Birth Story

Here is Della and Miriam's birth story.  In honor of the day it all began (aka Birthday Eve).

December 10, 2013

Mack and I were sitting in bed talking in a usual end of day sort of way.  I had two doctors’ appointments scheduled for the next day and so I mentioned a few of the things I wanted to talk to Dr. Ho about and we joked about how big the babies may have gotten since my ultrasound four weeks prior.  I was majorly swollen at this point and wanted Dr. Ho to assure me that all was well.  I also had some sort of pain in my belly (upper right side) that I could only describe as the feeling of a pinched nerve.  (Now I have never had a pinched nerve, so who am I to know what a pinched nerve feels like.)  Mack had been badgering me for weeks to pre-register at the hospital.  I was putting it off because I felt like the December 11^th doctor’s appointment was going to be the benchmark that determined the rest of my pregnancy.  The babies were measuring really large a month earlier and so I thought Dr. Ho might suggest we induce earlier than 38 weeks (January 3^rd).  For some reason the December 11^th appointment was going to jump start me to finish up all the things that still needed to be done before the babies came (i.e. pre-register at the hospital, pack a hospital bag, move the tv into the living room, etc.).  But I decided that to appease Mack, I would check the pre-registration off my list.  The computer was so slow and I got booted off the website once, but around 11pm, it was done.  We both decided it was time to tuck in for the night.  After going to the bathroom for the millionth time that evening and rolling into the most comfortable of all the uncomfortable positions I could find I tried for some shut-eye.  Mack was snoring after ten minutes.  The last time I looked at the clock, it was 11:31.

What seemed like minutes later, I am surprised I had even fallen asleep, I felt like I was menstruating.  This seemed weird, since I hadn’t had a period in 8 months and definitely shouldn’t be having one now.  I then noticed that I seemed wet.  So I got up and went to the bathroom.  I thought for the briefest of moments that I must have peed my pants.  But then remembered that it felt like menstruation and not urinating.  I yelled from the bathroom, “Mack!?”  Groggily responded, “What?”  “I think my water just broke.”  “Really?!”  “I don’t know.  I think so.  Come here.”  This is when having a medical student for a husband comes in very handy.  They don’t mind examining the bodily fluid that just came out of their wife.  He confirmed that it didn’t seem to be urine and since I was still leaking, we thought my water must have broken.  I was having no contractions though (or at least I thought I wasn’t.  Since I had never had a contraction before, it was hard to know.  But I wasn’t in pain.) and so Mack called the physician on call to see if we should go to the hospital now or wait a little while.  I called my mom since she was supposed to be here for this and she was currently a ten hour drive away in New Mexico.  The doctor told Mack to have me go to the hospital and confirm my water had broken and I told my mom to be on standby to leave first thing in the morning.  I then called my dear sweet wonderful friend, Cami, who had previously agreed to sit with our kids if such a situation as this occurred.  I remember looking at the time on my phone as it was dialing Cami, 12:01am December 11^th. 

Thankfully Cami still remembered agreeing to come over.  Since I wasn’t having contractions and we had nothing ready, I told her to wait about 30 minutes and then head this way.  At this point I got dressed and then didn’t want to walk around too much because I was still leaking.  So I sat on the edge of the bed, Mack put my shoes on since I could barely reach my feet, and I instructed Mack as to what he should pack.  We took a picture of my very pregnant self (34 weeks and 5 days), Cami arrived, and we left her with three sleeping children and a very dirty house. 

I remember telling Mack before we left home that I wasn’t ready for this.  I was living in denial the last month of my pregnancy that I would have exceptionally obedient twins who knew how much their mother loved to plan and would wait until the scheduled induction to come into the world.  No dice.  Mack let me know that whether I was ready or not, if my water had broken (and we were 90% sure it had), the babies were coming.

On the drive to the hospital, I still wasn’t having any contractions but I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.  Mack had done an OB/GYN rotation at Banner Estrella and had assured me while I was pre-registering earlier in the evening that he knew right where to park and where to enter the hospital.  He even showed me on the online map.  So we were confident.  Mack parked.  We got out and walked to the entrance.  The entrance that had a large sign saying it was closed from 9pm to 5am.  It is currently 12:30am.  We needed to use the ER entrance which Mack said was just around the building.  He thought it would be shorter to walk there than back to the car.  He was probably right except that half way around the building we met construction blocking our path.  To walk around the fenced off area was definitely not shorter and so back to the car we waddled (slowly).  I maybe had my first contraction on the walk back to the car, nothing major.  Mack drove to the ER entrance.  We parked and got out only to discover that it was the ambulance only entrance.  This time it really was a short walk around the building to the door we needed.

When I got to the desk and told the woman that my water had broken she said we needed to go to OB Triage.  She told us that just needed to follow the blue line and made it seem fairly close and simple.  I was offered a wheelchair that I declined.  The blue line was not as short and straightforward as she made it out to be.  The hospital was under construction and so there were many twists and turns.  About halfway there, I wished I had accepted the wheelchair.  But we finally made it to OB (right by the first doors we tried that aren’t open when I need them) and went in to register.

That’s right.  Remember that pre-registration I had done two hours earlier?  No good.  It takes two days to process it.  I was too uncomfortable to sit down as the lady registered me.  We were the only ones there and I was starting to have contractions.  I timed them using Mack’s watch and they were about 5 minutes apart.  It also occurred to me as we were standing there waiting that it was Mack’s birthday.  “Happy Birthday, Babe!”

After the secretary gathered all of my information, I was taken back to triage.  Mack wasn’t allowed to come back.  First they weighed me… 220 lbs.  Then they had me change into a gown and left me in a cold room with infomercials playing.  My contractions were definitely coming at this point and I was majorly uncomfortable.  Those triage ladies ask a million questions.  One of which included, “Is someone watching your other children?”  I was a bit troubled that people might actually go to the hospital to deliver a baby without having someone else supervising their other children. 

By the end of the twenty minute questionnaire I was in pain.  I could now actually feel contractions and was breathing through them.  It wasn’t the worst pain ever.  But I know knew that I knew what a contraction was.  I also realized that I was one of those lucky people who get to have back labor.  I had always heard how awful back labor is, and let me tell you… no…. fun.  Mack was brought in at this point and they confirmed that my water had broken.  We were staying.  They checked me and I was dilated to a 3.

This is the point where they asked if I planned on having the twins vaginally.  Dr. Ho told me that as long as they were both head down or as long as Twin A was the larger twin and he/she was head down, I could do it vaginally.  All of my ultrasounds for the last few months had two head down babies.  I had no reason to believe this was not the case still, so I was ready to go for it.  They had to do an ultrasound anyway, just to check.

This was the most frustrating part of the hospital experience.  Infomercials still playing on the tv, we did find the remote but there is NOTHING on at one in the morning.  The ultrasound tech was SLOW.  She quickly verified that they were head down and then spent at least another 15 minutes doing who knows what.  We still didn’t know the gender and so we couldn’t see the screen and she wasn’t saying much.  But in the end she declared that all looked good and we could be admitted.

My nurse came back in and asked if I wanted an epidural.  I don’t have strong feelings about epidurals but I knew that if this went to an emergency c-section situation that I did not want to be put under.  So I sucked up my intense fear of someone putting a large needle in my back and said, “yes”.  The nurse wanted to know if I wanted it right away.  I asked if there was any reason to wait and she said not really.  I figured if I was going to have one, might as well be comfortable.

I walked the short distance from triage to my labor room.  When I got there, the anesthesiologist was already setting up.  Bless him.  So I sat on the edge of the bed and they told Mack to sit down.  He wanted to stand and they told him they make all of the dads sit.  “He’s a medical student, he will be fine.”  “OH!  You are?!”  The anesthesiologist was thrilled and pulled up a stool right next to him so Mack could watch the whole thing.  Good grief.

The nurse held my shoulders and distracted me while I tried to figure out if the doctor was talking to me or Mack.  He was talking to Mack.  The whole time.  Explaining in minute detail what he was doing.  But my nurse was a rock star and aside from the cold and the pressure, it wasn’t all that bad.  Nothing to be afraid of.

Then we tried to get some sleep.  The nurse came in and rolled me over every hour. I could move my legs fairly well, at least the nurse was impressed at my mobility under the effects of the epidural (I should have known this was a bad sign).  Mack slept awesome and with the giant pillow between my legs, I didn’t do too badly either.

About 7:00am the nurse came in to check me.  I was now dilated to a 9.  That was easy.  And fast!  My doctor came in around 8:30 and said, “I think we will have these babies before 10.”  Famous last words.

Around 10:00 my nurse came in to do “practice pushes”.  I didn’t take any Lamaze classes or anything.  I have three other kids and a very busy husband.  Plus I figured Mack knew what was up so he could walk me through it.  And honestly, I don’t know what Lamaze really would have helped so I am glad I didn’t put myself through the stress of that scheduling nightmare.

I quickly realized during “practice pushes” that I am not an A+ pusher.  I would say, C-.  The nurse wanted me to get to a +3 station before we went into the OR.  So I pushed off and on for about an hour to get to +3.  I had a really hard time feeling my contractions and it was not very intuitive for me.  We also spent a bit of time talking about all of the fancy gadgets, light, and mirrors that come down from the ceiling.  Since I wasn’t delivering in that room we had to have a bit of show and tell.

Mack got his little costume on for the OR and they wheeled me over.  I had to make the awkward transfer from the labor bed to the OR table.  That epidural thing makes moving about really lame.  Now let’s discuss the audience I had for the delivery.  Dr. Ho and Mack were obviously there.  My labor nurse stayed with me and she had an awesome nursing student with her.  Then there was the OR nurse.  And then we had three nurses from the NICU.  Yeah, me!  It was really crowded with all nine of us in there.

They made me hang my legs in these awful stirrups that should only be used when torturing the really bad kinds of war criminals.  Basically I am laying on the most uncomfortable surgical bed (you know, the ones people lay on when they are under anesthesia) with my legs hanging in stirrups two feet above the bed and my epidural is now not working.  So I can feel everything.  This helped when knowing when to push.  But it did not help in relieving pain and increasing comfort.

So I pushed for a solid hour in the OR.  The nursing student was amazing.  She and Mack held my legs and between contractions would lift my legs from the stirrups because the pressure of them hanging was killing my calves and was excruciatingly painful.  The first 30 minutes or so were a good time.  The NICU nurses thought I was highly entertaining.  We discussed a wide range of topics between pushes and were cracking ourselves up. 

Days later when I was sitting in the NICU with the twins, one of those nurses saw me for the first time since the delivery.  She remembered me and said it was the most entertaining delivery she had ever been in on.  She said I was very pleasant and SO funny.  I love her.

Right above Dr. Ho’s head I could see the huge OR clock.  After about 30 minutes of pushing and feeling like I was making no progress I started crying.  I didn’t think it was ever going to end.  I was in terrible pain from the contractions in my back and those stupid stirrups.

When I went in for my postpartum visit, Dr. Ho told me that he thought about offering me the vacuum to assist with the delivery at this point.  But he felt like I could do it and so he wanted me to keep trying.  If he had offered, I would have taken him up on it.  But I am glad he didn’t. 

At 12:20, after what felt like forever.  Twin A was born.  I remember so clearly Dr. Ho pulling the baby out and declaring, “It’s a girl!”  Mack and I both started bawling!  I was so glad to have one of them out and to find out we had a little girl.

I thought I was going to get a bit of a break at this point.  But no.  Dr. Ho said he was going to break my water.  WHAT!?  I had just gotten a small taste of relief and he was going to start right back up.  I asked him if we could just keep that one in there.  I am pretty sure my exact words were, “I only want one!”

Despite my protests, Dr. Ho broke my water.  He said, “We are going to get this baby out in one contraction”.  That gave me three pushes to get it done.  I was still in so much pain that I could barely eek out the last two pushes, but I did it.  And at 12:30, Twin B was born.  “It’s another girl!”  I couldn’t believe it.  We had two girls and it was over!

Later I told Dr. Ho that I wouldn’t have been able to push Twin B out in one contraction if he hadn’t “challenged” me.  He said that he was just stating it as fact.  He just thought that’s all it would take me.  I really had to dig down deep to make it happen though.

Mack went over to see the babies and my amazing wonderful fabulous nursing student stayed with me.  I couldn’t have made it through that hour without every single one of those people in that room.  I thought it was hilarious when we first started that I had a full audience, but they were amazing and I really relied on all of them.  Two holding my legs, one counting, and everyone else cheering me on.

They brought the twins over for me to see and then rushed them off to the NICU.  The NICU story is a whole other novel for another time.  But I did it.  I now could go to play groups and know what people were talking about when discussing child birth.  I now had my own birthing story.  And most importantly, I now had two beautiful daughters, Della Shannon and Miriam Ann.