The TTC Twin: And Two Became Four!

It has been entirely too long since I have posted, but with that said I have been a little busy to say the least. LOL! I have to say that the remaining weeks and days of my pregnancy were wonderful really. I think overall, besides the lousy few horrible weeks of morning sickness, I had an amazing pregnancy. I felt great and have to admit that the heartburn wasn't even that bad. Nothing a Tums couldn't remedy fairly easily. And honestly, I was only really uncomfortable when one of the boys (now I know that boy was probably Parker) had one very pointy foot in my right ribs! Sleeping wasn't too bad either. I lucked out. I am very naturally a back and stomach sleeper, so getting adjusted to sleeping on my sides was hard, but I got use to it and kept a pillow in between my legs, which seemed to help for the most part.

As the weeks ticked on, the hubby and I were starting to decide when I might be done with work. I have to admit, being pregnant with twins actually went a lot better than I thought it would. I ended up only gaining 35 lbs all together (hooray!) for a total weight of 188 lbs. Now, I did start off a little better losing close to 20 lbs during all my morning sickness, so I think that helped keep me under the 200 lb mark. I'll take it! Also, I really wasn't as huge as I thought I would be carrying twin boys (both of which our perinatalologist kept saying were HUGE for twins!). My goal was to work until March 16th which would put me at 35 weeks. Ultimately though I was feeling slightly uncomfortable a little earlier and my hubby and my doc decided that I needed to start taking it easy earlier on to prevent pre-clampsia (high blood pressure and swelling). With that call being made, I was done at work on March 7. Crazy! No work. What would I do with myself?! That wasn't hard to come up with though. Nesting definitely settled in and I finished getting the house ready for the arrival of our little ones and taking care of any last minute things for being gone the rest of year (including grading and insurance paper work, etc.). So I had 3 weeks and boy did they go by quickly. By the 3rd week in March, our doc decided that we could finally schedule our induction! You heard right. Both our boys were head down and my doc was very optimistic about me having them vaginally instead of having to have a C-section. Once I heard that, I was gung ho! I could do that. Awesome! I was willing to give it a try.

So we were scheduled for April 4th! I would be 37 1/2 weeks. That would be wonderful. The longer I could go with the boys, the better. I wanted to give them all the time in there to finish "cooking" so to speak before welcoming them to the world. The doc assured me though, she wouldn't let me go over 38 weeks.

Well, it appears a higher power had other plans for us. At one of my check up appointments on March 27th, my doc was a little concerned that my blood pressure was a little high from what it had been. She had me get blood drawn that day just to check a few things. I got the call on Friday, March 30th that she wanted me to go that morning to get my blood pressure checked again just to see how I was doing in the few days since my previous appointment. Ok, not a problem I thought. Just go in, have the check my blood pressure, then go about my day. Not so quick...

I went in and apparently was having a mini meeting with another doc available that day. It seems that my blood pressure was again slightly elevated (for me compared to how it had been throughout my whole pregnancy) and that I was showing a level 1 of protein in my urine (which had been stellar my whole pregnancy otherwise). These two things, along with a very small appearance of swelling in my feet (I thought they were looking pretty good), were not very good signs. Dr. H who was in for Dr. M said that when he called her she told him I was to be sent to the hospital to start the process. It was happening. I was going to be induced within a few hours! WHAT?!?!?! WAIT! I'M NOT READY!!!

This totally wasn't my plan and clearly my type A personality was having a hard time with the change in plans. I hate to say it, but I burst into tears when the doc told me plans were changing. I think more than anything I was scared. It was happening, then and there I was going to be a mother within a day or two! WOW! I thought I still had 6 more days to get things ready. For crying out loud, I didn't get my pedicure yet!!! I call BS! LOL! So I called my hubby and told him to come home from work, we were off and running. He met me at home and we grabbed our hospital bag (good thing I finally packed one a week before) and went to St. Rose Siena. We walked in at about 11am and the nurses were waiting for us. Apparently the doc called ahead and told them we were coming. We got checked in and were in a Labor and Delivery room by 11:30. I was hooked up to IVs and started the induction process by 12pm! Here's go nothing!

I was induced with a tiny 1/4 of a pill called Cytotec. It was to be placed up behind my cervix. The crazy thing is, it basically started contractions within an hour. I am not sure exactly when, but within 2 hours I was having serious contractions and said YES to an epidural. The anesthesiology was a crack up and I enjoyed his humor, even if he was going to put a giant needle into my back! Once the epidural kicked in, I was feeling ok. The contractions really powered forward and I was having them every 2 minutes for most of the laboring process. The day went by fairly quickly. My amazing sister jumped on a plane and was there with me in the hospital by 5pm. And two of my best friends came to spend some time with me there too. And before I knew it, my parents, who jumped in the car and drove down when they heard I was going to the hospital, made it by 9pm. Having them, my sis, and my hubby was just wonderful. So, to make a long story short, I was in labor for 12 hours, having major contractions, eventually getting my water broken (of one baby's sack, the other presumably would break on it's own). Around 8 I started to really feel the contractions and get serious shakes, and even got to experience some nausea (oh joy). As it turns out, my line for the epidural had come out and 1/2 of my dose was leaking, meaning that I wasn't getting it. Hence, I had to get another one put in...yup! That means going through the WHOLE process again. Not fun! And this time the anesthesiologist was not so pleasant. Nice yes, but not gentle. Lovely!

Well, by about midnight, our awesome nurse, Jeanine, told me that I wasn't progressing as much as I should have been and to top it off, baby B (Parker) had a heart rate that was dipping kind of low at times. She said the doc, who happened to be Dr. H who was on call for my doc's office, was coming in to check my progress and make the call. The family at that point took a vote, and they all said I should just go for the C-section. When Dr. H came in and told me that I could keep going if I wanted to, but that I might not have babies until the following morning at around 10am if I kept going at the rate I was, I clapped my hands and said I'm good! Let's do this! To the OR we go. LOL! My nurse was so surprised I was so easily swayed to change from natural birth to a C-section. She said a lot of moms cry and really fight that decision. I told her I did it, experienced it for 12 hours and was good to go. I was ready to meet my babies!

To save all the gory details, we were in the OR within 1/2 hour of the decision being made and my two beautiful boys were born at 12:52am and 12:53am. As it turns out, my epidural was still not effecting me as it should, so I ended up having to have a spinal tap. I was grateful I REALLY couldn't feel a thing after that (as I could when the doc did a test pinch). And on top of that, it turns out that Parker, my little baby B, had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. This means that most likely I would have had baby A, Landon, naturally, and then most likely would have had to have Parker by emergency C-section. So glad that didn't happen. I was happy to experience both ways and have that story to tell. But in the end, as my amazing doc and nurse said, I made the right call and brought two healthy, beautiful baby boys into the world on March 31st, 2012! And within an hour of having them, they were in my arms, had a quick meeting with their new auntie, grandma, and grandpa who said hello, gave kisses and were off to bed for the night. And there we were. A new family of four. A "green" mommy and daddy loving on their beautiful little boys, Landon who was 18 1/2 in long, weighing in at 6lbs 11oz, and Parker who was 17 1/2 in long, and weighing in at 5lbs 10oz.

So there it is. Landon and Parker's birth story. We were released from the hospital less than 54 hours later (I was feeling good and ready to get home, the boys were very good, healthy and never had to go to the NICU so their doc released them too) and on our way home! We arrived home on April 1st by 7pm and began to settle into our new life. My amazing sis was staying with us for the first week to help out and boy was she awesome! Our family was blessed and life had changed in an instant! And there are many adventures to come!

To my friends and family who visited in the hospital and at our home after, thanks for your love and support and for meeting our two little men! To those who have yet to meet the boys, we can't wait until you so...but beware and be ready, they will steal your heart away!