Well, the next couple months are sort of a blur of shock, drs appointments, joy, sonograms, eating too much or not eating enough, etc., and prayer. If there is one thing I know it is this-- God wasn't giving me twins to show what a great mom I was, but what a great God He is. I realize that this journey is not about my Honey and my abilities to parent, but about our ability to trust in God's strength and guidance. Now, if I could just remember that!
Praise the Lord I was able to carry the twins well into my third trimester (37 weeks which my Dr. considered full term for twins) without bedrest or restrictions. As soon as we found out, Honey did mention that he thought my body was made for carrying twins. Sweetie, isn't he? Interestingly enough I found my 3rd trimester to be a bit easier than my 2nd, but I did begin to fear that the babes would never decide to make their curtain call. It seemed I was now reaching a point that I had only hoped to make it to and it wasn't quite a nice as I hoped.
Being out in public was beginning to be embarrassing. Older women with their "Oh Honey"s, children playing hide and seek under me (not really), but you get the idea. It felt like everyone anticipated a gush at any minute. I tried to concentrate on not waddling. Then came Friday the 14th of Oct, I cleaned, gardened, and probably did more than I had in the last week and was feeling pretty good about it. Went to bed and woke up sick, tummy sick, yucky sick, at about 4 am. I tried to take care of it quietly w/o waking Honey, finally my nerves got the best of me and I woke him up for support. He has always been great about cleaning up my sick messes. I looked up on-line and found that it could be a sign of early labor. We decided I should rest and see if it got better and then head to Nana's after B woke up. So, we did a drop by at Nana's with B and called the hospital where the nurse told us to come in. We got to the floor and they did their thing, monitoring the babies (or trying to at least-- the little squirmies were hard to keep track of), IVs (3rd tries a charm), fluids and the dreaded sitting in the hospital bed hooked up to everything for about 3 hrs. I hate hospital beds and I despise being stuck in them! I think I asked to go to the bathroom once an hour, which probably didn't help the monitoring. After two bags of fluid and some meds to help with my tummy, my contractions which had been about 2-3 mins apart (so the machine said, I didn't feel them) became more sporadic so the Dr. sent me home. It's pretty embarrassing (I use that word a lot, eh?) to walk out of the hospital in the middle of the day full-term with twins in my pjs, but I did. The nurse was convinced she would see me soon. I was still pretty exhausted and slept most of the rest of the day.
Sunday I began to have more contractions but nothing to write home about. John and Sisty came up Sunday evening and Sisty began her "Get the babies out" regimen. I began to have signs of labor that would last for quite some time and then stop. Tues morning I called my Dr's office (not the hospital bc I knew they would just tell me to come in) and explained what my body was doing. I was beginning to get nervous that my water would break and from the visit on Sat knew that the only thing down was extremities. The picture of a lone foot emerging haunted my thoughts. So after a couple laps around Target (part of Sisty's regimen) we headed to the hospital. An ultrasound confirmed Baby Girl was bottom down and Baby Boy was transverse so high in my ribs that they had trouble finding his heartbeat. I had some slight progress since Sat, but the hope of a head down baby was fading quickly. Although, my Dr., Dr. Eck at Hutch Clinic btw, never pressured me because she knew my desire was for a natural birth, I could tell the hopefulness had faded from her voice. My options were... a c-section that night, the next morning or wait to go into full labor in hopes that a baby would flip. Did I mention that Baby Girl had been head down for months and then flipped sometime after 30 weeks?? I felt a bit as if I was coping out, but honestly have peace in the decision we made. The risk of a umbilical cord prolapsing (coming out before the babies) because there was no baby in ready position to block it ultimately leading to an emergency c was enough for me. Come to find out I had excessive, 2x the normal amount for twins, of fluid which I'd guess would make the risk of prolapse even higher (funny story about that fluid to come). Because of the bite of summer sausage I had for lunch the c was scheduled for 8pm. Sisty ran home to get things arranged and so I waited by myself for Honey, Sisty, and Nana to arrive. My sweet cousin Nicole watched B and Nono during the big event. I resisted the urge to convince every nurse or tech that came in that I did have a loving family that would be there soon. About 7pm everyone was there and getting ready, cameras charged and divided, we waited.
Goodness, this is so long! I hardly feel like reading it to edit! Guess this will have to be a 3 part series. Nana, the babes and I are heading out on our first road trip to get big B (who I've missed dearly, but appreciate the quiet time his absence has provided me with the twins- thanks to my amazing Sisty!) and introduce the twins to the rest of the Vaught/Liberal family and get their newborn pix done. Rest assured, I'm not overdoing it :) Nana packed the van.
BTW- feel free to edit any of my grammar (Lindsey- if you are reading this and dying inside). I'd be happy to fix it :)
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The beginning of the story...
Wow! What a journey we have been on the last couple of months. It is always an exciting time when you start feeling ready to grow your family. We decided that the time was right for us earlier this year; we'd always planned to have about 3 years between our kids. Then the anticipation of waiting to see, trying to notice any changes and having confirmation of a pregnancy. The excitement of announcing the expected arrival and going to the first Drs appointment.
My 1st trimester was exhausting. I slept probably about 14 hrs a day if possible. Dale was seriously starting to wonder about me. I lost several pounds because of the detox diet we were on before I knew I was pregnant and then the nausea (is that the right form of the word, I never know!). We scheduled our 12 week appointment with the Birthing Center in Yoder. I remember returning home disappointed and nervous after only getting to hear about two beats of a heartbeat. Four weeks later we heard a strong healthy heartbeat, yea! At 18 weeks we went to the Sterling Clinic for the first ultrasound. And yes, I had still been vainly pretending I was barely showing. When we got in the room the Dr. was obviously irritated by his day... things moved, over-booked, yadda yadda. Dale sat in the corner with B and I laid on the table. He plopped the thing down and starting doing his measuring. I noticed right away the two circles, but was still oblivious to anything. He worked for several mins without a word. Finally I asked if everything was alright. He responded "Are you starting to figure this out?" Me- "Your measuring stuff?" Meanwhile Dale is struggling to keep B from scaling the skeleton hanging near them in the corner of the tiny room. Dr-"There are two of them." And like I did it on purpose to make his hectic day more difficult he said something like, well this just takes the cake. Suddenly the room was hotter (the ac was broken) and I asked "Are they conjoined?" I really did, out loud, weird, right? Aware of Dale's distracted state I remember saying "Honey, are you hearing this!?!" Two heartbeats and many oh my words later we are up and heading back to the lobby with enormous eyes and huge smiles. I stopped by the restroom laughing uncontrollably and Dale and B waited in the Lobby, which was now more full of people waiting for, I suspect, an ultrasound. Some one asked him how it went, did we find out if it was a boy or a girl.... a boy and a girl (we think). Once we got to the car I told B he wasn't just getting a brother or a sister, but a brother and a sister. His response... "Where's my truck!?" Oh boy!
Then we had the fun of telling all the friends and family. Nana almost droppped B as she plunked down on a co-worker's desk. Dale's Grandma asked what we were going to do with our dog. It seems the response ranged from "ha ha funny!" to "WHAT!?" I was heading to my sister's house that day and decided to tell her when I got there, I walked in and said "it's a boy" (Ny especially was hoping for a girl) "and a girl!" Then there was much screaming and jumping!
Well, little Link (4 days old), who has been sweetly awake just gazing around since his last feeding 2 hrs ago (unbelievable, right?) is starting to get hungry. I'm not sure how this blog thing is going work, but it was fun today!
My 1st trimester was exhausting. I slept probably about 14 hrs a day if possible. Dale was seriously starting to wonder about me. I lost several pounds because of the detox diet we were on before I knew I was pregnant and then the nausea (is that the right form of the word, I never know!). We scheduled our 12 week appointment with the Birthing Center in Yoder. I remember returning home disappointed and nervous after only getting to hear about two beats of a heartbeat. Four weeks later we heard a strong healthy heartbeat, yea! At 18 weeks we went to the Sterling Clinic for the first ultrasound. And yes, I had still been vainly pretending I was barely showing. When we got in the room the Dr. was obviously irritated by his day... things moved, over-booked, yadda yadda. Dale sat in the corner with B and I laid on the table. He plopped the thing down and starting doing his measuring. I noticed right away the two circles, but was still oblivious to anything. He worked for several mins without a word. Finally I asked if everything was alright. He responded "Are you starting to figure this out?" Me- "Your measuring stuff?" Meanwhile Dale is struggling to keep B from scaling the skeleton hanging near them in the corner of the tiny room. Dr-"There are two of them." And like I did it on purpose to make his hectic day more difficult he said something like, well this just takes the cake. Suddenly the room was hotter (the ac was broken) and I asked "Are they conjoined?" I really did, out loud, weird, right? Aware of Dale's distracted state I remember saying "Honey, are you hearing this!?!" Two heartbeats and many oh my words later we are up and heading back to the lobby with enormous eyes and huge smiles. I stopped by the restroom laughing uncontrollably and Dale and B waited in the Lobby, which was now more full of people waiting for, I suspect, an ultrasound. Some one asked him how it went, did we find out if it was a boy or a girl.... a boy and a girl (we think). Once we got to the car I told B he wasn't just getting a brother or a sister, but a brother and a sister. His response... "Where's my truck!?" Oh boy!
Then we had the fun of telling all the friends and family. Nana almost droppped B as she plunked down on a co-worker's desk. Dale's Grandma asked what we were going to do with our dog. It seems the response ranged from "ha ha funny!" to "WHAT!?" I was heading to my sister's house that day and decided to tell her when I got there, I walked in and said "it's a boy" (Ny especially was hoping for a girl) "and a girl!" Then there was much screaming and jumping!
Well, little Link (4 days old), who has been sweetly awake just gazing around since his last feeding 2 hrs ago (unbelievable, right?) is starting to get hungry. I'm not sure how this blog thing is going work, but it was fun today!
Friday, October 14, 2011
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