A lot of my friends have done this, and although I know it's often TMI for most people, I think there's something to be said about reflecting on going through childbirth and allowing your children to read it later as well. I never knew a lot of things about my Mother's experiences with her own five labor and deliveries until I was going through it myself, and I think I would have liked to know a bit! So here goes!
Twins usually come earlier than 38 weeks, which is the absolute cutoff that most doctors will let you go because of the risk of stillbirth. My twins did not. And not only did they not come early, they showed no signs (and neither did my body) of wanting to come out at all! At my 38 week OB appointment, the nurses were all shocked that I had made it that far. I thought that I should at least be progressing somewhat, but no. My cervix was completely closed and so high up the OB couldn't even find it! Awesome. So we decided that because both twins were head down we would try a few things to get my body to go into natural labor before opting for a c-section.
We scheduled my induction for a Thursday afternoon. At around six p.m. a nurse came in and administered cervidil, a cervical ripening agent. The next twelve hours were spent hoping my body would get the hint...so we waited. And waited. I felt nothing. We stayed up all night, wishing for actual contractions to begin, and although I often felt Braxton-Hicks as I has been feeling for weeks, nothing new seemed to be coming of the medication. At six a.m. the next morning, the nurse came to check me and said I was barely over 1 cm dilated. Which then begged the question, would that be enough?? The nurse said it was a close call, and that we needed to choose whether we'd try to go natural still or opt for the c-section. After careful consideration, we decided that a c-section would be our best option, since my body obviously didn't respond well to induction meds. We let the nurse know, and she informed my doctor when he arrived for the day. She returned, and told us the doctor wanted to check me himself and then chat with us a bit.
Ten minutes or so later, my wonderful, experienced Doc came in, and after checking me gave his informed opinion that i was actually a full 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. He was confident that with help from pitocin and breaking Twin A's water I would be able to deliver within eight hours. Without much time to decide, I asked if he was sure that I would be in the clear for a natural delivery, and while he reassured me of that, he went ahead and broke my water. I was a bit in shock! Here I had already mentally prepared myself for a c-section, and all of a sudden the plans changed. I think the nurses realized that I was overwhelmed and reminded me that I could still choose to do the c-section at any time. Once I calmed down a bit, I was of course thrilled to be doing a natural delivery, which is what I had wanted from the beginning.
They started me on pitocin at around seven thirty in the morning, and told me to let them know when I was ready for my epidural. My doctor had discussed with me that he felt that I should get an epidural no matter what to make sure that if things went unfavorably he could easily transition me to a c-section. At around nine thirty my contractions picked up, and I decided it was time. The anesthesiologist came in and the epidural was placed in minutes. Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't hydrated enough because my blood pressure and Baby A's heart rate plummeted. t was scary to see five nurses rush in, give me an oxygen mask, and put a monitor directly on Baby A's head! I had no idea what was happening, because the blood pressure drop made me super groggy, but I could see the look on Thomas's poor face! He was terrified! Luckily the problem was easily rectified by pumping me full of fluids, and all was well.
Things steadily progresses for the next several hours, and finally I was close to six centimeters dilated and almost 100% effaced! I was happy that things were going well, until I stared feeling a lot of pain again. The nurse told me that was normal, but if I wanted an extra dose in my epidural they could call the anesthesiologist to come give me a boost. I told her to pleas do that, haha! He came in and asked me if I was feeling sharp pain or just pressure, and I said while it wasn't necessarily sharp per se, It was very painful. He gave me the extra meds and left. About an hour later, the extra meds hadn't done anything and I was in more pain than ever due to the fact that my sciatic had begun spasaming with each contraction. Ouch! They called the anesthesiologist back in, where he did a few tests and realized that my epidural had completely failed! He felt kind of bad that he had doubted me earlier, so he was very nice this time and assured me that he would do whatever he could to make me more comfortable. We decided that instead of trying to see if the existing epidural could be used, we would go ahead and redo it. He came in very quickly with the equipment and after a grueling ten minutes of me sobbing on the bed trying to sit still as he pushed on my shoulders (which made my sciatic VERY angry) to get me into position, the new epidural was placed and I finally had some relief!
After that ordeal, I was ready for a little rest, but soon after the epidural kicked in, I was dilated to a 10 and fully effaced! The nurse went to check with the doctor to see if I was okay to push, and he agreed. This was at around 10:15 pm on Friday night. I had been in labor (or trying to go into labor) for over 24 hours. Pushing was so nice, because it finally felt like I could do something productive! My contractions were every few minutes, so we pushed with them for two hours straight. At around 12:15, Baby A was still not quite to the point that we could be transferred to the operating room (where they were going to do the actual delivery) and my contractions were beginning to dwindle. Like one every six or seven minutes. We continued to push for another half hour, but Baby A was stuck just behind my pelvic bone, and the contractions were too weak to really be of any help, so the doc took us into the OR and decided to use forceps to help get Baby A out.
We were wheeled into the OR, and not fifteen minutes later Baby A-a boy we named Griffin Shae-was born. He came on April 18th at 1:03 a.m., 5 lbs, 13 oz, 19 inches long. Shortly after he was born, they broke Baby B's water and used a vacuum to help deliver her. Baby B-a girl we named Winter Rose- was born at 1:13 a.m., she was 5 lbs even and 18 inches long. Both babies were healthy and screaming, and I got to hold both of them right away. They were perfect! I was in love! Winter was crying before Thomas set her on my chest, and then she immediately stopped when she heard my voice. It was a moment I'll never forget.
Now the fun starts! The doctor had been massaging my stomach this entire time, trying to get my placentas to release. No dice. They took the babies from me, and the doctor began to look worried. Apparently if your placenta doesn't come out quickly enough you are at high risk for hemorrhaging and other nasty things like infections. No bueno. I didn't know this at time, so I didn't understand the gravity of the situation until (at this point I will warn you, it gets a lot TMI if you want to stop reading...) the doctor PUT HIS WHOLE ARM INSIDE ME. Literally! He started manually removing (ripping) the placentas from my uterine wall. This was uncomfortable, to say the least! Even with a functioning epidural it was excruciating, to the point that I begged him to stop. They called that poor anesthesiologist down. He gave me enough pain medication to do an actual c-section, but instead of going into effect immediately, it took over ten minutes to have any effect on me. After that I don't recall anything, but apparently (I was told later) they ended up putting me into twilight sleep (like when you get your wisdom teeth out) because i was in so much discomfort.
I woke up two and a half hours later being wheeled back into my room, where my sweet, terrified husband had been doing a fantastic job of keeping it together and doing skin-to-skin with our precious newborns. I wasn't allowed to sit up to nurse them because they had doped me up so much that my blood pressure was dangerously low, but I held onto those little bundles as much as I could until they gave me the all clear to sit up and nurse. After that It was smooth sailing! My recovery has been a breeze due partly to the fact that they spent so much time scraping out my poor uterus! I know, gross.
Later the doc and the anesthesiologist both came in to check on me and explain exactly what had happened to me after I knocked out. We were all very grateful that we had decided to re-do the epidural, as without it they probably would have had to put me completely under anesthesia which would have been much more dangerous and had much worse effects for me. We were released on Sunday night, and life has been crazy and wonderful ever since!
Twins usually come earlier than 38 weeks, which is the absolute cutoff that most doctors will let you go because of the risk of stillbirth. My twins did not. And not only did they not come early, they showed no signs (and neither did my body) of wanting to come out at all! At my 38 week OB appointment, the nurses were all shocked that I had made it that far. I thought that I should at least be progressing somewhat, but no. My cervix was completely closed and so high up the OB couldn't even find it! Awesome. So we decided that because both twins were head down we would try a few things to get my body to go into natural labor before opting for a c-section.
We scheduled my induction for a Thursday afternoon. At around six p.m. a nurse came in and administered cervidil, a cervical ripening agent. The next twelve hours were spent hoping my body would get the hint...so we waited. And waited. I felt nothing. We stayed up all night, wishing for actual contractions to begin, and although I often felt Braxton-Hicks as I has been feeling for weeks, nothing new seemed to be coming of the medication. At six a.m. the next morning, the nurse came to check me and said I was barely over 1 cm dilated. Which then begged the question, would that be enough?? The nurse said it was a close call, and that we needed to choose whether we'd try to go natural still or opt for the c-section. After careful consideration, we decided that a c-section would be our best option, since my body obviously didn't respond well to induction meds. We let the nurse know, and she informed my doctor when he arrived for the day. She returned, and told us the doctor wanted to check me himself and then chat with us a bit.
Ten minutes or so later, my wonderful, experienced Doc came in, and after checking me gave his informed opinion that i was actually a full 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. He was confident that with help from pitocin and breaking Twin A's water I would be able to deliver within eight hours. Without much time to decide, I asked if he was sure that I would be in the clear for a natural delivery, and while he reassured me of that, he went ahead and broke my water. I was a bit in shock! Here I had already mentally prepared myself for a c-section, and all of a sudden the plans changed. I think the nurses realized that I was overwhelmed and reminded me that I could still choose to do the c-section at any time. Once I calmed down a bit, I was of course thrilled to be doing a natural delivery, which is what I had wanted from the beginning.
They started me on pitocin at around seven thirty in the morning, and told me to let them know when I was ready for my epidural. My doctor had discussed with me that he felt that I should get an epidural no matter what to make sure that if things went unfavorably he could easily transition me to a c-section. At around nine thirty my contractions picked up, and I decided it was time. The anesthesiologist came in and the epidural was placed in minutes. Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't hydrated enough because my blood pressure and Baby A's heart rate plummeted. t was scary to see five nurses rush in, give me an oxygen mask, and put a monitor directly on Baby A's head! I had no idea what was happening, because the blood pressure drop made me super groggy, but I could see the look on Thomas's poor face! He was terrified! Luckily the problem was easily rectified by pumping me full of fluids, and all was well.
Things steadily progresses for the next several hours, and finally I was close to six centimeters dilated and almost 100% effaced! I was happy that things were going well, until I stared feeling a lot of pain again. The nurse told me that was normal, but if I wanted an extra dose in my epidural they could call the anesthesiologist to come give me a boost. I told her to pleas do that, haha! He came in and asked me if I was feeling sharp pain or just pressure, and I said while it wasn't necessarily sharp per se, It was very painful. He gave me the extra meds and left. About an hour later, the extra meds hadn't done anything and I was in more pain than ever due to the fact that my sciatic had begun spasaming with each contraction. Ouch! They called the anesthesiologist back in, where he did a few tests and realized that my epidural had completely failed! He felt kind of bad that he had doubted me earlier, so he was very nice this time and assured me that he would do whatever he could to make me more comfortable. We decided that instead of trying to see if the existing epidural could be used, we would go ahead and redo it. He came in very quickly with the equipment and after a grueling ten minutes of me sobbing on the bed trying to sit still as he pushed on my shoulders (which made my sciatic VERY angry) to get me into position, the new epidural was placed and I finally had some relief!
After that ordeal, I was ready for a little rest, but soon after the epidural kicked in, I was dilated to a 10 and fully effaced! The nurse went to check with the doctor to see if I was okay to push, and he agreed. This was at around 10:15 pm on Friday night. I had been in labor (or trying to go into labor) for over 24 hours. Pushing was so nice, because it finally felt like I could do something productive! My contractions were every few minutes, so we pushed with them for two hours straight. At around 12:15, Baby A was still not quite to the point that we could be transferred to the operating room (where they were going to do the actual delivery) and my contractions were beginning to dwindle. Like one every six or seven minutes. We continued to push for another half hour, but Baby A was stuck just behind my pelvic bone, and the contractions were too weak to really be of any help, so the doc took us into the OR and decided to use forceps to help get Baby A out.
We were wheeled into the OR, and not fifteen minutes later Baby A-a boy we named Griffin Shae-was born. He came on April 18th at 1:03 a.m., 5 lbs, 13 oz, 19 inches long. Shortly after he was born, they broke Baby B's water and used a vacuum to help deliver her. Baby B-a girl we named Winter Rose- was born at 1:13 a.m., she was 5 lbs even and 18 inches long. Both babies were healthy and screaming, and I got to hold both of them right away. They were perfect! I was in love! Winter was crying before Thomas set her on my chest, and then she immediately stopped when she heard my voice. It was a moment I'll never forget.
Now the fun starts! The doctor had been massaging my stomach this entire time, trying to get my placentas to release. No dice. They took the babies from me, and the doctor began to look worried. Apparently if your placenta doesn't come out quickly enough you are at high risk for hemorrhaging and other nasty things like infections. No bueno. I didn't know this at time, so I didn't understand the gravity of the situation until (at this point I will warn you, it gets a lot TMI if you want to stop reading...) the doctor PUT HIS WHOLE ARM INSIDE ME. Literally! He started manually removing (ripping) the placentas from my uterine wall. This was uncomfortable, to say the least! Even with a functioning epidural it was excruciating, to the point that I begged him to stop. They called that poor anesthesiologist down. He gave me enough pain medication to do an actual c-section, but instead of going into effect immediately, it took over ten minutes to have any effect on me. After that I don't recall anything, but apparently (I was told later) they ended up putting me into twilight sleep (like when you get your wisdom teeth out) because i was in so much discomfort.
I woke up two and a half hours later being wheeled back into my room, where my sweet, terrified husband had been doing a fantastic job of keeping it together and doing skin-to-skin with our precious newborns. I wasn't allowed to sit up to nurse them because they had doped me up so much that my blood pressure was dangerously low, but I held onto those little bundles as much as I could until they gave me the all clear to sit up and nurse. After that It was smooth sailing! My recovery has been a breeze due partly to the fact that they spent so much time scraping out my poor uterus! I know, gross.
Later the doc and the anesthesiologist both came in to check on me and explain exactly what had happened to me after I knocked out. We were all very grateful that we had decided to re-do the epidural, as without it they probably would have had to put me completely under anesthesia which would have been much more dangerous and had much worse effects for me. We were released on Sunday night, and life has been crazy and wonderful ever since!
Holy delivery! So glad recovery has gone well for you!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds intense! I can just picture Thomas's face. You are brave to do the epidural twice and to go through such long labor. I'm glad you all are doing well!
ReplyDelete