It's been a week since my little twinies decided to make their appearance and it has been the fastest week of my life! So sitting down to write their birth story might take me three days in this fast paced new life of ours.
Friday, April 18th - I was off work for Good Friday so I spent the day with the kids and we went to Target but otherwise it was a pretty low key day. I was resigned to the fact that the twins would stay put until Monday and I was fine with that. I wasn't really restricting my activity though. When Todd got home from work it was a nice night so we grilled out steaks and stayed outside quite a bit. When we came inside at about 9pm I ran the kids baths. Todd actually fell asleep on the couch and so I thought I'd just give the kids a bath myself. Not something I have been allowing myself to do lately since it's physically almost impossible. So once they had their bath I was feeling pretty strained and tired so we all went to bed. It took them until about 10:30 to settle down. I was lying in bed thinking about going into labor and what I would do if my water broke right that minute. Who would I call? Would I wake the kids up?
At 11:01pm I felt a pop. It wasn't a gush like with Evan but I could feel something was off. So i quickly stood up and I could tell my water had just broken! I think I called for Todd a couple of times but he was OUT on the couch. I ran up to him and told him "this is not a drill, my water just broke!"
So my plan was to call my lovely friend Paula to come and sit at the house until my parents could get here. I called my mom and dad and the said they'd be here in a half an hour. Then I tried Paula about four times with no answer. Come to find out I was calling her old cell number. Duh! So I called the correct one and she answered right away, she was at my door about 5 minutes later. Meanwhile Todd was busy packing up last minute stuff for the hospital. Off we went at about 11:20. I wasn't feeling any contractions yet so it was an uneventful car ride. I was nervous when we hit traffic near downtown but it didn't last too long. It made me very grateful my water didn't break at rush hour!
Saturday April 19th - 12:01am - we arrived at the hospital and went to triage. After a quick check in I was taken into one of the triage rooms where I was hooked up to an IV and the on call doctor was notified I was there. Unfortunately it wasn't my doctor who was on call that night and it was a doctor I had never met. It all worked out though, she ended up being great. My cervix was checked and I was already at 5cm. This made me nervous so of course I asked how long I would have to wait until the doctor was there to perform the c section. They advised she was on her way and it would be within the hour. EEEK! The nerves really started kicking in then. They started to give me tons of meds to keep me from getting sick, I had eaten about 4 hours prior so apparently that was a big concern.
1:15am I was wheeled into the OR. Michael Buble was playing loudly so I considered this an excellent sign! I was given my spinal and I swear I thought I was going to bounce off the table because I was shaking so hard. It was fine though, not bad at all. At that point they let Todd back into the room. I was glad to have him back with me. The doctor advised me of everything she was doing and drapes were put up so I couldn't see. She told me she just gave me a strong pinch and asked if I felt it. I told her I did not so it was go time.
I heard the words "incision" and knew I'd be meeting my babies in a few short minutes. I was excited and scared. Felt some tugging and pulling and they told me Wes was out and I heard him crying. Oh the suspense!!! It seemed like forever but I know it was a few seconds and they brought him out from behind the curtain.
Wesley Drew - born at 1:46am, 5 pounds 10 ounces, 17-1/2 inches long and 100% my husband! Seriously his clone.
Audrey Anne - born at 1:46am (yes the same minute!) 5 pounds 15 ounces, 18-1/2 inches long.
And yes, I did give birth to an 80 year old man.
So after I was all put back together they handed me my sweet little ones and we headed to recovery. We were there about an hour before I was taken to my room. The next couple of hours are kind of hazy, I think we both got some rest once we got to the room. I remember my nurse going over a lot of stuff and thinking it was about 5am and there was no way I was going to remember anything she was saying to me.
The pain on day 1 was pretty brutal once my spinal wore off. I was advised to get out of bed and get moving as soon as possible which I did. Way easier said than done. But these little guys made it all worth it of course.
Little old man!
And Daddy's clone.
We spent the next few days getting to know our new little sweethearts. We had lots of visitors and well wishes. Of course the most important visitors were Evan and Erin. They were so excited to meet their new little brother and sister.
Day 3 we started talking about going home. Since Wes scored low on the hospitals preemie test he needed to take a carseat test. Basically because of his size they just needed to make sure he could tolerate a carseat ride for 90 minutes. He passed with no issues. Later on that day they mentioned that they wanted Audrey to take the test as well since her twin took it they just thought it would be best of she did too. Well she failed it on the first try. They checked her over and discovered that she has a heart murmur. At this point we weren't sure if we were still going to try and go home that day or stay another day in the hospital. They called in a cardiologist and he was going to meet with us later that day. We pretty much decided at that point to stay the extra day since it was already about 4pm. The cardiologist got stuck in traffic so it wasn't until 7pm when he finally performed the Echocardiogram on Audrey. He found that she has a tiny hole in her heart that hasn't closed up yet. This is pretty common in preemies and it will most likely close off. It is PDA (Patent Ductus Artriosus) and he said 99% of cases it does close shortly after birth and we need to follow up with him in 3 months. So he put our minds at ease and we felt fine about going home the next day. So much to our surprise at about midnight the nurse told me Audrey would still need to pass her carseat test before she could go. So they repeated the test that night in the nursery. And she failed again. Her stats dropped after about 35 minutes. They told us they would try it again that morning. So we packed up and prepared to leave. I began mentally preparing myself for what would happen if she failed again and couldn't go home with us. But that didn't help since when she failed again that morning I was heartbroken. They called in a neonatalogist and he met with us. He advised they wanted to keep her one more night in the hospital and repeat the test the following day. Of course we wanted to do what was best for her so we prepared to leave without her. It was so so hard. I couldn't even look at their little going home outfits for about an hour. I went ahead and put them both in them so I could get a picture.
I mean, so cute.
She was pretty upset she had to stay there without us too!
It was kind of weird to just be home with Wes. He was great though. And I guess if there is a silver lining it was to ease us into home life with 4 kids. Just adding one wasn't too bad but it did show us how chaotic it was going to be with all 4 kids at home.
The next day I called the nursery first thing and they said they would be repeating the test at 2pm.
At 3:30 we got the call that she passed!!! I was ecstatic! So off we went, party of five to make it a party of six. I had missed her so much, once I got to the nursery I almost hugged the nurse as she helped me pack her up to go.
I won't lie it was an extremely nerve wracking car ride home considering I needed to watch her closely for signs of distress. I was in the front seat and had bought the reverse mirrors so I could see her but Evan and Erin kept moving them so I couldn't see and then they would cry because I would yell and tell them to stop. Longest car ride of my life.
But we made it home and we were ready to start our new life together. And I think Wes missed her too.
The past few days since them has gone so fast! We are settling in and dealing with middle of the night feedings, lots of diaper changes, pumping, supplementing with formula, keeping the big kids involved and happy and keeping a general sense of sanity. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I'm so happy they are here and healthy. I'm over the moon for all my kiddos.
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