Maya and Sierra's Birth Story - Part 3

At the end of the last post, I looked back and realized that neither of the first two posts counted as "birth story" since they're just me whining about the pregnancy.  I even considered going back and editing the posts, but that seemed unecessary (especially since I'm pretty sure nobody's reading this blog yet anyway *laughs*)

Today: the actual birth.  Or...surgery.  I mean, clearly they were born, but I find it hard to think of a C-section as them "being born" - what with the lack of pushing and swearing and death threats to my significant other.  Ah well, it is what it is.

Background information - one of the reasons we had so many ultrasounds (at least one every two weeks, weekly from weeks 20-34) was to constantly check or TTTS, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.  Apparently, because the girls shared a chord, there was a constant risk that one of them might start mowing down all of the resources, leaving less for her sister, meaning one of the twins doesn't develop properly.  Apparently, Maya and Sierra were good at sharing, because it was never a problem, until week 35 when it showed up a little (I know people will ask which one, but I don't even remember at this point).  The doctors decided on an emergency C-section.

Calling it an "emergency C-section" makes it sound more serious than it really was - the fact was we were already scheduled to have a c-section the following week (since the babies were breech), so they just bumped up the date by 5 days.  However, what this translated to was that the babies were going to be born at 35 weeks a 6 days.  At the hospital, any baby under 36 weeks is considered premature, and must go straight to the NICU for intensive care.  More on that later.

On April 22, 2010, I woke up knowing that at 2 pm I would be a mom.  It's quite calming knowing exactly when your babies will be born.  No uncertainty, no frantic car rides, no breathing exercises while being pushed in a wheelchair down the hospital hallway...we just woke up, finished packing our bags, took a few pictures, then drove on over.


I looked so much teenier from the front




Man was I huge!  (In the background, our fabulous nursery collage)




My sister flew halfway across the country just to be there to meet the girls - she's amazing!

At the hospital, they put me in one of those flaps of fabric, and gave Will a set of scrubs.  He, of course, had all sorts of ideas about wandering the hospital in his scrubs randomly dispensing advice to people.  I believe he planned to call himself Dr. Gina  (yes, Dr. V. Gina)

He does look incredibly cute in his scrubs

Remember how I said the girls would have to go straight to the NICU?  That meant they both had their own team of doctors and nurses to whisk them away (3 each).  Plus my doctor and nurses, plus the anesthetists... at one point I counted 15 people in the room.

The scariest part was the epidural, but I had already had one back in January for the first emergency procedure (the cerclage).  Then, it became incredibly surreal.  I pretty much just lay there, there was a big sheet between me and the "action", so I couldn't see anything.  I remember just waiting to hear a baby crying.  And waiting, and waiting - it probably took about ten minutes, but it felt like forever.  And then, suddenly, I heard it.

Did you know babies come out covered in goo?  Cause they do

About a minute later, I heard it again.


Post-goo



Gooey







And that was it, I was a mom, and Will was a dad (he got to cut the chords).  They brought each baby over for a couple of seconds, so I could see them, but that was all I really got to see of them until the next morning.  The girls went with their own little teams, and it seemed like as quickly as they came, they were gone.  Most of the hospital staff left too, and the room suddenly seemed very quiet and empty.  When I think back on it, I wish I could have held them.  I understand, they were premature, the hospital needed to take every precaution.  The last thing I would want to do would be to put them at any risk.  But it would have been nice to hold them.