Christmas day went along as planned and we went to Chuck's for dinner and gift opening, as tradition would have it. We sat down to dinner and about half way through I see, in slow motion, Judah lower his head to the table and begin throwing up, right next to the plate of ham. When I say it was in slow motion, it was literally in slow motion. I start yelling, "what are you doooooing?!?!?!?" I thought he was spitting out his food because he didn't like it. My huge stomach was preventing me from jumping up to pull him away so I just started yelling. I finally took him to the bathroom to clean him up, everyone bewildered about what had just happened, and Jared took him home. I sat on the couch and started crying, partly due to hormones I'm sure, but also because I was so sad he couldnt be with the family. Christmas at Chuck's is one of my very favorite things.
Bryan had made mention that maybe today was the day I would have the babies and I laughed knowing that my body was definitely giving up (I could feel it...I was in so much pain trying to move, sleep, anything) but I had no inkling that he would only be a few hours off of his prediction. We opened our presents and Aylah and I went home probably around 9:30 that night. I was pretty exhausted as per usual, but nothing out of the ordinary, and I went to bed that night at 11:30.
A bad cramp woke me up at just before 2am and then I fell back to sleep. Then, the same cramp woke me up again and with that one, pushed out a little fluid. I laid there for a minute trying to decide if I just peed and then decided to get up and go to the bathroom. The fluid was clear. For fear of it actually being the start of labor, and my fear of pooping during labor, I made sure I "used the bathroom" before arriving at the hospital. This time, after wiping it was clear....and pink. I sat there for a few minutes trying to decide what to do...was this real? I feel okay...after two more of those weird cramps I decided I had better wake Jared up. I knew we should probably go but I couldn't make the decision if it was "it" or not--I was so nervous! Jared made the call to his dad at 2:03 am and we left.
2:03am- Jared calls Chuck
2:05- Jared calls the hospital and they tell him to call the on-call
2:08- Jared called the OBs office and leaves a message with the answering service
2:18- We're in the car, in the driveway, and I text Lindsay letting her know that Bryan's prediction was almost right!
2:19- the Doctor calls back and I let her know I have really, really quick labors. She doesn't seem to care
2:45- we arrive at the hospital
The drive to the hospital really wasn't bad. I don't remember feeling particularly stressed out and there really wasn't anyone on the road. I remember being at a stop light by the Sunoco, Jared asking if I wanted him to go through it. I was fine and we waited. Even though we've traveled that road into the city so many times, it was weird to be driving it on a clear, quiet night to go have our babies. It just felt different. At 2:45, we pulled into the parking garage and got a spot right across the the elevator. We were told when we took the hospital tour that if I were to come in on the weekend, or after hours, to go to the emergency room to check in. We get to registration and there was one person checking someone else in. The woman would not look up to make eye contact with us and we were standing there for some time so I started to get agitated. Someone else came to register also and could tell I was beginning to feel a little urgent and asked if we wanted her to do something. Finally the registration woman looked up and said we could go up to labor and delivery. Awesome! Until we tried to get to the elevators. Because it was after hours, the hospital was locked down. We couldn't get through the doors. Jared ran back and the woman told him to pick up some random phone on the wall and call some number. The security guard came about a minute later and let us through. We get upstairs and buzz in...and I'm a little cranky at this point because of the rush of anxiety not being seen by the registration lady, and then having to find the phone, and wait for the security guard...(looking back though, I walked pretty darn far from the parking garage, to the er, to the elevator, and to l&d...I did really good!)...so Jared starts filling out paperwork, asking "dumb" (to me, at the time) questions and I just took the papers and began filling them out myself. The nurse nonchalantly handed me a gown to change into, so I did, and I really didn't have any trouble doing so. I laid on the bed in triage and kept wondering how I knew my nurse...she was pretty friendly and we chit chatted for a while while she got the bands for the monitors placed. We finally figured out that we go to the same church and that she was pregnant at the same time I was pregnant with Aylah...and I think Judah, too! I remember her even sitting in front of us one day...isn't it so crazy how life is...you come in contact with people and places all the time, having no idea how they'll play a part in BIG parts of your life! I digress. She brought out some special paper to test the leaking fluid, to see if it was amniotic fluid or not. She told me to cough and I let out the tinist cough because I knew it would make me have a contraction and I didn't want to have one, since I already knew what was going on. Time continues to tick by and because we never registered with the ER, my information wasn't able to be pulled up on the computer. I kept thinking in my head, as the nurse kept making comments, that it didnt matter if they could see the contractions or not, these babies were coming!
At this point, it was about 3:20. The doctor came in to check me and as she did, a bunch of fluid came out. I was at a 6. The doctor left to go back to sleep and I was asked whether or not I wanted to walk to be wheeled over to my room. I joked with her that I wanted to ride over in style, and so I did. My nurse was entering in some things to the computer, Jared went into the bathroom, I had an IV started, and the person with the ultrasound machine started getting set up. I was getting really anxious as all this was happening. She began explaining how to use the call bell and that she was going to go finish up some paperwork when I immediately felt very frantic about how she needed to check me. She kind of looked at me, surprised, and started opening up a pack of...instruments? I have no idea...something to check me and I told her she better check me right now. I felt so frantic at the moment. I was at a 9! I flew from a 6-9 in a matter of literal minutes. Jared came out of the bathroom and she left to go get the doctor. And like a second after she left the room I needed to push! I told Jared to go tell them I was pushing and everyone flew into the room and at about 900 mph, ran my bed down the hallway into the OR, telling me not to push yet.
I couldn't help it and pushing began. It was really different pushing with Micah, than the other babies, because Ezra was up in my ribs. It felt like he was laying sideways across the top of my stomach (we'll never really know because I never did get to have that last ultrasound). They kept telling me to grab behind my knees and pull my legs up but I physically could not crunch because Ezra's body was in the way. I pushed Micah out, laying straight as a board, with my legs straight out. Jared said as he came out, my water exploded all over the doctor, over her mask, and into her mouth. He said it was so insane he didn't know what to. I wish I saw that haha (sorry, lady). Micah was placed on my chest for a minute and he was totally quiet. Didn't move or make a peep--Jared asked if he was ok to which they said yes and then asked if NICU could take him to check him out because he was such a little bird. 4lbs, 12 oz, 18.25 inches.
Seven minutes went by before Ezra was born. As soon as Micah came out, I felt a bit of physical relief and it was so strange because the cramping, pain and contractions totally stopped. I asked when they would start again because everyone was just kind of standing there, looking around, talking amongst themselves, waiting. The told me to make sure I held my legs this time and when I asked why, they said so that I didn't hurt the baby. Yikes. When the time came, holding my legs was way easier with out the...obstruction. As Ezra was being born, Jared caught the whole thing on video! I will treasure that forever! I had no idea he was filming so that makes it even more special. He was born in the sac...they said, "wait, wait, wait" and she broke it...and at that point it hurt way less. My nurse said, "ok, that's the baby's head", to which i exclaimed with a guttural voice, "YESSSSSSSSSSS!" and there he was! 4:01 am, 4lbs 14oz, 18.5 inches. He had a little short cord so I couldnt really see him because he was all the way down at my belly and then very quickly after I started contracting again for the placenta.
A little while went by and Micah was brought over first. I held him as they finished up checked Ezra and then we got our first picture all together. They were taken to the NICU and me back to my room. They said I had to wait about an hour and once I was able to pee and get changed, they'd wheel me over to the mom/baby part of the hospital and then to go see the babies in the NICU. Our journey lasted there just under 3 weeks. They initially needed a little help with their sugars and Ezra a little help with his breathing. He had a little baby chest xray. Things all checked out on him and so a few hours later he got the oxygen removed. They had trouble with apnea of prematurity "episodes", jaundice, temperature regulation, and had ng feeding tubes. The boys came home on apnea monitors and caffeine. They gained weight very well despite not being on the fortifier that I refused to have added to my breast milk.
My recovery was amazing. I had no tearing. I was able to breathe again. I could bend and move. I had more energy even.
January 14th, they came home. And so it began!
...............ps, a little fun fact. At exactly one year from the time of my water breaking, they (Micah) woke up to nurse. How neat is that?!
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)