Mila and Siena's birth story

(L) Siena, born 1:41 am, March 4, weighing 5 lb 10 oz
(R) Mila, born 1:38 am, March 4, weighing 5 lb 2 oz
Amberg, Germany

 Nothing about the twins birth played out like I had expected.  I’m glad it’s over, and I almost don’t want to re-live it by typing it up.  But for memory’s sake, here goes…

Checking in for an induction, and hanging out at the hospital

We got to the hospital at 8 am on Tuesday for a scheduled induction, since 37 weeks is full-term for twins.  The first glitch was when they (wrongly) told me I was supposed to come in on Wednesday, not Tuesday.  But I was already there, and ready to have some babies, so I made them keep me. 

After getting checked in, checked out, and monitored, the doctor said my cervix was completely closed, but the babies were in the right position still.  By 10 am, they started giving me prostaglandin pills orally every 2-ish hours to ripen the cervix.  They weren’t going to do anything about contractions (oxytocin) until I was dilated to at least 3 cm.  That was discouraging, because I wasn’t progressing at all.  So we spent the whole day hanging out in my ‘recovery room’ and being strapped to the monitoring machine for an hour at a time.  At 4:30 I’d taken my 3^rd pill, and when they checked me (super painful!) I was still completely closed. 

This is how we spent most of the day.  Boring!

At that point I was frustrated.  I hadn’t seen a doctor in several hours.  Many of the nurses didn’t speak English so my questions were going unanswered. Basically, I wanted to know what the game plan was. 

After the first pill I started having mild contractions, which were getting more intense as the day went on.  But for all the pain I was having (including back labor), nothing was changing.  I was just being told, “Come back in 2 hrs”, which could continue all day, night, day, night, etc. 

They sensed my frustration, and a doctor eventually came in to talk to me.  But instead of listening to my concerns, he just kept telling me to be patient, and that this would be a better path than just getting a c-section.  (Obviously.)  This was the 4^th doctor I’d seen that day.  He said it had only been a few hours (9!?) and that this was the best situation possible.  I should try to get some sleep that night, and they’d re-evaluate in the morning. (The lady I was sharing a room with was in the hospital for 4 days trying to be induced, before ending up with a C-section.  I did not want that to happen.)

“Bedtime”

At 6:30 I had my fourth pill, and then told Hyrum he might as well go home.  With shared rooms in the hospitals here, spouses can’t stay overnight anyway.  I’d call him if anything happened.

At 8pm I was monitored again, but not given a pill. I asked for pain medication so I could sleep better, but like normal, but medicine they put in my IV didn’t do anything.  I laid in bed for several hours before going back to request something stronger.  Another hour of monitoring later, they gave me something that made me very dizzy, and pretty tired.  (Cervix was still completely closed.)  I got very close to sleeping, and was startled by some seriously painful contractions.  I thought I’d try going to the bathroom to see if it helped, but to my surprise, my water broke.  That was at midnight.  (So much for any sleep!)

0 to 10 in about 60 minutes (ie: worst hour of my life)

It took me a solid 15 minutes to walk down the hallway to labor and delivery.  They hooked me up to the monitors again, and the contractions were awful.  (It was actually the same delivery room where I had Tiago.)  I was crying pretty uncontrollably, and shaking, and had moments of hardly being able to breath.  I don’t think the sleep deprivation helped at all. The midwife was checked my cervix again: I was at 4 cm. A doctor came in and asked if I wanted an epidural.  Yes! ASAP!  Everything was going so quickly and I felt awful and was in so much pain.  I called Hyrum and told him to hurry back to the hospital, afraid he’d miss something.  (We live 25 minutes away.)  He made it in record time, right as the epidural was going in around 12:50 am.  A little after 1 I was checked again, and was dilated to a 9, and almost immediately I started feeling intense pressure in my pelvic area. 

I kept hoping my epidural would kick in before the actual delivery happened. I could feel my upper body get itchy, and the contractions weren’t quite as painful (based on the fact that I’d stopped crying at that point), but nothing was numb and I was in a lot of pain.

It’s not over ‘til they’re out

I asked if I could push when I felt the pressure, and the midwife said yes.  No one communicated much about where the babies were, or what to expect, so I was just pushing blindly hoping the misery would be over soon.  I don’t even think there was a doctor around yet, but they eventually came in.  While I don’t think I made any vocal noises when Tiago was born—just a lot of deep breathing—I was screaming my head off in the delivery room with the twins.  My eyes were closed tight; I didn’t really know what was going on; and I didn’t care.  I just kept pushing as they all yelled at me to push.  I think there were two doctors and a midwife there, and two of them had my legs pressed against them.  After about 15 minutes of pushing, the first baby was born.  Everyone else in the room was excited.  I think I only opened my eyes for about 2 seconds before going back to yelling in isolated misery, because it wasn’t over yet. 

After that I don’t know what happened.  More pain, probably some pushing and pulling inside/outside my stomach, and 3 minutes later, the second baby was born.  Equally painful.  Ring of fire takes on all new meaning now.  But of course it still wasn’t over.  I had to deliver the placenta, which was painful.  And then I had stitches (the Dr. wouldn’t tell me how many) which hurt like you’d imagine it would to have a needle going through a tender area of your body.  Thanks a lot, epidural.  Not much help.

Hyrum was able to cut the umbilical cords and hold the first baby after she came out.  They took the babies out of the room, then brought them back a few minutes later and let us hold them.  I wasn’t at all interested in skin-to-skin time with the babies because I was such a mess physically.   Plus, I was laying on my back, so when they handed me the first baby all wrapped up, I couldn’t even see her face.  In the midst of all the hoopla, the midwife came and asked Hyrum what names we were naming baby 1 and baby 2.  He looked at me, and it shows how out of it I was physically that I just told him, “I don’t care, you decide.”  Of course we had an idea of names, but I’d been telling him for weeks I wanted to be able to see the babies first.  Nope, out the window.  The first baby is named Mila, and the second baby is Siena.

Holding Mila, who was wide awake and looking at us.

This is the midwife that was there for the birth, and the several hours of monitoring beforehand.

Enjoying the babies

Once the doctors all left, it was a little better.  We could hold the babies and relax a bit more.  And I could finally just breath normal knowing the doctors weren’t going to inflict anymore pain on me.  Before the midwife left, I asked her if they had id tags on the babies, because there was no way I could keep track of who was who that night.  She said yes, fortunately.  The girls look very similar, with dark hair and dark eyes.  Baby skin is always a bit pink, so it’s hard to tell what their coloring will be.  Mila weighs less than Siena, so she looks smaller and thinner through the face.  We also noticed that Mila was the only one that was crying on and off, so that was how we could tell who was who.  Siena mostly just slept through the first several hours.  We can’t tell yet if they’re identical, but I’m leaning towards not.

The proud dad.  Hyrum has always been worried about all the blood and gore of a delivery room, , but in the end found it all kind of fascinating.  Lucky for him, it was quick.  

Not long after that, we started hearing yelling from the room next door.  Apparently it was a good time to be giving birth.  That meant we didn’t see doctors again for a long time.  They didn’t bring me back to my room until 4:30.  Hyrum went home to sleep, and I was able to sleep for a few hours before they brought me the twins at 6:30, ready to start their first real day of life. 

Getting wheeled back to my room. 

Hospital Stay

I’ve now been in the hospital way longer than anticipated (going on my 4^th day) but I’m hoping to leave sometime today.  Fortunately, my mom arrived on Monday, so she was able to stay home with Tiago during this whole ordeal, and we haven’t had to worry about him.  Unfortunately, Tiago hasn’t really been napping, and hasn’t been in the best mood lately.  It doesn’t help that he probably feels abandoned by his parents.  (Although really, when Grandma’s around to make cherry scones and chocolate chip cookies, what does that kid have to complain about?!)

They came for a visit on Wednesday and Thursday, and Tiago wanted nothing to do with the babies.  Or me, for that matter.  During one of the visits, he walked in, looked at me, then walked back out waving his hand goodbye.  Funny kid.  He had a split second of being cute with one of his sisters, then pushed her away with complete disinterest.  It will sure be an interesting adjustment once we’re all home under one roof.

Family of 5!

After half a second of interest, he shoved that baby right out of Hyrum's arms. 

I think he preferred just playing with their cart, and pretending they weren't there.

Just hanging out.

Hyrum has been able to spend a lot of the time here with us, which is nice. There’s not a lot of entertainment, but it seems like there’s a constant stream of nurses and doctors coming and going.  The babies stay in the room with us except at night when I am able to bring them to the nursery.  The food isn’t bad.  The first day I got a “German breakfast”, which was a roll with meat and cheese, plus coffee. The next day they asked if I wanted an “American breakfast”—which included a donut and cereal.  That wasn’t a tough choice.  Lunch is always huge, plenty of food for two.  And dinner is usually a roll with meat and cheese.  Good thing I like sandwiches.

Overall, I feel a lot better than I did after giving birth the first time.  My lower back is quite sore from the epidural, plus the normal cramping, but I’ve been able to move around and not have any issues.  The initial dizziness went away, probably thanks to some iron supplements they gave me.  My blood pressure still seems a bit low (they take it regularly) but I suppose that’s nothing to complain about. 

It’s been an adventure trying to figure out two babies—holding, feeding, pumping, changing, burping, etc.  They’re tiny, and adorable, and we can’t wait to take them home.