Birth Story!

Thursday, April 30th

This day was very similar to the other days since I had been off of work. I was trying to spend only about 2 hours a day outside of the house, and even then that was conservative according to the plan from the Preterm Birth Prevention Program. I had lunch with our neighbor, where ironically we talked about what it felt like when the water breaks.
Later on Sarah came over, and we decided to go get Amelia and run to Target because I had a list of a few remaining things I wanted for the diaper bags and house. The trip wore me out a bit, but I didn’t feel any more tired than normal. I truly felt like I could be pregnant right up to 38 weeks.

When Eric came home, we were hanging out on the couch and I said to him that as of that day I felt like we were as ready as we could be (around the house, at least). Famous last words haha! Eric rubbed my feet for a little bit, as had become customary in this pregnancy, and I felt a teeny tiny gush of liquid. This wasn’t unusual in pregnancy, so although it piqued my interest, it didn’t really worry me.

I went up to bed at 11:00 or so, and as I was drifting off to sleep I felt another bigger gush of liquid. I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes, and called down to Eric to tell him what happened and to put him on alert. We hadn’t packed a hospital bag yet, so to be on the safe side I gathered up a few things just in case. About 30 minutes later there was no denying it- another gush soaked my pants and so I called down to Eric again and told him to put the dog away and bring my phone up- I’m sure he knew instantly what that meant!

I called the after- hours line for my OB’s office and they put me in touch with the doctor on-call at the hospital. She told me to come in right away. Then I called Sarah and Jason to let them know what was going on, and told them not to alert the masses until we got to the hospital and learned more. As I was doing this Eric packed up a bag. As we headed out, we both felt a mixture of fear and excitement. We knew it was too early for the babies to come (33 weeks, 3 days) but we each said some prayers that all would be fine.

The drive to the hospital was so surreal. I think that it was in that moment that this pregnancy actually became real, if you can believe that!

Eric dropped me off at the Emergency Room and went to park the car. By the time he came in I was in a wheelchair and the nurse was ready to take us up to labor and delivery. It was really odd to have a cheery nurse wishing us congratulations on the way up- all I could think was “this isn’t a good thing, lady! This is a crisis!”

They were anticipating us at L&D, and after a brief stop at the admissions desk they wheeled me to my room. At that point they had me change into a gown, and everyone got to witness another gush of amniotic fluid! The monitors that they put on me next became the bane of my existence for the next three days, but it was comforting to be able to hear the babies heart beats. I was really worried about our baby boy since we knew it was most likely his sac that had ruptured. They performed a test to verify that my water had indeed broken, and at that point I called Sarah back to ask her to spread the news. She decided to come to the hospital and got there about 20 minutes later (hmmmmm…I wonder if she sped at all?!).

The rest of the night was pretty silly- it was almost 2:30 am by the time we were all settled in, and the on-call doctor never came to see us. My doctor gets on at 7:00 am, so they decided to defer to wait to make any decisions until I could be seen by her. Because I was 33 weeks, 3 days and so close to the magical 34 week number, they decided at that time not to do steroid shots to try to mature the lungs.

We all tried to sleep, but the monitors kept losing the babies heart beats and each time a nurse had to come in and adjust them. I can’t tell you how hard it was to sleep when I was worried one move would undo what just took a nurse 20 minutes to fix!

Friday, May 1st

As promised, right around 7:30 am my doctor came in to talk to us. She said that once the water breaks, most women go into labor within 48 hours. Because we were so close to the magic 34 week mark when the babies lungs should be fully developed, they wouldn’t stop labor if it started. 34 weeks would be Tuesday, so the plan was to wait and see if we could make it that far without my body going into labor. If I did go into labor, we would go ahead with a c-section at the time.

We settled in for a 5 day stint on hospital bed rest- Eric went home for provisions, and Sarah bought me a bunch of magazines.

Laying in the hospital bed was incredibly uncomfortable. The bed was extremely hard, and no combination of pillows would make it better. The monitors continuously had issues picking up the heart beats, and I swear even the nurses were frustrated with them (and probably me!).

Saturday, May 2nd

By Saturday morning my back was killing me and I was running on little sleep (even with Ambien). Thankfully a wonderful nurse took pity on me and had us moved to a different room with a softer bed. I literally could have kissed her! It was a good day, chilling out reading magazines, hanging out with Sarah and Eric and browsing the internet. Thankfully the day went by quickly, because on Friday I think I looked at the clock every 15 minutes because I was so uncomfortable.

Saturday evening a NICU nurse came down to talk to us about best and worst case scenarios. Best case the kids would be breathing room air, worst case they would need to be intubated. The nurse offered to give us a tour of the NICU and show us 34 weekers so we would be prepared for what our babies would look like. We ended up missing our opportunity to tour that night but thought we would do it Sunday morning instead.

Sunday, May 3rd- BIRTH DAY!

On Sunday morning around 4:30 am I started feeling contractions. They started out little, but after an hour and a half they were strong enough and regular enough for me to accept some darvacet from the nurse (which didn’t do anything!). The nurses were monitoring the contractions closely to see if this was just my body reacting to being 33 weeks pregnant with twins (I had been having contractions the whole time, but nothing regular) or if it was actually labor starting. At around 7:15 am the on-call doctor came in to check to see if I was dilated- and I was, to 2 cm. At 7:30 am the decision was made to go ahead with the c-section.

Things happened very quickly from there. My OB was paged (she wasn’t on call but had requested to be paged if I went into labor), a bunch of nurses came in to prep me, Eric was told to get dressed in his gown etc. I called Sarah and my parents to let them know, Eric called his. It was so funny- we didn’t know if it would be 5 minutes or 5 hours. It turned out to be closer to 5 minutes! Before we knew it they were wheeling me into surgery.

Eric had to stay outside while they gave me my spinal block- the part I was worried about the most! To be completely honest, it didn’t hurt at all! Just four tiny pin pricks and then I was totally numb from the chest down. It was a very strange sensation because I could still feel pressure, just not pain. My doctor came in and we were ready to go! BUT, Eric wasn’t there! I remember asking for him a couple times because I was worried he would miss something, but he came in right as they started cutting.

I warned the anesthesiologist that I get nauseated very easily, so he was ready to push the zofran. Oh boy, did I need it! I started feeling sick right away but he was able to keep me from throwing up. It was quite strange- the doctors were talking about what books they were reading for book club, and Eric and I were looking at each other with awe, knowing our life was about to change!

Very quickly (at 8:12 am to be exact!) the anesthesiologist told Eric that it was time to look, and out Anderson came with a big squeal! He was handed off to a NICU nurse and taken to the other room. One minute later (after a slight technical difficulty involving the suction device), Eric was told to look again, and Emery was born! She too was handed off and I remember the tears started flowing- I would now have to share them with the rest of the world! It was no longer just the three of us.

Eric went to the other room to be with the babies while they stitched me up. I talked to the doctors about the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I hated it!) and very soon started to feel sick again. This time the anesthesiologist wasn’t quick enough with the zofran, and I threw up. You know, after more than 4 months of morning sickness, throwing up really doesn’t bother me anymore!

Luckily it was over quickly, because I was about to meet my daughter! Eric and one of the NICU nurses came in with Emery and gave me an update on her status. She made the cutest little squeaks and looked just beautiful- tiny, but beautiful! Too quickly she was whisked away and they brought Anderson in. The nurse explained that he needed a nasal cannula to help him breath, but other than that all was great! He was soon taken away too and Eric went up to the NICU with our two little miracles.

I was brought to recovery, where I continued to throw up- typical Ellie! I asked the nurses to find Sarah because I was worried she didn’t know what was going on, but Eric had already found her and they came to visit me in recovery. When they went back up to the NICU I was taken to my mother/baby room. I threw up some more and it was no longer benign- the incision was starting to hurt so heaving was probably the worst thing I could do! The nurses told me that I couldn’t go visit my babies until they were comfortable that I was stable, so I had really good motivation to get better! I took some more meds for the nausea, and dozed for a while.
The details of the day get hazy from there- somewhere in there I pumped for the first time, my parents arrived from St. Louis, we got a Tiff’s Treats delivery from friends (which I ate even though I wasn’t technically allowed to- yum!!). While I was eating dinner we got surprise visitors- Eric’s parents! They couldn’t stand not being here, so they flew in from California!
Sometime in the evening my nurse decided she was comfortable with my progress- so they wheeled me up to the NICU to see my babies! Even with all of the wires and tubes, they both looked so beautiful! It was definitely hard seeing them like that, but what made it easier was that we got to hold them! Eric held Anderson and I held Emery and our family felt complete.
We held the babies for a while, and then went back down to our room. Eric and I got into a good routine of pumping and parts washing throughout the night (we are a good team!) and got a tad bit of sleep considering I was pumping every three hours and nurses were coming in every four!

Monday, May 4th

On Monday, I got up to the NICU for the baby’s 11am feeding and got to do kangaroo care with Emery for the first time! It felt so amazing to hold her so close. We snuggled for over an hour, and then I needed a nap! Eric went home for a bit and in the afternoon the whole family came to visit. The Falcaos had to leave that night, so they spent a little while with the babies in the NICU before they left. Uncle Jason and Amelia came and visited for a while before everyone left and Eric and I went to bed early!