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My planned c-section was scheduled for 1/15/18 (MLK Jr Day) and I honestly never thought I'd reach it. I just felt like twins are born early, I was feeling big and waddling everywhere - it was going to happen before we even got out of December. I could no longer fit into normal shoes or most of my maternity work clothes, so I had asked to work from home from 12/18 - on. Well, guess what? Made it to 1/15!! The section was scheduled for 9:30am and they wanted us there 2 hrs beforehand. I had had my bag mostly packed for a couple of weeks in case they did come early so that was easy to finish up. We were in no hurry in the morning - I couldn't eat or drink since midnight the night before and my husband just had coffee, I think.
As we were on our way to the hospital, I just kept thinking about how this would be the last trip as a pair. The next time we drove this route, we'd have our family of 4.
When we got to the hospital, we went up to Labor & Delivery and walked right in and were escorted to our room. We were greeted by the team of nurses that would be taking care of us that morning - Maunya, Laura and another (maybe Patty). Maunya handed me a johnny and a bag and said to go get changed, then they'd get the monitors on me to check everything and prep for the surgery. WOAH, this was fast! When the monitors were put on me, my BP was pretty high. I said 'yeah, I'm a little nervous!'
It wasn't a long wait to head into surgery. Everything was ready early so we headed in around 8:15/8:30. I went in by myself first so they could do the spinal. I sat up on the table and turned towards Maunya, who was my #1 for the day next to DH. She held my hand and let me put my head into her shoulder while they administered the spinal. I was most nervous about this part b/c I typically have to watch the needles going into me and this I couldn't see. And then to be injecting into my spinal cord on top of that - just sounds dicey! The anesthesiologists were commenting on how my back was swelling and Maunya stated that this was probably the perfect day to have the boys, with my BP going up and swelling starting everywhere. I agreed, but I think both of those were caused by my nerves. I was simply jittering!
Maunya just spoke softly and kindly to me, reminding me that we've been through SO MUCH to get our babies, and they were only minutes away from being with us in the flesh. Just this last little bit and we'd hold them in our arms. I'm tearing up remembering!
After the spinal was done, it didn't take long for my toes and feet to start to tingle, so I laid down. Only a few minutes later were they able to run an ice cube up my side and I couldn't feel it. Someone was pinching me too and I couldn't feel that so we were ready to go! They escorted DH into the room and sat him next to my head. They got some music going and the anesthesiologist nurse (AN) got to her station right above my head. All docs and nurse teams were ready to go - one for each baby! Dr Albushies lead the charge with Dr LeClair and they started to work after saying their hellos! The AN kept softly walking me through everything - I was going to hear 'incision' and 'uteran incision' and such and that's just them calling out the steps they are doing. Then I was going to feel lots of pressure on my mid-section as they worked the babies out. She said it was going to be like a tube of toothpaste being squirted - they apply pressure at the top and kinda squeeze the babies out downward.
Baby A was first, of course, and I hear cute little Dr Albushies ask, 'What is baby A's name?' and we said 'Timothy!'. There was a pause and we hear her say 'Happy birthday, Timothy!!!' so I knew he was out! He was handed off to a team and they worked on him b/c he didn't immediately cry out. They sucked the fluids out of him and we finally heard him. Only a minute later, we said Baby B's name and we hear 'Happy birthday, Malcolm!!' and we heard his cry immediately! I was tearing up. They were able to lay him on me after a quick check but were still working on Mr. Timothy to pinken him up. Malcolm got all bundled up and was handed to DH and they asked if he wanted to hold Timothy at the same time. He was very nervous so he declined, but he went to see him. Our boys were here and they were big and healthy - Timothy weighed 7.05 and was 20" long, and Malcolm was 6.03 and was 19" long. BIG BOYS for twins!! I can't believe I had 13.5lbs of baby in me! Everyone in the room was commenting and congratulating me for carrying them to full term and making big babies!
While all of this is going on, my uterus decided to be lazy and not contract fast enough on its own. I started to lose blood when the contractions were not happening and I lost 1/2 of my body's blood. The doctors were working hard on me, the teams were somewhat ready for this to happen. I had to have a blood transfusion - 4 bags - and all the fluids in the world, it felt like. The docs had to manually contract my uterus to get it to stop flowing blood. DH and the boys were brought to our room while the teams continued to work on me. I could hear the AN saying that my vitals were all rock solid, though, so I wasn't terribly worried. With all of the fluids they were pushing into me, I kinda went into my own little corner of my mind and just stayed there silently while people worked on me. I then got the shakes, which should really be called the violent tremors. I was shaking myself off the table, it felt like. They put what's called a Bear Hug on me - a plastic encasement where they stuck a tube of hot blowing air into and warmed me up. That helped but I was still shivering something fierce. I think I stayed that way for about an hour - I was SO physically tired from that afterwards.
The docs were able to stop the bleeding and get me sewn up and transferred back to my room finally around 11:30am I think. In there waiting was the nursing team, and all 3 of my men. They placed the babies on me to get skin to skin finally and I have one of my most favorite pictures. I could not believe the hair they both had! Hello heartburn causers!
They were the sweetest things I had ever seen and it was surreal to see them in the flesh after having felt them moving around so much in me for months now.
I had DH text my family who was on their way up from NC to tell them we were all good. It was well beyond the time we would have normally texted them if all things went well so I didnt want anyone to worry. I was definitely in a daze for the rest of the time and they had us stay in L&D for 24 hrs instead of the usual 2 before moving us to Maternity. I was monitored and checked in on almost hourly, I had an oxygen tube up my nose to re-oxygenate my new blood (I think), I was swollen to the gills and had to have these compression blow-up pillows around my legs. Super cute.
After 24 hrs, we were excused from L&D and wheeled out and over to Maternity. We got to ring the bell in L&D twice before we left, for both births and our graduation! The bell rings all over the whole hospital.
We decided to let the nursery help us out at night, so they took the babies when we wanted to sleep but we stayed on a 2.5 hr schedule. So every 2.5 hrs, theyd wheel the babies in and wed feed. Malcolm didnt take to latching on me but Timothy did, so DH fed Malcolm with a syringe and I fed Timothy. Wed do skin to skin when we could we could not get enough of these little boys. Just hanging out with them during the day while watching The Office reruns, we were content. Our family was complete.
We had some visitors but not many, which was great with us. We were so sleep deprived already! However, at 6am one morning, I couldnt sleep so I got up to walk around and try to get the healing process going. So I took a trip to the pantry and a walk around the Maternity ward. I was still a little loopy but it was good to get up and about. The nursery was in the middle of the maternity ward so I was able to see the boys. One of the nurses was holding Malcolm and came out so I could see him. He was so snug all swaddled up and clearly enjoying being held. Everyone had called him a Mamas boy in the hospital b/c hed scream when taken from me but weve since realized hes just a snuggle bum and didnt want to be removed from the snuggle at all. I gave him a little kiss on the cheek and got a little smile from him SWOON!
My recovery seemed to be going really well so they did not tack on another day for us, which was good. My incision was healing well, though the initial cut point hurt very badly. The doc said to try to ignore it and just take pain meds, as it was an incision point and was going to hurt. Its expected. The last day there, we looted the room with the guidance from our nurse, bundled the boys up and got out by around 1pm.
That's our story! It's been an absolute joy since then and we are so very lucky to have two beautiful and healthy baby boys. They light up our world with every breath they take. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth, after all we went through to get them, to have such a happy ending.
As we were on our way to the hospital, I just kept thinking about how this would be the last trip as a pair. The next time we drove this route, we'd have our family of 4.
When we got to the hospital, we went up to Labor & Delivery and walked right in and were escorted to our room. We were greeted by the team of nurses that would be taking care of us that morning - Maunya, Laura and another (maybe Patty). Maunya handed me a johnny and a bag and said to go get changed, then they'd get the monitors on me to check everything and prep for the surgery. WOAH, this was fast! When the monitors were put on me, my BP was pretty high. I said 'yeah, I'm a little nervous!'
It wasn't a long wait to head into surgery. Everything was ready early so we headed in around 8:15/8:30. I went in by myself first so they could do the spinal. I sat up on the table and turned towards Maunya, who was my #1 for the day next to DH. She held my hand and let me put my head into her shoulder while they administered the spinal. I was most nervous about this part b/c I typically have to watch the needles going into me and this I couldn't see. And then to be injecting into my spinal cord on top of that - just sounds dicey! The anesthesiologists were commenting on how my back was swelling and Maunya stated that this was probably the perfect day to have the boys, with my BP going up and swelling starting everywhere. I agreed, but I think both of those were caused by my nerves. I was simply jittering!
Maunya just spoke softly and kindly to me, reminding me that we've been through SO MUCH to get our babies, and they were only minutes away from being with us in the flesh. Just this last little bit and we'd hold them in our arms. I'm tearing up remembering!
After the spinal was done, it didn't take long for my toes and feet to start to tingle, so I laid down. Only a few minutes later were they able to run an ice cube up my side and I couldn't feel it. Someone was pinching me too and I couldn't feel that so we were ready to go! They escorted DH into the room and sat him next to my head. They got some music going and the anesthesiologist nurse (AN) got to her station right above my head. All docs and nurse teams were ready to go - one for each baby! Dr Albushies lead the charge with Dr LeClair and they started to work after saying their hellos! The AN kept softly walking me through everything - I was going to hear 'incision' and 'uteran incision' and such and that's just them calling out the steps they are doing. Then I was going to feel lots of pressure on my mid-section as they worked the babies out. She said it was going to be like a tube of toothpaste being squirted - they apply pressure at the top and kinda squeeze the babies out downward.
Baby A was first, of course, and I hear cute little Dr Albushies ask, 'What is baby A's name?' and we said 'Timothy!'. There was a pause and we hear her say 'Happy birthday, Timothy!!!' so I knew he was out! He was handed off to a team and they worked on him b/c he didn't immediately cry out. They sucked the fluids out of him and we finally heard him. Only a minute later, we said Baby B's name and we hear 'Happy birthday, Malcolm!!' and we heard his cry immediately! I was tearing up. They were able to lay him on me after a quick check but were still working on Mr. Timothy to pinken him up. Malcolm got all bundled up and was handed to DH and they asked if he wanted to hold Timothy at the same time. He was very nervous so he declined, but he went to see him. Our boys were here and they were big and healthy - Timothy weighed 7.05 and was 20" long, and Malcolm was 6.03 and was 19" long. BIG BOYS for twins!! I can't believe I had 13.5lbs of baby in me! Everyone in the room was commenting and congratulating me for carrying them to full term and making big babies!
While all of this is going on, my uterus decided to be lazy and not contract fast enough on its own. I started to lose blood when the contractions were not happening and I lost 1/2 of my body's blood. The doctors were working hard on me, the teams were somewhat ready for this to happen. I had to have a blood transfusion - 4 bags - and all the fluids in the world, it felt like. The docs had to manually contract my uterus to get it to stop flowing blood. DH and the boys were brought to our room while the teams continued to work on me. I could hear the AN saying that my vitals were all rock solid, though, so I wasn't terribly worried. With all of the fluids they were pushing into me, I kinda went into my own little corner of my mind and just stayed there silently while people worked on me. I then got the shakes, which should really be called the violent tremors. I was shaking myself off the table, it felt like. They put what's called a Bear Hug on me - a plastic encasement where they stuck a tube of hot blowing air into and warmed me up. That helped but I was still shivering something fierce. I think I stayed that way for about an hour - I was SO physically tired from that afterwards.
The docs were able to stop the bleeding and get me sewn up and transferred back to my room finally around 11:30am I think. In there waiting was the nursing team, and all 3 of my men. They placed the babies on me to get skin to skin finally and I have one of my most favorite pictures. I could not believe the hair they both had! Hello heartburn causers!
They were the sweetest things I had ever seen and it was surreal to see them in the flesh after having felt them moving around so much in me for months now. I had DH text my family who was on their way up from NC to tell them we were all good. It was well beyond the time we would have normally texted them if all things went well so I didnt want anyone to worry. I was definitely in a daze for the rest of the time and they had us stay in L&D for 24 hrs instead of the usual 2 before moving us to Maternity. I was monitored and checked in on almost hourly, I had an oxygen tube up my nose to re-oxygenate my new blood (I think), I was swollen to the gills and had to have these compression blow-up pillows around my legs. Super cute.
After 24 hrs, we were excused from L&D and wheeled out and over to Maternity. We got to ring the bell in L&D twice before we left, for both births and our graduation! The bell rings all over the whole hospital.
We decided to let the nursery help us out at night, so they took the babies when we wanted to sleep but we stayed on a 2.5 hr schedule. So every 2.5 hrs, theyd wheel the babies in and wed feed. Malcolm didnt take to latching on me but Timothy did, so DH fed Malcolm with a syringe and I fed Timothy. Wed do skin to skin when we could we could not get enough of these little boys. Just hanging out with them during the day while watching The Office reruns, we were content. Our family was complete.
We had some visitors but not many, which was great with us. We were so sleep deprived already! However, at 6am one morning, I couldnt sleep so I got up to walk around and try to get the healing process going. So I took a trip to the pantry and a walk around the Maternity ward. I was still a little loopy but it was good to get up and about. The nursery was in the middle of the maternity ward so I was able to see the boys. One of the nurses was holding Malcolm and came out so I could see him. He was so snug all swaddled up and clearly enjoying being held. Everyone had called him a Mamas boy in the hospital b/c hed scream when taken from me but weve since realized hes just a snuggle bum and didnt want to be removed from the snuggle at all. I gave him a little kiss on the cheek and got a little smile from him SWOON! My recovery seemed to be going really well so they did not tack on another day for us, which was good. My incision was healing well, though the initial cut point hurt very badly. The doc said to try to ignore it and just take pain meds, as it was an incision point and was going to hurt. Its expected. The last day there, we looted the room with the guidance from our nurse, bundled the boys up and got out by around 1pm.
That's our story! It's been an absolute joy since then and we are so very lucky to have two beautiful and healthy baby boys. They light up our world with every breath they take. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth, after all we went through to get them, to have such a happy ending.
they sound adorable
Youre superwoman! Im still elated that you have your very handsome little men. 
