April 20th--The big day!

Well Thursday night, April 19th, I was awoken around 2:30 a.m. by the nurse who came in my room because she observed the babies’ heartbeats drop on the monitor. She said that they had both just dropped for 3.5 minutes. She was most concerned because this did not happen around a contraction. Then, she informed me that they had dropped 2.5 minutes the night before (did not know that) but that it was during or right after a contraction. After telling me this, she called the on call doctor (not mine) to see what he wanted to do. She returned a few minutes later to inform me that per doctor’s orders I was to be hooked up to a monitor and cut off from all food and drink until further notice. Amazingly, I fell back to sleep for a few hours.

The daytime nurse spoke with me around 7:30 a.m. I inquired what the plan was. When she told that we would probably be waiting til Dr. Pierce did the amnio that was scheduled for Friday, I lost it. I knew the amnio would not be until 4-7pm that evening and then we had to wait another 4-6 hours for the results. I was already parched and could not imagine them torturing me without food and drink all that time, but it sounded like that was the plan. The nurse did not realize the amnio was not until that evening, so she left to call and check with my doctor. In the meanwhile, Tycho arrived which made it all a bit more bearable.

About an hour later, my room phone rang and it was my doctor. She told me we had two potential plans but she preferred the first plan, which was delivering that day, Friday. After hearing her reasons for wanting delivery that day, which were numerous, Tycho and I agreed that would be best. She then said she had desired to do the c-section at 4pm, but the OR scheduler said 2pm was best. When I hung up, I felt excited but anxious and worried that everything would be okay.

About 10 minutes before 2, I was wheeled out of my room on my bed with Tycho alongside me in his scrubs. The L & D nurse brought us into the OR and began prepping all the materials. The anesthesiologist arrive late, at around 2:10 p.m., because he had to do an epidural. Within minutes, my spinal was in place and my lower half of my body was numb. Then, my doctor entered along with another doctor in her practice who would be assisting her.

After that, it all progressed very quickly. Within minutes, we heard the cries our little boy, Quinn. They whisked him over the top of the curtain to show me quickly and then passed him off to the NICU team. One minute later, we heard fluid being suctioned and our girl crying. Again, they quickly flashed Leyla over the curtain and passed her off. Tycho then walked over to the where the NICU team was working to watch more closely. About 5 minutes later, two nurses carried our little bundles over to show me. I inquired about their weights. Based on my belly size and a growth scan done early that week, I was just hoping they would each weigh 4 lbs. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Leyla weighed 4 lbs. 8 oz. and Quinn weighted 4 lbs. 13 oz. That means I was carrying 9.5 lbs of baby!

I was sown back up, and my cerclage was removed. Then at 3:15p.m., I was wheeled back to my room to recover. Tycho arrived back from NICU (he had left with the babies) around 3:40 p.m. and update me on their progress. Leyla was breathing room air with no problems. Quinn was at first, but had some trouble remembering to breath and getting air, so they placed him on a ventilator. Other than that, they appeared to be doing well.

We visited Friday night around 8pm. The neonatologist informed us that Quinn was doing much better. He was still on the vent, but was really breathing almost all on his own. The vent was just there as precaution now. The doctor told us that if he progressed this well through the night, it would be removed in the morning. During this visit, Tycho was able to hold Leyla. I did not hold her because I still felt really nauseous from the meds and spinal. We spent about 15 wonderful minutes adoring our two little babies and then tried to sleep.