The long birth story...

My Twin Induced VBAC story

So I had been 3-4 cm dilated for about 3 weeks, thought that meant I was about to go into labor. Nope. I made it to 38 weeks with twins, which is super, but at the same time I was ready to be done. lol. So on the morning of 4/23/09 (38 weeks to the day) I checked in to the hospital to be induced. Normally they won’t induce for a VBAC because of the risks of uterine rupture, but my cervix was favorable and I already had some significant progress with dilation so we decided to give it a go.

We got to the hospital at 6:30am and checked in. I had to sign consent forms for a c-section just in case and also had to sign a consent for attempting a VBAC. The doctor came in and checked me I was 4cm and about 50% effaced, they wanted to do an ultrasound to check the position of the babies. Since Steven (baby A) was breech until about 35 weeks, they had to check and make sure he hadn’t flipped back around. The u/s machine was frozen so they had to go find another one and that took a while. So about 8:15am they came back and checked babies positions and Steven was head down and low, and Jameson was semi transverse looking like he was going to move head down.
They started Pitocin at 9am very slowly and I finally started a regular pattern with contractions around noon, they weren’t painful at all. At about 1pm they came in and broke my water and the contractions became more uncomfortable but still very tolerable. At about 2pm the anesthesiologists came in and told me that they were about to start a c-section that was anticipated to take a few hours, so they wanted to give me my epidural then. It is very strongly encouraged for a twin delivery to have an epidural since the chances of c-section are still very high and also if they have to reach in and turn the second baby it is more comfortable with the epi. So I reluctantly agreed to go ahead and get the epi then. I was a little disappointed since I hadn’t had any really strong painful contractions, but oh well.

I got the epidural around 2:30pm and immediately felt nauseous. I ended up throwing up throughout the rest of my labor. I think I am sensitive to being numb. I don’t like it. Plus it was a low dose epi or walking epi so I could still move my legs. That is a weird feeling. They came in to check me shortly after my epi and I was 5cm and 75% effaced. and at a +1 station.

At about 5pm they came back and checked me again and I was 6cm, 80% effaced and at a 0 station. They put an internal fetal monitor on Steven and also put an IUPC (catheter to monitor contraction strength) in. All day long Jameson kept moving and coming off the monitors, so they had to keep bringing in the u/s machine to find him and get him back on. He was a turd. lol. He flipped so that he was face up so we couldn’t get his heart rate on the monitors. Stubborn boy.

At around 8:30pm they came in and examined me again. I was still 6cm but thinned out a lot and baby was moving down. They told me they would let me labor if I continued dilating, but that it looked like maybe a c-section was in the cards after all. I was not ready to hear that at all. I was so upset I just cried. But I wasn’t ready to give up at all.

They came back in around 11pm and I was barely at 7cm complete on one side of my cervix but still had a lip on the other side. They said my contractions weren’t strong enough to do what they were supposed to do, and that they would let me go a few more hours but after that it was c-section for me.

I turned on my other side and said a prayer and went to sleep. I was too upset to think about things, and I was exhausted. When I woke up at 1:30am they checked me and I was complete and complete and we were off to the OR to deliver. I was so relieved! So we got to the OR and they set up, I was on the table at 1:50am and started pushing. At 2:03am Steven Andrew was born and started crying immediately. He weighed 7lb 7.7oz and was 20 inches long. He had Apgars of 6 and 9.

They were going to bring in the u/s to check position of Jameson but they felt his head come down so I started pushing. At 2:17am Jameson Thomas was born. He had the cord around his neck once and didn’t cry right away. Jameson weighed 6lb 12.9oz and was 19 inches long. His Apgars were 5 and 9, he gave me a little scare. They were both crying after a few minutes though and it was so awesome to hear.

I tore quite a bit and lost a lot of blood. I had an estimated loss of 400cc of blood at delivery. I felt a lot of them repairing my tears since my epi had been in place so long it was wearing off. OUCH! They said it is common to lose a bit of blood after a twin vaginal delivery because the uterus is so stretched.
The boys were brought to the Level 1 nursery where they were completely checked out. Jameson had low blood sugars so I didn’t get to see him again until about 10am. Steven was doing well so they brought him in around 6:30am and let me nurse him.

Later on that morning they checked me and decided to bring me back into the OR to repair the tearing since I was still bleeding and had already lost so much blood. While in the OR I lost another 750cc of blood. My hemoglobin was at 6.7 after the OR trip (normal is about 13.) They kept talking about a transfusion but it scared the crap out of me. It wasn’t until I saw myself in the mirror that I realized how bad it was. I was ghostly pale and looked awful.

The told me I had 2nd degree sidewall tears on both sides and a sulcal tear on the right side. They put vaginal packing in and that was really uncomfortable too. Also pain management was a rough area for me because I am allergic to Morphine and Codeine and can’t have Motrin. So they finally decided on Lortab and it was wonderful. lol. They put a catheter in me and it wasn’t in right. I kept peeing around it which was so odd and gross. I kept telling them that something wasn’t right with it, but they told me it was because of the vaginal packing and swelling.

When they took the catheter out the next day, I ended up peeing more than I had ever peed before right afterwards, which meant it wasn’t in properly because otherwise I shouldn’t have had to pee at all right away. I couldn’t believe my bladder had held all of it. Funny thing is the catheter was draining urine too, so I must have really been backed up. Ugh.

Nursing was a challenge at first only because it was hard for me to sit up enough comfortably to feed them. The lactation consultant was AWESOME though and we got all fixed up in no time. The boys are doing great with nursing now.

We were able to come home on 4/26. So glad for my VBAC and for these beautiful boys. Adrian is adjusting well and loves his brothers.

4 days Steven weighed 6lb 13oz and Jameson weighed 6lb 8oz. (4/28/09)
11 days Steven weighed 7lb and Jameson weighed 6lb 13oz. (5/5/09)
18 days Steven weighed 7lb 11oz and Jameson weighed 7lb 8oz. (5/12/09)