I'm finally getting the chance to post a detailed birth story of the girls!
We checked into the hospital at 6:30am on dec 16th. The day before at my doctors appointment I had been 3cm and 80% effaced. I got hooked up to the pitocin at 7am, starting at 6milliunits. I was thrilled to see that one of my favorite nurses was in charge of my labor, nurse Darleen! Unfortunately she didn't get my IV in perfectly at first...so it stung for a while. Contractions were the same that I had been having, and the same as they were on the previous Thursday when I had the failed induction. Not very strong and still at a zero on the pain scale. My IV was hurting more than the contractions! Sean and I spent a few hours just talking, joking and listening to the radio on the laptop. ( We listened to "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" and a Billie Holiday Pandora station.) I spent most of this time in the rocking chair just watching the monitors and trying to keep both babies heart monitors in the right spots. Both babies had a nasty habit of wiggling away from the monitors!
Last pregnant picture of me, 39w1d:
At 11 Dr. Cluett came in to check me. I was still at the 3cm and 85% effaced. Since we were going all for it this time, she went ahead and broke my water for baby A (Ella). It was nice clear fluid! No meconium staining for us this time!! (Lily had passed her first bowel movement before my water was broke with her.) We also put in the internal monitor for baby A so we could keep an easy track of at least that baby. Contractions for about the next hour were getting stronger, but still manageable. As the pitocin kept going up and more time passed, contractions kept getting stronger. By 1 I was needing to really start breathing through the contractions. Contractions were 3 min apart by 2. It was around this time that I broke out my labor beads. (When I was pregnant with Lily I had met a wonderful group of woman online, all due in August. Over our pregnancies we all became close, and we each sent everyone in the group 2 beads each, with the idea that we would have those during labor to remind us that we had a whole support team of woman cheering us on! I used the necklace I made with the beads I had received to help me get through Lily's labor, and now this one too! On a side note, most of us from the original August group still talk every day online...and my best friend Becky who I talk about often, is from this group too!) During contractions at this time I would rub one of the flatter beads, then between contractions I was trying to remember who sent which bead! :)
My labor beads:
Contractions getting closer, at about 1:00. Blue line is Baby B's heart rate, and red line is Baby A's heart rate:
I was checked again at 4, and I was 4cm and 90%effaced. I was really discouraged at that point because I was hoping to have progressed more than one cm in the 5 hours since my water had been broken...and the contractions were really starting to be very painful at this point. They really picked up in intensity even more right after getting checked though. I think she may have stretched me some, and I was up to 22milli units on the pitocin. Contractions were coming every 1-2 min, and I needed to lean over the back of the bed to get through them. I was getting dizzy from my breathing too. After each contraction I felt like I was going to black out, and my nurse at the time, Kristi, suggested I slow my breathing down. I had been doing the whole "he he he hoo" pattern (thinking in my head "you can do it, you can do it" with each breath) , and she suggested that I wasn't getting enough oxygen with that pattern, so I moved to just taking deep breaths. I remember thinking I couldn't do this naturally at this point...because I thought it was going to take a lot longer, and I already felt like I was close to transition labor. I then switched positions and got on the labor ball, which made laboring easier, because I was able to sway my hips better on the ball. My pitocin was also turned down to 18milliunits then, which I think helped the contractions ease up. Sean was great during all this hard labor! I wouldn't have gotten through it with out him! With each contraction he would hold my hand and breath through it with me. Between contractions he would get me water, or feed me ice chips will I recovered. I'm so grateful that he is an active participant in my labors. He was the prefect labor partner!
At 5:30 I was checked again- 7cm. My doctor also said I was in transition at this point. They set my pitocin back up to the max. I labored uncomfortably in bed for a bit longer, and around 6:15 Dr. Cluett and nurse Kristi came in because we had lost baby B from the monitors. She pulled out the u/s to check exactly where the heart was. While she was checking that I said I was feeling a lot more pressure with each contraction now. So she checked me again, and I was completely dilated and effaced and ready to push. They started getting prepared for delivery, and calling in everyone else that was suppose to be there for the birth. (other nurses, and the pediatricians) Suddenly I couldn't stop myself from pushing...my body just took over...and while mid scream and pushing I was saying to the doctor, " I need to push! I'm sorry I can't stop pushing!!" My poor doctor at this point is rushing trying to get her gloves and other gear on, while paging the other nurses again yelling "we've got babies coming!!! Get in here!!". Sean looks down and yells "She's crowning!" And I'm still apologizing because I can't stop pushing. Dr. Cluett abandons trying to get her gear on and gets into position and within that push Eleanor Rose came out! Seconds later the rest of the team that was suppose to be there walks in! So Ella was born with only my doctor and nurse in the room! I think the whole delivery of Ella, from that first real need to push to her being out was only about 2 minutes. She was born at 6:31pm. For about a minute after she was born I still didn't know what she was. Everyone was saying she, but no one had straight out said "it's a girl!" and I had to ask! We were so thrilled to have another daughter! Eleanor's apgar scores were 9 and 9.
Eleanor Rose, just born:
After Eleanor was born we had to wait for baby B to come down into my pelvis. Contractions completely stopped for a while, so we just waited and Sean got some good bonding time with Ella. We both just kept saying how much she looked like Lily when she was born! We weighed her while we were waiting for B. Eleanor was 7lbs, 1.7 oz and 20 inches. Everyone kept asking me if I wanted to hold her, but I was to scared of the contractions starting back up again. I did hold her briefly, and of course my contractions started again while I was holding her! I will say that time between deliveries was the best I had felt almost all day. I was completely alert and with it that whole time, asking my doctor questions and staring at my new baby girl. I was feeling great!!
Nurse Darleen weighing Eleanor:
After about half an hour my contractions started up again, and my doctor kept checking on B's position as she came down. After a while she was finally low enough to break the water, and once my doctor did that, baby B fell the rest of the way into position and it was time to push again. I pushed through 2 contractions, and Violet Anne entered the world at 7:27pm! Almost a full hour after her sister! This time they remembered to say right away that it was a girl! We are doubly blessed to have 2 more girls in our family! Violet weighed in at 5 lbs 10.5 oz and 18 inches long. So much smaller than her sister! Violet apgar scores were also 9 and 9.
Violet Anne, just born, getting checked out by the pediatrician:
Violet getting weighed:
After Violet was born my body did go into shock a bit. After the placenta's had been born (which had fused by the way....very interesting! And Violet's umbilical cord was a lot smaller/thinner than Eleanor's. ) I started shaking uncontrollably. I was feeling really out of it for a little while. People kept asking me if I wanted to hold the girls, and try feeding them...but I was so nervous I was going to drop them! It was a while until I felt comfortable holding them, but once I did, I stop shaking, and we tried tandem feeding for the first time! It didn't go so well, but it was great to hold my girls finally!
I couldn't have been happier with their birth! No pain meds at all, my doctor just let nature work like it should and waited patiently for B to come down, there was never any talk of a c/s, and I didn't even tear!! When I found out it was twins I was terrified of what my birth story would end up being, and that my chances of having a natural delivery were pretty slim. I feel so so so lucky that things went so perfectly, and that both girls are just perfect! Recovery has been so much easier than it was with Lily ! We are all just so in love with our new family...even when things get crazy!
