The Details, if you're interested...

Reid looks like a giant only because he is closer to me, they are exactly  the same size.  

This is my view as I type this post. Pretty incredible, huh? I think so. I think one of the many great miracles about having children and creating a family is how quickly you begin to feel like the newest babies have always been a part of the family. Redick and Reid came in to the world only 3 and a half days ago but I feel like I have known them much longer already! I love these little boys! 

I am going to try to recall as many of the details as I can from 3 days ago. I love reading birth stories and I want to always remember my own. Here goes...

Tuesday June 12, 2012 was the day of my scheduled induction. I had really wanted to go in to labor spontaneously and spent all weekend trying everything I could think of to get things moving. On Saturday I walked 41 laps around the house, up and down the stairs and everything! On Sunday we all went on a long walk all around the neighborhood. It was good exercise and family bonding but no labor. Monday morning I woke up a little sad at the thought that it was my last day to be just Audrey's mom. I didn't know how things were going to change but I knew that I would no longer be able to give  her all of my attention. I decided that we needed to spend a lot of quality time together and declared the day Audrey's fun day. We read books together, Aunt Eileen and I took her to the farm at Thanksgiving Point to see the animals and we played at home. It was a great day. It was also nice to get my mind off of trying to go in to labor. 

Tuesday morning was totally strange. I was on call for the induction, meaning I didn't have a designated time, they were going to call me when it was time. I called around 10:30am to see if I could get a better idea of how things were going and they told me it would likely be around noon but to wait for the call. I relaxed and rested most of the morning and I also finished a couple of last minute sewing projects before it was time. 

At 1:45 I got the call and the nurse asked if we could be there in 30 minutes! That was just enough time to grab our bag, Mitchell gave me a blessing and we were out the door! They showed us our room right away and I changed in to my glamorous gown and we got started. Step one was to get both babies on the heart monitor and get at least 20 minutes of heart rate data. Redick (Baby A) was easy to find and his heart rate looked excellent. Reid (Baby B) on the other hand was quite a challenge! 5 nurses tried to find him and would get short runs of his heart but he was intent on hiding. Even after finding him on the ultrasound he played hard to get. All of this searching with the monitors delayed starting the induction by over an hour! Finally we found him and he was looking great as well. At 4:00pm my doctor came by and broke my water, I was 3 cm dilated. While he was doing that he told me that he could feel Redick's head and he could also feel his little hand resting on his head. He also inserted a fetal scalp monitor just under the skin on Redick's head so we could be sure to have an accurate reading of his heart rate. At 4:30pm the nurse started the pitocin. Every 30 minutes she turned up the dosage pretty significantly. At first the contractions felt like dull cramps and I even made a few phone calls to help pass the time. Before too long though they were pretty painful and I needed to concentrate. I was able to stand up and move around some and that was good but with the pitocin, labor just ramped up so fast that my body was having a hard time going from zero to full throttle in such little time. By 6:00pm I was in major pain and having a hard time coping. At 6:30 the nurse checked me and I was only dilated to 4 cm. I was so discouraged and I started to get scared. At this point the contractions were only 1 minute apart and one never completely went away before the next one started. I was getting no break whatsoever! I started to feel like a crazed wild woman crawling up the walls! If I was only 4 cm this could go on for hours, not to mention the delivery was still to come! I thought about what my doctor and I had discussed for the delivery. I really wanted a vaginal delivery and my doctor was comfortable delivering a breach Baby B if necessary. The thought of more pain than I was already experiencing and the possibility of a breach delivery scared me a lot and I asked for the epidural. The nurse also turned the pitocin down a bit. It helped but my uterus was still hyperstimulated and contracting every minute. At 7:15 the epidural was finally placed and within 10 minutes I was feeling quite a bit of relief. It was still painful but at least I wasn't crawling the walls!  At 7:30 pm my doctor came back and checked me and to all of our surprise I was complete! It was time to have these babies! Everyone hurried to get the operating room ready to deliver. The hospital's policy is that all twins be delivered in the OR in case the delivery turns in to an emergency. It wasn't long at all before they were wheeling me down the hall to have my babies! The OR was jam packed with people, this was NOT a private delivery! There was a nursery nurse and a NICU nurse for each baby, a respiratory therapist for each baby, 2 nurses for me, my doctor, a midwife, and Mitchell. At least that's what I remember. It all seemed like a whirlwind and in no time my doctor looked at me and said "so do you want to push?" It was weird because I felt so calm and no urge to push but I did anyway and 3 pushes later Redick was in the world! Right after that my doctor reached in and with a smile said "I have a foot!...I have another foot!" Ok, Reid is coming out feet first. He basically just slid right out while the doctor gently guided him down. Once the legs were out he broke the second amniotic sac that was still intact. It exploded! Gross. Mitchell said he was glad his mouth was closed at the time or he may have gotten an unexpected and disgusting surprise. Haha. A minute later the doctor asked me for one more push and that was all it took to deliver Reid's head. Once the placentas were delivered I remember feeling a tremendous sense of relief that I was empty! It felt so good! I was really fortunate again to not need any stitches so the babies and I quickly got cleaned up and then they were in my arms. I don't remember how long we stayed in the OR but we had a little bonding moment before returning to the labor room. Everyone was so impressed that the babies were so healthy! Their apgars were 8 and 9 which is awesome and neither baby needed to visit the NICU or even the well baby nursery. They stayed with me the whole time and it was wonderful. We were back in our room by 9:00pm and since everything happened so fast I wasn't really very tired like I was after Audrey's birth. I told Mitchell to call Eileen and she was at the hospital 20 minutes later. James and Alison happened to be driving home from a wedding reception and were right near the hospital when we sent the news so they stopped by as well. 

I  should add that I really loved my doctor. He was very supportive of me throughout the pregnancy and delivery. He has more experience than probably most OB/GYNs in the area and was wonderful. Not many doctors are willing to deliver a breach baby and I am so glad he did! He came and told me after the delivery that my babies were numbers 7,498 and 7,499 of his career! That is pretty amazing!

Proud big sister meeting the "two baby boys" for the first time

The whole family

Redick on the way home!

Reid on the way home!

At home with Aunt Eileen! What a great girl!

The 2 of them together take up about a quarter of their crib. So tiny!