a tale of two babies.

It was a Friday night. Sometimes on Friday nights, Chris and I stay up too late watching TV and hanging out and talking. It is nice to spend some time together after long weeks. This particular Friday we stayed up watching Restaurant Impossible. We talked about all we needed to get done the next day as final preparations for the babies. We talked about the possibility of induction if I got to 38 or 39 weeks. It was a nice night.

At 1 am I headed upstairs to get ready for bed. As I climbed the stairs, something wet trickled down my leg. I passed it off as discharge or some other pregnancy weirdness and continued. I got ready for bed and went to lay down. As I was laying there, I felt a small gush, and my undies were wet. Chris was saying his prayers, so I got up and went to the bathroom, where I had my first contraction. It was hard and fast. I told Chris, but tried to ignore it, and said “Let’s just go to sleep and see what happens.” But they kept coming. Chris decided to time them. They were three minutes apart. And they were hard. With Carly I eased into labor, having light contractions every 20 minutes all night. This time around I went from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds.

My hospital bag wasn’t packed. That was on the list of things to do the next day. I leaned against the wall, moaning through contractions, while Chris ran around trying to pack: “What pants do you want? Where do you keep your socks?!” We called our parents. We called our friends Cameron and Camilla, and Camilla headed over to sleep on our couch so we didn’t have to get Carly out of bed (Thank you, Cam and Cam!). We headed out to the car around 2:30 I think (all times are estimates, I wasn’t checking the clock). By then the contractions were so intense, I was screaming through them. Chris kept saying, “Don’t have the babies in the car!” We arrived and they wheeled me up to the labor and delivery floor.

When we arrived at the hospital, about 2 hours after my water broke, I was dilated to “between a 7 and 8”. Mind you, I was at a zero two days earlier at my doctor’s appointment. The on-call doctor asked me about the babies’ positioning. I told her how twin B was breach. They did an ultrasound to double check, and it took the resident FOREVER to find B’s position. It was weird. Finally she decided he was still breach. I told them that my doctor had planned to either turn him or deliver him breach, and I could tell the doctor wasn’t thrilled with the idea. She asked if I would prefer a c-section. So, here I had a dilemma: go through with the original plan and try to deliver B breach with a doctor who was not as confident with the idea as my doctor, or get a c-section. It was a big decision, and I was screaming through blinding contractions while trying to consider the options. Luckily, the doctor saw my predicament and suggested I get an epidural before I decide.

Oh, blessed epidurals. The anesthesiologist took his precious time doing his thing, which I suppose is good. He was trying to do it in between contractions but they were coming so fast, he kept saying “Oh, we’ll wait until after this one.” But it was heaven when it finally kicked in. Then the OB came in and decided to do another ultrasound herself, since the resident had had so much trouble. The OB had a lot of trouble too, and said the problem was they could not find B’s head. “He does have a head, right?” I asked. She assured me he did. Then she figured it out. The head they were seeing was B’s head. The missing head was A’s head, because it was so low and pretty much already on the way out, it wasn’t showing up on the ultrasound. But that meant B had somehow managed to flip, and both babies were head down. What a little miracle, and what a blessing (Way to go, John!). As soon as she figured it out, the OB checked me. I was at a 10 and both babies were head-down. “Let’s go have some babies!” she said, and we were off to the operating room.

Twins are typically delivered in the operating room, just in case an emergency c-section is required with Twin B. It was a drastically different experience than a cozy delivery room. Large and sterile with bright lights. And there were SO many people: The OB, 2 residents, a few nurses for me, and 3 people for each baby. With Carly it was just a nurse and the resident would wander in occasionally, and the doctor came in to catch. They obviously handle twin deliveries a little differently, as the OB did not leave the whole time. It was A’s water that broke, so by the time everything was set up, she was ready to come. I don’t remember how many pushes, probably 3 or 4. And there she was, our beautiful Quinn with a head of dark hair. She was born at 5:06 am, exactly 4 hours after my water broke, and weighed 5 lbs 4 oz. She was so TINY. That was the first thing that came out of my mouth “She’s so small!” I was worried about them, being a month early, and it startled me to see her. I know they were a good size, but since Carly was 2 lbs bigger, it was kind of a shock. But she started screaming right away, and pulled her hat down over her face the second they put it on. 

A word about my epidural. It was very different this time. With Carly, I couldn’t feel a thing, the epidural was so strong. They had to tell me when I was having a contraction and when to push, as I didn’t feel the “urge” to push at all. This time, I felt all the pressure. It was interesting, because I felt all the pressure, but no pain, but the pressure was so intense that it made me scream. The staff was probably wondering why I was screaming since I had an epidural. But I thought it was a really cool experience, to actually feel giving birth, just without the pain. I liked being able to feel what was going on. It was special, but it also convinced me I never ever want to do it without an epidural.

After Quinn entered the world, I asked, “I have to do that again?” The answer was yes. Twin B was still up pretty high, so I pushed through contractions, and he gradually moved down. The process took a while. During the wait, the nurses and doctors and I sat around chatting and laughing. Girl talk, you know. Nevermind that my legs were up in stirrups. I also erased pictures on our camera, since we were low on memory space. And I got to hold Quinn for the first time. It was a good half an hour. When B was down low enough, they broke his water. A few more contractions and pushes, some screaming through pressure, and John Thomas was born at 5:43 weighing 5 lbs 10 oz (bigger than his sister, after ultrasounds said he was smaller the whole time). He didn’t make a sound. They took him over to his little warmer, saying he was fine. They rubbed him, and after what felt like forever, but was surely just a few seconds, we heard his little scream. Music. 

I feel like the twins’ arrival was a series of little miracles and tender mercies. A quick labor. John managed to flip so we didn’t have to worry about him being breach. The miracle concerning John’s placenta. Chris had even been praying for my recovery to be much smoother after the fiasco that was my recovery with Carly; and it has been so good. I don’t know if it is because it is my second delivery, or because these babies are two pounds smaller than Carly, but I’m grateful the Lord answered Chris’s prayers.

These kids sure did catch us off guard by coming when they did. They came exactly one month early. I was mentally preparing for a few more weeks of pregnancy misery. And while they were both having a little bit of a hard time in the hospital, I battled a lot of guilt over the fact that I didn’t carry them a little longer. But they are on the Lord’s timetable, and while their coming was a big surprise, in hindsight it was good timing. As for me . . . I’m rather happy I have not been huge pregnant these past two and a half weeks. 


They are fabulous. I’m so glad they’re here.