Monday we woke up at 5 am and went to the hospital. When we got there I got hooked up to an IV and filled out paperwork. The plan was to induce by breaking my water so after I was all hooked up I had to just wait for my doctor which was brutal. He came in at 7:30 and broke my water. I completely freaked out at that point because I knew there was no turning back and the feeling of my water gushing out was unnerving. I was not mentally prepared to have my babies and I was scared for me and them. I immedietely asked for an epidural. I wasn't in any pain whatsoever but I needed to calm myself down and I knew that if I started feeling contractions I was going to lose it. I wasn't scared of pain, just scared of the unknown and all the complications. They brought in anesthesia asap and the anethesiologist asked me to rate my pain, ummmm 0? I told him 2 just to make it sound like I wasn't a complete wuss (which at the time I was) but I was feeling nothing. The worst part about the epidural was having a baby foot in my lungs right where I needed to bend over. It hurt so bad to have to sit there in that position and feel like a baby was going to break a rib any moment. It was finally in and I was able to lay down and get out of that horrible position. They started the pitocin at a 1 and the epidural was started at a 15 so a very low dose. I could still move my legs but it took the edge off all the contractions and made me feel like I was just having a bunch of braxton hicks. Who knows how strong those contractions would have been without the epidural though, I have a feeling they wouldn't have been that painful because they weren't showing up on the monitor very strong and I had an internal monitor that would tell us the intensity of the contractions. We went up in pitocin every 15 minutes. Contractions finally got regular and came every 3 minutes but weren't very strong, I could tell I was having a contraction when I started gushing fluid. With each contraction I gushed. It was so nasty feeling. I dialated to 7 cm within 2 hours but stopped progressing after that. I think what happened is that when he broke my water, Aubree was able to come down more which dialated my cervix but I didn't have contractions strong enough to put me into actual labor. I was exhausted and shaking. I was exhausted because I wasn't able to eat and so my blood sugar was so low, and I was shaking from the epidural as well as them breaking my water. My family was in my room and Mason was running around and I was falling asleep and it was just a very laid back experience. If I ever have another baby, that's what I want labor to be like. With Mason I was in so much pain and I had to concentrate and it was...well, labor. I loved being able to take short naps and have family with me and everything just being so laid back.
At 12:45 my doctor came in and said that he allowed me 3 hours to be at 7cm and he doesn't like that I wasn't progressing. My pitocin was at a 9 and he said that he won't turn it up anymore because he doesn't want to risk the concequences of getting it up too high and causing unnaturally strong contractions. He suggested a csection. I told him I wanted to wait a little longer and see if I could dialate more. He gave me another half hour. I got into a side position and put a "peanut" between my legs that allowed my pelvis to open up more. I tried to shut everything out that was going on around me (not easy when I have a bunch of people in my room) and completely focus on relaxation. I could tell my body was starting to respond but at that point it was too little too late. I didn't dialate within that 30 minute time frame and I knew that if God wanted me to have a vbac, he would have caused some sort of change that would have held us off from having the csection. I quickly said yes to a csection because I knew it was headed down that road anyway and I didn't want to put my body through anymore and end up with a csection anyway and a worse recovery.
Everyone started getting ready for surgery and I was wheeled into the OR. I thought I would be more nervous than what I was. I was very nervous about blood loss, but other than that I was just glad to have a set plan. The csection was weird. I was more aware of what was going on this time and so I felt more tugging and pulling. I knew what they were doing because I felt pressure whenever they would cut, but no pain. Pulling babies out was completely weird because I felt a lot of pressure and then extreme relief. I heard them cry and couldn't believe there was actually two real live babies in there. Once Avalee was out I felt complete relief. I was able to breath and my stomach felt so light. It was a great feeling to not have babies inside me anymore. They showed me Aubree and all I could think was she was so tiny. Then they showed me Avalee and I didn't think it was even possible for her to stay with us, she was the smallest baby I've ever seen in real life. I kept watching the nicu nurses faces while they cleaned up and evaluated Ava. I knew that I could tell if she was doing well by the look on their faces. They finally wrapped her up and gave her to Jared! I couldn't believe we got to keep her with us, I was so ready for them to be taken to the nicu for at least 24 hours. I was sewn back up and I asked the doctor if the placenta had been evaluated. She (the attending doctor) said yes and that there was only one. So we know for sure the twins are identical.
I was taken to recovery and it was so hard to keep my eyes open. My blood sugar had to have been extremely low at that point because The exhaustion I felt was like nothing I had ever had before. I was exhausted but my body was also in a slight birth high so I couldn't sleep but couldn't concentrate on anything either. The nurses gave me Aubree to have her nurse. I knew it was showtime, if they couldn't eat then they would be sent to the nicu so this was important. I tried so hard to get Aubree to eat and finally she started sucking. I was extremely excited! She only ate for 5 minutes, but that was enough to keep her with me. Next was Avalee. She wasn't interested at all. I tried and tried with her and begged her to eat. Finally she latched and sucked a few times. It wasn't much but it was enough to show the nurses that she could do it. Both were coming with me!! :)
I will write more later and post pics of the delivery later. It's meal time for the twins right now.
