On Monday morning (3.9.09) at 1 a.m. my water broke. It wasn’t a huge gush, but I knew it didn’t have to be. When I returned to bed after a trip to the bathroom to make my uncertain announcement, Pete’s initial response was “No, it’s too early!” Which made me giggle because of course we can’t control this event. But I have to admit I did agree with him, this wasn’t part of our plan – we still had another week to go. I was going to be induced the following week (at 38 weeks) as scheduled. So I actually climbed back into bed after drinking a large glass of water and Pete was going to try to sleep a little, but that didn’t work! After my second trip back to the bathroom and a little indecision we decided to call the hospital and were told to come in. It wasn’t that frantic trip speeding to the hospital like you see in the movies, but I wasn’t in labor or in pain either. We were actually both really calm, Pete even took a shower and we remembered to take a final “belly photo” before we left. We were really hoping we weren’t going to be sent home after the trip in to St. Paul. I was wondering how I was going to go to work tomorrow after all this – I had a project kick-off meeting I needed to go to.
We arrived at the hospital around 3 a.m. and weren’t sent home! An initial test confirmed that it was amniotic fluid that was leaking. To my relief I hadn't developed a bladder problem (which I know some pregnant women do)! A few hours later we called our parents to let them know. My Dad & Janet had just been up here the past weekend, so I had to tell him to turn around! They were more than happy to come back and couldn’t get back here soon enough. Our first nurse, and consequently our delivery nurse, Mary, was awesome. She made us very comfortable and really wanted us to sleep some, so we did a little, much to the dismay of our parents in the waiting room. My Mom, Dad, and Janet stayed all Monday night waiting for the girls arrival!I labored until early Tuesday (36 weeks 6 days – really good for twins) morning (yes, that’s about 26 hours), when Dr. Capecchi (a really nice guy, so ends my distaste for male OB/GYNs) finally said I should have a c-section. Pete & I welcomed the idea because at this point we were going on so little sleep, and had already known there was a good chance I would have a c-section. I actually did dilate almost to a 10, but didn’t progress beyond that for about 5 hours. We were so close!
Everything went smoothly with the surgery. I was a little surprised by how much tugging I could feel. It was a strange sensation, but it didn’t hurt because I was well drugged! When they came out the doctors & staff said they had cute cries and they did – if only they would stay cute! It was such a great sound. When I first saw them my initial reaction was how big they were – of course they really weren’t but it was amazing they both fit in me! I shed a few happy tears (Mary, of course, handed me a Kleenex). They both had very high APGAR scores – 9.8 and 9.9. Ava’s color was a little yellow, so she got tested several times for jaundice during our stay, but never needed to be treated for it.
Speaking of well drugged… the first day was a blur; I was on morphine. I remember Pete would ask me to repeat myself and I couldn’t remember what I had said a few seconds earlier, but I think it was mostly jibber. Wow, that was a funny feeling! And I barely remember all of the visitors who came. I think I fell asleep when some of you were there. Apparently I literally fell asleep in my salad – I guess I was done!
We stayed in the hospital until Saturday; it was really nice to have a long stay. Pete stayed with me the entire time and slept on the chair next to me that pulled out into a bed. We had really great care. Carolyn our day nurse was so sweet. It was like having my grandma taking care of me. We sent the girls to the nursery at night so we could get some sleep. Our first night home we discovered we’d lived a sheltered life in the hospital! We had no idea that our girls came alive at night! They really didn’t like our dark quiet bedroom at home; the nursery was fairly loud and bright, with the lights on all night.
Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day – it was in the 50’s which we all know is a great day in March. My mom helped us get home with all the flowers, etc. and was our photographer. My new big(ger) car is suddenly not so big with two car seats in the back seat. The girls screamed when we put them in their car seats – oooh that’s hard on a new Mommy – but were absolutely quiet on the ride home. That was actually a little unnerving too - to have them be so quiet and not be able to see them. I now understand why moms sit in the backseat with the front seat empty, but I don’t have that luxury – I wouldn’t fit back there................................................................................
more hospital photos...
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