Twas the Night Before Labor

It's time! January 28th, 2011, 8:15 pm. After a few days of experimenting with labor inducing tactics, it happened. My water broke! It started on Wednesday when we went to Wing Stop to eat Spicy foods. Our friend Marty believes that spicy hotwings will induce labor, seeing as two of her friends went in to labor shortly after eating them! Well, I didn't fit the bill and ended up with a severe case of heartburn. Thursday I had an appointment with my OB to see if anything had changed. Well, it hadn't. I was still a mere 1 cm dilated, but pretty effaced, my OB set up my induction for Wednesday, February 2nd @ 5:00am. I was a bit disappointed, but what could I do? On Thursday night, Brent and I went to El Fenix and had some Mexican food, again something spicy! Randi and I decided that on Friday after she got off work that we'd go get a pedicure. Not only did I feel that I deserved it, but I hadn't touched my toes since the beginning of November! Oh, and, again, many people had told me that a pedicure could induce labor! Friday morning came and I awoke feeling awesome. I felt so great that I even shaved my legs---and for those of you who have been there and done that, know that shaving is quite a feat with a big ol' belly! I put on my favorite maternity dress and wondered why I was feeling so good! My mom shared with me that she felt super great right before she went in to labor, so I hoped this was it for me, as well!  

Around 2:00, Randi and I went to get a pedicure. I thoroughly enjoyed the massage chair. As I sat there, I started to have more contractions. They weren't painful, they weren't regular, but I had about 6 within the hour! I shrugged them off, since I'd been having those Braxton Hicks for the past few weeks anyhow. Randi came home with me and stayed the afternoon, just in case these babies should decide they were ready to come out! When Brent got home, we decided to go for a nice, long walk. So, in my cute dress and tennis shoes, we went. I just about over-did it! My hips and lower back started aching pretty badly and I got a cramp in my thigh just as we walked into our drive way. I spent the next few hours resting and surprised about how out of whack I was feeling! Brent and Randi decided that Subway sandwiches sounded good to eat for supper, so they went and picked some up. I took a short nap while they were out. We sat and watched Kitchen Nightmares while we ate of wiches. I scarfed down all of mine, which was also unusual at that point! Randi decided that she'd better get home, it was getting late. She jokingly said, "See you tomorrow, unless those babies decided to come tonight!" Little did she know, she was correct! It wasn't 5 minutes after she left that I felt a gush of fluid. I seriously contemplated whether or not I had peed myself! When the same thing happened a few minutes later, I knew something was up! I paged my OB. Brent started rummaging around the house, getting everything ready for our hospital stay. I called Randi, who turned around and headed back to our house. Brent made the bed, cleaned the kitchen, swept the floor and packed his bag all within 15 minutes! Dr. Dias called back within 20 minutes and said I should head to the hospital, that more than likely my water had broke! I remember telling Brent that this is not at all what I had expected. He, too, said that he never imagined it going down like this! By 9:00 we had arrived at the hospital. I couldn't believe it. It was time. My life was changing. Changing for the best. This is when the Holy Spirit took over and a feeling of calm came over me.

I was still only about 1-2 cm dilated, so and IV was started and I was pumped full of Pitocin. I was also being shot up with Antibiotics since I'm a carrier of Strep B. Here is a video that was taken at 3:00am that night. My progression was very slow, but that gave all of our out of town family time to get to Arlington. The most painful part of this stage, for me, was the contraction monitor. It hurt far worse than the contractions themselves! The contractions started to get worse, so I opted for and Epidural. The anesthesiologist had to stab my back with his needle to insert the catheter 6 times before he hit the right spot. Ouch! 12 hours had passed and finally, it was time. At 10:00 am, January 29th, I was being wheeled down to the OR!

My heart was racing. I was nervous, scared, excited, impatient.....a feeling I really can't put into words.

And So It Begins

Today is January 24, 2011. Unbelievable. On June 11th at 5:30 am I took a pregnancy test from the Family Dollar. I swore I saw a very faint pink line, Brent couldn’t really see it. *This is probably because he was still asleep in bed when I shoved the test in his face to get a second opinion.* I had a more reliable test under the sink, but of course, I didn’t need to pee anymore….so I waited for 6 hours and took the second one. It was definately positive, especially when I took it outside!

I sent this picture to Brent and he quickly texted back that he, too, could see two lines! I was still ecstatic, so I sent the picture to Randi, who also saw two lines. I didn’t tell anyone else. Being beside myself all day, I cleaned out from underneath our bathroom sink, only to find one digital test. I swore to myself that I’d wait to use it Saturday morning. I was able to hold out! I didn’t say I’d wait until a decent hour Saturday morning, though! So, at 4:30am Saturday morning, I peed on it. Brent stood with me in the bathroom. The directions stated that it could take up to 3 minutes. We watched the hour glass on the test turn over a few times and after about 20 seconds the word “Pregnant” popped up! I cried. Brent wouldn’t let me go. *This is probably because he was crying, too.* We decided NOT to wait to tell our close family. We knew that the more prayers that were being said, the better. We drove over to Crowley and told my Mom. She cried. Randi cried. I cried some more. From my figuring, I would have the baby on or around Momma’s birthday. *Momma had been teasing me about this all month.* Brent’s mom, Marie, was coming to town that same day. She would be at our house by 10:00am. We barely made it back before she showed up. We got to share our good news with her, as well. I called my dad, Brent called his dad. There were lots of tears that day! After all the excitement, I started to have some spotting. I was so scared. Words can’t explain. I was obsessed for the next few hours with going to the bathroom to see if it had stopped. It never did. At 5:00 pm that day, we were going to Waxahachie to throw our friend, Marty, a birthday party. I called my Nanny Fran and told her that I’d gotten a positive test, but that I was bleeding some. She prayed with me over the phone and that helped some. I *tried* to enjoy the party and and just have faith that God’s plan would prevail. I continued to have spotting on and off through July 4th. I hounded my doctors and nurses the entire time. I went in to the lab on June 22, 29 and July 6 for blood drawals. The nurse would give me the news that my HCG count was going up very quickly and that my progesterone levels were normal. *Oh, I had self diagnosed myself with low progesterone. My doctor did a 21 day test back in January, and sure enough, my blood work showed the same. I then was having to keep up with my ovulation and take progersterone suppositories as soon after I ovulated. I would remain on the suppliment until the 13th week of pregnancy if I concieved. So, I’d been taking the meds since May 31st.* Even with the progesterone suppositories, my progesterone levels steadily declined. By the time I had it check on July 6th, it had dropped, but the nurse still wasn’t concerned. The placenta takes over the making of progesterone around the 12th week of pregnancy, so I just had a few more weeks to go. After bugging the doctors about my levels, all the spotting and the miscarriage I had the year prior, I talked them into doing an early sonogram. Usually they woudn’t do one until a patient was 12+ weeks pregnant. I was a mere 8 weeks. On July 13th, I went in for the sonogram, the sonographer found, not one, but two healthy heartbeats. I was elated, shocked, thankful, scared and a huge ball of emotions! Brent was, too. It was so much fun calling our parents to let them know! I’ve never heard my dad so happy. Nanny Fran said that he was sitting in the floor at her new apartment putting together a shelf. She said that in one movement, he was up on his feet! My dad, the human spring board! My mom didn’t even catch that we were saying “they” have great heartbeats. When she finally did, she got so so excited. Marie thought we were joking. Bruce said that we deserve it and that God is good! Our friends, Marty and Alex, were overjoyed, as well. After the sonogram, I didn’t have one more episode of spotting. I started to get really bad morning sickness. It had started June 30th, but continued all the way through the month of September. It got extreme during August, which was no fun since I had to go back to work. The trashcan became a close friend of mine. Around that time, my OB decided that it would be best for me to see a Perinatologist for the anatomy scan for the twins. He thought that the twins were identical, but was hoping that a specialist could tell more. The Peri would be able to do a level 2 sonogram to check for any anomolies, too. So, it was set. September 16th was going to be the big day. I was excited to find out genders, excited to see them on the big screen showing off a healthy heart. I was also frightened, what if there was an “anomoly?” The next few days drug on forever……*Keep the Faith, I kept reminding myself.*

The day finally came and Brent and I were off to Dr. Goldaber for our big sonogram. It was quick to see that we were going to be parents to twin girls! I couldn’t be more excited! It was also quick to see that Baby B only had a Single Umbilical Artery (SUA). A “normal” umbilical cord has 2 vessels and one vein. Baby B had one vessel and one vein within her cord. Everything else on her tiny little body looked great, so the doctor said we shouldn’t worry too much about it, but that it would need to be closely monitored. The biggest issue with SUA is lower birth weight and preterm labor, which is also an “issue” with twins in the first place. Once again, I had to remind myself to KEEP THE FAITH!

I had appointments every other week from that point forward with Dr. Goldaber. I also kept seeing Dr. Kromback (OB) every month. At every appointment, everything always went “exceptional” according to both doctors. Starting on December 21st, I had to start seeing Dr. Goldaber for a sonogram every week to check on Baby B’s umbilical cord. I would also start seeing Dr. Dias every other week. *Dr. Krombach was moving to another practice starting in 2011, so I had to switch OB’s.* Everything was still great! Dr. Goldaber figured that I’d deliver the twins early January. Dr. Dias said that we’d need to induce the first week of February. For my girls sake, I went with what Dr. Dias said! Here I am…..January 24th, 2011. I’ve been pregnant for almost 37 weeks. The countdown has begun. In 8 more days, I will go to Arlington Memorial Hospital to be induced; unless, of course, the girls decide to choose their own birthdays! I’d be perfectly happy with that, too! Last week, the girls estimated weights were: Baby A, 5 pounds 13 ounces and Baby B, 5 pounds 4 ounces. For now, I’m getting a bit miserable. *Got almost 12 lbs of baby in my body!* I try to remain positive, but by evening, it’s sure hard! I know God will get me through it and it does help having Brent as a husband, whom also makes my life 100% better! Hopefully by the next blog, I’ll be blogging about our birth story!