Baby Day(s) started out like every other Saturday in the fall - with college football! My folks and Ellen came over to watch the TX-OU game, which sadly resulted in a home team loss. My mom brought chicken salad sandwiches from Market Street, my dad made clam dip, and I had made some banana cakes, so we had quite a feast. They left after the game and Forrest and I settled in for the rest of the day.
We ended our night watching Texas A&M beat Texas Tech in Lubbock, which made Forrest very happy.
After the game, we got in bed. Before I go into the start of the "labor", I must mention that it was a stormy night in north Texas. This elated us and the rest of the region because we are in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the last 100 years. Texans have endured record breaking heat and multiple wild fires across the state. We need rain so badly. Our church (and many others) hosted a "Pray for Rain" service at one point this summer. Although this night wasn't the first relief we have gotten from the drought, it was one of the few nights we can remember in which we got any measureable rain.
Once in bed, I immediately noticed once we were in bed that I had some increased, uh....moisture....coming out of you know where. I rolled over and I felt a little water coming out. Then, every time I felt a baby kick I would feel a little bit more water. I wasn't sure that it was my water breaking because it wasn't a big gush like they say it is. I laid there for an hour (while Forrest slept unknowingly) and finally I asked God to give me a clear sign. Within a minute, I felt three strong kicks and each one was accompanied by the water, so I took that to mean it might be time.
I told Forrest that I thought (wasn't totally sure) that my water was breaking. We both got up and got ready. We made it to the hospital at about midnight and they confirmed that my membranes had indeed ruptured and that the births were imminent. It was a very frightening moment for me when they told me I was indeed in labor.
Our L&D nurse mentioned that they had a lot of preterm labors that night because of the storm. She said that when the barometric pressure drops, often it will break the waters for pregnant women. My doctor scoffed at that theory, but I wonder if it "holds water" (hardee har har) in my case. We will never know.
October 9:
By 2:00am I was in a L&D room and got an epidural, then they started me on pitocin so that my contractions would get more productive. At admission I was 3 cm dilated and pretty much fully effaced.
My labor was so uneventful and easy. I was pain free because of hte epidural. Forrest called my family right away once we got to the L&D room and they all had arrived at my room by 4:00. Once they realized that the big event wasn't going to be within the hour, they all left to eat Waffle House and Forrest and I got a couple hours of sleep. Mom and Dad came back at about 6:00am and Liah and Ellen came back later that morning (they slept at my house for a few minutes).
Sometime in the early morning I had dilated to 5-6 cm, so we were hoping that labor would progress quickly. Unfortunately it didn't. I seemed to stay at 5-6cm forever, until about 3:00pm when I finally got to 8-9 cm. They gave me another hour to rest, then I was fully dilated.
Baby Time!
Because I had twins, I had to deliver in the O.R. (as opposed to the L&D room) as my risk for having a c-section were high. I had planned a vaginal delivery, but still you never know what might change to necessitate a c-section. My L&D nurse's name was Linda. Forrest, Linda and I did one round of practice pushing and they declared that I was ready to go.
The O.R. was packed full of doctor's and nurses. I probably had 2-3 nurses helping my doctor, there was my anesthesiologist, and two teams of NICU nurses, each of about 5 people. So, it was a full room. We got into the O.R. at 4:49pm on Sunday October 9, I started pushing a few minutes later, and delivered Olivia at 5:10pm. Forrest is the one who told me her gender. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see her before they whisked her off to be treated by her NICU team (sort of behind me and to my right). A few minutes later (at 5:21pm), out came Carter, who I also didn't see because they took him away just as fast.
Olivia came out pink and didn't cry until the NICU team worked out her. Carter came out kinda bluish gray. I didn't get to hold either of them, which was sad, but I knew they needed to be worked on by the NICU.
After about 15 minutes, they wheeled both incubators up so I could see them, gave me about 20 seconds to view them, and then they left.
I couldn't see Carter very well, but I'll never forget how Olivia looked. She zeroed in on Forrest and me with her big blue eyes and just stared at us. It made me cry because it was the first eye contact I made with her.
One of the nurses notified my family that they should line up in the hallway outside of the O.R. so that they could see the babies as they were wheeled off, which they did. They took the following pics:
The rest of the delivery was pretty painful for me, as my epidural was wearing off and the doctor still had some "repair" work to do. That night I recovered in my room for a couple hours, then Forrest, Christine, and I went down to NICU to see our babies. I don't remember much about that night except for that I couldn't walk because I was in so much pain, so I was wheeled down in a wheelchair. I hated being confined to the wheel chair because I wasn't high up enough to see the babies. I got so frustrated that I decided to try to stand, which was so painful that it made me cry. Although I did get to see the babies, I don't remember anything about how they looked because I was just wrecked. We stayed only a few minutes then we went back to the room.
We hadn't yet named them because I was just in no state to have a serious discussion about it.
I crashed there for the night and Forrest went home to shower then came back and stayed the night on the couch by my bed.
That's how October 9 ended. I would say that it was the best day of my life, but it wasn't. I'll get to that day in a later blog posting. It was a nice and restful day spent with my family, up until the delivery. The delivery was joyful but also kind of sad since I couldn't reallly see the babies (definitely couldn't touch them). The rest of the day was pretty terrible since I was in so much pain.
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