My hubby had gone out of state for job training the same morning I was sent to the hospital (great timing eh?), I was so worried I would have the babies without him there. Thankfully he was able to come home early and was indeed there for our big event and I am so glad because he was my lifeline in that delivery room. He kept me so calm through all the trauma. Anyway, while on bedrest I had several nurses come in and ask if I had had my Strep B test yet, to which I kept responding, "Um, no I don't think so..." Well Saturday after the bottom number to my blood pressure had reached 100 for the second time they decided it was time to induce. I was told that with twins they would do ultrasounds all the way up to and even in the delivery room and that you deliver in the operating room so that if they need to do an emergency c-section you could be all prepped and ready for it super fast like. Well the doctor broke my water and then realized I wasn't tested for Strep B yet (they had 5 days to do that!) so they got me medication flowing through my IV to protect against that "just in case" and when my favorite doctor came in and realized they had already broken my water he seemed frustrated and wanted me to get the epidural as soon as possible (in case my labor progressed quickly since I was already at a 4). I became anxious about the epidural since I knew I didn't want to have twins without it. Oh and I had to have magnesium in my I.V. due to my blood pressure too - that was, well pretty uncomfortable. They told me it would burn some and wow, I was shocked at how much "burn" there was, OWE! Labor was as fun as it always is *sarcasm* and time came to head to the delivery/operating room, note - I hadn't had a single ultrasound the five days leading up to this point and still no sign of one while heading to delivery, also my epidural had a button you could push whenever you wanted to for the desired effect, the more you push it stronger it is (well to a certain point of course). I thought, "Oh I'd like to feel as much as possible, so I'm not going to push the button." I had so much feeling in my legs that I was able to lift them myself and crawl onto the operating table. Baby A came out so quickly and so easily that I became VERY optimistic about the whole situation. That is until Doctor N. (she wanted my regular OB doctor, Doctor H., to be at the delivery just in case we needed him because he was more experienced) turned to Doctor H. and thought Baby B. was likely breached (which with a simple ultrasound would have been obvious, but to my knowledge there wasn't a single ultrasound technician or machine in the room???). Doctor H. quickly took over and I was told not to push anymore. If your reading this and don't want too much information for your pure or inexperienced mind stop reading this now:o) Doctor H. reached inside me to grab for Baby B.'s feet so he could pull him out feet first, but those little feet were slippery and HARD to get. Jared said he had his entire forearm (up to his elbow) inside of me as he grabbed for the baby's feet and slipped off his hold. Over and over again he would reach in, grab the feet, and slide off, reach in, grab feet, slip off, reach in grab feet, slip off. Let me tell you people, I was really wishing that I had pushed that button for my epidural at this point because it was so painful I could hardly stand it. The suctioning sound from him slipping each time is so distinct in my memory, such an awful sound mixed with so much pain. An emergency c-section became necessary and I was quickly prepped for one, I remember thinking, "well this is it, a cesarean after all", but... where was the anesthesiologist??? Doctor H. turned to the nurses (like 15 of them) and asked where the anesthesiologist was and nobody knew. Everyone in the room became uncomfortable, quiet, and antsy as Doctor H. assumed the task at hand. I am SO thankful my hubby was able to make it back for this delivery! He kept my focus away from all the unfortunate things going on and just had me looking in his eyes, forehead against mine, praying for me the baby, and the whole situation. He stayed calm, but I could see concern all over his face. Three nurses vigorously pushed on my stomach for what seemed like hours but was really a ten minute period. SO painful! About 2 minutes before Baby B. was born (more like pulled out) the anesthesiologist arrived and Doctor H. very frustrated and with a commanding voice, said, "GET HER SOMETHING TO MAKE HER COMFORTABLE!" A little late at that point! The baby was not only breached, but he had his arm wrapped across his chest and around his neck (I was told that was THE WORST position a baby could be in). So once the baby's feet were out it was a whole new battle getting the rest of the baby out. My hubby said the doctor would rotate the baby and pull, rotate, pull, over and over again causing all the poop inside the baby to be squished out of his little body. My husband said he wouldn't even want to watch an animal give birth that way. Finally Baby B. was born, I looked down at him and saw a pale, limp body, no tears, nothing. Both my hubby and I thought he was dead. I knew panicking wouldn't help anything so we just prayed while they wheeled our little baby off to the NICU. Anyone who's had a baby knows that usually the placenta is the easy part to deliver, but it probably took another 10 minutes of more painful reaching and grabbing before that finally came out too. My body had experienced SUCH trauma that I shook, so badly in fact that I couldn't even hold Baby A. I shook uncontrollably for probably the next 8 hours or so:o( Not fun! I didn't get to meet my NICU baby till way later that evening, they wheeled me up in my bed:o)
Baby B had underdeveloped lungs and major bruising! Black feet and bruising that continued up his legs to his bottom. His face and forehead were bruised and swollen too:o( He just laid in his bed moaning from pain and stress. Lights, voices, touch, it just caused him more stress. It was so sad to see a 5lb 13oz baby whimper in pain:o( It melted my heart and made me so sad for him.
Judles (Baby A) got to come home, smaller than his little brother, but a breeze of a delivery AND developed lungs. He was kind of yellow so we were supposed to take him back to the doctors after a couple of days, so we did and well... he was jaundice and also needed admitted because his numbers were too low. So, much to my dismay we took him in too so they put him under the Billi Rubin lights and also started treating him for an infection (which was all hogwash to me, seriously). Lincoln showed great progress during his stay, but they had major expectations for his eating. Having experience of raising and feeding 3 babies prior to this I KNEW he was eating fine and getting a sufficient amount. We inquired about taking the feeding tube out of his nose and taking him home since that was the only thing keeping him there and the doctors acted as if we were first time parents who had no idea what we were talking about. They gave us an ultimatum that they would take the feeding tube out of his nose and if he ate 30 ml or more for each feeding (every 2-3 hours) during a 24 hour time period we could take him home. If he didn't meet these standards he would stay. Fine with us since if he wasn't eating well (which I had no doubts he was) we wanted him to get the proper help. I decided I would stay and monitor the situation and decided I would nurse him since he always seemed to eat more that way. Every feeding they put him on the scale to weigh him before and after he ate. He did AMAZING! There was one feeding where he ate through a let down (and nursing mothers KNOW what a let down is and if your baby is keeping up) and I missed his before weight, but when they weighed him afterward they said he only ate .05 ml. I told the nurse that was impossible because with my experience I knew he got a good feeding and they must have weighed him wrong. I was super discouraged, but trudged on with that one "bad" feeding against us. Needless to say, he passed with flying colors and when that 24 hour period the main nurse actually expressed her surprise at how well he did. Judles finished his round of antibiotics (8 day stay for him) and Linc passed his eating test (14 day stay for him), so April 8th I got to take BOTH babies home AND my husband arrived home from another training trip! Happy day!:o)
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