Babies are now 4 days (now a week cause I never finished!) old so I’m going off everything that stuck in memory.
Sunday night Cole came down and we took our cafeteria food outside, closest thing to a date we had had in quite some time! He spent the night and left around six in the AM. I felt fine at the time; extra full like I had been, just a little harder to breathe. The day went on like normal. I had my sonogram like I do every Monday and as usual….babies looked great. We figured that I couldn’t breathe because Kimber had her legs straight out in my ribs. I had a few contractions during the sono so they decided to put the babies on the monitors a little earlier than normal. They hooked me up and I was contracting every 2-3 minutes. They called Dr. Monks who was on call, but this was kind of one of my bad habits I tended to pull to keep everyone on their toes. He hated to disturb my cervix since it was down to nothing and decided to just leave me on monitors a little longer in hopes the contractions would calm down by themselves like I tended to do. They kept asking if they were painful and the only answer I could give was that it was hard to breathe.
About an hour into contractions not calming down he decided that checking my cervix was worth the risk. I knew I was in trouble when he asked where my husband was and how fast he could get here! When I told him about an hour and 45 mins his response was “tell him to make it an hour and 30 mins!” Apparently the twins liked 10-10-11 for their birthday because I was already dilated to 4 cm. I had time to call Cole and tell him this time was no joke to get here as quick as possible and send a text to both our immediate families saying today was the day; twins would be here in the next few hours. Next thing I know I’m in an OR prep room focusing on deep slow breathes so my chills wouldn’t shake the whole bed. It wasn’t because of pain just from being clammy and nervous (I think). Luckily my dad had the day off and was already close to the hospital when he got my text. He sat and talked to me while they started IVs and checked my blood counts again (hoping that my platelets had magically gone up since last night and I wouldn’t have to be put all the way under). It seemed like Cole and the platelet count came right around the same time. I was overjoyed for both; daddy was here and the stress of labor made my platelet count go up high enough for a spinal! They had me on the OR bed in no time and everything beyond this point seemed SO surreal. I had gotten the spinal (which wasn’t near as bad as I imagined), all bundled up (due to my uncontrollable chills), strapped down and prepped by the time Cole got to come in. He seemed extremely calm and confident to me. A few moments, bad smells, and tugs later I could hear what sounded like a baby goat bleating and Cole could see them placing Camden in a bed for cleaning. Literally a minute after that it happened again with Kimberlyn. Cole was able to get up at this point and watch as they cleaned them at the beds. I just remember hoping he didn’t turn around and see my guts sitting wide open and pass out! Before long they brought babies up by my head where I could see. My arms to still strapped down so I could touch them or even move. I don’t remember saying anything or even feeling anything (still all SO surreal) I just remember smiling.
(first family photot)
After a few pictures and a quick kiss my brand new family was gone. The next process seemed to take the longest to me. It seemed like I was strapped down on that bed FOREVER while they put me back together. Once they were done I was in recovery. This again seemed to take FOREVER! I could tell they were watching me carefully. My blood pressure was really high and I had a fever of 101, I could see glimpse of worry in the nurses’ eyes. About the time I started to feel kind of scared my mom came in, of course in tears (I am my mother’s daughter). Her excitement for me and my new family made me forget about being scared. Forget until I heard I wasn’t going to post-partum; they would keep me in labor and delivery for monitoring. They were worried about kidney damage and preeclampsia. I ended up having to do yet ANOTHER bag of magnesium, hopefully the last time in a lifetime!
Being scared for my own health, longing for my babies, and the side effects of magnesium put me in no state of mind to see the many extended family members that had made the trip to come celebrate with us. Although it was hard I asked to be left alone. What made things even worse is that level 3 NICUs are behind closed doors. Only parents, grandparents, and four people of our choosing (my sister, his sister, my best friend, his best friend) were allowed to see our babies. They will be the only ones who will get to see them until babies are released to go home! This meant that the family that came to see us were sent away not seeing me or the Wild Things. This means that everyone who prayed for us, encouraged us, HELPED us will have to wait until babies are home and healthy. Not that I was thinking about any of this at the time. I was more just waiting for a break! I thought that after delivery things all my pre-pregnancy problems would be gone and I would be back to healthy little me. Overjoyed yet emotionaly drained....
(left) Camden Rock Cantwell: 3 lbs 13oz born at 2:21pm
(right) Kimberlyn Dawn Cantwell: 3 lbs 4 oz born at 2:22pm
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