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November 23, 2007

More on the twins--the loooong story!

Tim: Well, here's the full story of Ian and Elanor. We came in at 6 am on Monday morning, all ready to go. St. Mary's Hospital has a posh, cozy first class birthing center and we felt right a home in room 3113. Joanna was induced at 9 am. We watched some movies during the day and watched the contraction monitors even closer. Joanna was on a harsh diet of ice so she sucked on some LifeSavers to break up the monotony. Joanna's parents and one of her best friends came during the day and visited our room periodically. They were really encouraging.

By 11 pm, Joanna's contractions weren't strong enough, probably because Elanor was laying sideways in the uterus and wasn't allowing Ian to have enough of a push. We talked to our doctor and she said that we should probably go ahead with the C-section. We reluctantly agreed and soon we were decked out in scrubs. Joanna had had an epidural put in earlier in the evening so she didn't feel a thing during the procedure. Her face was just beaming with excitement during the C-section. It wasn't long before we heard a loud squeal. At 12:37 am, out came Ian! They said I could take a few pictures so I did and then showed them to Joanna on our digital camera. A minute later out popped Elanor and I took another few pictures and showed them to Joanna. Then we started bawling together! Joanna, Dr. Campbell and the team did an excellent job with the operation - the smallest possible incision and no complications. We were so thankful to God for His goodness to us. We couldn't believe how well they were adjusting to their new world, being just a few hours old. The nurses took the scrub shirt I wore during the C-section and put Ian and Elanor's footprints and names on the front. We're going to hang it up in the nursery.

Joanna's take: on Monday we left our house at 4:30 AM, dropped by Waffle House to get a nourishing meal (ooo--between this and the barbeque we had earlier in the weekend at Jot 'Em Down BBQ, these babies are going to end up southerners for sure!), and headed to the hospital. Registration flew by, and soon we were in the room and I had an IV with a pitocin drip started. Soon, I started to feel labor pains intensify. Staying in the bed was getting kind of uncomfortable, so a very understanding nurse came in and let me sit in the chair for a bit. I felt like this was really starting to get me going. Over the first few hours, I dilated from 3 cm to almost 6--it felt like it was just a matter of time now.

Because we were getting close to the end (so we thought!), our doctor went ahead and ordered the epidural to be put in place. I was kind of disappointed, but I knew that it was important, especially for the health of Elanor in case she decided not to make her descent after Ian came out. Before the epidural, I was following a home birth mom's directions for coping with and breathing with contractions. Right before the epidural, the nurse told me that I would have made a great candidate for a natural birth, that I dealt with the contractions in exactly the right way, and if it weren't for the concern for the twins' health, she would have seen no reason for me to get an epidural. I felt very...validated...since, already, the birth process wasn't exactly going the way I expected/wanted it to. The epidural was the worse part of the experience, much more painful than I thought it would be, and very unnerving to lose feeling in my legs.

When it came to 11:30 and the babies still weren't coming, and contractions had ceased for about 4 hours to make the labor progress, our very nice doctor let us make the decision about having a c-section. Even though it was clearly the best choice, and it was a terribly difficult (and tearful) decision to make, it made us feel respected to be allowed to make the choice.

From there on, things flew by! A few minutes later, we were heading to the operating room. As Tim said, I didn't feel pain, but I got terrible shakes from the anesthesia and from the unexpectedness of it all. But the procedure flew by, and soon we heard our babies crying. Actually, screaming more than crying--they were very unhappy about being taken from their warm little jacuzzis! We both burst into tears as soon as we heard them. I couldn't see them because of the screen, but they let Tim take some digital pictures of them. As soon as he snapped a couple, he would show me, and take a couple more. The wonders of modern technology!

It seemed only moments before the doctors put Ian into my arms, and Elanor beside my head. They had nearly perfect Apgar scores, and were already pink and beautiful and healthy.

We were all back in the room by 1:30 AM. We spent the rest of the night in shock--here we were with sweet, wonderful babies, and they were OURS!

deux bebes | By Tim and Jo | 10:38 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Mary Walsten at November 28, 2007 3:04 PM

Posted by: Lisa M. Waligora at November 28, 2007 3:15 PM

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