This post was hard to write.

What a whirlwind... this experience has been unreal in the best way. This post has taken me 1.5 weeks to write. Partially because there's so much to tell but partially because of the healing process both physically and emotionally. But here goes...!

I went on medical leave from work 2 weeks ago (Feb 19th). When I made the decision, some thought it was a bit early bc I was only 33 weeks. But something told me it was time for me to step back at work. I was miserable, physically, in a lot of pain in my ribs, hands/wrists, swelling terribly. And I was not providing the value to my teams that they deserved. Of course, the last day of work, I was in the hospital that night with contractions! The contractions were stopped and I was sent home at 2am after getting fluids. It was unexpected, but it confirmed I made the right decision to take off work when I did. 

So on my first days off, I was experiencing the ‘nesting’ phase. Huge urge to clean/organize. Did lots of errands in those days.  But I have been thru all this before so I knew what to expect. The babies had dropped though which gave me a huge sense of relief and let me breathe better. Randomly, something told me I needed to get care for Mady on this first Thursday off because my best friend was getting married Saturday and I knew I needed to rest up all day Friday for it. I had a busy day w my girls taking them to dr apts, meeting the Boyfriend for lunch at the OG (Olive Garden) that Thursday. 

That night, I was sitting on the couch with the Boyfriend having some intense contractions around 6:30. By 7:30 I called the Dr - contractions were 10 min apart for an hour.  He told me to go into the hospital to get them stopped, mostly because you don't want to take a chance of going into labor at home with twins. By 8:30 pm, we were in the labor/delivery room. The IPs showed up as well, even though I told them they didn’t have to come - we’d been thru this a week prior - I was just gonna get fluids, maybe meds and be sent home again. 

When we got there, the contractions were still regular and intense. I was 2 cm dilated - I was 34W3D (34 weeks, 3 days) so my Dr had not even started checking my cervix yet during my visits so that was unexpected to here but not surprising. As I have told you... this pregnancy has been different than any of my others - 2 is exponentially more than 1!!! Well, I started to get fluids again as expected and tried my best to rest. The babies were moving around so much that it was really hard for my sweet nurse to keep them on the heart monitors. And... what is it about hospital ice chips!? I love that dang "Sonic style" ice. I couldn't get enough of them when I was at the hospital! So the timeline of events is a little iffy for me because I was given some pain meds thru the night Thursday and can't quite keep track of what happened. But I'll do my best. 

So we got to the hospital and the IPs arrived just as we did. (We being me and the boyfriend - of which - there's no way I could have made it thru all of this without him, he deserves a medal!) We got fluids and did some monitoring. The contracts intensity did not ease at all. Dr. wanted me to get fluids and they consulted the high-risk Dr that was on call to see what he recommended. During this time, they checked my cervix and also did an ultrasounds to confirm that both babies were still breech. So we knew we needed to slow these contractions. 

After a couple of hours they tried giving me some meds, this was around midnight. The meds, I think was Pro-cardia?, was 1 pill every 20 min then a final one an hour after. We were told I was definitely not going to leave tonight. Since this was my 2nd trip to the hospital they were not sure I'd even leave before we had the babies. At this point, around 1am, one of the IPs and the boyfriend decided to leave and go get some sleep in their beds. We knew we were in for the long haul. The IP who stayed pulled out the couch bed and tried to get some rest. We were all exhausted. 

I had my cervix checked again before trying to get some rest and about 20 minutes later the nurse came back in (now just before 2am) and says - and I remember this because it sobered me up quick from the pain meds - "Hey, you need to go ahead and get your people to come back. Dr. Stinson will be here in about an hour and we'll have a C-section at 3am. It was the fastest I have ever come out of a fog, I was like – Wait… What? Are you sure? (As if the nurse wasn't sure, she was the only logical one! haha!). I woke up the IP who was asleep on the couch - by calling their name about 5 times, then when they woke, startled, I said "Everything is OK! But we need to get our people back up here. Dr. Stinson wants to do a C-section at 3am" and we kind of all immediately started down our contact list. I called the boyfriend. He had just gotten home and in bed. May have been asleep for 10-15 min. He got his clothes back on and his pants were still warm, that's how quick this all was. I also started down the list of text messages saying BABIES ARE COMING TONIGHT!

I have to admit. I was pretty nervous about the C-section I was about to have. I have only ever had 1 surgery and the anesthesia did not treat me well. I was so happy to see boyfriend show back up. He was a welcomed calming presence. His parents, who have also been key in taking good care of me thru the pregnancy, also arrived! I was surprised to see them! We were now just getting me prepped and waiting on the other IP and the Dr to show up. Nervously waiting. 

When it was time, I had to say bye to boyfriend. He and his parents waited in the waiting area while the IPs and I wheeled back into the OR. I was terrified, excited! But terrified. Everything is happening! Way faster than we planned, I thought we still had a few weeks before babies got here, and now, they're coming!! Now, don't be fooled... I was so big and was hurting from how big they were getting, but I wasn't ready for them to come out. We didn't know if they would have to be in the NICU, we didn't know if they were big enough, we didn't know if they would have breathing issues, all things we've been worried about. I went into the OR and was freezing, I was scared. My nurse who had been with me all night was in there with me and helped me get my epidural. As soon as that was in, they laid me down and went to work immediately. They expose pretty much your whole body when they start - in case you didn't know, there's NO MODESTY in having babies. And you really don't care. You're just after 1 goal - to have healthy babies and not harm yourself in the process. So, when you have a C-section, you have to get a catheter and get shaved and swabbed down so they can prep your skin. It’s crazy everything they do! They put the fabric shield up immediately so I couldn't see what they were doing (not that I probably wanted to see?) and the IPs were seated at my head on my left side, the side where my IV was. My right arm was also stretched out and had monitors on it as well. I was so cold, still, so they covered me up with warm blankets. 

So they quickly got thru the prep and they got me open. I had an anesthesiologist by my head monitoring me the whole time. I had low blood counts before we got started so my Dr had ordered blood for me before we even began. But quickly after he had me open, I felt so much pressure on my chest and I instantly felt weak and light headed. I was already scared but at that point, I really thought I was going to pass out. But the CNA told me, if you're talking to me you're OK. So tell me what you're thinking... and the IPs started telling me what was happening as one of them was watching. And he talked me thru the play by play, who was born, what they were doing, etc. 

Baby boy was born first. He had a good pair of lungs! We heard his sweet voice and all of us teared up - I tear up as I type about it. I was so happy to hear him cry because I knew his lungs were good if he cried. Baby girl took 2 more minutes, but she also came out and cried, not as loud as brother but she still sounded great!!! The IPs were holding my hand the whole time and I'm so glad they did... this was such a special experience. I couldn't be happier that I got to watch them watch their children be born. I loved to see the love in their face. 

Now, after the babies came out, I honestly don't remember what happened clearly. I was very weak and needed to get blood. I wasn't able to look around much because I was so dizzy and I just needed to recover. The only thing I remembered was asking for the boyfriend over and over. From asking him, the IPs and boyfriend's parents, I pieced together that I went back to labor/delivery room that I was in previously and I got 2 bags of blood, more fluids, pain meds (hence i remember very little) and I was there for a few hours while they stabilized me. Boyfriend came back to the room and was with me till he had to go to work. His parents came back eventually and the IPs were able to go be with the twins after they were stabilized. Sorry that I don't have much more info. HAHA! None of us really slept tho Thursday night or Friday. We were kind of all on an adrenaline high. 

I'm going to end this post here as its mega long. I'll write another one soon about what's happened since (because there's lots of good stories there!) but I will leave you all with some beautiful pics of me with these sweet babies at 2 days old (with permission from the IPs) and wish you all a great day. More to come soon!!