt the pressure to. I had not felt this pressure yet so I knew it could still be some time. And my water had not broken so I knew that also could mean it could still be a while. I called my parents and they flew out to the hospital. They made it there just in time for Mom to get into her scrubs and follow the nurse as she wheeled us to the OR. 

Jacob was born on June 5th, 2009 at 8:22 am and weighed in at 4 lbs 7 oz. He came out head first and everything went beautiful with his delivery. We wanted to have a normal delivery so we were waiting for Nathaniel to move himself down far enough and get his head down so I could start pushing. While we were waiting though they had the ultrasound machine on him looking for his heartbeat. They could tell that his heart rate had fallen drastically and it was time to get him out. At this point in time he hadn't brought himself down and hadn't been able to be turned head down so he was breech. And (this may be Too Much Info for some, sorry for that) the doctor had to reach in to get him. He got a leg and while he pulled I pushed and then I stopped pushing so he could get Nathaniel's arms down so we wouldn't injure his shoulders. That took a few minutes and I was worried because the doctor seemed to be a little worried about taking to much time. He had asked me if I wanted a c-section and I definitely did not if not necessary. So we did it this way and Nathaniel was born June 5th, 2009 at 8:40 am and weighed in at 4 lbs 3 oz.