So here it is, folks, the story of how it all happened. ML and I like to joke now about how we met at UConn, we got our degrees from UConn, we work at UConn, we got married at UConn and now…we had our children at UConn. I gotta get these girls some UConn t-shirts already!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
It was the morning of my 12th day on hospital bed rest at the UConn Health Center since my water had broken prematurely. We all knew I could go into labor at any time, but it was still such a shock when it did.
I had a quiet night of sleep and during the night none of our testing showed any signs of distress for the babies or me. ML had spent the night at the hospital with me. Around 7:00 a.m. I woke up to use the bathroom and brush my teeth. As I walked from the sink to my bed (about 6 steps) I felt a kind of gurgling sensation in my lower belly, then a gush of warm water, the same gush I felt when my water broke almost two weeks prior. As instructed, I called the nurse to alert her that something was up. She came in to check on me and she decided to hook me up to the monitors to see what was going on with the babies. She thought it would be a quick half-hour test, so ML went down to the cafeteria and got us some bagels with cream cheese. However, the nurse called the doctors and they recommended that I remain hooked up to the monitors for a couple of hours. When ML returned with the bagels she still assured me that I could eat them soon as the test was over.
With all this excitement, ML made it through about 1/2 of one bagel, I drank an orange juice and settled in for a long nonstress test. The babies’ heart rates were great and within their normal ranges, beating strong. Within the first few minutes though, I noticed contractions showing up on my monitor. And this time I could feel them. During past episodes with preterm labor I was never able to actually feel a contraction, even though the monitor showed that I was having them. This time was different. They were mild at first, like gas pains. After a short time, however, they were no longer mild and quickly escalated to something in the neighborhood of horrific pain and discomfort.
The doctors told the nurse to insert an IV into my arm to administer fluids to see if that would slow the contractions. She STILL sounded hopeful that things would calm down and I’d be eating breakfast in no time. The fluids did not work as intended. The time between each contraction seemed to lessen to almost nothing. Between each peak of intense discomfort there remained a constant ache and there was hardly any relief. I went from heavy breathing through each contraction to moaning and growling through each contraction within about an hour. The nurse reported to the doctors that my pain was intensifying, not lessening at all.
A huge team of doctors showed up. They asked me where my pain was on a scale of 1-10. I hate the 1-10 scale to measure how I feel. It’s so subjective. My 4 could be someone else’s 7. So I told them I was about a 4 or 5. They were like really, are you sure? Then another contraction started so I said, “ok, ok, it’s more like a 5 or 6 at least.” They all looked around at each other and agreed that I should go immediately to labor and delivery for an ultrasound. They told me they wanted me to deliver vaginally since Baby A has been in the perfect position for this and was nearest to my cervix. Baby B was not in such a great position (sideways across the top of my belly), but they were confident they could get her into the right position to move her out once her sister was delivered and there was more room for her to move.
I was detached from the monitors and placed in a wheelchair with my IVs in tow. ML packed up our valuables and we trekked down the hall to the labor and delivery unit, back to the same room I arrived in 12 days prior. A new set of nurses hooked me up to monitors and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. By this time it was about 10:00 a.m. or so. The doctors were still not sure if I was going to deliver or not. They still wanted to watch and see if my contractions subsided. So I continued with excruciating contractions for at least another hour.
And since the doctors were not sure if I was delivering, ML and I were unsure if we should call the family. We decided that he should at least call my sister and give her a heads up. We would call again if this was the real thing. Well, in the time it took to make that phone call, I had an ultrasound and received an internal exam that showed me to be already 5cm dilated and ready to rock. So more phone calls were made, the family was on the way up, and I was prepped for the birth! ML got to put on scrubs!
Since I was having twins, they brought me straight to the operating room, there would be no pretty birthing room with bath tubs and midwives for me. Right away I met the anaesthesiologist who had to make some serious decisions and QUICK. With lightning speed, they determined that I needed and epidural catheter regardless of my mode of delivery. In the case that they couldn’t get Baby B out vaginally, they would have to do a c-section. Having the epidural catheter in place would allow them to adjust the medication to accommodate surgery within moments.
They examined me again in the OR and I was already fully dilated and would have to start pushing soon. (Yes, I made it to fully dilated BEFORE any pain meds were administered.) They needed to get that epidural in there quickly. By this time I was fully screaming with each contraction. Usually an epidural is administered way before this stage, but my labor progressed aggressively in the last hour. It was a really close call and I almost had to deliver without any anaesthesia! Thankfully, we got everything worked out, the epidural was administered and within moments I was feeling amazing relief. I barely got to relax and enjoy this sweet relief before they told me it was time to start pushing.
Just to give you a time frame – at this point in the story it was just before 12 noon. So I went from nothing at 7:00 a.m. to pushing out the first baby around 12 noon. Talk about zero to sixty!!
I looked around the room and noticed another doctor waiting by the door on the far side of the room. I asked my labor and delivery doctors who he was. He was a neonatal pediatrician and he’s the guy that would be taking Baby A off to the NICU. Then I noticed a whole team of doctors looking through the windows from the adjoining room. There were two neonatal teams waiting to spring into action as soon as each baby was born. They would perform assessments and whisk the babies off to the NICU and get them started on any treatments they would need.
Since I was happily medicated, I couldn’t feel contractions anymore so the doctors helped me to know when to push. Each time they felt a contraction come on, they would coach me to take a deep breath and push for ten seconds. We would do three pushes in a row and take a break. I felt absolutely nothing with each push! I wasn’t even sure if I was pushing, but the doctors assured me that I was doing great! Great job! You’re doing awesome! After about 5 sets of 3 big pushes, at 12:22 p.m., at 3 pounds, 5 ounces, Amanda Jane was born and she came out screaming! We caught a glimpse of her as she was shipped off to meet the neonatologists.
Without any pause, the doctors started to work on getting Baby B into position for her big entrance into this world. Now that Amanda was out, there was plenty of room to get Baby B to move. Or so they thought. After about 20 minutes of the doctors’ attempts, both externally and internally, to move her from her sideways position into a head-first position so she could be pushed out, they threw in the towel. Baby B was having none of that! She was happy to have all this womb space to herself and she was not moving out. She was nice and comfy up in my rib cage and not going to cooperate, thankyouverymuch. The doctors reluctantly gave in and said, OK, we are going to have to do a C-Section. At that point I was more relieved that the doctors were going to stop man-handling me. All of the pressing on my skin from the outside was pretty rough and was probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole delivery process, if you can believe that. I was left with some decent bruises and even cuts from where the doctor pushed so hard on my skin.
So I was prepped for surgery, which seemed to take no time at all. The anaesthesiologist adjusted my medication and the doctors quickly revamped the room to accommodate the procedure. And then I saw something that was absolutely, for me, the worst part of the whole experience and I had to turn my head away or else I would have surely gotten sick. I watched the nurses pick up my legs from the stirrups and lay them flat on the operating room table. I had no feeling in my legs, hips, or anything connected to that area of my body, so it was like watching someone else’s legs being moved – all jiggly and lifeless – but I knew in my mind they were my legs. It was sickening to watch this happen so I had to look away. Then they put up a curtain between my head and the rest of my body so that ML and I couldn’t watch the surgery. I was awake for the whole thing, but had no real idea of what was going on except for some pulling sensations on my numb skin. I got a couple of play-by-play announcements from the nurses and the anaesthesiologist, but otherwise, the c-section went by in a blur.
I held ML’s hand through the whole thing and after only a few moments, at 12:58pm at 3 pounds, 2 ounces, Jillian Ashley was born! Just like her sister, she was taken away by the NICU doctors immediately. We didn’t get a glimpse of her because of the curtain, but the anaesthesiologist offered to take a photo which came out all blurry. That’s probably for the best – no one wants to see the baby with my insides in the background. The next hour or so was spent finishing up my surgery and getting me stitched up. After it was over, they wheeled me into the recovery room where we were joined by my family. After about an hour, everyone except for ML left so I could rest. Then after about 2 hours of recovery, by the time I could wiggle my toes again and move my legs a little bit, they wheeled me, bed and all, up to the NICU so ML and I could get our first look at our beautiful daughters! Here’s what they looked like:
We had a brief visit and took a few photos of the babies and then I got wheeled back into the same old room at the hospital where this long, long day started. Wouldn’t you know, those bagels were still waiting for us when we got back? 
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
