Overdue update

Ha, well slacker is an understatement. This little blog has gone neglected for far too long. I have been thinking a lot about our IVF journey this week, since it is National Infertility Awareness week, and decided to come back and read some of my old posts. I am so glad that I have some of these details written down. I saw on my blogger dashboard that people are still viewing my blog. So then it occurred to me that I never posted anything past our anatomy scan and I worry that people will think we didn't have a happy ending and a good outcome. And then I remember that I never actually wrote down a birth story anywhere. And now it has been nearly a year and I may have forgotten some details, so I figure now is better than never. So here goes:

The rest of my pregnancy was pretty uneventful. I did end up with gestational diabetes around 30-32 weeks. It was controlled by diet for a couple of weeks and then I had to go on Metformin for the last couple of weeks. I was also on meds for gestational hypertension, so I started doing non-stress tests (NSTs at about 32 weeks, twice a week. I also had growth scans every 4 weeks starting at 20 weeks and then all my OB appointments (weekly starting at 32 weeks). I spent a lot of time at doctor appointments. I was very grateful I didn't have to work, since I don't know how that would have worked out with all my appointments. I had a couple of high BP readings, a few more 24 hour urine collections, and 1 trip to L&D in false labor (which turned out to be dehydration), threw up for the first time in my pregnancy at 36 weeks, but overall things were pretty boring. We scheduled my c-section (due to transverse babies) for 37w6d, but then I got bumped up to 37w4d, which was May 27.

Last belly pic

The surgery was scheduled for noon, so John and I arrived at the hospital about 10:30. My nurse was amazing. She prepped me, got my IV in, and we went over everything. I met the resident and med student that would be assisting Dr. Brown and the anesthesiologist, Dr. Myers (I liked him right away). My sister, Rebekah, was invited to be my second support person. It was important to me that neither baby be alone at any time and I didn't want to be alone either. So Bekah was there in case either baby needed to go to the NICU, John could go with baby and she could step in the OR and be with me. Then we found out that they actually would take Baby B to a room next door so there would be more room to work, so Bekah was able to be with Baby B the whole time. She really wanted to be in the OR, but that was against the rules. They did let her stand right at the door between the rooms and watch through a little window though. Anyway, besides John and my sister, I didn't want anyone else at the hospital until after I was in recovery and we gave everyone the go ahead.

Anyway, they took me in to the OR just after noon. They had explained to me what the process of getting the spinal placed would be. I told Dr. Myers I didn't want to be walked through what was happening and to just do it. I expected it to be easy and fast, even if painful. Well, it was painful but not easy and not fast. He couldn't get it in the right place at first. They wanted me to hug my legs as tight as I could into my chest. Well, if you've never been nearly 38 weeks pregnant with twins, you can still probably understand how awkward and unlikely to happen that was. I had a little freakout. I started to panic, thinking that it wasn't going to work and they were going to have to put me under. It took a couple minutes, but after a couple more pokes, I felt a pain shoot down my right butt cheek. This told Dr. Myers he was too far to the right, when he thought he was too far to the left, but helped him know where to place it just right. They immediately rolled me onto my back and my body started to go numb. What a strange feeling! Dr. Myers did a few quick tests to make sure I couldn't feel any pain and then the resident says "I am going to scratch you pretty hard, so tell me if you can feel anything." I think this is when they actually did the first cut though. Throughout the whole thing, I just had to stay focused on my breathing and not freaking out again. They asked me if I wanted to watch with a mirror, but I did not. I didn't want to see myself like that.

At exactly 12:55pm, baby A was born. They held her up over the curtain so I could get a quick peak. A few seconds later, they broke baby B's water and then got her out. When they called the time, it was still 12:55! So that is something fun, they have the same birth time. A quick peak over the curtain at her and away she went to be cleaned up as well. The next few minutes are a little fuzzy. I know I got really cold and Dr. Myers put this heater thing that blew warm air under the blanket that was over my arms. Then I started to get warm and sleepy. I heard Sophia (baby A) crying, which was really the greatest sound at the time. A few minutes later, John came back over with Charlotte (baby B). Sophia needed a little extra suctioning, but then they brought her over too and we had our first family pic. The process of getting stitched up took longer than the actual delivery, but it wasn't long before they put the babies in my arms and wheeled me back to my L&D room. I was still a little out of it, but it was important to me to have skin-to-skin and initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible. My nurse kicked everyone out and then I was able to really look at my babies for the first time. Skin to skin was amazing and they were both able to nurse. By about 3:00pm we were all up in recovery together.

Baby A: Sophia Kay, 5 lb 13 oz 19.5 in long

Baby B: Charlotte Ruth, 5 lbs 9 oz 18.5 in long

First pic as a family of 4 :-)

 The rest of the hospital stay went by so fast and was kind of a blur. I basically was nursing non-stop and tried to feed myself and visit with family and get a little sleep. Sophia had a low blood sugar reading, so we did use a supplemental nursing system (SNS) to give her some formula (and we gave some to Charlotte too, as a precaution). My milk came in on the 3rd day though, so we were able to leave that day (even though I could have stayed 1 more night). The girls roomed in with me for the most part, but they did go to the nursery for a couple hours at a time a few times (in theory, so I could sleep, but that never really worked out). No NICU time, no jaundice issues, both very healthy, just small.

We brought the girls home on May 30th and we have been having the time of our lives ever since. :-)