How Magnolia and Wendy Arrived

Here's a timeline of events leading up to having the babies. As in this is a birth story. So quit reading if you're not into that kind of thing.

Friday, 9/13- Go in for my usual ultrasound and follow-up and am told that both babies have cysts on their kidneys which could be a sign of a serious problem so I should see a high risk doctor right away. They tell me they'll try to get me an appointment for that day and call me back right away.
My initial reaction is that everything is fine, and I shouldn't be worried. But then they don't call back for hours, and I start getting upset. Why are they not getting back to me? Why wouldn't they just induce me at this point (almost 37 weeks) if there's a potential problem? Finally they call me back and say they managed to find me an appointment for the following Tuesday. This is frustrating because I don't want to wait that long, but deep down I still feel like there's no need to worry.

Tuesday, 9/17- Go to my ultrasound with the high risk doctor. She says their kidneys look completely normal. However, they now appear to be in one placenta when earlier ultrasounds always showed two. So they probably fused into one. Kinda weird. Baby B also had quite a bit more fluid than Baby A which can cause problems, blah blah blah. Basically mono/di twins (which I now was carrying) have more risks when carried past 37 weeks than di/di twins (what everyone thought I was carrying).
So later I met with my OB and she said that if I'd made any progress that they would try to get me induced pretty soon. I was really glad to hear this. She checked me and I was at 5 cm, so she would try to get an induction scheduled and call me to let me know. I was thinking this meant I might get to be induced by the end of the week, but they called an hour later and told me I was scheduled to go in at 5 the next morning! Trying to sleep that night was worse than trying to sleep as a kid on Christmas Eve (maybe because world's worst heartburn and backache were added to the excitement and anxiety). Conveniently, the episode of Full House where Becky goes into labor with her twins was on.

Last bump shot: the night before being induced. Good thing, too, since this is one of 4 tops that still fit.

Wednesday, 9/18
4:30 AM: Jacob's mom arrives to stay with Clark, and we head off to the hospital. I tell Jacob I really need an Egg McMuffin, but then remember that McDonald's isn't open at 4:30 AM. Grrr I'm going to be starving all day. And I'm pretty sure I will be in labor all day, because that just seems to be what happens with inductions.

5:00- Get to the hospital. Wait for a while. Paper work, get taken to labor and delivery.

6:00-8:00- My mom and Bethany show up to keep me entertained. More paperwork, answering questions, getting my IV put in (after THREE tries. Ouch!), check me--I'm already at a 6.5, ultrasound to see how babies are positioned (Baby A head-down as always, Baby B breech at the moment). My OB tells me that she's completely comfortable doing breech extractions with the second twin, but that there are risks involved, etc. It is also possible that once the first baby is out, she'll flip head down or sideways. If the latter happens, there's really no choice but to deliver via c-section. So delivering both vaginally and c-section would really suck, but we decide to go for it anyway. She tells me that I have to deliver in the OR and have an epidural fairly soon in case of an emergency c-section.
There's only allowed to be one person with me in the OR, and Jacob really doesn't want to be the one in there if I end up having a c-section, so we decide that if that ends up being the case, he and my mom can hurry and switch places.

Mom and Jacob get their cool OR outfits on and Bethany starts Instagramming it up. 

8:30- The nurse says she's starting the pitocin which I'm a little terrified of because I've heard that it causes very sudden, painful contractions rather than the gradual ones that happen naturally. About an hour passes and I'm still not feeling any painful, regular contractions. Again, I start to worry that this is going to take all day.

9:30- I'm given the epidural which makes me nervous, but doesn't actually hurt much. My OB checks me right after and I'm at an 8.5. How I dilated to 8.5 cm without feeling a thing is beyond me, but I couldn't be more grateful. She says "may as well break her water" and get the OR set up. We hurry and decide on our names, but not who gets which and Jacob gives me a speed blessing because people are in and out of my room like crazy.

a little after 10- OB checks me again and I'm fully dilated. The nurse says we should get to the OR and my OB says "don't you want to have her do a practice push first to see how fast we'll go?". Nurse looks again, "ehhh..."
"I'm a pretty good pusher," I pipe up and my mom and Jacob agree.
"Ya, we better just go" the Dr says and they wheel me into to OR.

10:15- The OR is a little too intense for my taste. There's a giant light shining on me and a million people rushing around and speaking in medical jargon like I'm about to die. I couldn't really think straight. They move me onto the operating table and get everything else ready, then tell me to get ready to push.

10:22- "Ok, push!" "Ok STOP pushing!" Little Magnolia pretty much just slipped right out. They hand her to me, and I'm kinda thrown off because I want them to clean her off first and there's still another baby inside me. I just keep saying "so tiny!" They ask Jacob if he wants to cut the cord, and we both say "no, no" right away because him passing out is the last thing we need right now.

Magnolia Taylor, 5 lbs 3 oz, 19.3 in

Now they break Baby B's water and I have a small panic attack because I don't know if and how she has flipped. I can't remember if they did an ultrasound real quick or if my OB just felt up there to see, but she was still coming feet first. She tries to get a good hold on her legs, but I'm having a really strong contraction and then the baby is flailing her legs all about, so it takes a few minutes. The whole time I'm just praying that I don't have to have a c-section and that they don't break any bones or something pulling her out. I also keep looking over at the baby I just had. Finally, she gets a good hold on both of Wendy's little legs and tells me to push on the next contraction. But there aren't really any so they tell me to just push anyway. I stop when I see her feet, but they all shout "Keep pushing!"

10:30- They pull Wendy out. I look away while they do, because it just scares me for a baby to come out that way. When I look up, she looks totally dead which they did warn me about before--I guess it's normal when they're delivered breech--but I still don't like it. They get us all cleaned off, and Jacob says "she's crying!" which makes me feel better.

Wendy Mead, 6 lbs, 19.7 in

They bring us and our new bundles back the room where my mom and sister are waiting and we gawk over how precious they are and decide which baby gets which name. (And no, the names aren't coordinating or matchy or have any special meaning--just two names we liked. The middle names are our moms' maiden names.) 

And we thought Clark's legs were scrawny!

And that was the time I gave birth to two babies in 15 minutes after 2 hours of painless labor. I still can't believe it even happened. It just felt like I went to the hospital, chatted with family for a couple hours, and they handed me some perfect little babies! Guess I earned it after the 8 months of hellish pregnancy...or something. In retrospect I'm so glad everything happened the way it did because I might not have even realized I was in labor until it was too late if it had happened naturally (An episode of I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant entitled "Baby in my Sweat Pants" comes to mind...LLLL)