My birthing story

Whenever I go out the first thing people always ask is if my babies are twins and then the second question usually has to do with my birthing story. People are curious as to whether or not it was a natural birth or if I had a c-section? If I got an epidural, and how long my labour was. I often like reading about other people’s birthing stories as well because I find it so interesting. Everyone has a different experience. So here is mine. I decided to write it out and share it here with the help of my husband. I’ll try and spare you the gory details. Haha. On January 10th, I was 36 weeks pregnant. My husband (which I will go by Hubby) and I went in for my routine ultrasound and OB appointment. I didn't think anything of it. I've been having biweekly ultrasound appointments since the start of my 3rd trimester. Nothing special, however, I was caught off guard when the OB told us that Twin B's amniotic fluid was running low. Amni… what? I tried to recall everything I learnt from all the baby books I had read. Amniotic fluid is the liquid that provides nutrients for the babies and protects the babies from infections and injuries. So if the fluid is running low,.. YEP. The OB explained it would be beneficial to take the babies out ASAP. I couldn’t breathe. ASAP? When? Right now? Next week right? The babies were supposed to come out by 37 weeks at the latest so we were about a week short of such expected due date. She said she would make the call to the hospital and that they would contact me the following day to let me know what time to get to the hospital. I was going to get induced. TOMORROW. I left the clinic excited but scared at the same time. I remember thinking to myself, "wow, tonight is going to be my last night before I get to hold these babies in my arms and officially become a mom."

When we got home, I crawled in bed and cried. I wasn't ready (or so I kept telling myself). A million things ran through my head in fact, there were a million and one things left I wanted to do before the babies got here. But the truth was, I would never truly be ready even after reading blogs, and books and attending prenatal classes... After being all cried out, Hubby and I spent some time that night packing a couple last minute things into my hospital bag.

Tomorrow was the day.

I woke up bright and early expecting my phone to ring but it didn't. I was nervous. I knew this day was going to come but I really wanted the babies to stay put for a little longer. I tried not to think about it and went about my typical morning lounging around the house with Hubby, eating breakfast, snuggling the dog, eating lunch. Still no call. I was starting to think maybe I wasn't going to have the babies today after all and then my phone finally rang. It was around 2 in the afternoon. The hospital said we could come in any time now. We headed out soon after and got to the hospital around 3pm.

I was anxious sitting in the labour assessment unit waiting to be called. I wasn't sure what to expect with an induction or even just labour in general. Hubby was with me and he reassured me that everything was going to be okay. We got called in to do a standard procedural fetal non-stress test which took about an hour. A non-stress test checks that the baby’s heart rate and movement is normal and that they aren’t in any kind of duress. The babies seemed to be responding well so the doctor on duty decided to apply the first dose of gel to get the induction started. I just remember it being cold and wet. It wasn't bad. I sat there waiting for some sort of contraction to happen. Nothing so far. It was about 6 pm, the doctor told us to come back at 11pm to see how far we had progressed and how to proceed from there. At this point, I was thinking about the stories I had heard from friends of friends who got induced and somehow the baby still didn't want to come out and their labour ended up being 36 hours long. Oh goodness. I hoped that wouldn't be me.

We decided to go home, pack up Waffles for my in laws and go have a nice dinner, just the two of us. We just ended up at Jack Astors. Ha. Hubby kept asking me if I was feeling okay and if I was in any pain. Nope. None. Na da. Zero. I was fine. I felt good. We ate and after dinner we decided that we should head home and try to get some shut eye in case we needed to be up all night. I would never know when I was REALLY going to be in labour. I set an alarm for 10:15pm but 11 o'clock came by sooner than I would have hoped and we were back at the hospital. Again we did the non-stress test and waited for the doctor to do the check up. The doctor came in around midnight and decided my body was reacting well to the gel and he said (his exact words) "tonight is a good night to have a baby". He broke my water with this little plastic stick that had a tiny hook on the end of it. Sounds scary but it was kind of cool actually. All I felt was a little gush of water. It was nothing like what you would see in movies. I remember asking the doctor what contractions would feel like because I wasn't sure. His response was that if I were having them, I would know. Within 15 minutes of my water breaking, I was crying. Yep, I was definitely getting contractions. My pain level from 0 went to 9 quick time. I had never felt so much pain in my life. It was happening. The nurses informed Hubby that I needed to be transferred to another room down the hall to get changed for an epidural. We learnt in prenatal classes that an epidural is necessary for a twin pregnancy in case the the first baby comes out and there are complications with the second baby.

It took me 15 minutes to walk down the hall and finally get changed into the hospital gown. I wasn't really timing my contractions but I could feel that they were getting quite frequent. The nurses checked my dilation. I was 3cm. I thought to myself, it's going to be a really long night... it's going to take forever to get to 10cm. Another 10 minutes later the anesthesiologist was in the room and prepping for the epidural. Hubby was ordered out of the room so he took this chance to grab my hospital bag from the car, and a coffee. At that time, the doctor had asked me if I knew my spine was slightly crooked. I remember getting a massage one time and the masseuse mentioned it in passing. By this point, I was shaking but I managed to mumble a very faint "yes". He said he wasn't sure if it was going to work but he would try anyway. I don't know what it was but right after getting the epidural I felt like my pain had lessened and for two seconds I felt better. (I know it doesn't work right away but maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me.) The doctor said it would take around 15-20 minutes for it to actually kick in so I should just try and relax until then. I was trying to remember all the breathing techniques that I had read in my pregnancy books. The pain was back and so was Hubby. He sat by my bedside and held my hand. He told me he loved me, that I was strong and that I would make it through, all the while I was just thinking about how much I wanted this pain to stop and if I could just get a cesarean instead? I tried to focus hard on my breathing. In, out, in out. In... and suddenly I paused. I looked at the nurse standing beside Hubby and told her I felt this really strong urge to push. She checked my dilation once again with a look of panic on her face. "you're at 10cm. You're ready."

Everything after that was a bit of a whirlwind. The anesthesiologist tapped my knees and asked if I could feel them. I nodded. I definitely felt it which meant the epidural didn't work. People usually cringe with a look of horror on their face when I tell them this part of the story. Haha. So the nurses starting yelling to call the on-call doctor right away and wheeled me into the operation room. I was instructed not to push just quite yet because they weren't ready for me. The urge to push got stronger and stronger. Finally when she gave me the okay to start pushing, I got my first dose of laughing gas. I honestly pretty woozy from that point on but apparently Hubby got displaced and ended up standing behind the doctor watching the entire birthing process. He says he would switch places with me any day. Ha.. A number of pushes later Twin A popped out and I heard his first cry! I gave a sigh of relief but I realized I wasn't done just yet. The doctor told me a just a couple more pushes. Twin B was significantly smaller than Twin A so it only took one or two pushes and 3 minutes in between before he came out. Hubby was able to snap a quick photo of the both of them in my arms before Twin B was taken away. Twin B stayed in the NICU for another week before he was reunited with his brother at home. And just like that, Mason (Twin A) & Grayson (Twin B) were born in early morning of January 12th. It was a good thing Hubby and I took that nap prior to going back to the hospital because we didn't get much sleep that night. Or for the next couple months after that.

Looking back on it now 9 months later, I had a hard time remembering some of the details. I just remember the labour being short but painful. I was fortunate to have had a decently short labour that lasted less than two hours from the start of my contractions to have given birth to both babies. I was even more fortunate to have given birth to beautiful, happy and healthy baby boys, who have been keeping me busy and motivated every single day. Becoming a mom is, hands down, the most incredible thing I have ever done to date!

SPECIAL THANKS to my Hubby for helping me with this post and being so supportive through the entire pregnancy/labour process. I don’t think I could have done it without you.

#pregnancy #labour #twinboys #preemie