We were scheduled to be induced on Monday, May 19th at 38 weeks and 1 day. This is the earliest they will induce someone with twins and we were anxiously awaiting the date on the calendar. It is still amazing to me how we spent 5 weeks doing everything we could to stop labor and then the last 2 weeks trying anything to restart it! I know that my time spent on bed rest helped keep our babies inside longer. The memories of pain, discomfort, and irritability are now a distant memory.
Monday morning we were set to come into the hospital at 6:00am but when we called ahead we were bumped to 7:30am but could still go to St. John's. This was one of our fears, that St. John's would be too full to take us but they had a spot for me and I could wait another 1.5 hours. Ben and I went out to breakfast at Perkins to enjoy our last meal as a family for two. We talked about our journey to get to this point and how excited we were to finally meet our children.
Arrived at the hospital at 7:25am (we were a little eager) and when we arrived it was like everything nurse knew us and our twins. They were all so excited that we had made it to 38 weeks. We were in room 15 at St. John's and it should have felt more real at that point but remember, we had been in several rooms there, for several reasons and it never resulted in babies in our arms. They started me on Pitocin and the contractions started coming a little stronger but it took hours to get anywhere exciting. We were joined at the hospital with my Mom and sister-in-law Magen with the rest of the family on standby. Somewhere around 2:00, the pain was taking a turn and I requested the epidural, knowing that this could take an hour to actually happen. At this point, I laughed at all the times I "thought I was in labor" because I was way off. The epidural process was pretty tough. I had back labor so badly at that point that the doctor was having a hard time testing the epidural. He really had to do his job in between my contractions, which were only 2-3 minutes. Once the epidural was in, things calmed down a lot. They had me lay on my side with the Peanut Ball...literally a giant ball the size of a peanut they put between your legs. This was to help Baby Boy get into a better position with the right part of this head coming out first.
At this point, Mom heads out into the hall to call Dad to let him know, "It will still be a while and we would keep him posted" but that changed quickly. They were having trouble tracking Baby Boy with external monitors so they were going to put something on the tip of his head. When the nurse went to do that, she looked surprised but told me I was "complete." GO TIME!!! The next 45 minutes went by super fast as we called my doctor, they prepped the Operating Room and I did some pushing. All twins are born in the operating room, incase they would need to come out quickly by c-section. My Mom, Ben and Magen got dressed in their gear and off we went to meet our babies.
I started pushing and it took about 2 hours for Baby Boy to arrive. Some things about labor were what I expected but others were a surprise. For example, an epidural can only take away pain but I was still feeling pressure. INTENSE pressure that can't be taken away unless you are completely numb which has issues of its own. This birth was a marathon to me...keep in mind that I had to delivery 2 babies so when the head of baby 1 is "almost out"...I am still only 40% done. I had to think long term about my Baby Girl still waiting to arrive. My team of nurses, my doctor and family support was incredible. They said that I was amazing but to be honest, I feel like I just did what I had to do. I had peace, strength, endurance and focus that only God can provide. We cracked jokes during labor, which is something I would totally do.
When Carter entered the world, the room stood still. Out came this beautiful, pink skinned, baby boy with dark curly hard just like his daddy. I was in awe but as a Momma of two...my first thought was one down and one to go. I would be able to fully relax and enjoy the experience until I knew both of my babies were safe. They put Carter right on my chest and with his little eyes, he looked right into my eyes and shifted his stare between myself and Ben. He was so alert and aware of the two of us. He came out looking completely clean, unlike what I was expected. He looked so incredibly healthy and I was in love.
Time for round two...at this point everything looked good and my doctor assured me that at that point, there were no signs that we were need to do a c-section for Baby Girl. I did ask her for more pain meds which I am sure most women delivering twins would do. I begged, offered suggestions that I have no training to do but I was pretty desperate to get more relief before I pushed for another unknown amount of time. She did her best to calm me down and compromise. We were just waiting to give Baby girl a little time to get into position. That time in between was full of Ben holding his Baby Boy, the both of us just staring at his face and I was trying to get my strength together for another birth. It didn't take long for me to feel like it was time to push and while everyone was busy around me, Baby Girl was VERY ready to come out and fast. Now, was the final stage for me and this is where I was ready to use everything I had left to get her out quickly. My fear was that she would get stuck and c-section for me. It was almost too quick because I was pushing really hard (I had this down pretty good by now) and so my oxygen levels would drop and so would Baby Girl's. I worked just as hard to push as I worked to calm myself down in-between pushes. It was a very odd emotional time because my son was in the world, being held 5 feet from me but I had to focus on his sister. I would look over at him with every push as motivation. After only 20 minutes of serious pushing, Elianna entered the world. They laid her on my chest, she didn't make a sound but looked me in the eyes. I feel like babies can see into your sole and that was our moment. Since she wasn't crying, they took her to get looked at but she just had some flem in her throat. Her water broke right before she came out and she may have swallowed some.
Finally, my two babies were in the world but as most of you know, that isn't the end. It was "repair" time and I was convinced whatever epidural I had, was gone. I won't go into details here and this is not intended to scare anyone but it was bad. This is the pain that I will remember for the rest of my life. At the very end, I had to ask someone to take the babies from me because I was in so much pain. I even asked for them to be taken out of the room so they would here their mom in this much pain. It didn't last long as all but it is part of my story. My recovery has been AMAZING and I am so glad I went with a vaginal birth. God knew this was the best route for me and I am so glad I made the choice.
The moment we left the OR, they put both babies in my arms and Ben was at my side. THIS was the moment I was waiting for. I felt so whole, complete, peaceful and a hundred other things. This was the moment that Satan had tried, repeatedly, to convince me...would never come. All the things about the birth of my children that I wanted and even things I didn't know I wanted, had happened. Just another example of my Jesus and how he will give me things I never even know I wanted.
"To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could hope or imagine" The scripture of this pregnancy.
We are home and doing very well. I want to share more with you about Elianna and Carter but I here them both getting ready to wake up. I also have BEAUTIFUL pictures to share that were taken by my sister Magen, so I will try to get those up soon.
I can't take credit for how amazing these children are. So many of you have been praying for them and look at what prayer can do? Obviously, I am bias but I think these are the most beautiful, perfect babies I have ever seen.
We would love your continued prayers and any other blessings you would send our way. Helping us out with meals right now is the absolute best way to bless us. Ben goes back to work on Tuesday and I am starting my role and super mom. Please contact us if you would like to bring a meal or have one delivered. You can also sign up to bring us a meal at this link: https://www.foodtidings.com/Schedule/View/56b9e32d-4d9e-4e2a-a0bf-3cba7ff3b744
Here are just a few pics from the photo shoot we had this week with the photographer from "Pictures to Pretties"
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