How It All Went Down...

Or, the twins' birth story.

On Monday, July 12th I went in for my NST at the hospital in the morning, babies looked good and the nurses joked that I was going to make my scheduled section date on Wednesday. In the afternoon, I headed in for my 38 week appointment at the doctor's office. My blood pressure was high again, like 139 over 92...and the doc was not happy. After letting me rest, they rechecked it, and it was even higher. At that point, I was told not to eat or drink and head into the hospital.

At the hospital, they hooked us up to the monitors, drew some blood work, and told us to settle in for the night. Around 9 o'clock, with no fluids, I started contracting. Every 5 minutes. I begged for fluids, at least through my IV, but my nurse refused to call my doctor. I really didn't want to deliver Monday night, but it started to look like we might. Finally around midnight, the doc on call came to see me. My blood work wasn't horrible, but I did have a few labs that were pretty close to pre-E. Thankfully, she said I could be unhooked from the monitors, and had the nurses start some fluids to stop my contractions. With my doctor not on call for the night, the plan was to move my c-section up to the following morning, at 9am.

M. and I both struggled to get any sleep that night. I think I managed to doze off for a few hours, but my mind was racing with anticipation.

Tuesday morning, they started to prep me for surgery around 7:30am. I was really nervous about the spinal, as my c-section with DD was under general anesthesia. Everyone kept telling me it would be okay. After being bumped for an emergency, we walked down to the OR at about 10:30...the anesthesiologist did a great job and my spinal took on the first try. I can't even begin to explain how relieved I was. M. came in and sat down next to my head, in a wheelchair (!) and we waited to hear the first cries.

At 11:06am, Car.ina Hope started screaming! She weighed in at 6 lbs, 1oz and was 19 inches long. Her brother, Nat.han Michael, arrived at 11:07am, a thin 5 lbs, 6 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. The first thing M. said was that they had hair! I never thought my babies would be anything but bald...Miss O. didn't have hair until she was 2 years old!

Hearing their cries was the best sound ever. I cried many, many happy tears that day, as our long journey to add to our family finally came to fruition. We all came home that Friday, and we're finally settling into a routine. I'm so incredibly happy and so blessed. Every time I look at them, I still can't believe they are both mine and are here and healthy!