Birth Story: Cole and Luke

The birth story of Cole and Luke began a whole month before they were born. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my obstetric history, it all began at 28 weeks when my water broke unexpectedly. The date was Wednesday December 22nd, three days before Christmas.

When I arrived at my doctor’s office confirmed that it was amniotic fluid and that I had not just peed myself (I guess this happens sometimes) and sent me to the specialty hospital with a NICU because of the possibility that I could go into labor at any minute. Thankfully although I did not go into labor that night, I did have some contractions but they simmered down by the next morning. I was there for three whole weeks until I felt another contraction.

I began the laboring process almost a week before the boys were delivered. All week I had been feeling progressively worse, and had a feeling that my body was gearing up to go into labor. Thursday night around 3 a.m. things started to get going and by Friday morning they finally checked me but I was only 1cm dilated. After that, my contractions had fizzled out again, but started back up in the late afternoon. These contractions were pretty difficult and felt progressively worse. I asked for some pain relief, but nothing helped. So they checked me again, and I was at 3cm so they determined at that point I was officially in labor.

At that point, we needed to decide if we were going to have a VBAC or a repeat c-section. So I gave Alex a call (he was on his way back to the hospital) around 11:30pm and we decided that a c-section would be best because there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t end up having both, and I did not want to face an emergency c-section.

Alex got there at 12:00, and they started prepping me for surgery. I was getting my spinal by 1:30 and I was so relieved that it actually worked this time! During the surgery, I kept telling the doctors how great it was going in my mind because I couldn’t feel anything and I was aware of the babies being born. I found out later that they had some trouble getting Cole out because he was wedged in behind a fibroid, which would have made it extremely difficult to have had him with a VBAC ( so I probably would have ended up having a c-section anyway!) The doctor also told me that they almost had to remove my entire uterus, that could have been really bad too.

The c-section went so well this time. I was a little nervous when they brought me into the O.R. before my spinal. The anastesiologist didn’t want to guarentee that they wouldn’t use Ketamine again, thankfully they didn’t have too. When he put the spinal in, I felt a warming sensation that went down my body from my abdomen to my feet. And by the time they were ready to operate, my legs were competely numb too. I don’t remember that happening at all with my first C-section.

The boys were born at 2 am weighing 4lb 2oz and 3lb 15oz. Luke was able to move on pretty quickly to the NICU, but Cole required a little more attention because he was breathing pretty fast. He had an oxygen tube for the first 12-14 hours and then they were able to take it out. I was in the operating room for a long time though, 1 am to 3am, before I was wheeled back to my room for recovery. The other thing is that the fundal massage post operation was not as painful as I remembered, probably because I my spinal actually worked right this time. What a relief! The other amazing thing is that I was able to move around much quicker than before. At 5a.m. I was able to stand long enough to get into a wheel chair to go up to see the babies in the NICU. All of the nurses were amazed that I was up there already. I felt really good considering I had just had major abdominal surgery.

The babies will be 3 weeks old on Saturday, and so far I have had no signs of infection! I think that I am out of the woods now.

The boys were in the NICU almost exactly 2 weeks. They did not have any major interventions, they basically needed to stay long enough to learn how to eat and stay warm. Their homecoming was great and we are so happy to have everyone here at last!