birth story: they’re here!

You can read Part I of the girls’ birth story here..

Thursday, August 29

When I left off, the specialist had called me and told me my platelet levels were at 87, and he wanted to get the babies out that day. He told me my doctor would be in within the next few hours to talk about the day and how everything was going to work.

After a very slow hour and a half, my doctor finally arrived. She pulled up a chair, sat down, and told me she agreed with the specialist – we needed to get the babies out. While it wasn’t an emergency at the moment, she explained how my platelet levels being so low at 87 was a danger for a natural delivery, which is what I was hoping for with both the girls being head down. Apparently hours of laboring can make your platelets drop even further, and she wasn’t about to take that risk. C-Section it was.

The next kicker? She told me to prepare myself to possibly be put under general anesthesia for the section. It depends on the anesthesiologist, but many do not feel comfortable performing a spinal when platelets are below a certain level. Her plan was to take labs again around 11. If my platelet levels dropped below 80, the anesthesiologist was going to put me under for the surgery. If they had stayed the same or gone up a little, a spinal was going to be done and I could be awake for my daughters’ birth.

The plan was to take my blood again at 11 AM. If the platelets had dropped, they were going to wait the full amount of time for my stomach to empty and put me under. If they had stayed the same or gone up, they were going to do the c-section at noon.

I frantically called the Husband, my mom, and my sister. None of them were expecting me to say that they needed to be up at the hospital in an hour just in case they took me at noon.

Once 11 AM rolled around, my nerves were starting to get to me. They took my blood again, and then – we waited… and waited.. and waited.

The results came back about an hour later. My platelets were back up over 100. Upon hearing this, my doctor was unsure about whether or not she even wanted to do the c-section that day. She ordered a repeat lab to be done just in case the reading was bad, and that meant if the girls were going to be born that day, it wouldn’t be until after her office hours ended around 6.

Needless to say, we were all a little antsy at this point. Thankfully my family was there to keep me company!

The nurse came back, did the labs again, and they came back a little lower, but still over 100. My doctor decided that even though they were up a little, they were still too low and the girls needed to be born. The nurses told us it would be “after 6” before we got going for the c-section. A lot of waiting happened that afternoon!

Around 5 PM, the nurse came to my room to start to prep me for surgery. She hooked me up to IV fluids and told me that right before they took me back to surgery, she would come back and insert my catheter (the worst part of the entire experience). The anesthesiologist also came and discussed what he was going to do with me.

6 PM came and went. Apparently there was an actual emergency c-section that needed to be performed, so mine was pushed back until that one was complete. By the time they were ready to take me back, it was  7 PM. I made the what seemed like a very long walk to the OR, gave the Husband a kiss, and told him I’d see him in a few minutes.

It took a good 10-15 minutes to get my spinal put in and prep me enough for the Husband to come in. By the time he arrived, I was completely numb and ready to get started. I’m not going to lie – my anesthesiologist drugged me up way too much. I can remember the c-section up until the point when the girls were born (I laughed a lot because I thought it “felt funny” – who laughs during their c-section!??!), but after that it was quite hazy.

At 7:34 PM, Emerson Faith joined us – all I remember saying was “she’s so tiny!” and “look at her hair!”.

And at 7:35 PM, Brooklyn Grace arrived – full of spunk from the second she was born.

After they showed me the girls, they whisked them away to the special care nursery. The Husband went with them, and the only thing I remember at that point was shaking uncontrollably from the medicines I was given and being completely out of it.

Once I was taken back to recovery, it was around 8:30 PM, and I had been started on a magnesium sulfate drip. This is given to people who develop pre-eclampsia, and it is used to prevent seizures, which can happen in pre-eclamptic patients.  I was in an out of it until around 3:30 AM, when I finally woke up and was able to ask my nurse for my camera so I could see the pictures that John had taken of the girls when they were brought to the nursery. My nurse told me that I would have to be on the magnesium for 24 hours, which meant I would not be allowed out of bed – which also meant I wouldn’t be able to see my girls until the night after they were born.

Even though it was heart wrenching not to be able to see them, the magnesium sulfate made me feel so woozy and sick. I was exhausted from the previous day’s events, I was weak from not eating for days, and I slept on and off when I didn’t have visitors. When the 24 hours were finally up, I made the (very) painful first move to get out of bed, and when they transferred me to the postpartum ward, I was finally able to go and see my babies.

When they wheeled me to the nursery, all I could say for five minutes was “it is so weird that they were inside of me and now they’re not”. It really is an experience you can’t explain. As trying as those few days were leading up to their birth, all of it was so worth it. I can say without hesitation that it is all a distant memory now.

ps – I was only one day off on my prediction on when they would be born.