May 25, 2011 Happy Birthday Sam and Will!

We made it to our induction date, 38 weeks, and exactly one month shy of Lillian's second birthday.  On the 25th, Wednesday morning, John and I got up a little early, showered and got Lillian ready for "school" (we like to call daycare "school").  We left the house at 6:45am and headed to Shawnee Mission Medical Center for my 7am appointment.  John dropped me off then went on to drop Lilli at daycare, of course planning to return to me asap.

After checking in, they brought me back to my birthing room, which would not actually be where I would give birth because of the risk involved in a twin vaginal delivery.   But this is where I was to start labor and hang out until time to push.  John arrived back at the hospital around 8 am, and we sat and chatted while the morning sun streamed through my east facing window.  It was very relaxing and pleasant.  The calm before the storm I suppose.

The nurse asked me what my understanding of my induction process wwould be, and I told her I thought my doctor was just going to come in and break my water, that I did not think we were to start with Pitocin (the drug that starts contractions).  I was already contracting quite a bit, and when my doctor arrived at 8:15 my cervix check confirmed that all the heavy, but irregular, contractions I had for several days were doing their work - I was dilated to 4cm and baby A's water was very easy to break.

At that point they suggested that I was far enough along to get my epidural.  They strongly suggest an epidural in twin vaginal deliveries just in case an emergency c-section is needed, you are already part of the way there for anesthesia.  This part was a little more scary for me this time around than it was with Lillian.  With Lilli I was only dilated to 3cm when I received my epidural, but my water broke on its own and my contractions were incredibly intense.  I was uncontrollably shaking and about to vomit.  So when the epidural was being placed, I was concentrating more on not moving when contracting or not throwing up all over my husband.  This time I had yet to feel a painful contraction.  They were uncomfortable for days, but painful like Lilli's labor?  Not even close.  So this time I got to concentrate more on what they were actually doing to my back.  Not super fun.

After the epidural was placed, my doctor suggested a small Pitocin drip to crank up contractions.  I would say an hour later I was dilated to almost 7cm.  Around 10:45am I started to really feel some of them, so I pushed the button on my epidural for more drug release and started to feel better.  But before it really took effect I was able to tell my nurse that I was feeling a lot of pressure.  She checked me at 11:00am and I was 10 cm, ready to push. 

This is about the same time the Today show is getting interrupted to bring us the local weather.  They spotted a funnel cloud in Miami county moving north up Mission Road.  We are in a tornado warning.  Our baby girl was at daycare.  Our house is right in the path of the storm.  And we are about to deliver our twin boys in a hospital where each and every patient is getting moved into the hallways out of harms way.

I luckily did not get moved into the hallway to push.  Because of the twins, I had to be moved to the labor and delivery operating room, in case of an emergency c-section.  The move to the surgical table in the operating room was interesting.  The room was chaos to begin with because of the excitement with the weather.  There were labor and delivery nurses, nursery nurses, anesthesia doctors, my husband, and thankfully my doctor was able to get there from her office in the storm (she was not the doctor on call from her practice, but she desperately wanted to deliver for us - she's awesome).  To add to the chaos, half my body was now dead weight and had to be moved over to the surgical table.  Several people were needed to accomplish this task, which makes one feel really good about their size.  Then the stirrups on the table didn't work, so John and my labor nurse held my legs up.  All the while I am feeling immense pressure up in my lungs.  I thought it was just the babies pushing up because I was now laying flat on my back, a position I had not been able to be  in since my first trimester.  When everything was situated my doctor said, "Oh we are about to have a baby.  One push and  you're probably done!"  Seriously?  Turns out the pressure I was feeling was the top of my uterus contracting and pushing baby A out by itself.

Samuel John very alert at birth, just like his older sister.

William Henry very calm at birth and seemingly mild mannered.

So I pushed through one contraction and on the next one Samuel John Spiehs was born, 34 minutes after the last cervix check.  He came out peeing and crying and dad could not stop saying how cute he is.  At 6 pounds 3 ounces, 17 1/4 inches long, he scored an 8, 9, 9 on his Apgar tests and was breathing room air just fine.  Meanwhile I am trying to join in the excitement while at the same time paying attention to the nurse holding baby B in place through my skin while the doctor tries to determine position and possibly place a heart monitor on his head.  They let me wait through two contractions, the last of which brought him down through the birth canal, all by the force of my uterus.  One push and William Henry was out, 8 minutes younger than his brother.  At 5 pounds 2 ounces and only 16 1/4" long, he is quite a bit smaller, but still came out peeing, breathing room air and also scoring 8, 9, 9 on the Apgar.

Very little damage was done to me during this process, so we were able to leave the operating room, twins in each arm, fairly quickly.  When wheeled out, we were one of about 4 beds sitting in the c-section area waiting to go back to L&D rooms.  The tornado warning had not yet even expired, and we found out there was a spotting of another funnel cloud at 435 and State Line and news crews at 95th and Mission tracking the funnel.  Our house sits pretty much right in the middle of all of this.  Although we heard the tornado did not touch down, you can't help but wonder if you might have a giant tree sitting on your house.

After five or ten minutes we were allowed to go back to our rooms and continue on with our recovery process and enjoy our new little boys.  The remainder of the hospital visit was fairly uneventful.  Both boys learned to nurse fairly quickly, though we are still working on it some.  I am not a natural at breastfeeding, it is one of the hardest things I've ever done.  I struggled for six to seven weeks with Lilli and this time isn't much better so far.  But I am going to stick with it just like I did with Lilli, but because we have two this time, I am not such a freak about formula supplementing to give myself a much needed break from the Hoover vacuums that are my children.

Little baby Will had some low blood sugar issues right off the bat, but after his first 3 breast feedings, he was just fine.  And because of his size he then had to sit through a two hour car seat oxygen test to make sure our car seat was safe and he could breath in it.  He passed, thankfully.  Though I doubt we'll be leaving the house with him much for a while because he is so small its scary to see him all curled up in that seat.  

Sam and Will at home loving on each other.

We are home now and after a very sleepless night (I think I got two hours, maybe three, and John got about 4) we are enjoying our first weekend as a family of five.  These first few weeks are going to be rough, I know this now.  Thank goodness we have a daycare option for miss Lilli until the end of June.  Hopefully by then we'll have enough rough days behind us that the following month or two will only just get better.



I can already tell that my posts will be few and far between for a while. Or maybe just short.  I will do my best but I already feel bad this morning that I am not holding a baby, or playing with Lilli, or helping John fold laundry. That being said, I must get going...time to feed Sam.

37 weeks - are you kidding me?!

Over another week has passed and instead of writing, the majority of my energy has gone to waiting, waiting, waiting.  It is barely believable that I've made it to full term.  37 weeks is such an accomplishment with twins.

So everyone that thought I would make it to the bitter end, well, those people have better instincts than I do regarding my own body.  The only thing reminding me how believable 37 weeks with twins is would be my extreme discomfort.  I sleep an hour at a time and wake either to heave myself over to the other side, or to use the restroom.  I've started to retain water (which is really pretty good for this late in any pregnancy) and my rings are now very tight on my sausage like fingers.  My maternity clothes are all too short and nothing covers my entire belly, so I roll around most of the day wearing pre-pregnancy "fat" pants and tank tops with 3 to 4 inches of belly showing.  I am constantly hot and it is almost impossible to get up from a sitting position.

The other constant reminder of 37 weeks with twins is the very obvious and incredible movement of these boys.  I know they are still probably on the small side for their gestational age, but they feel HUGE to me.  My belly has a life of its own, or maybe I should say two lives.  I can feel limbs and feet, backs and butts, knees and elbows through my skin.  My skin feels so thin at this point, I feel like they could push through my belly button.  When I have a contraction, which is frequent, my uterus wraps tightly around each baby and you can see their basic shape and placement in my misshapen belly.  Its all very bizarre.

For days I've had contractions for hours at a time, so at my doctor appointment on Monday, the doctor checked my progress.  Still dilated to 1 1/2 cm, but I am now almost fully effaced and baby A (he does now have a name but I might as well wait to announce it) is low, low, low.  We went ahead and scheduled and induction date of a week from today, May 25th, at 38 weeks.  The doctor thinks that if I don't go before this date, they may not even need to give me Pitocin to start contractions, but just need to break my water.  I am that close to having these babies.

The irony is that I've been close to having the babies for weeks now, but they are still hanging on in there.  John and I had a chuckle this week thinking that I could be one of a very few to experience pre-term labor at 29 weeks only to have to be induced 9 weeks later at 38 weeks.  I would love for the babies to choose their own birthday instead of me choosing it for them, not to mention the fact that I am just ready for this to happen, so I hope labor starts any day now.  I am fairly convinced that the babies are healthy and if NICU time is needed it would be for something other than being born early.

That being said, I hope my next post comes soon and the subject line includes the word "Birthday."  I am ready, John is more than ready, and I think even my little p-nut girl knows something in her life is about to change.  In the meantime, I'll just be here waiting, waiting, waiting - at most for one more week.

No rest for the weary

Well my 6 day lag in posting has nothing to do with the arrival of the twins and everything to do with the fact that I am getting super lazy.  I am 36 weeks tomorrow, and I may be following my doctor's ok to get up and do something.  After doing nothing for almost 7 weeks, I am about to go crazy in the head.

Thing is, I wasn't particularly restful toward the end of last week and over the weekend.  I did my fair share of laying around, but we also had a few events that I just couldn't sit around for.  Not to mention the fact that I'm nesting like crazy.  I just sit here and think of all the things I could be doing.  And last week I did get up and do some of them, despite the consequences.

Can you say "nesting"?

Just to make sure we started the weekend of right, I made sure we had a false labor visit to the hospital, I woke from a nap last Thursday afternoon to massive contractions about 10 minutes apart.  The pain subsided after an hour or two, but I was still contracting about every 2-3 minutes with large amounts of pressure.  So we decided to have Matt and Kathy take Lillian, and we went to the hospital.  John was not terribly happy because he had to miss a work dinner at Capital Grill, but he was a trooper.  He was fairly convinced I was not in labor.  I was not so sure though.  I am so confused at this point because my body is doing weird things all the time.  If my water broke like it did with Lilli, I would know, but since it hasn't yet, I just get nervous I'm going to miss something.  These babies need to be monitored throughout the labor process, so I don't want to wait too long.  Turns out John was right, no change to the cervix after an hour and a half in the hospital, still at 1-2cm.  Contractions persisted and the babies heart rates were reacting to the pressure, but clearly I was not in labor.  Oh well, at least John got himself a free ice cream while sitting in the hospital.  Though I doubt that made up for missing his Del Monico steak and a Stoli Doli.

My "poople fwowers" and new table.

Saturday we had a new dining room table delivered (which this house does not have a dining room, so we've made one up) and some work done on our HVAC unit.  I was up and down quite a bit that day, but did get a little help in the afternoon.  Kathy came by to take Lilli to the green house to buy herbs and flowers and then took her home to help plant (I'm sure there were some plant casualties in this process).  Lilli and her aunt then brought me a nice Mother's Day present of some "poople fwowers" from the garden which when placed next to the lovely tulips brought to me by and old friend made for the loveliest of center pieces on my new dining table.

Pic is old, but this was yet another Sunday in our house.

So on Mother's Day I made an attempt to sit down a little more.  Lilli slept late (almost 8:00!) and John made French toast for breakfast, then we all read the paper (yes Lilli likes to read the paper too).  My family purchased me a pedicure and a haircut at a spa up the street for Mother's Day, which I cannot wait to use.  John is observant and remembered me mentioning that I have not had a haircut since October (gross, I know).  And I'm pretty sure he's afraid of my feet.  Shoot, I'm afraid of my feet, I just can't reach them to do anything about it.  I figure I'll go use that pedicure if I hit 37 weeks and am desperate to start labor.  My highlight of the day was getting out in the car to go get ice cream after Lilli's nap.  Its amazing the little things that can excite me these days... a car ride with the windows down, Starbucks drive through, and even the short walk from my car to the L&D section of the hospital for my testing.

On a sad Mother's Day note, my great aunt passed away, and my mom was very sad about this.  Not to mention that being out of state she already could not spend Mother's Day with her kids and grand kids.  She decided to come in from Colorado for a few days for the funeral this coming weekend.  She then plans to turn around in a week or two and come back to help with babies after John takes his initial week to 10 days of paternity time.  I hope these babies can hold on just a few more days and maybe arrive while Grandma is here.  I think that would be pretty special.

Some strange superstition in me would rather the babies not come on Friday the 13th, but it is such a clear possibility I need to just get over it.  John has two family members with birthdays on the 13th of the month and its really not a big deal.  But to be born on Friday the 13th just seems eerie.  Oh well, it would make for an interesting point in a birth story, right?

At my doctor visit yesterday, everything checked out ok.  Same with the non-stress test.  Babies seem pretty content where they are.  The non-stress test did show that my uterus is "quivering", so basically when contracting or not, it is in a constant state of movement.  No rest for the weary uterus, I guess.  My doctor made a point of telling me that she is on call all weekend.  Though she said the possibility exists for me to make it to induction at 38 weeks (two more weeks, I can't believe it!) I think her intuition tells her I will not make it to this time next week.  She was talking about next Monday's appointment like she knew it wasn't going to happen.  I can't say I disagree with her.

All in all the last week was probably the most eventful and tiring that I've had since being on bed rest.  Even though the events seem inconsequential to most, it was a lot to someone that does nothing all day long.  I should appreciate these last few quiet days to myself and try to rest before the storm, but I'm just so tired of doing nothing.  These babies can show their sweet little faces any time now.

35 weeks - Woot! Woot!

We've been watching quite a bit of Dora the Explorer in our house lately.  Lillian was introduced to it at daycare, since John and I are not huge proponents of television for our young children.  However, I have to admit my Spanish is getting better from watching a bit of Dora, so it can't be all that bad.  And I think Dora might actually be a good role model for little girls.  Anyway, to my point, they have a song they sing at the end of each episode that rolls through my head for days on end.  But I am going to make it my theme song of the day.  "We did it!  We did it!!  We did it!  We did it!!!

35 weeks down.  I can't believe I've been laying down for almost six weeks.  Where did the time go??  John thinks this is the longest pregnancy ever.  Probably because he has to listen to my complaining, and paranoia about every contraction, and be a single parent.  Me on the other hand, I feel like it was yesterday that we found out about the twins, when, in fact, it was 29 weeks ago.

My doctor appointment and non-stress test on Monday went great.  Babies do what they need to do for the NST within about seven minutes, but I still have to sit there for the full twenty.  Fine by me, I just get to listen to the little heartbeats while relaxing in a hospital bed.  After the NST, I went on to the doctor who told me I just continue to "beat the odds".  I guess to still be holding on tight six weeks after preterm labor is a nice accomplishment.  She even told me that if I get to 36 weeks, I can get up and do a little more.  Obviously nothing strenuous, but I can go out to breakfast with my family (boy do we miss our Saturday mornings out to breakfast!).  Or maybe sit and sew a few things I wanted to get done before the bed rest. 

I hoped I would make it this far, but five or six weeks ago it just seemed so far off.  Here we are though, and I am VERY happy with the progress made.  The weekly baby updates I receive at this point just tell me that the babies are getting fatter, there is not much left for them to do but gain weight and mature a little.  Every extra day is still a big deal, but healthy babies are born at eight months gestation all the time.

This was supposed to be my last week on the job.  Neither John nor I can really fathom why six weeks ago we thought I could still be on my feet and working 40 hours a week.  I know people do it, and I guess because we were told that the mothers of spontaneous twins can usually handle the stress late into the pregnancy, we thought I would just naturally do the same.  Thing is, I don't think we took into consideration that I didn't just work 40 hours a week, work was actually the easy part.  There is so much more to being a working mother than just working.

After six weeks of not working, I have to admit, I don't miss it in the least.  Maybe this is because I was moved to a position after Lillian was born that I think was intended for me to become quite bored with.  Actually, I should not make assumptions on my former employer's intentions, but the position was less than stimulating, and not something a person with a fashion degree and 13 years experience would normally agree to. 

That being said, I am becoming quite excited about my new job soon to start here at home.  After having one child, I am more confident and look forward to spending time with all three of my babies.  They grow up so fast, and I have some regret that I missed so much of Lillian's first two years.  I hope to make up some of that time.  I feared at first that it would be less stimulating than my office job, but I don't think it will be.  I think it will be more stimulating, just a different kind of stimulating.  And something I doubt I will ever regret.

I will keep updating as usual, however, if there is a lag in my posts, it is likely because we've had a birthday.  It could happen any day now, and I could not be happier or more excited for the day to be here.

Oh and I don't have a picture this week because it doesn't do my belly any justice when I take them of myself.  All I can say is I got a good look in the mirror the other day and asked myself "who's alien body IS this?"