Birth Story Part 3 (final part!)

We arrived in the triage room at 11:15pm. They hooked me up to the monitors and sure enough, I was contracting every 2 minutes. Within a few minutes, they had confirmed that my water definitely did break and they moved me over to a labor room. Oh, and by the way, I was still just 3cm. Good grief!

By 1:15am I had an epidural and was feeling pretty good. It didn't take fully but it definitely took the edge off. So at 2am the nurse checked me and I had progressed to 5cm. Man, was I relieved! I was seriously beginning to wonder if I would ever move beyond that dreaded 3cm!! I think I drifted in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours. I know my parents arrived at the hospital around 2 o'clock. I gave my dad a big hug because he had to leave right away. He was flying out to Cleveland in just a few hours but wanted to drop my mom off. So he made the hour and a half drive to drop her off, give me a kiss, then turned right back around to catch his flight.

Meanwhile, Nate took mom back to our house so she could relax there until she got "the phone call." At 5:30am, the new nurse checked me and said I was 8cm. So I called mom to let her know that I was probably a couple hours away from pushing. Just minutes after the nurse checked me, I could tell that my epidural had worn off. So she got the anesthesiologist in to hang a new bag. And right after that, I told her that I was feeling a TON of pressure! So at 6am, she checked me yet again and I was ready to have some babies!! Then all of a sudden it got put on hold because they wanted to make sure they were fully set up for a twin delivery. Even with an epidural, it was really hard not to push in those 10 minutes!

Finally at 6:10am we were ready to go! I'm not sure why, but I never did get moved to the operating room, which completely surprised me!! Dr L said that I would be delivering there just in case they had to do an emergency C-section on the second baby, so I had totally prepared myself for having to deliver under fluorescent lights. Anyway, after 55 minutes of pushing, Baby A was born at 7:05am, weighing 6 pounds even and 19 inches long. The nurse turned to Nate and said “daddy, do you know what it is?” And he proudly announced that we had a baby girl, Miss Adalyn Jean!

The OB then checked to see where Baby B was. He could feel the head, but the baby was still quite high. So instead of making me push, he let me labor through a few contractions so the head could naturally come down. Once the baby was further down, he broke the water. I don’t know exactly what time I started to push with Baby B, but it wasn't long and Baby B was born at 7:33am, weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 ¼ inches long. The nurse again asked Nate “daddy, do you know what it is?” After a bit of hesitation, he excitedly proclaimed that it was another girl, Miss Alivia Mae!!

I suffered from post partum hemorrhage that they gave me some meds for and watched me very closely for. But I didn't care. I was too entranced in these two little lives that I was holding in my arms. I didn't know I could love something/someone so deeply until I looked into their eyes and they stared right back at me. My two little girls, who I fought so hard to protect, were here and they were healthy. And I was completely oblivious to anything else going on around me.