I'm logged in as Mr. Mono, so let me start by saying this is the story of Rowan and Evelyn's birth told by Mrs. Monkey.
At 36 weeks, after a really bad case of PUPPS, our doctor, Dr. Uribe said we could be scheduled for an induction at the end of the following week. 37 weeks is full term for twins and we knew that both girls were doing quite well.
There is something wonderful about the word, "induction," as any pregnant mom can tell you, but as the day approached I began to get really nervous. Before I knew it, our big day was here. I could hardly sleep the last few days. Our two rather large baby girls had by this time perfected the art of the "double whammy." While one would head-butt my bladder the other one would simultaneously kick under my rib, with an occasional toe wedge between the ribs. So, needless to say, I was rather exhausted Thursday morning as we made our way to the hospital for our 7am appointment.
Checking into the hospital, I was relieved to not be in full-blown labor. We had pre-registered months ahead, yet there was still quite a bit of paperwork and questions. Anyhow, we settled into our labor and delivery room, met our wonderful nurse and began a pictocin drip to induce.
At about 8 or 9 my sister showed up. Apparently Starbucks was slow that day. Not that it mattered any to me. I couldn't eat or drink anything from midnight the previous night--so ice chips it was for me. I told her and Andre they could take their little bucky-wuckies outside if they wanted to eat. Apparently the pictocin was working.
Time went on and the contraction became more intense. Then they became more intense, then more intense and finally I asked the nurse the check how far along I was progressing. Surely with all this hard work and endurance I'd be...I don't know maybe 6cm dialated. Afterall, I was 3 cm when we arrived at the hospital that morning and several hours had passed and darn it--those contractions hurt. To my surprise and dismay, after all that time I had dialated a whopping 1/2 cm! Okay, that's just ridculous--lets bring out the epidural.
I do think that natural childbirth is a great thing and it works well for some women. If you can move around, use a birthing pool, or birthing ball. If you have a good birth or maybe its good genes...I don't know. What I did know was that I had three monitors strapped to me, various IV's and two big babies on the way. It just wasn't going to work.
I felt incredibly better once the epi took. My legs were numb, but not in a paralyzing way, closer to the way your mouth feels after novacain at the dentist. That sort of funny, drool all over yourself kind of way. So, now other people could eat in the room, Andre's incessant blogging became endearing, and my fear of childbirth melted away. I also started dialating faster. Before long I was 8 cm, and then without feeling a bit of pain I had made it to 10cm! Yay 10 cm, the glory!
The epidural hurt a bit going in. I could feel a very uncomfortable sensation when the medicine was put in, but it was okay. However, there appeared to be a kink in it somewhere and every once in a while the machine would indicate that it wasn't working. Another anasethiologist came in and for some reason the kink occurred when I layed in a particular position. My vertibrae seemed to prevent a good flow, but only occassionally.
Now was the time to start pushing. I pushed for an hour and half and Dr. Uribe checked me. Rowan's hair was starting to show, but she wasn't progressing down with the pushes. So, we could get a c-section, use a vacuum or foreceps, or keep pushing. Whatever we wanted to do. I decided to keep pushing. It was now evening and our nurse Rachel's shift was over. Another nurse, Dora came in to continue the pushing.
A half hour later Dr. Uribe checked again, yet Rowan wasn't budging. I decided at that time to go with the forecep option. Afterall, I was getting very tired, feeling more pain, pushing really hard and I still had another baby to push for too.
Oh wait, I was feeling more pain. Yes, in fact I had gradually been able to feel more of my legs, more of the contractions. Certainly, I needed more epidural medicine if I was going to the forecept stage. Andre looked at the epi bag and it was empty. How long it had been empty we didn't know because of all the problems we had had getting it to work. Now I was starting to really feel the contractions. The nurse ordered another bag, but it wasn't coming fast enough. I was in serious pain at this point. The kind of pain that makes you cry. The kind that makes your husband worry. The kind that makes you worry. They got the epidural bag, but now that kink just wasn't going to work. So on the operating table they took out one epidural and put in another one. This whole point in the labor was scary and painful and kind of blur now.
It was time to push again. Pushing is really quite difficult too. They tell you to curl in a C shape and push in sets of 3. I pushed and pushed. "We're almost done right? They're almost out?" Andre: "Yeah honey, just 5 more sets of pushing." "What!" And this is how it went for what seemed like an eternity, but was actually about an hour. Finally Rowan was almost there and Dr. Uribe was able to pull her out the rest of the way. I could feel her body pulled from mine with a sharp tug. Then the cry. That beautiful baby cry that tells you that everything is okay and everything is over.
Oh wait, its not over yet. Now for Evelyn. I'm told it took 30 minutes for Evey to come into this world, but let me say, that was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Finally, after 15 hours of labor, both girls were here.
That is what I imagine my little twin girls saying to each other. See, we are under the proverbial gun. If they don't come out on their own, we induce in seven days.