We did it! Mom could not be
more excited to share how blessed she and these boys are to have had such an
easy delivery story...
I decided I would write an overview of it all—partly to
have it written down for myself, and partly for others if they wish to read. I
plan to keep it PG, but also don’t want to sugarcoat anything for you
soon-to-be moms (or moms of twins) looking for a candid account. Since personally I was
so anxious about labor and delivery, one thing that helped me was hearing the different birth stories of my
friends with kids (and some with twins) to be encouraged and to know what to
maybe expect. I realize everyone’s story is different, just as everyone’s
pregnancy is different. We were just
blessed to have an uncomplicated pregnancy, labor and delivery. So, here’s to
sharing a good story of that process…
I cannot express it enough, how thankful we are with how it all turned out. Even the doctor's were very pleased and called it a
rare first delivery story and even “one of the best twins deliveries they’ve
seen.” If you ask me what the worst part of the whole experience was, I would
tell you the anticipation of it all…starting that night before…
I was 38 weeks and 3 days along and the night before my scheduled
induction was an anxious one. I never thought I would have gone this far.
“Usually 90% of twins come naturally before 38 weeks, or need to be delivered early due to
complications,” the doctors kept telling me at my biweekly
appointments. I guess we were the lucky 10%—although my body would consider
myself the unlucky 10%—hehe. These boys were healthy and just content right where
they were—babies’ heart rates were always great, mom’s blood pressure was good,
babies were both head down, and mom was just not having many consistent/painful
contractions. I was thankfully never put on bed rest throughout pregnancy—although
I pretty much put myself on bed rest those last few weeks because my back was
pretty sore.
Having a scheduled induction was nerve-racking for my personality. You don’t get to
experience the “ready-or-not” adrenaline that puts you into gear and sends you
to the hospital without much warning. Instead, you get to think all night about
the whole process that is about to happen the next day—ha! As my induction date grew closer and people
asked how they could be praying for me, I would say, “pray for bravery,” as I
am not the biggest fan of anything medically related at all.
My last doctor’s appointment before induction was Monday, January 20th.
At that appointment they were finally going to check if I had dilated. Of
course, I hadn’t much (I tell ya—I'm convinced these boys could have stayed in 40+ weeks). I
think I was 1 cm and 50% effaced. So, they put in a Foley catheter to try to dilate me
overnight. At this appointment we also had an ultrasound to confirm their
positions. Both were still head down—Praise God! Jett was such a squirmer
and shocked us all with how many times he flipped from head up to head down
(and vice versa) in the last month of pregnancy! We couldn’t believe it each time, since he
didn’t have much room to move—a determined boy I guess. But, we were thankful
to see he was staying put this time—head down.
Jett being head down made our delivery options much less complicated,
even though all along we knew that the biggest factor in whether or not I would
even try to have a vaginal delivery was if Hayden was head down, since he was
“baby A” (in the position of being delivered first). Since I was very adamant about having a
vaginal delivery, they gave us many options to think about as we talked through
our birth plan. If Hayden stayed head down and Jett was head up, we could
choose to try a breeched delivery of Jett as long as he was the same weight or
smaller than his brother (since—sorry TMI—they would be able to just
essentially pull him out quickly afterwards with the bigger brother having already
paved the way). This had some potential risks, though, so it was not ideal. If Jett
was not in a good position to deliver breeched, I would also have a risk of a
cesarean after a vaginal delivery of Hayden (which was kinda my worst nightmare
having to go through both!). So, needless to say, I was super thankful to have
two babies head down!
After getting little sleep the night before, staying up to watch the
Bachelor ;) and having Taylor rub my feet to help distract me, we got up the
next morning to be at the hospital by 7am to begin induction. At 7:00, we got to our room, my vitals were
taken, blood work was done and they started an IV. By around 9:00, they started
the Pitocin. This began the contractions and progressed dilation.
The pain of the contractions
was honestly fine until around 1. That is when I asked for an epidural. I
probably could’ve gone a little longer without, but worried that the anxiety of
getting the epidural and the pain of contractions would make for a bad combo. I
was glad I asked for it when I did. Boy, the epidural was so "hyped-up" in my mind and pretty scary to me,
but it was really a breeze (and that should say a lot coming from someone who
has a fear of needles). Again, like most steps in the process for me, the anticipation
(the idea of the needle, thinking it was going to be so painful, or thinking,
“what if something went wrong”) was the worst part. They numb the area with a
local anesthetic and after that you feel nothing until they put the medicine in
and that just feels a little cold down your spine.
After the epidural,
I didn’t feel my contractions as they started getting worse, and I was dilating a good rate. Also, I never felt out of control—of course you
can’t feel much from the waist down, but I could still move my legs, feel my
feet, and when the time came for pushing later, I still felt the need to push
and had strength to do so.
Around 6pm, I was
getting pretty close to being 10 cm and ready to push, but they wanted me to
wait a little bit longer because otherwise I could be pushing for a long time
(typical of your first pregnancy). So, we waited until about 7:15ish. At this time,
my doctor wanted me to push a little before taking me into the operating room
for the rest of the delivery (twin deliveries are always done in the OR since
they are considered “high risk” and could end in a cesarean). So, they came in
and broke my water (Hayden’s amniotic sac), and I pushed for a few
contractions. I got a little nervous during this part because after each push I
was getting pretty lightheaded. I think I was pushing too hard and definitely
not breathing well in between. (I was determined to avoid pushing for hours!) But,
once I asked my nurse for some breathing tips in between contractions that
helped.
Here’s where my
second least favorite part came…
After pushing
through about 4 contractions, a nurse came in and told me I needed to “labor
down” (or stop pushing for a while) because something was going on in the OR I
was waiting for and they weren’t ready for me yet. The reason this was so tough
was because my epidural meds weren't as strong anymore (the meds are lowered
for the pushing portion of L&D). So, after a few more strong contractions, I
had the anesthesiologist come give me more meds so I could bear it. I guess
they gave me a “boost” that would just last until I needed to start pushing again.
About an hour
later, they wheeled me into the OR and I got ready to push again. When
delivering twins, you get quite the entourage of people ready to help with
every step of the way. In our case, there were 12 people involved—3 nurses per
baby, 2 OB doctors, a few scrub techs and an anesthesiologist. After everyone
was all set and I was situated on the new operating room bed, I began pushing
again.
I pushed for only 6
contractions, for about 20 minutes (Taylor said I was "in the zone" and looked determined to not have to push for hours!) and then Hayden was born at 8:42pm! It all happened so
fast, and before I had time to take in what had just happened, we were already
getting ready to deliver little Jett.
As one doctor broke my water again
(Jett’s amniotic sac), the other doctor was using an ultrasound and his hands on
top of my belly to make sure Jett was head down and in a good position to be
delivered. I quickly knew all was good,
because as my next contraction began, my doctor told me to push. Very quickly
after I started pushing, I heard her say, "Keep going! You're going to
deliver Baby B in one push!" So, I gave it all I had, and there he was!
Ha! Jett was born only 3 minutes after his brother at 8:45pm! We were all shocked
with how fast he came, but since he was about 1.5 pounds lighter than his
brother, I guess my body was ready to deliver him so easily.
After that,
everything was kind of a blur to me. I was tired and just in awe of the
experience. I think I was in shock with how well everything went seeing as we
had talked through so many scenarios for how this experience could go. I cannot tell you how very happy I was that each step was without complications. We were very blessed.
I do remember having to give a small push one more time to deliver the placentas. I had a few stiches put in, and Taylor, once he realized I was in good hands, was checkin’ out our little boys as they were getting weighed and taken care of.
I do remember having to give a small push one more time to deliver the placentas. I had a few stiches put in, and Taylor, once he realized I was in good hands, was checkin’ out our little boys as they were getting weighed and taken care of.
And then, I finally got to hold my little boys...
Introducing...our two bundles of joy:
Hayden John Holiday, 19 inches, 7 pounds 3 ounces
and
Jett James Holiday, 18 inches, 5 pounds 13 ounces
