Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Birth Story

So for journaling purposes this will be pretty long. It all started April 16 all night long I was feeling really crampy. I even had a dream that I was going to start my period. Well I woke up Sunday morning feeling sore and blah but we got ready to go church. While in sacrament meeting I couldn't hold still. I was just hurting nonstop. I had gotten up and stood in the corner, went to the bathroom several times, Steve tried rubbing my back nothing was really making me feel better. Not only was I really uncomfortable I was really having trouble breathing. So Steve suggested we go home. So on our way home he told me to call the doctor on call. The answering service told me that Dr. Tutt was on call well the last time I had called the answering service he was also on call and never called me back so I wasn't really impressed, and thinking he probably might not even call me back. Sure enough I was home for five minutes and he called back and he told me to go in to OB at Gateway hospital and get checked out. By this point I was kind of emotional because I really didn't want to go in. I figured it was just pre-labor and I was being a wose. I just wanted to take some Tylenol and take a nap, but Steve was really worried so off we went. We get there and of course hooked me up to all the monitors and the babies really wouldn't hold still to get a good enough reading of how they were doing. Of course I was having contractions. I felt better to know that I wasn't there for no reason. They had talked to the doctor and were trying to decide what to do with me. At that point I was wanted to get done and get out of there. It was April birthdays at my grandma's house and I really wanted to go and get some cake. I was starting to get super hungry and when I get hungry I get grouchy. Well Steve can't stand to sit in one spot for a long time either so he was getting frustrated too. Well after like forever Dr. Tutt came back in and said that the babies heart rate wasn't the best and my contractions were two to three minutes apart but I was only dialated to a one and 70% effaced. And my asthma wasn't the best and they had given me a breathing treatment but it really wasn't helping. Once I got back in a room they were asking if I wanted to stop the contractions or let them continue to try to have the babies. I was mixed feelings with this because I was at the point where I was just miserable and wanted them to come already but I was worried about the babies and wanted to make sure that they would be ok. I finally decided to have them stop the contractions. The nurse came back in and gave me a shot of tributaline. Which by the way burned really bad I thought that I could just have it in my IV boy I was wrong. So like two seconds later I started coughing then it got really bad. I couldn't breath at all so they gave me some oxygen and even that wasn't working. I started going in and out of being so tired that I couldn't stay awake. Steve and the nurse kept trying to wake me up and slow my breathing down. I just couldn't and even when I tried it would make me cough more. So after like forever I finally was able to breath a little bit better but what you know it didn't stop my contractions. It was a while later after I was to eat dinner which at that point I was super hungry and the hospital food wasn't half bad but my contractions slowed down and everything seemed to be getting better. The next morning my doctor came in and he was really upset when he was talking to me. It felt like he was mad at me. It was not like him at all. He told me ok bedrest and I needed to go and get another 3D ultrasound which I had been getting every two weeks. He also made me get a steroid shot to develop the babies lungs in case they were going to come soon. Everyone told me that those shots were so horrible so I was expecting the worse but the doctor had just checked me which was totally not comfortable and so since I was stressed over that I didn't even hardly feel the shot in the butt. So later I came to find out that Dr. Tutt never even called my doctor and was angry because he has been super careful this whole pregnancy since it took us so long to get pregnant. I had to go in the next morning to the hospital the get the second steroid shot which this time hurt but it wasn't that bad. Then we had to wait a while because I had appointment with my doctor but we had to get the shot exactly 24 hours after the first one and the first one was given at like 8 in the morning. So we went over to Bookman's and walked around even though I was supposed to be on bed rest, I know shame on me. But what else were we supposed to do not go all the way home. I called to cancel the Ultrasound appointment because I figured I was just at the hospital that morning getting monitored and got another shot. Well my doctor got really mad and said call them back and get back in. Thankfully I got back in. I was still having trouble breathing and wasn't very comfortable. At the ultrasound place my breathing was getting worse. The babies were not doing good on the monitors at all. The ultrasound doctor was really worried and went and called my doctor right away. She said go straight to the hospital. Back at the hospital we walk in and were really confused and didn't know what was going on. There was like 10 different nurses coming in and out of our room telling us all kinds of stuff. Then a nurse said ok we are going to get you stabilized and have babies in the morning. So we were good with that we knew what was going to happen. Then the next thing we know the doctor had called and said that he was making the hospital do another ultrasound and see how they were doing and go from there. Well I wasn't very happy because of course once again I was starving and the one nurse could get the IV in the first time so I had been poked twice. I got lucky because thankfully my cousin Mindy works in OB at Banner Gateway and she happen to be on for that night. So once I had her everything seemed to get a little less stressful. Well after what seemed like forever the ultrasound person came at like the same time my food did to do the ultrasound. My dinner was completely cold and gross because the ultrasound lady took almost an hour and a half to check every detail of the babies. But I was glad to at least have something to eat because they said eat now because in the morning no food again. I was also glad because she did a good job on looking at like every detail of the babies. Once again though, the babies were not doing good still. So we were under the impression that we would be having babies in the morning. Wrong again the doctor wanted another ultrasound in the morning. The ultrasound person was supposed to be there at 9am. So three hours late, me starving because if they were not doing good I was off to surgery so no food for me and I was so grouchy. She came in and literally spent 10 minutes and said yep they are better. Of course they were better I had IVs in me all night long and I wasn't allowed to move except to go to the bathroom. We were really frustrated because the lady the night before spent so long and this lady did practically nothing. The doctor then made me get discharge and told me I needed to go home and rest and really rest and get another ultrasound on Friday. By this point Steve and I were getting annoyed because we just wanted to make sure that the babies were going to be good, plus I was really sick of being a pin cushion. Thursday came Steve went off to work I hung out at home all day did nothing and Friday I told Steve to go to work because the ultrasound wasn't until the afternoon and I didn't want him sitting around all day just to know what was up with the babies. So my sister n law came picked me up and drove me there since I wasn't allowed to do anything. I was the last appointment of the day and was really anxious to know how they were doing. Verdict was that Charlie was doing ok but Kynsey wasn't doing the greatest. Then randomly out of nowhere my OB shows up at the ultrasound place. He said that he knew that I had the last appointment and tried to call but it was after hours and went to a machine. So him and the ultrasound doc chatted in doctor language for a few minutes and decided thankfully to let me go home and then go back to the hospital in the morning for another ultrasound. I was really grateful because I really didn't want to go to the hospital. The next morning at the hospital my doctor told me nothing to eat or drink in case I actually have a c section. So the ultrasound took an hour and I asked the tech what she thought and she said it didn't look good but that the radiologist has to look at it and then give the report to the doctor. So then I had to go back to the OB section and get monitor again. Thankfully I hadn't really felt the contractions that I was having that the monitors said I was having and the babies would really stay still for the monitors again, so it was just getting annoying. By this point I was so hungry and frustrated because I just wanted to know already and then either get it done and over with or go home so I could eat. So what seemed like forever again the doctor came in and said ok were going for it. I totally didn't believe him I said are you sure because I need to let my husband know so he can come from work. He said yes so I call Steve and he said we are really doing it and I said yes. Well then they started getting me all ready and prepared for the c section which I was totally not impressed with the anesthesiologists. They were super weird and they made me walk to the OR bare foot and it was so gross. The spinal they gave me wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I was freezing cold and not being able to breath very well. Instantly everything was tingling and I couldn't feel anything from my armpits down. I needed to cough I kept feeling like I had to clear my throat and since I couldn't feel anything it was super hard. I was put on oxygen and they gave me my inhaler which never really helped. It felt horrible. The next thing I knew they said they were both out and tried to show me them but I was so out of it and then the doctors said I was bleeding really bad. Then it felt like someone was using my stomach as a trampoline. It was the worse feeling ever. I was there for a while and then finally they said I was done but they would stop pressing on my stomach. The doctor came and told me that I was bleeding out and that I might need a blood transfusion. I was really out of it still so I didn't think much of it and I still couldn't clear my throat which was causing me to kind of cough. The doctor said that my uterus was so stretched out that it wouldn't contract and so he had to do it by hand and that when I was sewed up it still wouldn't stop so they were having to still push on my stomach. I was in recovery for a while Steve had gone with the babies to the NICU which I was really grateful for because he probably would have gotten stressed when I bleeding out. Since I was bleeding so bad they had to give me a second IV and bunch of medicine. They thought that they were going to have to give me a blood transfusion. Thankfully I never had to have one. It took a while to get me out of recovery and into a regular room and on my way to the room they let me stop by the NICU to see my babies because at that point still it didn't feel real and I really never got a good look at them because I was so out of it in the OR. Well apparently as Steve puts it I was so out of it that I thought I had three babies and was getting mad at them for not getting the other baby out. I don't really remember that and I don't even really remember going into my room. I do remember telling the nurses that I needed to pee and I couldn't apparently it jammed up. I told them I just wanted up so I could go potty. I was finally able to get them to do something about it because nothing was going into the bag. I know this is all pretty TMI but some day I want my kids to know every detail. Anyways it took like three nurses to get me to the bathroom because I was so unsteady but eventually I was able to get relief and back to sleep. Later that night I was able to go back to the NICU with Steve to feed the babies. Since Steve had been with them before, he was teaching me how to feed and change them. The nurse was telling me too how to burp it was really unbelievable because they were not on any IVs or oxygen just the normal monitors. The doctors and nurses were shocked because they were so little and so early. The doctor thought that they would be have to be in the NICU for two weeks but these two showed them wrong. They were only there for two days. The first night they were in the incubater I wasn't even allow to touch them in there. Then the next day was Sunday I had lots of visitors. I tried to be good company but I was so sleepy. I know that Aunt Joy, Aunt Beanie, Aunt Jeanette came in. Then later my sister Brittany, grandma and my grandpa came. Then later my parents came. I didn't get to go to the nursery much because I was really weak. The next day was Monday and my mom had come and my aunt Emily. I didn't get to visit with them for long they had gone with Steve to the NICU to see the babies and the next thing I knew it was like the middle of the afternoon and they had gone home. I had slept the day away. Apparently my blood count was super low and I had become really anemic. They were worried again that I might need some blood. Thankfully the iron pills did the trick and once again I didn't need blood. That night the babies incubaters were open and they wanted to monitor them to see if they would maintain their own body temperature. Well they did it. They said that they would be able to come to my room and get off all the monitors it was so exciting. The nurses were shock and even one of them called them miracle babies because they had defeated all odds. So the nurse took Charlie and I pushed Kynsey to my room. They had said that Charlie would defiantly be going home with me in the morning but they were worried that Kynsey would have to stay because she would drink more than 20cc of milk at a time. Both of them by this point had lost a little bit of weight. They said in order for her to go home she would have to maintain her weight and start eating more. Well at this point I was praying very hard because I did not want to leave her there. I was so done with being at the hospital and I just wanted to take them home with me. Not that I didn't get good care because I did, although some of the nurses and their assistants were better than others. And my babies had good care too but it had been like a week in hospital. I did discover however that the hospital's gluten free food was pretty amazing. That night was the first time we had the babies to ourselves. The hospital kept wanting them to eat every three hours. It was really hard because Kynsey was just always sleeping through eating and hardly would eat anything. It was frustrating because we had thought well if she waits and eats maybe every four hours then maybe she would eat better. So since we had the babies to ourselves we tested the theory out. What do you know she ate a million times better. The nurse was shocked at how much she had eaten. So we had won that battle we just had to pray that she wouldn't lose anymore weight. It was a long night for both of us but we survived and couldn't weight to see the pediatrician so we could get out of there. It took awhile for the pediatrician could come and we were getting ancy to get out of there. She said that she was glad she ate good but wanted to see if she would eat just a little bit better. Of course we were so upset, she told us that she wanted to wait till four and see how much better she eats and gets her weight. By this point Steven was not very happy. He did not want to stay sitting there another day. So he ended up leaving and bought some preemie outfits. He is more of the shopper than I am when it comes to baby clothes. I sat there with them praying that she could just come home with us because I was so worried she would have to stay. I got her to eat a little bit more and then it was finally time for the big weigh in. Steve, me, the babies, and the nurse headed down to the nursery to see how she was doing. We get her clothes off and her diaper and put her on the scale. She done it, she kept her weight and actually gained an ounce or two. I told the nurse I hope she doesn't pee all over the place since she doesn't have a diaper. Not even two seconds later she peed all over the scale and it was a lot. I was so thankful that she was able to keep it in until after the weigh in. So we had to then wait some more till the doctor heard the good news. After that it was all down hill. We were on our way home.