#BlogtemberChallenge: Blog Mood Board

 I think today's #BlogtemberChallenge prompt is so much fun!  

"Create a collage or inspiration/mood board that describes your blog."

 

Twin Birth Story: Abigail and Samuel, Part 2

This is the second part of Abigail's and Sam's birth story.  You can read the first part here.

We left off after 54 hours of labor, with Dr. Abtahi telling me that I'd finally be having babies in about half an hour.

Ethan and I were still trying to wake up fully and process this information as our room was almost immediately swarming with medical staff.  The nurse told us we would not be coming back to that room and to pack all of our things.  As Ethan hurriedly packed everything back into our bags, I was introduced to our anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist (I can't remember)... Rob.  He was super nice and laid back, cracking jokes with us as he started injecting fun stuff into my IV and epidural.  Within just a couple of minutes, I was being whisked down the hall toward an operating room.

When we got to the doors of the OR, a nurse told Ethan to hang back to put a surgery coverall on.  We hugged, squeezed hands, and - of course - selfied, and parted ways.  They pulled my bed right up next to the operating table and asked if I could move my legs to help them get me on the table.  That would be a big, numb, NOPE.  Someone put my right leg on the table, and I got startled when I glanced over and saw it laying there.  Because I couldn't feel it being moved, and had no "connection" to it. SO WEIRD!  Anyway, I'm moved over and prepped for surgery.  When my doctor came in, she saw me almost shivering right off the table, and brought me a warm blanket to lay across my chest.  I asked when Ethan would be able to join me, because it sure seemed like we were close to go time.  The anesthetist told me the rest of the prep steps that needed to happen before he'd come in, and kept up a stream of small talk to calm and distract me.

Finally, Ethan came hustling through the door, sat down at my head, and grabbed my hand under the blankets across my chest. My two doctors (Kovac and Abtahi) and a bunch of nurses and techs were in position around me, so I took a deep breath and asked Dr. Kovac to narrate.  She said, "uh sure.  I'm almost through the skin layer..." Pretty sure I blurted, "What, already!?"  It's still so strange to me that I was being sliced open and had no idea!  Ethan told me later that as he sat down, he saw the silver flash of the scalpel as she made the first cut.  So cool!

I felt a bunch of tugging and my body bouncing as Dr. Kovac told me she was separating the muscle layers.  I said "Ow... wait, no, 'ow' is the wrong word... I'm not in pain... it's just weird."  :-)  Finally, after what felt both like hours and like mere seconds, someone announced that Baby A was almost out.  We were able to watch Dr. Abtahi lift our beautiful Abigail out of me, and we heard the sweetest little cry... almost like a kitten's.  I immediately started bawling :-)  Someone called out her time of birth: 6:09am, 49 minutes after Dr. Abtahi came in to check my cervix.  She was quickly rubbed clean and taken to the side of the room to be briefly checked out, while we waited for the doctors to deliver her brother.  One minute later, "here we go" followed by a loud, indignant wail.  Suddenly, we were parents of two perfect, tiny newborns.  One of the nurses called out Sam's birth weight - 6lb14oz - and brought him over to Ethan.  Soon after, Abbie was carried over, too, and Ethan had his arms full of brand new life.  I was so mesmerized watching them and watching him watch them... when Dr. Kovac continued with her narration, I had no idea what she was saying.  I said, "What?!"  She repeated herself - something about a placenta - and I told her she could stop narrating... "the good part just happened."

My reaction as Abbie cried for the first time...

After I got to nuzzle the twins a tiny bit, nurses led Ethan out to the recovery room with both babies, Dr. Kovac left to get cleaned up, and Dr. Abtahi got busy sewing and gluing me back together.  I thought I'd feel intensely lonely when my belly was empty and my husband and babies were in a different room, but I was just reveling in this eurphoric glow.  I was a mom.  They were here, healthy and safe.  I had worked so hard for nine months for that to be true, and I was basking in a job well done.

When Dr. A had finished reassembling my abdomen, I was "unprepped" - rolled side to side, had tape ripped off my back and some areas wiped clean - and moved to a bed.  Someone wheeled me into recovery, and I could see Ethan and a nurse by a warmer across the room, hovering over our two tiny darlings.  We got to spend two and a half wonderful hours in recovery, bonding with Abbie and Sam, trying to nurse, and soaking in their amazingness.  Their blood sugars were both low, and we tried to raise them with a bottle and nursing.  Finally, it was determined that they would need to go to a transitional care nursery for a few hours to be put on glucose IVs.

Brenda, my nurse from the day before, had come on shift and gotten herself assigned to me.  She made sure to keep me well dosed with pain meds, and I felt pretty great.  So great that I kept forgetting to breathe :-/  I was put on oxygen because my O2 sats kept dropping.  That meant that I had to go to the PICU instead of a regular post-partum room, so I would have to be separated from the babies until we were all stable again.  I told Ethan to stay with the babies so they wouldn't be "alone."

About 6 or so hours later, I heard Ethan's voice from the doorway, announcing that he had a surprise for me... he wheeled Abbie into the room in her bassinet.  A nurse was finishing up Sam's bath, and brought him a few minutes later. They weren't entirely cleared, and had to keep IV cannulas in for a couple more hours, but we were together! 

 

PS: If you followed along with my bumpdates, you'll appreciate this... while I was in PICU, my inlaws brought me this... 

Baby, Baby: 38 Week (and FINAL) Bumpdate

The Kidlets

via

How Far Along?

38 weeks... and this is the last bumpdate!  We meet our Princess and Prince in 2 days!

Genders?

One girl, one boy.

How big are they? 

According to the apps... they're each as long as a leek or Swiss chard, and as big as a spaghetti squash, a pumpkin, or a "big cabbage."  We'll know in a few days exactly how big they are!!

Changing Momma

Have you started showing yet?

Barely... ;-)

Weight Gain?

I lost almost 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks, so I'm only up a total of 31 pounds.

Maternity Clothes?

Yep.

Stretch Marks?

They're impressive!

Belly Button In or Out?

Barely out :-)

Momma's Feeling

Cravings:

Spicy, and cheeseburgers...

Anything making you queasy or sick?

Just hormones...

Happy or Moody Most of the Time?

Fairly moody! 

Movement?

A fair amount... they're both pretty low and head-down, so movement feels weird...

Sleep:

Not really happening...

What I Miss:

Sleep, caffeine... things that give you pep, apparently ;-)

Other Symptoms:

Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, break-through heartburn, stretching, aching, swelling... the usual!

Highlights and Coming Soon

Best Moment of the Week:

Being handed a paper with my induction date and time written at the top!

 

Looking Forward To:

Meeting these little people on Monday (or Tuesday)!!!

Doctor's Appointments:

Both NSTs went great.  At Thursday's cervix check, I wasn't dilated, but I'm about 50% effaced.  So we discussed going to the hospital on Sunday night (tooooomorrow!) and how I'll be induced.  We'll be using a foley bulb for dilation tomorrow night, then starting pitocin slowly Monday morning. 

Baby, Baby: 37 Week Bumpdate

The Kidlets

via

How Far Along?

37 weeks!  Twins born past this point rarely need any NICU time or extra nursery attention.  Mine may still need blood sugar monitoring, but that would be the case with even a singleton born later.  My dream has been to be wheeled out of the OR with both babies in my arms, then spend that magical hour or two bonding as a family of four in recovery afterwards... it's starting to be a distinct possibility!

Genders?

One girl, one boy.

How big are they? 

According to my apps, they're each the length of a piece of Swiss chard and as big as a winter melon (I have learned the names of more types of melons this pregnancy...) or a honeydew melon. :-)   According to yesterday's ultrasound, Baby Girl (A) should weigh about 6 pounds and 1 ounce, while her younger/big brother weighs about 7 pounds and 1 ounce.  We're not super-confident in these estimates, because their positions were making it difficult to measure certain parts, and we had a different tech than our usual.  I'm sure she's perfectly competent, but it seems like the same eyes measuring each time would give more consistent results... we're thinking she probably overestimated Baby Boy and underestimated Baby Girl a little bit.  But either way, probably in the ballpark of 13 pounds of baby!!!

Changing Momma

Have you started showing yet?

With 13 pounds of baby, yeah!

Weight Gain?

Wasn't weighed this week, so as far as I know, still the 33 pounds up.

Maternity Clothes?

Yep.

Stretch Marks?

Oh yes.

Belly Button In or Out?

Barely out :-)

Momma's Feeling

Cravings:

Spicy and ice cream...

Anything making you queasy or sick?

Hormones, and strong contractions.

Happy or Moody Most of the Time?

Moody. 

Movement?

Yep - Baby Girl was doing some CRAZY acrobatics a couple nights ago.  I thought for sure she had moved out of her vertex position, but thankfully, she's still head down and ready to go :-)

Sleep:

Well... last night I fell asleep before 9... got up twice to cold shower my intensely itching belly, went to the bathroom three times, and woke at least once an hour to roll or shift.  Sleep's not great lately...

What I Miss:

Sleeping for more than an hour at a time... and every McDonald's looks like a big styrofoam cup of ice-cold caffeinated diet Coke.

Other Symptoms:

Contractions are starting to shift from the annoying and fairly uncomfortable Braxton Hicks to the much more intense actual contractions.  My first one the other day made me sit forward in the recliner, grab the arms, and moan.  It was crazy how different it was.  They started speeding up, and when they went from 16 minutes apart to 6 minutes apart in less than an hour, I called my doctor.  She had me go to the hospital to get checked.  I was having good strong contractions very regularly, but my cervix was only a fingertip dilated.  So I got sent home.  In pain.  Like, a lot of it.  So I've been having contractions like this the past couple of evenings, but they don't seem to be making the necessary changes to be "real" labor. 

Highlights and Coming Soon

Best Moment of the Week:

Seeing little Miss and little Mr. at the ultrasound yesterday :-)

 

Looking Forward To:

Getting them out.  Smooching on their little noses.  Showing them off to all of you :-)

Doctor's Appointments:

Both NSTs (and the heart monitoring at the hospital) looked great again.  At the ultrasound, we discovered that Baby Boy has turned vertex now!  So both babies are head down and ready to "head" out. WooHoo!  That also means I now have four feet in my ribs, though... and four hands fumbling for and beating on my bladder. ;-)  

We asked the doctor what she thought about our trip to the hospital, and she said that unfortunately with twins, the uterus gets so distended that it basically gets ticked off.  It throws tantrums by contracting without the directional motions needed to push the babies against my cervix to dilate... she said my water could still break, or the contractions could suddenly start coordinating to be effective, but that she suspects I'll make it to my induction date... not something we ever expected when we first saw two flickering heartbeats on an ultrasound eight months ago!