Well, most girls that I have seen start off their new parent blogs with either a BFP (Big Fat Positive, as in pregnancy test) story or the Birth Story. And since that would make perfect sense, I of course did not do it that way :) I only actually started my blog once the boys were born and in the NICU and long after finding out I was pregnant. So, I have decided to post all these previous stories for posterity. So I will be starting with the day that Josh & Brody made their grand entrance over four months ago!! Hopefully I can remember as many details as possible since although, I no longer have pregnancy brain, it has now progressed to mommy brain which is a far worse affliction :) First a little back story, but I am warning you, it's not for the squeamish:
Tuesday March 11, 2008 - 34 Weeks
Well I woke up around the same time that I do everyday while being on bed rest at the hospital - between 6-7 in the morning. Usually, it is the Dr. that is assigned to the floor that wakes me up at the start of their shift which is about 7AM, but on other occasions it has been the crazy Dracula lady that takes my blood. I kid you not, she talks in a Romanian accent and says "I've come to collect your bluuuud" and then proceeds to turn on every bloody light in my room turning into the surface of the sun all at 6AM. This time I woke up on my own, my stupid bladder was calling to me, as it did every 2-3 hours and waddled to the bathroom. Since it was almost 7AM I knew I was in for the deluge of the beginning of the shift visitors - The doctor assigned to the floor, the nurse assigned to me to take my blood pressure, the cleaning lady, the Dracula people....so I decided to turn on the TV and not be scared awake like I usually am.
I actually feel rested thanks to the ambien the lovely 3rd shift nurse gave me at 11PM. Ambien is pretty hit or miss for me, well at least the pregnant me, because sometimes no matter how tired I was or how late I took the ambien, I still would get up at least twice a night to either use the bathroom facilities or to roll over. Yep, you heard that right...I woke myself up rolling over because it was such an absolute process, probably very similar to how a baby first rolls over - more in quarter turns than one fluid motion.
So I am awake and almost fully rested and very happy that I had made it to 34 weeks. Tuesdays were my week change day, so I always looked forward to them more so than I ever did when not pregnant. 34 weeks was such a great milestone for us since I had been sent to Tufts at 31 weeks and 5 days thanks to pre-term labor. I'll never forget being transferred in the Ambulance from Lowell General to Tufts since Lowell wasn't equipped to deliver babies before 32 weeks. I think I was in complete denial at first of the possibility of delivering my twins so early, but once we got to Labor & Delivery and received the first round of steroid shots to develop the boys' lungs and got "the talk" from the NICU doctor (anyone having pre-term babies can understand that conversation) about the consequences of delivering babies of my gestation, I realized this is a real and very scary possibility!! No, I was not ready to deliver yet! My boys were too small still and I needed to keep them inside me to continue to develop like they should!!
Thankfully, I did not deliver the babies on that day, but I was dialated to 3cm and needed to stay in the hospital for the duration of my pregnancy, however long that would be. It was a scary position to be in, but I knew it was best for me and the babies so I would do what had to be done. So, for the next few weeks I made the antipartum/postpartum floor my home. All of my wonderful friends and family visited me and for that I am forever grateful because I think I would have gone mad if my only interaction was with the nurses coming to check my blood pressure or the babies heart rates. I mean I think the poor cleaning lady was sick of hearing me talk!!
On top of my lovely pre-term labor symptoms, I was also lucky enough to get pre-eclampsia. For people who aren't familiar with pre-eclampsia, it is a condition that only pregnant woman get which causes high blood pressure and severe swelling. In my case my blood pressure was high, but not ever high enough to cause concern for seizures or needing to take the babies quickly. But my swelling was so vicious that you would think I weighed 450lbs from the ankles down. My poor feet were so swollen that I could barely fit into the XXL hospital socks they had for me. I mean I already felt fat enough as it is, let alone all the water I was retaining!
So for once, I felt pretty darn good...I had made it to 34 weeks which is pretty darn good with twins since on average twins are born at 36 weeks. So I only had 2 more weeks to go, I could do this, I really could. I made it this far, what was another 2 weeks...right??
Well, the babies had other ideas because as soon as I got back into bed after my bathroom break, turned on the TV, I rolled over to take sip 10,005 of water that I needed to drink. As soon as I did that ::GUSH:: And all this water just fell out of me!! It was really one of the most bizarre feelings I had ever had, just like I completely lost all control of my bladder and the boys' decided to practice their drop-kicks on it. I knew it was my water, because really, my bladder was barely the size of a pea by now and I just knew it. Women who have had babies always say "Oh, you'll know when your water breaks, trust me" and as long as it isn't a slow leak, you will most definitely know!!
Now I'm thinking "Oh shit my water just broke" and I'm sitting in my very soggy bed (which now I know why the mattresses are all plastic, it makes for hot sleeping but easy cleanup!) thinking what do I do now?? So, I waddle over to the bathroom, as quickly as a 8.5 month pregnant lady with twins can move, all the while I feel like I am peeing rivers from my pants and I am leaving puddles to prove it. And I'm sitting in the bathroom staring at the red emergency pull cord next to the toilet. "Do I pull the handle? Well, my water broke didn't it....what if it didn't and I look like an ass that pulled the emergency lever? Dammit, lake superior is coming out of me in gushes, I'm pulling that lever!"
I think that this post has been long enough...stay tuned for part 2 and the actual arrival of my boys!
Tuesday March 11, 2008 - 34 Weeks
Well I woke up around the same time that I do everyday while being on bed rest at the hospital - between 6-7 in the morning. Usually, it is the Dr. that is assigned to the floor that wakes me up at the start of their shift which is about 7AM, but on other occasions it has been the crazy Dracula lady that takes my blood. I kid you not, she talks in a Romanian accent and says "I've come to collect your bluuuud" and then proceeds to turn on every bloody light in my room turning into the surface of the sun all at 6AM. This time I woke up on my own, my stupid bladder was calling to me, as it did every 2-3 hours and waddled to the bathroom. Since it was almost 7AM I knew I was in for the deluge of the beginning of the shift visitors - The doctor assigned to the floor, the nurse assigned to me to take my blood pressure, the cleaning lady, the Dracula people....so I decided to turn on the TV and not be scared awake like I usually am.
I actually feel rested thanks to the ambien the lovely 3rd shift nurse gave me at 11PM. Ambien is pretty hit or miss for me, well at least the pregnant me, because sometimes no matter how tired I was or how late I took the ambien, I still would get up at least twice a night to either use the bathroom facilities or to roll over. Yep, you heard that right...I woke myself up rolling over because it was such an absolute process, probably very similar to how a baby first rolls over - more in quarter turns than one fluid motion.
So I am awake and almost fully rested and very happy that I had made it to 34 weeks. Tuesdays were my week change day, so I always looked forward to them more so than I ever did when not pregnant. 34 weeks was such a great milestone for us since I had been sent to Tufts at 31 weeks and 5 days thanks to pre-term labor. I'll never forget being transferred in the Ambulance from Lowell General to Tufts since Lowell wasn't equipped to deliver babies before 32 weeks. I think I was in complete denial at first of the possibility of delivering my twins so early, but once we got to Labor & Delivery and received the first round of steroid shots to develop the boys' lungs and got "the talk" from the NICU doctor (anyone having pre-term babies can understand that conversation) about the consequences of delivering babies of my gestation, I realized this is a real and very scary possibility!! No, I was not ready to deliver yet! My boys were too small still and I needed to keep them inside me to continue to develop like they should!!
Thankfully, I did not deliver the babies on that day, but I was dialated to 3cm and needed to stay in the hospital for the duration of my pregnancy, however long that would be. It was a scary position to be in, but I knew it was best for me and the babies so I would do what had to be done. So, for the next few weeks I made the antipartum/postpartum floor my home. All of my wonderful friends and family visited me and for that I am forever grateful because I think I would have gone mad if my only interaction was with the nurses coming to check my blood pressure or the babies heart rates. I mean I think the poor cleaning lady was sick of hearing me talk!!
On top of my lovely pre-term labor symptoms, I was also lucky enough to get pre-eclampsia. For people who aren't familiar with pre-eclampsia, it is a condition that only pregnant woman get which causes high blood pressure and severe swelling. In my case my blood pressure was high, but not ever high enough to cause concern for seizures or needing to take the babies quickly. But my swelling was so vicious that you would think I weighed 450lbs from the ankles down. My poor feet were so swollen that I could barely fit into the XXL hospital socks they had for me. I mean I already felt fat enough as it is, let alone all the water I was retaining!
So for once, I felt pretty darn good...I had made it to 34 weeks which is pretty darn good with twins since on average twins are born at 36 weeks. So I only had 2 more weeks to go, I could do this, I really could. I made it this far, what was another 2 weeks...right??
Well, the babies had other ideas because as soon as I got back into bed after my bathroom break, turned on the TV, I rolled over to take sip 10,005 of water that I needed to drink. As soon as I did that ::GUSH:: And all this water just fell out of me!! It was really one of the most bizarre feelings I had ever had, just like I completely lost all control of my bladder and the boys' decided to practice their drop-kicks on it. I knew it was my water, because really, my bladder was barely the size of a pea by now and I just knew it. Women who have had babies always say "Oh, you'll know when your water breaks, trust me" and as long as it isn't a slow leak, you will most definitely know!!
Now I'm thinking "Oh shit my water just broke" and I'm sitting in my very soggy bed (which now I know why the mattresses are all plastic, it makes for hot sleeping but easy cleanup!) thinking what do I do now?? So, I waddle over to the bathroom, as quickly as a 8.5 month pregnant lady with twins can move, all the while I feel like I am peeing rivers from my pants and I am leaving puddles to prove it. And I'm sitting in the bathroom staring at the red emergency pull cord next to the toilet. "Do I pull the handle? Well, my water broke didn't it....what if it didn't and I look like an ass that pulled the emergency lever? Dammit, lake superior is coming out of me in gushes, I'm pulling that lever!"
I think that this post has been long enough...stay tuned for part 2 and the actual arrival of my boys!
No comments:
Post a Comment