Something I've been thinking about on this special day, at least to me

There's been a lot of buzz about Caesarian birth lately due to a troll site that posted some inflamitory statements glorifying 'natural' childbirth and also putting down c-sections as basically getting off light. So, on the anniversary of the date that my twins would have been born, had I carried them to 42 weeks, I'm going to tell you my birth story, in total. 

Just a little back story, when I found out I had two babies in me, I also found out that there were 3 (later, a 4th one was found as well) fibroid tumors in my uterus along with my little babes. One of them was 8 or 9 cm (LARGE) and completely blocking my cervix, so Caesarian was the only option. I also developed gestational diabetes toward the end, but didn't receive insulin.

Cut to Saturday February 16th, my water 'broke' (actually, it sorta just trickled out all throughout the day, I just thought I had to pee a lot) and I went in to the hospital that night. During the whole time I was in the hospital, they had to put an IV in me several times, (one time getting too close to a nerve, it felt like my arm was broken!) Four days later, on Wednesday, it was decided that they had to come out that morning. I was only dialated about 2 cm, but I was contracting consistently and had been for the previous 18 hours. I called Dave and at 9:30 am I went up to the OR. 

Once I got up there, they gave me the shots and started prepping for the surgery, and I kind of just zoned everything out, which wasn't too hard because I was soooooo tired. I'm very VERY fortunate that nothing abnormal occurred, I knew it was coming and didn't have to fight through major pushing and then have an emergency surgery sprung on me. Only one babe's water broke, so after he came out the second babe had to have a little CPR when they first pulled him out, but he was never blue and perked right up. They were small, only 3.3 and 3.15 and at 31 weeks 6 days, they were 8 weeks premature. I didn't get to hold them, see them or touch them, they were whisked away pretty much the minute they came out and went right up to the NICU. (Dave went with them) I went to a recovery area where my family was waiting. I talked with my parents and sister, then they wheeled my whole bed up to the babies and I got to see them, but I couldn't touch them yet. They were in their isolates and we all had too many wires and tubes happening for it to be possible. They then wheeled me up to the post birth room and I finally got to sleep.

Later that night/morning my bff came to visit and we got me into a wheel chair and we went down to see the babes. I could touch their tiny hands and bodies but couldn't hold them yet. The next day I tried to walk, but couldn't, so I started taking a heavier pain killer and was able to get to the bathroom and back so they took out the catheter (yay), and I got to hold them, finally. By the end of the next day I was able to make it to the end of the hall and back, so they sent me on my way.

It took a full 6 weeks for my body to heal, and during that time my full time job was pumping and visiting my babies. Every two hours, morning noon and night, I pumped, and every morning I got up, got ready and went to the hospital. I would take turns holding my babies while they received my milk through a tube that went directly into their stomach. There were also monitors that tracked and reported their heart rate, and other things I barely understood. Every day the doctors would check in with me and thankfully everything was quiet and boring. After two days they were both off the breathing tubes and after a few weeks they both were in bassinets instead of the isolates. There was a check list of videos, a car seat installation class, and a lung stress test with the babes in their car seats that we had to check off but 6 weeks later, they came home 2 days apart.

Top-bottom: first day, first day home, today (their version of 'peek-a-boo')