The twins are 3 weeks old today and I haven't found the time to make an entry in my blog about their birth until now. Well, that's not completely true. I've started to write an entry about their birth a number of times but I get too bogged down in the details that I soon realize are not interesting to anyone but those who are already intimately aware of them (ie. myself, my husband, and perhaps our parents). To me, their birth was truly incredible and I feel as if I should be able to write an epic and moving account of it. But the incredible thing about their birth was perhaps how unexciting and uneventful it was, which makes for a rather boring story, or at least one that is only interesting for a paragraph. So here it is:
On the day before Thanksgiving, I woke my husband up at 3:30 am to let him know I was ready to go to the hospital. Truthfully, I wasn't sure that I was in "true labor" yet. I'd had a false alarm the week before and had been having painful contractions for weeks. But that morning, I was tired of being tired and fed up with not being able to sleep for more than a couple of minutes at a time (the minutes between contractions). I decided to go to the hospital out of desperation hoping that, if I wasn't in labor, perhaps they'd take pity on me and help me along by breaking my water.
An hour later, we were in triage for the second time. One week earlier, we'd spent 3 hours in triage watching my contractions space out from the 3 minutes apart that had brought us to the hospital to 6 minutes apart to 10 minutes apart, during which time my 3 cm of dilation had stubbornly refused to change. I'd gone home frustrated and a bit embarrassed. With this second visit to the hospital, I was still afraid of being told that I'd come too soon. Some of the nurses joked about that fact that some women seemed to come to the hospital for no other reason than that they were bored... But thankfully, when the nurse checked me, I was an impressive 7 cm dilated and my contractions, although irregular, were never more than 5 minutes apart.
Everything happened quickly after that. Within an hour, I was admitted to our labor and delivery room getting pumped full of IV fluids in preparation for my epidural. By the time I got the epidural, I was 8 cm dilated. Epidural in place, I slept for an hour, the best sleep I'd had in weeks. The doctor broke my water around 9:30 am when I hadn't progressed past 8 cm. When the nurse checked me shortly before 11 am, I was fully dilated and ready to begin pushing. She had me do a test push in the labor and delivery room then had me stop when she decided I might not need to push for very long after all. Within minutes, I was being wheeled down the hall to an operating room (twins are routinely delivered in the OR as a precaution in case emergency cesarean is needed) and Lee and I were both putting on blue surgical caps. At 11:04 am, my nurse had me push again then told me to stop again since the doctor hadn't arrived yet. For the next few contractions, I resisted the urge to push as we waited for Dr. T to arrive and suit up. When she was ready, I was told to push again. Two contractions of pushing and Liam was born at 11:14 am, crying almost immediately. As soon as he was delivered, two nurses leaned on my abdomen to prevent Eva from doing a cartwheel in my now roomy uterus and ending up breech instead of head-down. It took a few minutes of pushing to get Eva's head engaged in the birth canal. Once engaged, it took just one push for her to be delivered 8 minutes after Liam, at 11:22 am. Like her brother, Eva let us know right away that her lungs worked just fine. Shortly after Eva was whisked away to be examined, Liam was brought to me in a little bundle and laid on my chest. A few minutes later, Eva was returned to me as well.
Interestingly, the most painful part of my labor and delivery process occurred with both of my children already in my arms. The placentas were delivered easily, but then began the process of stopping the bleeding. It seemed as if my epidural had completely worn off as doctors and nurses "massaged" my abdomen with their fists to encourage my uterus to contract down and my doctor shoved gauze inside of me and pulled it out, repeatedly. I don't remember screaming during the brief pushing phase of my labor but I wailed in agony as my uterus was manhandled from every direction. Both Liam and Eva paused their own wailing and seemed transfixed as I yelped. What a strange feeling to be in so much pain and so overwhelmingly happy at once. I'm sure I couldn't have tolerated the pain without punching someone if I didn't already have my babies in my arms.
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| This was the painful part. |
So there it is. Liam Connor and Eva Claire McPherson were born at term (37.5 weeks) after a brief, easy labor. Liam weighed 6 lbs 14 oz, was 20 inches long and scored 9 and 9 on his APGAR. Eva weighed 5 lbs 12 oz, was 18 inches long, and scored a respectable 8 and 9 on her APGAR. The only complications I had were vague threats made by my uterus to bleed uncontrollably, averted by the aforementioned manhandling, a second degree tear in my perineum, and a brief spike in my blood pressure shortly after the delivery, all very minor when compared to the preterm labor, emergency cesareans. and other complications common to twin pregnancy.
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