Time goes quickly when your day is divided into 3 hour intervals. Casey and I often feel like zombies but when one of the babies coos or grunts all the exhaustion seems to melt away for a moment. We're working on getting our routine down. The babies have their days and nights confused. I thought that while Daddy made bottles and the babies slept I'd get their birth story posted.
Thursday, April 16 I had my regular weekly appointment with Dr. W. Casey and I stopped by a little cafe in Conroe for a quick lunch before heading down to The Woodlands. We got lots of stares and looks as we maneuvered from the parking lot into the restaurant and eventually to a table. Sitting at the table was very uncomfortable due to the size of my stomach. While eating I commented to Casey that this could be our last meal before we became parents. We were both hopeful that Dr. W would be ready to take the babies, but after the false alarms the prior week we weren't holding our breath.
At Dr. W's office my blood pressure was pretty high (154/111). My hands and feet were enormous and I had a headache. I had intended on taking something for my head in the car, however I dropped the pill bottle on the floor and there was no way I could bend over and retrieve it. The babies looked and sounded great while we did the non stress test and Dr. W said she'd like to schedule a C-section for the following Monday. I calmly explained that I was hoping for something sooner....like TODAY! She then decided to check my cervix to see where I was as far as dilation. I hadn't been feeling a lot of contractions so I figured I might be 3 cm at the most. I'm not sure if she was more surprised or we were when she said I was dilated to a 5! That pretty much ended our discussion and she sent us the hospital to start prepping for my C-section. By this time it was around 3:30 and my C section was scheduled for 4:30 pm. Casey and I had very little time to notify family and friends and get to the hospital before the fun would begin.
The prepping for the C-section was good - nothing notable other than my nerves. By this time it had set in that all these months of planning and dreaming were about to end and we'd have our babies later that day. I was still apprehensive about the health of the babies and was prepared to spend many days and nights in the NICU, if needed. Casey was adamant that the babies would be fine and they'd be with us in our room without needing the NICU. Everything moved very quickly and before I knew it it was time to go to the OR. Casey had to wait outside while they did my epidural, walking into the OR by myself felt soooo lonely. It was cold and very scary for a soon to be first time mom. The anesthesiologist was there to greet me. His first question to me was what type of music did I like to listen to. At this point I couldn't have told you my first name so I told him I didn't know what kind of music I liked, since I was unclear as to why it mattered. He asked me if I liked the radio station that was currently playing - then I realized there was indeed a radio playing. If I listened carefully I could hear it over the deafening sound of my heart pounding! I don't recall if it was 104 or 96.5 but I know we had a short conversation about both stations and I told him whatever was playing fine. I really wanted this guy to focus on the task at hand, GIVING ME MY EPIDURAL, not playing DJ!
I got settled on the table and ready for my epidural - this was the scariest part for me. Anything involving the spinal cord freaks me out. It really wasn't bad, there were a few seconds of some pretty crazy pinching and wiggling, but it was much better than I had anticipated. Dr. W had come in by this time and I was feeling more anxious that it was show time and soon after Casey was let in the OR, too.
It didn't take long before Dr. W checked to make sure I wasn't feeling anything and then the C-section was under way. Casey was up by my head with our video camera and digital camera ready for action. Hailey was out and crying before it even hit me what was actually taking place behind the sheet that hung in front of me. She was gorgeous and of course the tears started then. I kept a close eye on her and the NICU team that had been called in to care for the babies. I think I watched the nurses more closely than I did Hailey. I was hoping there facial expressions would tip me off as to anything that was wrong. She was crying and breathing and had all 10 fingers and 10 toes - we were thrilled.
A few minutes later I realized we still had to go through all the same stuff for Mason. It seemed like it had been awhile and that we should have heard or seen Mason, then we heard Dr. W ask for the vacuum. This scared me since I didn't realize vacuums were used in C-sections and I worried that he'd be hurt during the procedure. At the same time I kept watching the nurses gathered around Hailey and tried to determine how she was doing. I finally asked the nurses if they'd be taking her to the NICU and how she was doing. The nurses laughed and said she was very healthy and didn't need to go anywhere. Casey and I were so relieved and I was in complete disbelief! Around the time we were told Hailey was healthy and fine we heard a really loud thud or pop noise and Dr. W hollered out, "Ouch, my head". Casey looked over at me when we heard this and his face and hat were covered in blood. He looked like he was in a scene from "Saving Private Ryan". I asked him what happened to his face and he didn't know there was anything on him. Then Dr. W explained the vacuum had popped off of Mason and had hit her in the head. There was blood on the ceiling and all the lights and equipment, not from Dr. W's head but from the suction of the vacuum. Mason was wedged in my uterus very tightly, but the vacuum worked and soon we heard his joyful crying!
Mason checked out fine too and the babies were born 4 or 5 minutes apart. Hailey will always be his big sister. Once both babies were out the nurses brought them over and took the cameras away from Casey. They took over the filming and picture taking while took in our first few moments as a family. The nurses stamped Casey's scrubs with Hailey and Mason's foot prints and wrote their size and weight on his scrubs. This allowed him to put away his notepad and pen (my Casey is always prepared!) and go tell the news to our family in the waiting area. All he had to do was say the babies were fine and have them read his shirt. I've saved his scrub shirt and I think I'm going to have it framed like a sports jersey and hang it in the nursery. It the neatest thing ever and he was so proud to have both sets of footprints on him and have health babies.
Dr. W finished closing me up while Casey got to take the babies back to the recovery room. Dr. W said everything went well, other than her head interfering with the vacuum. She said Mason may have a bruised head from the suction and a little bit of a black eye, but I never noticed either. Soon I was rolled back into recovery and I got to take in a few moments with my babies and my husband before our very excited family came in. Everyone was so happy to hear that the babies were doing well. Hailey was being monitored for low blood sugar but that was all. My mom and grandmother came in to visit and so did Casey's parents. It was amazing!!! Casey couldn't leave the babies at all. He stayed next to their warmer the entire time until we were taken to our room that evening.
The whole experience was fantastic and I couldn't have imagined a smoother birth. Hailey's blood sugar ended up leveling off and there were no more concerns after that. The babies are the best - they're very calm and mild mannered, unless its time for Mason to eat. Then he becomes a wild man thrashing his head around looking for bottle. Both babies are being bottle fed due to my breast reduction a few years back. The plastic surgeon was very up front about all of milk ducts being cut and that breast feeding would not be an option for me. They've taken to a bottle just fine and to be honest, I couldn't imagine feeding and nursing both babies.
Oh and back to the radio in the OR....before being wheeled out of the OR and back into recovery, the anesthesiologist leaned over and told me, "Just so you know, your babies were born to Taylor Swifts' Romeo and Juliet. I thought that was pretty cool since you were having boy and girl twins". I couldn't have agreed more. I wasn't a Taylor Swift fan before, but now I can't get that song out of my head!
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