The following was written weeks later in October, but it happened on September 13th!.....
After my doctor appointment on the morning of September 13th, as I was typing an update for the blog and scanning in our ultrasound photos to post, I got a phone call from my OBGYN. He said that more traces of protein were found in my urine from my urine sample I gave that morning. He asked me to come back in for a blood test and also to pick up supplies for a 24 hour urine sample.
I went back to the clinic and gave the blood sample and picked up the big plastic container to collect my pee for the next 24 hours. How fun! I arrived back home and urinated and collected my first sample! (Eeww!)
About an hour later, my doc called back again saying, “Well…you are having those babies today. We need you to come in because you’ll either be induced or have a c-section.” WHAT? I was in shock, to say the least. It was amazing to go from such a great doctor’s appointment just a few hours earlier, not thinking we’d have these babies for probably 3 more weeks - to suddenly being told to come right in and they’d be delivered as soon as possible.
He began explaining to me that my platelet levels were low from my blood test. He said around 140,000 are “normal” and mine were at 84,000. He said this was HELPP syndrome, which would lead to preeclampsia. HELLP syndrome stand for hemolysis - elevated liver enzymes - low platelet count.In HELLP syndrome, the mother’s liver may bleed and hemorrhage. (Not good!!) The only effective treatment is prompt delivery of the baby. If my levels dropped to 50,000, it would cause bleeding problems. He told me that it wasn’t dangerous right now and that was why we needed to have the babies come out in the next 12-24 hours, before it could change. He said it’d be our decision to either be induced or to decide on a c-section. Although he did caution that long labor would not be good with a bleeding issue. (And come to find out later that the Anesthesiologist only recommended the c-section because my platelet count was too low.) My OB said to come in to the hospital to get hooked up to machines to check on the babies and we’d proceed from there. He also told me that the good news was that I didn’t have to do the 24 hour urine sample anymore (ha ha…funny doctor!)
Nick was at work in Mankato (45 minutes away), so I called him right away to tell him to leave work. He was in shock just as I was! Next I called my sister, Jesse, and she came over to help me pack. Of course I didn’t have a bag ready, but I did have a list! We got everything together and she drove me to the hospital. Thank goodness, I don’t know if I could have handled it alone! Jesse teased me that I was calm and she was the one freaking out.
I have to give Nick some grief because it took him 2 hours to get to the hospital after I called him. He finished seeing a few patients like the good doctor that he is! (Seriously – we were going to have 2 babies…what the heck was he thinking!??!) I was at the hospital for about an hour or so before Nick arrived. They had already started an IV and my doctor had come in to explain more about the situation. The babies looked just fine on the monitors so all was so far so good. Nick arrived a few minutes after 5pm.
My OB came back in again after Nick arrived and explained everything again to him. I teased my doctor to just make the decision for us. I asked him, “If this was your wife, what would you tell her to do?” Of course he wouldn’t give me an answer. So…after much thought, we decided to go ahead and do a c-section. There were just too many factors that were against us. There was no guarantee I would deliver vaginally after being induced. And having a long labor would be dangerous to both me and the babies with my platelet levels as well. If we did the c-section right then, all the staff was already there. But if we were induced and had to do a c-section later in the night, it’d be harder to get all the staff there. And it’d probably have to be an emergency c-section and I would have to had been put out and wake up later not witnessing any of the birth. Or….the worst thing could happen – deliver one vaginally and then the second via emergency c-section.
After we decided, our doctor was pleased and he said that’s what he would have recommended in this situation. (Of course he can’t tell us that beforehand.) He said ultimately if you wanted to keep the babies safe, you’d always do a c-section and if you wanted to keep the mom safe, you’d always do a vaginal birth.
Once we said “c-section,” everything went FAST…and I mean FAST! Nick changed into his scrub getup; Jesse helped us make a few phone calls to family, then left. It was my dad’s 62nd birthday. So, it was pretty special that these babies were going to share the same birthday with their grandpa. I remember calling my dad saying, “Are you ready to share your birthday with your twin grandsons?” He didn’t seem to believe me!
I was taken away to the operating room to get my spinal. Nick said he was calling his brother at 6:05pm, then had to hang up because they were ready to bring him into the operating room. And Baby A was born at 6:21pm and Baby B at 6:22pm. Talk about getting things done efficiently! That was FAST!
The spinal went well. I didn’t even feel anything! They said it was done and I thought, “Really? I thought it was supposed to be painful!” They strapped me down on the table and my legs started getting numb fast. I remember being scared that they would start the surgery with me still being able to feel what was going on. I asked the anesthesiologist to make sure, so he pinched me again! There were so many people in there. Probably double for double babies! There was a doctor and 2 nurses for each baby. My OB, 2 nurses, and the anesthesiologist for me. And I think I saw at least 3 other people around, but I’m not sure what they were doing! That made for a total of 17 people…counting Nick, myself, and the two babies, of course!
While everything was happening I kept thinking to all the shows I watched on TV (“A Baby Story” and “Make Room for Multiples” both on TLC), comparing them to what I was going through right then in the operating room. When Nick came in, he sat by me with the video camera and digital camera ready to go. I remember the staff just talking about normal daily stuff while they were slicing and dicing me (eeww...that sounds disgusting!). It seemed just like a “fake TV show!” The time flew by (I always imagined it would seem like an eternity, but it didn’t) and before we knew it Baby A was out and I could hear the crying. As tears filled my eyes, I looked over to see him while they were cleaning and checking him out. I didn’t even feel a thing…no pressure or anything. Then one minute later, Baby B was out and more crying. It was a beautiful noise! I heard a nurse exclaim, “This was the coolest c-section ever.” They said it was because when they broke both bags of water, it was HUGE. There was a lot of liquid and it splashed everywhere on people and even out onto the floor all over the doctor’s feet!! (Glad I could cause some fun excitement for everyone!)
Also, after Baby A came out, my OB said, "You made a good decision about going with the c-section, Baby B just flipped!" After Baby A was out, that gave Baby B room to move and he did just that. He flipped around head up, into a breech position. If I had delivered vaginally and this happened, that would have caused for some interesting events. Either they would have had to try to move Baby B back into head down position from the outside or from the inside (ouch!). Or it could have made for delivering Baby A vaginally and Baby B emergency c-section, which would have been the worst case scenario!
Then, at this point of the c-section, I couldn’t breathe. The anesthesiologist told me this may happen. He said that I might feel as if I couldn’t breathe, but that I could “really” breathe just fine. It was just the nerves were not connecting with my brain from the drugs. That was the one of the craziest things I’ve ever felt. I was gasping for air thinking I couldn’t breathe, but ultimately I was breathing fine – it was just in my head. INSANE! Then I started feeling nauseous. I looked over and Nick was holding both babies wrapped up in blankies getting his photo taken. How precious!! And I was calling for someone to help me because I was going to upchuck right there on myself. How disgusting! It’s hard to throw up while laying down with your arms strapped. I just turned my head to the side and the anesthesiologist got the puke pan there just in time. Then lots of the staff left with the babies and Nick to go to the nursery to get them hooked up to oxygen and in the incubators.
So, there I was alone and my thoughts of having the babies held up next to me and getting our first family photo together never happened. I don’t remember much after this. I’m not sure how long it took to get me stitched back up and into the recovery room. I remember lying in the bed pushing the button to give myself more morphine and thinking how bad I wanted to see and hold the babies. After about 3 hours or so, after 9pm, the nurses finally let me get out of bed and into a wheel chair to go to the nursery to see the babies. I got to see them up close for the first time and hold their little hands through the holes in the incubators. I didn’t last long there, just a few minutes, as I started getting extremely weak and dizzy. (They don’t normally let you get up so soon after a major surgery!) I did throw up various times throughout the rest of the evening. I was pretty drugged up and out of it.
The rest of the night is pretty fuzzy. Nick’s parents came to visit around 11pm. I remember sleeping off and on mostly. Nick and I kept wondering about when the babies would finally be able to leave the nursery and come back in with us. We were worried as the time kept passing by. We had named the babies, but didn’t know who was who yet. We had wanted to look at them more and spend time with them to decide who was who. It was still “Baby A” and “Baby B.” But after the time kept passing, we just decided to just go alphabetical order. And so it was – even before I got to hold them, we named Baby Boy A - Elijah and Baby Boy B -Will.
Finally around 2am, about 8 hours after Elijah was born, he was able to come into the room with us. He was still hooked up to a machine to monitor his heart rate, etc. I barely remember holding him for the first time and nursing him, but there are photos to prove it! Then a little after 4am, 10 hours after Will was born, he joined us! He was also hooked up to the machine, but I held and breastfeed him as well. I ended up holding him most of the rest of the night. I do remember waking up still holding him, wondering if this was all really happening. The machines kept beeping off and on when the rates were off. We’d page the nurses and they’d come in to check on the babies.
And that was that. Our baby boys had arrived at 35 weeks 6 days gestation on their Grandpa Cox's 62nd Birthday! Our perfect little angels sent from heaven above are here!
Heading into surgery! (Check out the swollen legs and feet! OH MY!)
Waiting to have the babies!
A proud papa!
We're parents!
Touching Elijah for the first time!
Touching Will for the first time!
The first time I got to hold the twins together.
