life & times: June 2013

A Birth Story: Jack & Hunter

I knew throughout my pregnancy that my OB didn't want me to go past 39 weeks gestation, however, I never imagined we would make it that long anyway. I think Jeff and I always suspected our boys would come sometime in early to mid May just based on other, typical twin pregnancies.

Boy, were we wrong!

My last prenatal appointment was on Friday, May 24th. At that time, I confirmed with my doctor that if the boys didn't come on their own by Tuesday morning (the day after Memorial Day), we'd proceed with an induction.

My OB estimated that I was already 90% effaced and 3cm dilated. Needless to say, every time I stood up over the three day weekend, I just knew my water was going to break! Fortunately for me, it didn't. The boys must have wanted Dr. H to deliver them as much as I did because they held on until Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, May 28th we arrived at Baylor University Medical Center and checked in at 7:30am. All along my OB had a definitive plan of action for my Induction Day, and the nurses at BUMC did a wonderful job sticking to it. Have I mentioned how great the L&D nurses at Baylor are? They are truly the best, and I was grateful to be in their care.

First thing's first, they did one last sonogram to make sure the boys were still head down. Believe it or not, they can flip themselves around at the last minute if they try hard enough. I definitely breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when the resident confirmed their head down position. Baby A (soon to be referred to as "Jack") was closest to my cervix and nestled way down in my pelvis. We knew all along that he'd be making his entrance into this world first.

After the sono, the resident checked my cervix and estimated that I was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced.

My two wonderful nurses, Kylie & Lisa-Marie, proceeded to move the induction right along per Dr. H's instructions. They inserted my IV, so they could get my fluids started (apparently I'm "valvey", so it actually took three different nurses to find one who could do it - interesting to note: the nurses with my first pregnancy had the same struggle). Once that was done though, it was smooth sailing from there.

Shortly after I got the IV, they started the pitocin drip to get my contractions moving along. Quickly thereafter, Dr. H broke my water, and our anesthesiologist (named Jack!) came in to administer the epidural. Easy breezy! Jack was a pro!

By 12pm, I was dilated to a 7. The nurses/residents said they'd be back in the room in about an hour to check me again.

We spent the next 30-40 minutes enjoying Adele radio on Pandora and watching the babies' monitors (all the while getting tutorials from nurse Danice on what all the numbers and lines meant).

Of course, Dr. H and the nurses were keeping an eye on the monitoring from the central nurse's station in the L&D unit. We knew this because right around 12:40pm, Dr. H came charging in the room to say that she thought it was time to check my cervix again.

Sure enough, I was dilated to a 10!

It was time to head into the OR so the pushing could begin (Baylor policy states that all multiples must be delivered in the OR whether vaginal or c-section delivery). Little did I know, it would take us longer to get wheeled into the OR and transferred to the OR table than it would to deliver two precious little babes!

Before Dr. H could finish getting scrubbed in, the resident excitedly called out to her, "I see a head, Dr. H!" Once Dr. H came back to the table, I only pushed for two rounds when Mr. Jack Rhodes graced us with his presence {and those amazingly beautiful and surreal first cries} at 1:01pm.

Three more rounds of pushes and a mere 5 minutes later, and Mr. Hunter Stone graced us with his beautiful presence at 1:06pm.

There aren't words to adequately describe the extreme joy I felt at that moment knowing that both my boys were now with us - healthy & happy (well, maybe not happy at that exact moment, but they soon would be!).

My heart was full and my world was complete!

Departing Larchcrest for Baylor