Morrise Moments: The Unexpected Delivery

It really starts the night before. The hospital called and confirmed my induction appointment for 6:15 a.m. I was so glad to know for sure we had a spot and could plan on what the morning would look like. My mom and sister, Melanie, came down after school in time to say goodnight to the kids and for us to talk last minute details about what they'll need when taking the older boys. Right before we went to bed, Jacob gave me a blessing. First I should mention, for some reason I had felt that something would go wrong in the pregnancy or delivery. I know crazy hormones, but I had expressed these feelings to Jacob so we were both a little scared of what the blessing might say. But it was perfect, he blessed me that I would recover quickly so I could take care of and play with my boys soon. He also said to pay attention to the details of the delivery, because there is a reason why the delivery would happen like it would.

That morning we woke about 5, showered, ate some breakfast, did some last minute packing, and made our way to the hospital. We were checked in, shown to a room, I got my robe on, and answered the million questions about my health, while they monitored the baby's heart rate and my contractions. She checked me, I was still at a 3, and fairly thick. Then she brought out the ultrasound to make sure we could go ahead with a vaginal delivery. To deliver vaginally my doctor likes both babies to be head down. A lot of other doctors go ahead as long as baby A (the one who will come first) is head down, and then they feel confident that they can flip the second baby without problems. Well, my doctor has assisted too many doctors that have tried this technique but have had problems and end up doing a c-section anyway. Rather than taking a risk that I'd have to recover from both types of delivery, he always just sticks to a c-section if both babies aren't in prime position. And the thought having the recover from both scares me into thinking he is right. William and Ryan were in the perfect position and leading up to that day these babies had as well so we all thought another vaginal delivery was what we were going to get.

Laurie, who was also our delivery nurse with William and Ryan, pulled out the ultrasound, but couldn't find baby b's head. Anywhere. She looked for about 5 or 10 minutes then asked another nurse to come and give it try, but she had no luck either. They told us that they weren't that good at the ultrasound and not to worry because he had recorded his heartbeat, we could see him moving, they just couldn't find him. Dr. Nance was checking on some other patients and couldn't come but okayed us moving forward and he'd have a look when he got there. They gave me an IV, started me on patocin, and then gave me my epidural, figuring no matter what happened we'd want all of these. All of this happened by 9 am. They tried to hook up the babies heart monitors again, but couldn't find baby B's heartbeat. Every time they thought they found it, we noticed it was the exact same as baby A's. They again said not to worry, we heard it just before and he was literally doing some awesome movement so we knew he was okay; he was just under baby A enough it was hiding B's heartbeat. They brought in the ultrasound to look at the babies again. They found him. sideways (transverse). Right then Dr. Nance came in, looked at the ultrasound, gave me a sympathetic look and told me we'd have to do a c-section.

It was 9:15 a.m. and we were going to get prepped for the operation. At this time Jacob ran out to the car to get the camera because we figured we'd be waiting a long time and we never brought in the bag. I called home to give them a report, but apparently scared my mom to death. Apparently I didn't make it clear when I said we couldn't find B's heartbeat that it was okay and that's not why we were doing the c-section. I asked the nurse everything I could about what was going to happen, even though I knew this was an option I didn't think it would ever happen. The anesthesiologist came in to boost up the drugs, I believe it was a spinal block, and explained his part in all of this. He asked me what I had for breakfast, because he liked to know what he was going to see. I asked if I really was going to throw up, the nurse said not EVERYONE throws up, just most people. I was again flooded with a wave of nerves of what was about to happen. I knew we'd be okay, it happens all the time. It just had never happened to me.

They wheeled me into the O.R. and by this time the spinal block was really starting to work, I couldn't feel my legs. They transferred to a smaller bed where Jacob had to hold on tight to my legs while they strapped them in; if my legs fell my whole body would have fallen off the table. They then strapped down my arms in a T shape so I wouldn't accidentally reach for where they were operating. They put an inflatable blanket on me to keep me warm, since I was pretty exposed in such a cold room. They warned me because of the medicine I would have a hard time breathing, that was normal, and they even gave me some oxygen to help. The doctors came in, put a sheet up and got to work. It was hard for me to hear what everyone was saying, because of laying down and also the sound of the blanket and oxygen. Everyone seemed to be upbeat and having a good time though.

It wasn't long before they told Jacob he could look behind the sheet, they were pulling out baby A, Spencer Wayne. I lifted my head as much as I could to see my cute new son, then he was off to clean him up and to concentrate on baby B. Two minutes later they lifted Max Gordon up for all to see and then rushed to get him cleaned up. They started sewing me back up when Jacob came in holding our new boys. Everyone in the room was in awe at how big they were: Spencer weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long, Max was 7 lbs 13 oz and was also 19 1/2 inches long. Over 15 lbs of baby. Both were perfectly healthy. Jacob went with the babies to the nursery, while they finished cleaning me up. Once again everyone marveled at how big and perfect the babies were, how big my placentas were (4 lbs together), and how much fluid I had in me. They joked it was a great weight loss program. But it was then that I found out that a miracle had occurred.

We had originally done the c-section for baby B, since he was transverse, but we probably saved baby A's life. The likely reason he hadn't descended farther was because he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice, this normally isn't a huge deal but he also had a lot of cord around his head. If we would have tried to deliver him vaginally there's a good chance the cord would have come first, cord prolapse, and would have cut off the oxygen to baby A. I am actually tearing up thinking about what could have happened. I know that because of Max acting mischievous and turning sideways, Spencer is with us today. We were watched out for and something that I was dreading I know gladly go through so our precious new PERFECT son could be with us. We really are so blessed.

Random Facts to Remember:

I did not throw up. Thank heavens!

For the first few hours of life, they switched places. We were leaning towards Max being the first twin and Spencer being the younger, so when they were born that's what Jacob called them and told all the nurses. After we had some alone time with them we both agreed their names didn't fit. So Spencer became baby A and Max baby B.

Recovery from a c-section hasn't been as bad as I thought, yet. Hopefully I don't regret saying that later. It defiantly has it's perks: being able to walk around sooner, something I wouldn't have done with my other deliveries, not loosing as much blood afterward, and not feeling the pain vaginally. But it does have it's cons: I'm on medication a lot longer, I had to be on a fluid fast for a couple of meals, it's a major surgery and I have this huge scar that I now have to protect from little boys.

After I made it back to my room, Jacob was still in the nursery unfortunately with my cell phone in his pocket, so I used our i pad to face time my family back at home. Also during this time I had the chills, really bad. So it made it kind of humorous to watch me try and tell them details while the screen was shaking and all my boys wanted to talk to me too.

During pregnancy it's hard to use your stomach muscles which makes it hard to get up and down from places and roll over at night. After a c-section they tell you not to use your stomach muscles, so I'm just pretending I'm still pregnant for the next 3 to 5 weeks.