Delivering Twins

So I decided to start from the beginning…

I’ll start from when I was transferred to the other hospital that had enough beds for both the girls and myself.

I was transferred in on that Thursday afternoon, the 20th. Once I arrived I was brought to the induction ward for some monitoring. 3 hours after I arrived I had a doctor come in and check my cervix….it was completely closed but pretty soft. They went ahead and inserted a tablet to soften the cervix and hopefully get it to open up. That evening Jesse and I walked outside of the hospital for a LONG time, trying to help things get moving. Jesse wasn’t able to stay with me since I was in a ward, despite being the only one in there. He left that evening and I was left to sleep.

{reading “The Help” to pass the time}

I was supposed to get checked at midnight to see if anything had happened “down there” & have another tablet put in my cervix but was then told that they didn’t want to get things started in the middle of the night when they could potentially get busy. Around 3am I started getting some contractions. They weren’t horrible, just annoying enough to keep me awake since they were coming about every 10 minutes.

I was supposed to get checked at 9am & my contractions were now coming about ever 5-7 minutes so I told Jesse he should head up just in case. Jesse got there and I hadn’t seen anyone. A midwife came in to do some monitoring but we kept getting told the doctor would come in “soon.”

Around 5pm that evening we finally saw a doctor. Apparently they had gotten slammed with emergency deliveries so they didn’t want to get me started and then not have a theatre (operating room) for me & the girls. At this point I was pretty pissed off, as I had been in a hospital for 2 days and all I wanted was someone to tell me what the hell was going on. *excuse my language* If someone would have just kept us informed I wouldn’t have been so irritated, but no one seemed to find the time to do that.

6pm the doctor came in to check me – I was about 3cm and she was able to break my water. After that I was finally transferred to my own delivery room. Once there I had my own midwife specifically for me & things went pretty smoothly. They let me just labor naturally until I decided to have my epidural. I probably go the epidural sooner than I had to, but with Lucas I got the epidural just an hour before I had him so I definitely didn’t want that to happen with the twins.

I got my epidural probably around 11pm or so. I got so freaked out bc when he was putting the line in, he hit something and I jumped so bad. He had to take it out and re-insert it and I was trying not to freak. I had been up almost 24hrs at this point so I was exhausted. Once the epi was in Jesse & I tried to get some rest. Around 1am or so I started getting really sick. This happened to me with Cohen. I’m pretty sure it was due to the exhaustion & nerves. I threw up so many times, started getting the shakes so bad that my teeth literally hurt for days after I had the girls & then I started to feel the contractions on my right side. The midwife came in and I told her that the contractions weren’t just full of pressure like normal but they were actually very painful. She went to get a top-up for the epi & when inserting it realized that my epi line had actually come undone and was leaking on the bed which is why I could feel the contractions. How awesome is that?!

I got the line inserted again & she checked me about 3am. After she checked me she told me I was a 10!!! Whoohoo! She said Livia’s head was still a little high so she’d give us an hour to let her head come down & get the theatre ready for delivery!! I threw up a few more times at this point but then got better when we were closer to going into the delivery room. We headed in around 430am. After getting all settled in it was time to push.

I told her that I pushed Lucas out in just 3 pushes so she needed to be ready….well she found out I wasn’t a liar. I pushed one time and she told me to stop. The pediatric docs hadn’t arrived and Livia was already coming out! The docs arrived and Livia literally just slid out. They plopped her on my chest and I just rubbed her little head – she let all of us know she was in the room. After a few snuggles they had to take her off to do their checks & I had another little one to deliver! I was only allowed 20 minutes from after I delivered Livia to deliver Abigail. They did an ultrasound to check her position & found they’d have to turn her. So they went in & turned her and during contractions I had to push while they pulled her little feet. I pushed just a few times and she was out.

She came out limp & unresponsive. They brought her over to the beds & put some oxygen on her and we finally heard a cry. To be honest, I wasn’t scared that she wouldn’t cry. I’ve watched enough birth stories to know that it happens & to not freak out. The girls were born just 16 minutes apart, I didn’t tear or have to get cut & I delivered twins vaginally!

To those of you who are told you HAVE to deliver your twins by csection – that is not true. The doctors prefer that method bc it’s easier for them. Let me just tell you, taking care of twins is no joke….and having to do it after a major surgery – I’m not so sure I could have done it. I mean, I know I would have – but it would have been miserable & painful. I HIGHLY suggest trying for a vaginal delivery with your multiples if Baby A is head down & you haven’t had any other complications.

Next post: Post-Delivery / Special Care Baby Unit