Sweet Simplicity: London and Evie are here

On Wednesday morning I had my scheduled ultrasound to measure the girls' growth. Going into the day I knew that if Evie hadn't grown much that there was a real possibility we would be moving towards delivery. After 45 minutes of scanning and measuring we discovered that Evie only grew 30 grams - which she should have grown in a day, by normal standards. They told us she was weighing in at around 1 lb 14 oz. I then learned that even London's growth was slowing down, and she was now measuring at only the 19th percentile - a month ago she was at the 40th. I knew in my gut that this meant we would be delivering, but I was wheeled back to my room to wait for the doctor. 15 minutes later I met with Dr. Sandruck, the high risk OB on, and she told me that my babies were no longer growing like they should be and would do better on the outside than they were staying in, so they were inducing. I frantically made phone calls and began packing up my room so that I could be moved to the Labor and Delivery wing. The waiting is always the worst part, and poor Marcus was staying at work until they actually began to induce. I was warned that the induction process could take anywhere from 12 hours to 2 or 3 days, so to be prepared for the long road ahead.
They wheeled me over to L&D at 1pm and I got settled in and waited for my doctor and Marcus arrived shortly after and at 4pm we began the induction. I honestly could not have been more excited. We had known all along that the girls were going to be premature, but the fact that they made it as far as they did bolstered my spirits, and lets be honest - I was SO ready to be done with this pregnancy. To begin they inserted Cervidil, a string like contraption to help my cervix soften and get it ready for induction, which I had to leave in for 12 hours before beginning the Petocin. I was hooked up to an NST machine to monitor the babies heartbeats the entire time to make sure they were tolerating the induction. My mom showed up a few hours later, her excitement only increased mine. She was so wonderful while she was with me, rubbing my legs, which the contractions were hurting for some reason, ticking my arm, rubbing my head, whatever I needed she was there. I love my mommy and am so grateful to her for all her help and support. Around 8pm I started having slight contractions that became more and more frequent until finally they lasted about 45 seconds each and were about 4 minutes apart. It was at this point that I really regretted not reading those birthing books, having assumed I was just going to have a c-section, but I was able to breathe through them fairly easily for the time being.

At 4am they came in and checked my cervix, I had gone from 2cm dilated to about 3.5 cm dilated and had softened enough that they were comfortable starting the Petocin, so at 8 am they began the drip. My contractions became more intense and the babies seemed to tolerate it well. Around 5:30pm my water broke on its own *hooray!* I was SO excited lol My nurse said she couldn't believe how much fluid there was, but we would find out later that both the girls' water broke at the exact same time. At that point the doctor came in to examine me and discovered I was 5.5 cm dilated and 75% effaced, he said from that point on I should expect to dilate another 1 cm every hour, but that he was surprised how quickly I was moving along. The contractions became even more intense and the doctors kept asking me if I wanted an epidural, but honestly it was nothing I couldn't breathe through. so I kept declining. Everything looked so promising at that point, and I knew we were close! Unfortunately it was right around this time that I started feeling ridiculously sick to my stomach again. My doctor said she thought it was a combination of not eating for over 24 hours, sleep deprivation, and the labor kicking in. Puking in labor has now become my LEAST favorite thing to do. (Puking in labor during a contraction while getting a Spinal is even worse, but we'll get to that later). The contractions were now about 1 minute long and 3 - 4 minutes apart, and I was still holding my own without an epidural.
Unfortunately right around this time - as the contractions were at their most intense - the girls' heart rates started dropping dramatically every time I would have a contraction. My doctor decided to take me off the NST machine and switch to internal fetal monitoring - where they put a tiny monitor on baby A's head to get a more consistent reading. At this point they also injected some fluid back into my uterus to try and help cushion the contractions. After watching for about 20 minutes I realized her heart still wasn't handling the contractions well, so I called the doctor in and we talked about our options. She said based on how far dilated I was (7cm at this point) and the fact that the baby still hadn't completely dropped that we were looking at probably another 2 - 3 hours of labor. I have always wanted to have a natural delivery, but at that point I realized no birth plan was worth risking my girls going into heart failure. I trust my doctor completely, so I asked her what she thought was best. She said knowing what we do, with still so many hours to go, the safest thing would to take them via c-section, but that it was entirely my choice. I knew she was right, so I told her that I thought it was best if we just went in for the C-section now.

They turned off the petocin and called the surgical team to begin preparations for my girls. It was at this point that my contractions hit their peak, they became harder to simply breathe through, and I continued having them all the way to the OR. They walked me through the process and began to administer the Spinal block, a shot in my back that would cause me to go "numb" from the ribs downward. One last contraction and the spinal was administered. It was at this point that we discovered why the contractions had suddenly gotten so much worse - in an hour I had gone from 7cm to fully dilated. My doctor told me before she started and said that while I had dilated completely, it would still be a little while for the baby to drop, as she was still pretty high up - but that it was my choice whether or not I wanted to wait and try pushing or continue with the C-section. I decided for the sake safety, and the fact that I had already gotten the spinal, I was going to continue with the C-section. So with Marcus by my side, they began.

I remember it being the strangest sensation, with 3 pairs of hands in my abdomen pushing and pulling at my muscles. About 30 minutes later they announced to me that they were about to take the girls out, and then at 8:18pm on September 16th, 2010 they were here. I wasn't able to see them because of the sheet they had up between us, but I heard my sweet little girls cry and I gripped Marcus' hand tighter. They began closing me back up for what seemed like forever, and then they wheeled the girls past me in their incubators. I saw London first - she weighed 3lbs 3oz and was 15 and 1/8 inches long. She was perfect, 10 fingers, 10 toes, and she looked like a tiny human being. Then they took her off to the NICU and Evie's incubator took her place. At 2lbs 1oz and 14 and 3/4 inches long, she looked like a little baby doll. They told me both girls were breathing on their own, though they would be on a CPAP (an oxygen tube that is inserted into their noses) until they were sure everything was stable. But my little girls were ok.

I was in recovery for about 2 hours, still incredibly sick to my stomach and completely drained mentally and physically. It had been a long sleepless 35 hours. They brought me back to my room where I fell asleep within seconds.

I saw the girls about 1 pm this afternoon for the first time since they were born. They were so tiny in their little incubators, but they were so precious. Evie is actually doing better with her breathing than London, but they expect both will be breathing 100% on their own without any medical intervention by tomorrow. We're also hoping I will be able to hold the girls tomorrow as well, but it may still be a few days before that can happen. I am just so blessed that they are hanging in there as well as they are. I have begun pumping and hope to get my milk in soon, but for now they are not eating - just receiving nutrition via IV. They nurse said that feeding will be our first big hurdle, but I am praying they take to it easily when the time comes. I'm sore, as is to be expected, and will just be resting up the next few days, but so far my recovery is going well. We will update on the girls as we go along, and thank you all for your love and prayers and support - we love you all!