TWINS' DAY

So it didn't turn out "perfect," but I have two healthy, beautiful baby twin girls that came out with APGAR scores of 10 and 10 each.  The nurse said she hadn't seen that in a twins' case in a long time, which made me feel special or at least made all the pain and suffering to get to 38 weeks pregnant well worth it.  My doctor had been on vacation my 37 week, and we all (doctors included) thought for sure I would go that week if I even made it that far.  There were other doctors in the practice comfortable delivering me VBAC, so I wasn't too concerned about my doctor leaving during a crucial week.  My contractions that I had been put on bed rest for mysteriously stopped around 30ish weeks.  Now we know why...Baby B flipped.  At the time, this was great news, I was an easy VBAC candidate being young and healthy with twins both head down!  Apparently though, those two heads began competing just a little too much as to which would be first.  This left me with neither one able to put pressure on my cervix correctly to start labor when before Baby B flipped, Baby A's head had been completely on my cervix.  It is uncommon for twins to change positions past 31-32 weeks, let alone for it to even be possible by the time we realized what was happening.  The only way I could get contractions going was laying propped up and towards my right side.  This put Baby A's head more on my cervix, and I could get decent contractions that even made me lose my mucous plug.  They would fizzle out though or I would stand up and the cervix pressure along with the contractions would be gone.  How do you go into labor when you can't even walk around to encourage it along!?  I did everything I safely could, but contractions only came in that one position and couldn't gain enough power to start dialation even after sex, applying labor pressure points, and a whole day of helping my mom unpack and organize food storage!  Those heads were jammed and neither girl gave up their spot!

So end of story, no doctor nor myself felt comfortable inducing me to help my labor start when I was still not even a centimeter dialated with a thick cervix at 38 weeks pregnant.  The risks of twins and risks of VBAC together were not worth the birth I had hoped for.  My doctor saw me early her first morning back (my exact day of becoming 38 weeks) and was willing to let me try a bit longer.  I could tell she hesitated at that though, and the feeling James and I had gotten that weekend was that if things hadn't progressed still, we needed to be okay with a c-section.  My doctor was very relieved when I told her that.  She said she was very nervous to let me go longer with the babies at such a good size and my uterus measuring 47 weeks pregnant.  There are reasons twins generally come on their own early, going fullterm can raise risks of twins with things like compressed cords and growth restriction.  With raised blood pressure that day and losing weight, I decided that prolonging the inevitable (a c-section at the end of the week when I maxed out at the allowed 39 weeks pregnant) was not good for my body or necessary for the babies at this point.  So the surgery was scheduled for the next morning at 7:30 am being 38 weeks and 1 day pregnat.

We tried a new hospital this time to lessen our drive (of course with moving, it ended up being the same distance) and were pretty happy with it.  The facility is new, and I really liked my doctors.  It was really nice that I didn't have to drive to a bigger city to see the high risk OB.  I actually wasn't too anxious for the surgery; it helped that I had a c-section with Brooklyn, but that was so rushed, there was a lot that happened out of the ordinary or that I didn't notice.  So, I was starting to feel overwhelmed as I got in the OR and things just took forever and I was without Jimmy for quite awhile.  I held it together and stayed calm though, but I did start crying once he finally got to come in and hold my hand.  I was able to feel my hands and arms this time around, the nurse anesthetist did a really good job on my spinal and took special care to make sure my arms stayed workable (I had complained that I couldn't even hold Brooklyn after my surgery for a couple hours last time).  One nice thing having a repeat c-section was that the doctor got to do some repairing surgery like taking out any adhesions that had formed from my last c-section and she checked on my muscles and such (it is obviously more likely in a multiples pregnancy that your abdominal muscles actually separate and don't go back together but mine were fine).  It would have been perfect if she could have just done a tummy tuck while she was at it :) but no such luck!  I was spoiled to have such a nice looking stomach after Brooke and Kaydence, I should have been more grateful for it!  Not that it matters because I have perfect little healthy babies, but I will have more extra skin and a couple little stretchmarks from the twins...all and all though, I'm very lucky with what I did end up with, because I'm pretty sure most women would have it worse with twins.  I'm not sure where the lack of stretchmarks comes from in my genetics, but thank you, thank you, it could have been much much worse.  So it took awhile to get to the babies, but then at 8:05 a.m. she screamed....little Miss Parker that is...

Baby A turned out to be Parker Ellie Weber

weighing 6 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches long

Then Baby B, Scarlett Aurora Weber at 8:07 am

weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long

It didn't take long for us to decide which baby was which name.  I always pictured Scarlett as the more feisty one, and it seemed pretty clear that she was (we'll see if she turns out that way or not).  Scarlett/Baby B was the more active one the last few weeks, she passed up Parker/Baby A in size when Parker had always been bigger according to ultrasounds, she flipped and put her head up by my ribs the second they got Parker out, she screamed longer in the OR, and was the more aggressive nurser.  I don't know if it will pan out that she is feistier, but the names felt right being assigned that way, so that's the way it stays!  It didn't help that they look exactly the same...it looks like we have identical twins on our hands all the way down to the little curly colic on the top right of their heads!  We'll see what the DNA test says.  I found a credible place that is only around $100, so we'll probably be doing that shortly.  Jimmy keeps trying to find differences, but no one else really sees them except for the little extra chub in Scarlett's cheeks.

The girls were, of course, super excited and without hesitation to meet the babies.  It was a really precious moment...not so much later though when Kaydence decided she didn't want to share Parker with anyone, literally no one.

Aww, Daddy and all his girlies.  I LOVE this one!

I'll get more pictures up of just the twins later and do a newborn shoot probably on Monday.  Thank you for all of the prayers and the gifts.  It feels amazing to have all the worry lifted off my mind and have my sweet babies here to hold.