Ten Years Ago....

I had the twins!

I knew from the beginning of the pregnancy I was having twins. Don't ask me how, but everything was different. I had an ultrasound around 8 weeks, and sure enough, there they were , Baby A, and Baby B. I met my dh for lunch at work and showed him the pic. He had no clue. I loved the look on his face! He was looking it over saying "Awwww... Baby A. Baby A????? OH! " Then he saw Baby B. Hehehehe.

I was SO sick! My brother was getting married the following week and we had to travel with my mom and my 18 month old son 12 hours south the to Blue Ridge Mountains (can you say, Goodnight, John Boy?). It was a miserable trip. My mom wasn't feeling well either because she had had an enounter with bats in a hotel room and was on a rabies treatment for "just in case". She had had a shot a couple days previously and they can make you feel miserable for a few days. My dh was wonderful dealing with two hormonal, cranky women and an active toddler.

I remember we stopped at one little out of the way resturaunt and I was coming out of the bathroom and my mom said "you're showing already!"

Right before the Esther and Elizabeth's due date we had a missions conference at church and I was wearing a pretty white pleated maternity skirt and blue and white striped sweater top. The stripes were horizontal (what was I thinking???) and as we were sitting with our dear pastor one night after the meetings the babies were kicking like crazy and he blandly remarked to me : "Your stripes are moving." Hehehehe.

On a Thursday before Mother's day, I had a check up. The dr. examined me (this is before we started homebirthing) and said my body wasn't ready to birth yet, but he would give me the weekend, and if they weren't born by Tuesday, we'd induce. :huh: Don't you just love dr's? So, I resolved I would go to the nearby community yardsale on Saturday and walk and walk until things got started. Well, I didn't have to worry. At 5a.m. Friday morning (a mere 12 hours after the dr. said my body wasn't ready yet) my water broke. I had woken up while dh was in the bathroom shaving, getting ready for work. I sat up and "shwoooosh". Thankfully my mother was visiting to help with the babies after they arrived. I remember wanting to take a shower even though the contrax's were about 5 minutes apart and we were 45 minutes from the hospital. My dh went to wake up my mom to let her know we were leaving.
"Mom, it's time," he said.
"Time for what?" she asked groggily.
Don't worry, she woke up in a hurry after he explained. She stayed with Benjamin who was not quite two at the time and we went tearing off to the hospital.

At the hospital, panting and trying not to have the baby in the VW, they very quickly got me into a room. I really was wanting to push. No one seemed to realize this. Finally one of the nurses checked me and I was 10 CM. It was hospital policy to deliver the twins in the OR in case of an emergency, so she quickly wheeled us down there. When we got down there the dr. and the anesthesialogist (sp?) were zipping through. I heard him ask the dr. "I need to ask her a couple questions."
The dr. answered: "Oh, you have plenty of time."
I remember thinking, Hello! I want to PUSH!!!!!

I was waiting in the hallway as the dr. and dh changed into scrubs and I told the nurse "I HAVE to push!!" Esther was born in the empty hallway, on a gurney, with the bewildered nurse catching her. The nurse did a fine job, despite the fact Esther had her cord around her neck. Didn't seem to bother her at all, as she came out screaming to peel the paint of the walls.

Dh said that in the changing room, he heard me yell out and someone poked their head in the door and said "Dr, you better hurry! That baby is coming now!". He said he saw the dr. run by pulling his scrubs up over his BVD's. Well, that is what you get for not believing the Mama when she says she wants to push.

This is the bell I wish I could go back and unring. Elizabeth was breech, and hadn't decended since Esther made her way into the world. Personally, I think she was enjoying some stretching time. She wasn't in distress, I wasn't in distress. Looking back, I wish I had said "Just give me a shot of pitocin." However, the doctor was concerned that she hadn't decended and that she was still breech. So, we had a C-section. Now, Elizabeth was a pound lighter than Esther, so I realllly think in retrospect we could have done a breech birth. The important thing was that she was healthy, and still is.

That was 10 years ago! I still remember the few weeks after of the bilirubin trouble we had... we had to take them in everyday for the week to the lab to be checked after we got home from the hospital. Then every other day. It was a whirlwind of carseat sunbathing, nursing, and lab checks. They both eventually leveled out. Then there was the cute stuff... how even though we swaddled them and put them at opposite ends of the crib, they would wriggle their way to lay next to each other. As newborns! The first three months after their births were and still are a blur for the most part. Having a very active 2 year old and twins and no sleep made life interesting. But once sleeping patterns were established, and eating routines made, things settled down and we were able to get 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night and enjoy our new family.

10 years ago!!! Where does the time go?