I did happen to dose off and on for an hour and when I woke up at 4:00 AM, I felt weird. I noticed I was having contractions still, but they were happening more often than 4 an hour. I counted them during the next hour. They started out being 7 minutes apart and quickly moved to 3-4 minutes apart. YIKES! I knew at my last appointment on Friday, I was dilated to 4 cm so I was worried I wouldn't have much time before I would be completely dilated.
I went upstairs and woke up Justin and we counted my contractions for another hour. They remained every 3-4 minutes so we called my parents so they could come down and stay with Alena. We showered up and waited for my parents in the driveway so we could leave as soon as they got there. On the way, my contractions were right on top of each other so Justin picked up the speed a little bit (we both thought it was fun being able to stay at home and count contractions and then hurry to the hospital-I was induced with Alena so we missed out on all of that!).
I got checked into the triage room and was hooked to the monitor. Both babies looked great and I was 6cm dilated so I was moved over to labor and delivery. Today would be the day!
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| In Labor and Delivery |
I continued to have contractions every 3-4 minutes while my nurse put in my IV and drew labs. I was 7cm when she checked me an hour later and feeling pretty good. Because I was having twins, it is hospital policy to delivery in the OR in case an emergency c-section is needed. I decided to get an epidural just in case a c-section would be needed. Having this would prevent me from having to be put asleep for delivery if a c-section was warranted. Unfortunately this turned out to be a big mistake. 15 minutes after getting the epidural, my blood pressure dropped and I nearly passed out. This caused my contractions to slow down significantly. They then had to use Pitocin to get them going again. My epidural numbed part of my mid-section, but that was it. Before I knew it, I needed to push. So the nurses checked me and I was full dilated. They threw scrubs at Justin and told him to put them on, and put two baby bracelets on my wrist before being rushed rather quickly to the OR. I had to wait another 5 minutes for my OB to get there.
A few pushes later, out came Baby A (girl). She looked just like Alena and cried like her too. She was quickly evaluated by the NICU team with daddy by her side. 11 minutes, and a couple pushes later, Baby B (boy), was born. He seemed much bigger than his sister and also cried right away. Daddy followed him across the hall where he was assessed by the NICU team. I was able to see both of them briefly before they went upstairs to the NICU. They were both doing well. As I recovered from my unmedicated delivery of twins, Justin went out to tell our families the great news and then went up to the NICU. It was difficult not being able to hold my babies right away, but I knew that because they were younger than 35 weeks gestation (by 1 day!) they would automatically go to the NICU.
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