Birth Story, One Year Later.

I was still going to school, despite bed rest. I had a big presentation in lab that I was working on with a partner. My partner on the project was a crazy procrastinator and since I was 35 weeks pregnant, I had wanted to wrap up the work as soon as possible. I had written the paper and did the majority of the work and she needed to add a table of our data. When she shows it to me, RIGHT before lab, there is no data table. Nope. The one part that was her responsibility, not completed. I stressed to say the least. I didn't really feel that great anyway, but standing in front of my lab class, huge, missing this piece... wasn't a good combination. I made it through and came home.

I was starving, it was Cinco de Mayo and I wanted beer and tacos. I obviously couldn't have beer, and for some reason, we didn't get tacos. We went to Merlin's in Princeton. I had a hamburger with fried onions and chocolate milk. We got home and watched some TV. I started vomiting about 9 p.m. and just did not feel good. I took my Procardia at 10 p.m. and went to sleep on the chair downstairs. Dustin went up to bed.

I think I slept a little, in and out anyway. I woke up often to pee and usually ended up vomiting. I took my Procardia again at 2 a.m. and remember saying goodbye to Dustin when he left for work at 7 a.m.

I woke up around 8 a.m. and called my mom. I had sent my sisters a picture of my swollen feet on their cell phones, and they showed mom. I had a horrible headache and my vision was starting to blur. I really thought I was fine. I hung up from mom, went upstairs to get a bowl of pineapple, forgot to take my Procardia at 10 a.m. Around 10:15 a.m., my sister Betsy called, she was on her way from work to take me into the hospital. I thought that it was ridiculous for her to take off work, so I decided to call up to labor and delivery first.

Nurse Jodi answered the phone. I went through the whole scenario, I am a patient of Dr. Roberts, 35 weeks pregnant with twins, have been vomiting pretty consistently for the last 12 hours, bad headache, blurred vision--and she stopped me immediately. She asked me how far away I lived, I told her about 10 minutes, she said she wanted to see me in 15. I don't even think she caught my name.

I called Betsy back and told her I needed to go up to Labor & Delivery. She was all ready 1/2 way between Milaca and Princeton. My mom had talked to her also. Mom had a cousin who lost full-term twin boys to pre-ecclampsia and I was showing all the signs. They were scared.

I took a shower, but didn't put on any makeup. When Betsy came, she made the comment that I was wearing the same green shirt that she wore when she went into the hospital to deliver her son, Ethan. We went up to the hospital, and when I went to check in, the registration lady told me she was expecting me. Obviously, Jodi had all the alarms sounded. Betsy wanted me to use a wheelchair and I refused. I waddled upstairs and Jodi had all ready been talking to Dr. Roberts. I had an appointment scheduled to see her that afternoon, and Dr. Roberts said that I could come in early and she would check me out in clinic.

That had sounded pretty good to me. But not Betsy. She asked Jodi to take my blood pressure first. Then, look at my feet. My BP was 120/90. My feet were "pretty swollen" and Jodi left to call Dr. Roberts back. She came in the room again and told me that I was going to be admitted to triage. Yippee. Another day sitting in the triage room. I had just been up there one week earlier.

I switched into my gown, peed in a cup, told Dustin what was going on, got comfy. Jodi started an IV, lab came up to draw blood. I was a little dehydrated, but they didn't want me to eat or drink anything. It was around noon now. My BP had settled down, but I was having contractions, every 4 minutes or so. The boys' heartbeats were all over the place too. I tried to relax, but Betsy was nuts. She was so excited, she was making all of us insane.

Around 2 p.m., Jodi came in and told me that I could have the babies that day. I had protein in my urine, a horrid pain in my side, my headache & blurred vision were getting worse, not better. So I needed to get Dustin there. Dr. Roberts had made some calls to the U, because I was still early and showing signs of pre-ecclampsia and HELLP syndrome. My blood work had came back with low platelets. I all ready have trouble clotting. I could bleed out. Yippee.

Dustin got to the hospital & Betsy left. She went to our house first and grabbed the hospital bags, camera, etc. She was going to come back later that night with my parents, and other sister, Emma. We had just bought a 1/4 of beef, and they were going to bring that up. The next few hours were a blur...

A nurse came in and checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 2. I had an ultrasound to check babies position. One week earlier, Zach was head down, baby B was breech. This ultrasound showed both head down. I have no idea when Max flipped. I imagine it was sometime during the violent vomiting. Dr. Roberts came in and checked me again. She said with both babies head down, she could give me something to induce the labor, and I would most likely have the boys vaginally by 8 a.m. the next day. She said I could have a C-Section and be holding them by 7 p.m. I didn't know what to do. I knew that vaginally was better for the boys, and I suggested that but I was also in a ridiculous amount of pain and my BP was getting higher and toxemia was getting worse. She scheduled the C-Section.

Earlier she had called down to the U of MN, to see if I could be transferred there for delivery. There were no beds for me, and only one bed for the twins in the NICU. It was decided to have Dr. Roberts deliver in Princeton and if the twins needed, they could either be flown or sent to a NICU via ambulance.

Dr. Roberts told me not to tell anyone about the pineapple that I had earlier ;) and everyone started flooding in. They brought scrubs for Dustin, lab came in, ultrasound, anesthesia, nurses, and nurses. We were watching the news and the weather had gone from foggy, to sunny, cloudy and then, stormy. There were severe weather warnings for Mille Lacs county, with a bad storm in Foley. At 6 p.m., Brian (anesthesiologist) and a nurse brought me back to the OR.

Dustin and I had met Brian earlier. He was the anesthesiologist in on my emergency D & C when we lost Sammie. That day, 1 1/2 years earlier, he took care of me while Dr. Roberts removed the tissue from my body and Sammie. Now, in the OR, they were delivering our twin sons.

I had my spinal, which didn't hurt at all. I bent over and kissed my babies. The phone was ringing like crazy in the OR of people who wanted to get in on the action. I don't remember meeting everyone, but I know that in the OR there were 2 scrub nurses, Dr. Roberts, Dr. Scott, Brian, Dr. Kubika (pediatrician for the twins), nurses for each boy, two surgical techs, Brian, Dustin and three other people standing in the doorway.

I was draped, Dustin came in. When she was starting, I was supposed to tell Brian if I felt like I was going to throw up. At one point, I didn't feel so great. I told him, and his response, "I know." I look over and he is squeezing the IV bag with both hands, and my BP was 40/20. Next thing, Zachary is born.

He didn't cry right away, he had to be suctioned and spanked. I got to see him for a second, and then the doctor was working on him like crazy. I couldn't see what was going on, but one minute later, Maxwell was born. He cried. I could see his "giraffe" perfectly. The first thing they did after wiping him off was gave him his Vitamin K shot, put the Erythromycin in his eyes, checked him over, and gave him to Dustin.

I cried during the whole delivery and pretty much lost it when I saw Max. I told him I was his mommy and kissed him. Dustin took Max to the nursery, and Zachary was whisked away for "a little extra help." Meanwhile, under the blue curtain, I was falling apart. Later, I find out that I had a huge blood clot around my liver, among other things.

I finally went into recovery at 7 p.m., a half hour after the boys were born. My recovery nurse was Brenda, who also cared for me during Sammie's D & C. I don't know exactly what was going on, there was a lot of whispering and I couldn't leave. I kept trying to see if I could go and see the babies, but they just said I wasn't ready.

Dustin was trying to go back and forth. Our parents and my sisters had came up to the hospital. They were watching through the nursery glass. I still hadn't really seen Zachary and at 8:10 p.m., when they wheeled me to my room, Dr. Kubica held him up, for me to see.

I got into my bed, my family came in to see me and say goodbye. I wanted to hold my babies. The nurse brought Max in, Wayne & Nancy came in to see him. Max tried to nurse, and I kept asking for updates on Zach. He was "not adjusting." But no one would tell me what was going on, even after I told them I was a nurse!

At 10:30 p.m., the pediatrician came in and told us that Zach had not made the 4 hour window that they give babies to "recover." He was breathing very, very fast and needed to go to a NICU. We had the choice between St. Cloud and Fairview Southdale in Edina. We chose to stay in the Fairview family, she called the ambulance. I asked if I could hold him, after a little humming and hoing, she brought him in.

I put him on my chest, skin to skin and immediately, his breathing slowed. He pinked up. He calmed, he nursed. He was like "a different baby" according to the nurse. She called the pediatrician, but the NICU team was all ready on their way. We said our "goodbyes." I bawled until I don't think I had any tears left. I was so devastated, but mostly for the boys. It was my worst nightmare to have the twins separated.

I wanted the twins in the same crib until the ambulance came, around 1:30 a.m., they came in with a ton of paperwork. There were two people with the ambulance, a RN from the NICU and a nurse practitioner from the NICU. They brought Zach in his isolette, with a nuk! and took him to Edina.

Dustin couldn't go with in the ambulance. They suggested that he go home and sleep. It was going to be at least 4:30 a.m. by the time he would be able to see Zach anyway. He went home. Max went to the nursery and I went to sleep...

(to be continued...)