Abby and Emily - The Birth Story

Our doctor's appointment on Monday February 4 was uneventful -- just a basic cervix check and some discussion about the cerclage removal for Monday, February 11.That night, as we got ready for bed, both girls were really active. I was uncomfortable, but not too terrible. Once in bed, I just couldn't get comfortable -- both girls were relentless, moving all over the place, Baby A was doing her usual "poking" in what felt to me like my cervix.

After an hour or so of tossing and turning, I got up and went to the spare bedroom. Our bedroom has been so hot; I figured a cooler environment might help me sleep.As I got into bed in the spare room, I thought to myself -- well, if my water breaks tonight, at least it won't happen in our bed (Geoff teased me because I spend 98% of my time in our bed, that my water would break in our bed).

I relaxed a bit in the spare room, but still the girls were moving a lot. Close to 2 am, I rolled over to my other side and felt a "pop" down there -- I thought that I had heard from other women that that is what they too felt when their water broke. I felt down there and felt just perspiration -- not a lot of fluid, so I shrugged it off and continued to roll over. As I rolled, the fluid came out and I again felt down there and it was soaked! Yikes -- my water had broken!I got up to the bathroom to inspect, and as I did more fluid came out. The bathroom confirmed it -- my pants were full of fluid, so I finished up, grabbed my pack of maxi pads I had stowed away and went to the bedroom to wake Geoff up. I startled him out of his sleep and said "um, I think we have to go somewhere" to which he replied "huh?" I pointed to my sleep shorts and to the huge wet spot and he got the point. He shot up out of bed and began running around gathering things.

My bag was packed and we had discussed that Geoff could also spend the night in the hospital with me, but he hadn't prepared anything yet to do so.I was surprisingly calm as I got the phone and called the answering service to page my doctor. Once she was paged, I asked to be transferred up to Labor and Delivery. I told them what happened and that I paged my doctor and they said they would prepare for my arrival. I got dressed, filled up my water bottle and soon the doctor called. I told her the story of what happened and she confirmed that my water had probably broken and to come into the hospital. She asked if I was contracting yet and I told her no -- which was true, until I got downstairs.

I was downstairs waiting for Geoff, and the contractions started -- not painful at first, so I wasn't sure I was contracting until we got in the car and they started to hurt a bit more. Concerned, Geoff asked me if I was okay -- I reported back that I was, but that I thought I was having contractions. The contractions intensified along the car ride, so Geoff was quick to bring up finalizing the girls' names as a good distraction. Before we got to the hospital we determined that Baby A would be Abigail Grace and Baby B would be Emily Michele (with one "l"). At least we had that settled.

We arrived at the hospital and got up to the Labor and Delivery triage area, by this time, I was in pain. They had me get undressed so they could check me while another nurse started asking me all kinds of questions. It all happened so fast, it's hard to recall what even happened during that time. Once undressed the nurse said she was going to check to "make sure" I had ruptured -- one look down there and all of the fluid I was sitting in and she said "oh yeah, you're ruptured" -- she no longer needed to verify with the stick test.

After triage, they moved me to a labor and delivery room, since both babies were head down, we were moving forward with a vaginal delivery -- once we got the cerclage removed. My doctor, Dr. Nakinishi arrived soon after I arrived in my L&D room, and quickly checked how things were going down there. The nurses gathered the necessary tools to remove the cerclage and they got started fairly quickly. After a few minutes of struggling to get the right tools, better lighting and figure out how best to approach the cerclage removal, Dr. Nakinishi started poking around my cervix -- not a very comfortable feeling let me tell you. She commented that the cerclage was put in so well, there wasn't much to grab onto to help her with the removal. After a few more minutes of poking around down there and listening to me howl in pain (well, not howl, but I was making a lot of noises) she decided to halt the cerclage removal and have anesthesia come in and give me an epidural since my contractions were getting a lot more painful and the cerclage removal was not going to be easy or painless. She was my God at that moment -- I loved her for saying the word "epidural."

After the epidural was in place Dr. Nakinishi came back and successfully removed the cerclage. It was still tough for her to get it out, but at least I didn't feel anything. Once my cervix was free, Geoff and I were left alone for awhile to "wait it out" -- my nurse was in and out to check monitors since the girls were both moving around quite a bit, they didn't like staying on the monitors. After a couple of hours, another doctor from the group (Dr. Morrison) came in to check me -- she had a hard time finding my cervix! What? She was feeling two holes -- it appears that the cerclage removal had perforated my cervix! GREAT! They both felt to be about 1 cm dilated, so she said we had to wait and see what happens. Right now, the plan was still to attempt a vaginal delivery, but with damage to my cervix it may cause complications for normal dilatation. The doctor said she would be back later to check on my progress.

I think I was able to snooze a little here and there while we waited for things to progress -- which was nice. Finding comfortable positions was a bit of a challenge, but the epidural was still working quite nicely -- thank God! Dr. Morrison came back and checked me again -- this time it felt as if I was about 2-3 cm dilated -- good news! Things were progressing! At this time Baby A decided to take full control of my uterus as they lost Baby B's heart rate on the monitors. B could be detected faintly in the background, but A was totally dominating -- of course, I was a little scared that something was wrong -- but none of the staff was too worried. They put in an internal monitor and got Baby B back on the monitors -- Thank God!

A little before noon, the nurse noticed that the girls heart rates were getting a little elevated. She decided to check my cervix (this being the first time she checked me) and found the little hole (perforation) and then felt what she thought was a fully-dilated cervix. She paged the doctor to come down to check me -- it looked like we might be ready to go! I was so excited -- things were going well and soon, we would have our two beautiful little girls here with us. The doctor arrived and checked my cervix and really couldn't tell if what they were feeling was truly a fully-dilated cervix or just a very thinned cervix. At this point the girls heart rates were still high and the doctor made the recommendation to proceed with a c-section, since they couldn't tell the status of my cervix, didn't want to jeopardize the safety of the girls since they weren't in distress yet -- but their increasing heart rates could soon indicate a problem -- plus they were dealing with a possible cervical perforation -- it just seemed it was the right thing to do. Geoff and I agreed and in mere seconds the gears shifted into overdrive as staff began making preparations for a c-section.

Geoff was given a pair of scrubs to put on -- I was given my little shower cap and given some medicine to fight off nausea. It all happened so fast -- our heads were spinning. I was wheeled off to the delivery room -- the stopped my epidural temporarily. The anesthesiologist would give me meds once we got into the OR. Lying on the table, the contractions started up again -- I remember thinking to myself that there was no way I could ever endure the pain while things were being prepped for the surgery. Luckily things moved along quickly and I was given another dose of medication to prepare for the c-section. Once the drape was set up and the meds were started -- my doctors were in place, and Geoff was let into the room. The anesthesiologist asked me if I wanted to know when things go started -- of course I said yes. Without hesitation he said "ok -- they started about a minute ago." Holy cow -- our girls were going to be here before we knew it!

Geoff and I were holding hands and were anxious with anticipation to hear the first cries from our daughters. I couldn't believe this day was finally here! After such a long road -- here we were, just minutes from finally seeing our girls for the first time! After a few minutes passed, Geoff looked over at me as the sound of a muffled little cry became evident in the distance. He had a little tear in his eye as he squeezed my hand. I could sense his pride as a big smile beamed from his face -- he could see one of our little girls! "It's a girl" -- I heard someone say. Whew! Well, at least so far we have one girl for sure! Seconds later, another muffled little cry could be heard -- and then "it's another girl" was spoken. Relief -- we had two girls and they were both here safe and sound. Their cries were so small and delicate! I couldn't believe it -- Geoff and I were parents! The tears were flowing now -- I couldn't wait to see them! I looked over at Geoff and he was still beaming. He had the camera and eventually made his way over to where the staff was working on the girls. I heard one of the nurses ask him if he wanted to cut the cord for Baby B -- and he did. What a wonderful experience that must have been for him! I was so happy -- I wasn't even aware of the fact that my insides were in the process of being put back into place and stitched up. Nothing could tear me away from being focused on the activity that was going on behind the blue drape where our girls were.

After a few minutes one of the nurses brought Baby B over to show us -- she was so small, but so precious! My tears started flowing again -- I couldn't believe it, there was one of our daughters! It was indeed a miracle! I never got to see Baby A in the OR -- but I was so smitten with the image of Baby B, that was enough to tide me over.

The blue drape was eventually taken down -- the repair was complete. Isolettes were rolled into the room and our girls were placed in them for transport to the Special Care Nursery, where they would be taken care of. I knew they were in good hands, and that we would be reunited with them soon. I knew I had a good hour or so to be in recovery -- and I knew that it would be hard not to see them, but the pace of the staff taking care of the girls in the delivery room was not hurried, so I knew there was nothing to be concerned about.

I was rolled across the hall to recovery where I remained for the next hour or so. I was still in shock about all that had transpired in the last 12 hours -- our girls were here, and they were safe. All of the worry, pain and fear of the last 13 weeks vanished and was instantly replaced by an intense sense of pride and love -- one that words cannot begin to describe. I now finally understood what it feels like to be a mom...