So, in case you were thinking that we may have fallen off the face of the planet...we didn't. :)
I am happy to report that, in short, the babies were born, Finni is an awesome big sis, and Morgan and I are doing great. Okay, see you next time! (Just kidding!)
Honestly, the last six months has been a bit of a whirlwind. Instead of trying to cram it all into one big post, I am going to break it down into little, chronological chunks. And we'll start here:
THE BABIES HAVE ARRIVED!In my last post you can see a very pregnant me and lo and behold the babies were in fact born shortly thereafter. Here's the story:
On Monday, April 14 I was feeling more contractions than usual, but by then I was fairly used to them. I had virtually no early contractions at all with Finni, but the twins had been very active for the past few months and I was used to some discomfort. When I went in for my twice a week monitoring session at the hospital, the heartbeats looked great and all was well. I voiced my increase in discomfort, but the nurse assured me that all was well and that nothing looked unusual so I should be all set. I was walking and talking and felt alright so I left the hospital and went home to rest.
When Morgan came home from work I told him that I was very tired and uncomfortable, but that the contractions weren't coming too regularly so I was feeling pretty confident that I had a couple more days of incubation time. Throughout the night, however, the contractions increased and I knew that it was only a matter of time.
At about 6:45am on April 15 I told Morgan that it was time to go to the hospital. He called the hospital to let them know we were coming and that the contractions were about three or four minutes apart. I took a shower while Morgan loaded the bags in the van and got Finni ready for daycare.
I am the first to admit that the van ride was less than pleasant, but I tried to keep a good face on for Finni so she wouldn't be scared or worried about Mommy. We dropped her off and headed to the hospital. By this time, the pain was pretty much excruciating (and being an English major I do not use that word lightly). Every bump felt like a mountain, and every pothole felt like the Grand Canyon. It was brutal, but we made it and were admitted at about 8:30am.
After a brief wait (I won't even get into that part of the story), I was whisked up to the birthing center. A nurse I was familiar with from my many visits to the hospital "checked things out" and said that I was nine centimeters dialated and that it was go time. When she went to tell the other nurses that we needed to do a c-section for the twins ASAP they seemed confused and wanted her to check again because they didn't believe I was that far along. It seems that my jokes and smiles fooled them into a false sense of complacency, when, in reality, the joking was just my way of coping with the pain. It is interesting what strategies one will find to cope in any given situation.
So, they checked again and the next thing I knew they were throwing a set of scrubs at Morgan and telling him to put the camcorder down and get dressed because it was time to go. The doctors and nurses were working at a record speed by this time because they were concerned that my water was going to break and that the babies would be at risk. I was still trying to stay calm since we had anticipated the c-section due to the fact that both babies were in the breech position. I asked Morgan to call my Dad while I was being wheeled into the operating room. He had about ten minutes to get himself together while they (finally) gave me the spinal anesthesia. I would like to say that the spinal was less painful than the epidural, but it is tough to say since there where so many other pain indicators going on at the same time. I can say, though, that it worked like a charm and in a matter of minutes I was pain free and ready for surgery.
Soon thereafter, Morgan was allowed in the room and had the camera ready to go. From here, I can't tell you much since the curtain was up, but I felt tugging and pressure and just kept my attention on two things: 1) Morgan and his intent focus on the surgery and the babies, and 2) the running narrative I was getting from the wonderful anesethesiologist who stayed in the operating room to give me a play-by-play of what was going on. It was very different from the birthing experience we had with Finni, but it was wonderful in its own special way.
Baby A, Sawyer Morgan, was born at 9:15am and weighed in at 5lbs. and 11ozs., with Baby B, Langston John, following just two short minutes later at 9:17 and weighing in at 5lbs. and 8ozs.. Morgan was just glowing and so excited to witness the whole event, and the mommy in me was just happy that after the babies were out everyone seemed to calm down a bit. I got to see each of the babies for a minute or two and they were just as precious as Finni was when she was born. They "zipped" me back up and covered me in the softest, warmest blankets on the planet and wheeled me back to my room while they ran some tests on the babies. The next thing I knew, they were wheeling the babies into the room and telling us that they were healthy, happy and good to go.
At this point Morgan started calling his family and Nicole's parents came to see the newest additions to the family. At around 5:00pm, Morgan went to go pick up Finni and bring her to meet her new siblings. She was in love at first sight and we were sooo happy to see her after such a long day. She stayed with us in the hospital and was an awesome daughter and big sister every single night.
Througout the week we did our best to follow the doctor's directions and get the babies to eat as much as possible. Although they both lost weight, they managed to stay above 5lbs each and were permitted to be released at the same time as Nicole so that was a big relief. Morgan went and got the van and the next thing we knew we were on our way home!
That is all for this entry. In the next post I will talk about the first weeks home!
On Halloween we dressed up the kiddos as two caterpillar babies and a beautiful butterfly!
