Birth Story

So, I guess people (Erica) like to read other women's labor stories.  I never thought of this as something I would like to hear about considering I closed my eyes and tried my best to shut out the world completely with my first labor experience.  Why would I want to re-live labor by reading about someone else's.  I was even more shocked when our photographer told me that she was going to be photographing a friend's delivery.  Are you kidding me!?  When I questioned her on this, she said she had done it once before, and although she had been skeptical, it actually ended up being pretty amazing.  Sorry, I am not quite sure who I would share those pictures with.  "Look, there I am screaming my head off."  "Oh, another picture of the baby crowning."  No thank you.

Anyways, I have decided to share this story because it will be short, just like my labor!  The weekend started normally.  On Friday Jeff and I bought the minivan we knew was probably the most practical option for a family with three kids in car seats.  On Saturday night we took Grant to the lights at the zoo.  Nothing was out of the ordinary.  Sunday morning at about 3:30 I woke up to pee (still, nothing new there). I then laid back down and had to pee again.  After about 30 minutes of this, I sat on the toilet and started to Google "Signs of early labor."  At 4:15 I decided I should probably wake Jeff.  I hated to think I was going to wake him and Grant for no reason, but I had begun to worry just enough.  The moment I climbed up in bed to wake up Jeff, the first contraction hit me.  In pain I told Jeff we needed to go.  He was pretty quick to respond because I think he could tell I was serious.  He got up to get dressed and wake Grant.  Between contractions I tried to get myself out of my rainbow pajama pants and bright yellow shirt that says "English Channel Swim - Erica Watts" it.  I refused to go to the hospital looking like an idiot.

We made it into the car and headed to the hospital at breakneck speed.  Grant was a trooper in the back seat as I stared at the dashboard clock timing my contractions, dreading when the next five minutes would pass, knowing another one was coming.  About half way to the hospital Jeff asked if I thought there was anything they could do to stop the babies from coming.  NO!  We arrived at the hospital and at the check in window, I caught myself trying to push for the first time.  The woman at the desk, seeing my state, immediately got me into a room.

The nurses started asking me questions about how far along I was, etc.  I explained that I was only 32 weeks pregnant with twins and that one had been breach throughout the entire pregnancy.  I was dreading a c-section and was worried that I wasn't going to get an option at this point in the game.  Amazingly enough, both girls were head down and clearly ready to go because I was already completely dilated.  At about this point a nurse arrived with a grape popsicle for Grant who was sitting patiently on his father's lap in the corner.  I considered using the little energy I had to be a "good" mom and tell Jeff not to give a 2 year old a popsicle at 4:30 in the morning, but I let it go.  Soon after, Jeff's parents arrived to take away the hyped up toddler and Jeff and I were taken into an operating room.  The room was extremely cold, the table I was laying on was just as uncomfortable, and the room was way too bright!  Luckily we weren't going to be in there long.  Once I was situated and another contraction was on it's way, I asked a nurse (the doctor still wasn't there) if I could push.  Did I mention that there was ZERO pain medication given to me at this point.  I remember pleading with Jeff to tell them to give me something.  But, it was way too late for that.  Anyways, the contraction came, I closed my eyes, screamed some profanities, pushed like hell, and shockingly, at 5:16am, a mer hour after waking Jeff, our first little girl arrived.

I am not quite sure how to describe how I felt.  I wanted to be happy, but I was already feeling mom guilt.  I felt horrible that my poor babies were once again being born prematurely.  I mostly just felt worried.  I knew they were small.  How else could I have pushed the first one out so quickly.  While I stressed about these things in my mind, the doctors were working to break the sac of water that baby #2 (the girls still had no names at this point) was in.  There was a lot of extremely uncomfortable poking and prodding.   Throughout the course of the morning more hands were up in my business and pushing on my stomach than I ever care to have that close to me ever again.  After a little intervention from the doctors and eleven minutes had passed, it was time to push again.  Just like the first go around, the contraction came, I asked if I could push, this time the doctor who had finally arrived said, "Don't waste it," and I pushed and pushed and pushed until Kate joined us at 5:27am.

Everything happened so fast, I really didn't know how to feel about it all.  Just a few hours before, I had been sleeping soundly, now we had two tiny babies with no names.  Thank God, they were as healthy as two 32 week old babies can possibly be.  I was able to briefly hold Anderson before both girls were taken to the NICU.  Jeff and I were taken back to a regular delivery room.  Again, we were asked if we had names for the girls.  We looked at each other, completely lost.  Throughout my pregnancy we had slowly created a very short list of names from which we were debating.  But, we were far from making a final decision.  I asked Jeff to grab my phone and I pulled up my Evernote App where I had been keeping my list.  I told him to pick.  At the bottom of the list, separated from the others were the ones I had been leaning toward most recently.  Jeff handed the phone back to me after looking over the list and said, "The bottom two will work."

That is how Katherine Ellis and Anderson Caroline came to join us on this earth and Jeff, Grant and I became a family of five!  Thank goodness we got that minivan!