OK, I really tried not to put too much detail in, however, if you are very sensitive to the idea of a birth story, don’t read further.
I went in to be induced Feb. 2, 2009. The plan was to apply a gel, if that didn’t work, break my waters and if that didn’t work, start Pitocin. I was told induction with twins is supposed to be quick and easy because of the lack of space. When we left the house at 9:45 AM that morning we actually thought we would have babies that evening. I felt very relaxed about the whole thing. The induction didn’t actually begin until 2:00 PM even though our appointment was at 10 AM. I was put in a ward with 6 beds where everyone who is being induced or isn’t close enough to “active” labor stays. After the application of the gel I was stuck in bed for a long time because my active babies didn’t want to stay put for the monitor. We literally had to hold them on so we could move them around and try to find them every time they moved away from it. The end result of this was a total of 6 hours of Trey holding one monitor and me holding the other monitor and searching for babies trying to get sufficient consistent reads of their heart beats. The first application of the gel didn’t work and instead of proceeding with the plan my consultant from the pregnancy set up (who wasn’t on duty that day) they reapplied the gel three more times over the next 14 hours, none of which worked. One hard thing was that Trey had to go home when visiting hours were over. It was difficult because I knew I was being induced and could go into labor at any point but my husband wasn’t with me.
After the third application, and a new day, a new consultant was on duty who came in and said I would have a cesarean and asked when I wanted to set it up for. This was at 6 AM before Trey was allowed back. I told him I didn’t want a cesarean and would need to discuss any changes to the plan with my husband before I made a decision. He looked insulted and basically replied that he wasn’t doing anything else to induce labor so I could sit there and hope it started or have a cesarean tomorrow. After having had only a couple hours of sleep between my own contractions and the women screaming in the ward who were further along than I was, I wasn’t sure if I could sit there another day and night then go through labor if the next consultant that came on duty was supportive of my trying natural delivery. Fortunately, a Senior Registrar who I had seen during my pregnancy came by and wanted to assess my progress. He told me he would be back at 1:00 PM and do an exam so I would have a better idea of how I was progressing to help with my decision. I also asked if he knew the consultant who had come by that morning and if that consultant tended to only perform cesareans on twin pregnancies. He said “no comment.”
During that time, Trey got there and I tried to walk around a lot to move things along. The exam actually took place around 2:30 PM Feb. 3rd. The consultant said I was ready to have my waters broken but the labor rooms had several people “in front of me” which kind of made me feel like I was going to get a table at a restaurant.
After the exam I started bleeding a lot. I went to a midwife who wasn’t worried, said it was probably normal and she would be back in a minute to check and see how much. When no one had come in a few minutes… and it was a scary amount of blood… Trey went out to get someone. The midwife came back checked the amount of blood, put her hand on my shoulder, looked right in my eyes and said “everything is going to be fine, I am just going to get you a wheelchair and into the labor room” then she turned and RAN into the hall. She ran into the hall and came back with a chair. They pushed me into the labor ward and someone had just been put into the room they were wheeling me to. She yelled to a nurse and asked who was in the room. The nurse replied it was a woman getting an epidural and she would just be a minute. My midwife then screamed “WELL, I’VE GOT A LADY WITH TWINS HERE BLEEDING SO GET HER OUT OF MY ROOM!” At that point, I started getting worried. I was introduced to my nurse (also Sarah) who was fantastic throughout the whole process. She and Trey left me in the labor room while they moved my things to the recovery room I would go into and I had a minor break down. By that time I was having contractions really hard and fast. The anesthetist came in and placed my epidural. It wasn’t even putting a dent in the contractions then the nurse went in to break my waters. Apparently, some people do not think this is painful... if you are one of those people I think you are out of your mind.
Once my waters were broken the contractions became more intense. I was at 9 cm. when they took me to the operating room (with twins you have to give birth in an OR in case something goes wrong) and the epidural still was not working. The epidural was also not primarily for pain relief (although I wasn’t arguing when the doctor said it was recommended for twin birth) but so I wouldn’t have to be put under general anesthetic if an emergency cesarean needed to be performed. Once they got it working then I started pushing. I was allowed one push and then the doctor got the suction cup for Ellie. I honestly had no idea he was doing it until Trey told me later. I was furious because she came out so quickly he was surprised, I seriously pushed for about 5 minutes. Tate was lying transverse and they couldn’t find him on the ultrasound. I think they were worried and they began turning him by pushing on my stomach. The nurses kept apologizing for it being uncomfortable but at that point I could see Ellie and I honestly could not care less. When it was time to push with Tate they realized they had turned him the wrong way so he was delivered breach with forceps. I only pushed about three times with him. They were born exactly 10 minutes apart. The whole process was so quick after it got started. My waters were broken around 3:30. Ellie was born at 4:47 and Tate was born at 4:57.
After I had Tate, my blood pressure dropped and I was given something to bring it back up. Once that happened there was no keeping me awake. I remember feeling awful because at one point the nurse woke me up and said look at your babies. Trey was holding them beside me and I could hardly even respond. I didn’t even wake up for the final phase of the delivery. At some point after I had been wheeled to the recovery ward I woke up enough to start going through some of the medical stuff and finally to try and feed the babies. Of everything that happened how tired I felt immediately following how I felt after all of the adrenalin of giving birth was the biggest surprise. Well, that and how nice I was to Trey. When they were placing the epidural I had a contraction and was not allowed to move. I was holding Trey’s arms and had this out of body experience where I looked down, realized Trey’s arm was red and that it was red because I was pinching the fire out of it. I thought “that must hurt” mustered up a part my self control that had been wholly allocated abstaining from moving as to avoid paralysis to release my grip and apologized. I didn’t call him any names or yell at him or anything. That was honestly the thing I was probably most proud of. Ultimately I feel the birth happens whether you want it to or not but going in I was certain I was going to physically bring Trey into the pain of the experience with me. Lucky for him, apparently my instinctual self is much kinder than my cognitive self.
