Babies Birth Day!

Our babies were born on June 29, 2012!

I was scheduled to be induced that morning at 6am. The babies must have decided that they really were ready to come that day because I went into labor around midnight.  Based off of how quickly my labor with Anna progressed, I didn't feel like we could sit around waiting for contractions to get stronger or closer together. So we headed to the hospital by 1am when my contractions were still 10-12 mins apart and really weren't more painful that what they had been for the past month.  The lady in the registration office seemed very confused about why I was there at 1am instead of 6am because I obviously did not appear to be having severe labor pains to her. So she called my doctor who said to definitely send me on back.

By 2-3am I had my Iv, antibiotics for Group B strep, and an epidural. This was way more progress than I made last time I was in labor. Again, I wasn't in terrible pain yet, but I had already dilated to 5cm and wanted to make sure everything was in place in case labor sped up quickly.

But that's not what happened. Instead labor slowed down after I got the epidural.  I kept having contractions every 5-8 mins but I couldn't feel them. Jay and I pretty much took a nap for a few hours, which was great because we hadn't slept at all that night.

By 6am I was at 8cm. At 8am I was still at 8cm. Around 8:30 my dr broke my water and gave me a little pitocin to speed things along, Right before 10am she said it was time to go to the OR for delivery. Even with a vaginal delivery, they deliver twins in the OR and have everything prepped for an emergency c-section. This was quite a different experience for me. So we headed down to the OR, along with 2 OBs, 3 anesthetists, and 3 or 4 nurses for me. Then about 8 nurses came in to be ready for the babies. It was quite crowded in there.

At 10:30am, baby James Lamar was born!! He was head down and a quick, normal vaginal delivery. I've been waiting on this baby boy for years and I couldn't believe he was finally here. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. We were a little surprised at his size, thinking he would have been more around 6 1/2 to 7 lbs. He was beautiful and healthy and great!!

 He was definitely born with his serious old man face and has continued to keep amusing us with his facial expressions.

Only 7 mins later, baby Elizabeth Leigh was born!! Her delivery was a little more complicated since she was breach. I'll spare you some of the details, but she was born feet first. She was holding one of her arms above her head and it got relatively stuck. It's not a good feeling when the first thing the Dr says after your baby is born is "We may have broken her arm." and calls for a NICU doctor.

Apparently the trauma of deliver also stunned her and she forgot she was supposed to breathe. It was a scary few mins of them checking her arm and giving her some breathing treatments. Within a few mins (which felt like forever) she started to cry. It took a good 10-15 mins for her color to start to turn pink instead of gray and for them to decide that her arm was only severely bruised. You can see the swelling and bruising on her shoulder in the 2nd pic below.

She weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long! We were really, really surprised at how large she was. Both the babies had measured within ounces of each other throughout the entire pregnancy and how she managed to gain a full pound in those last couple of weeks amazes me. I guess she really took advantage of all of my sitting and resting. But here she was--my beautiful surprise baby girl who I had secretly dreamed of for the past few years.

Finally after about 20-25 mins I was able to see her and hold her while Jay held James. It was quite surreal to actually see our two babies together after months and months of thinking about what this would be like. I definitely cried a little. We were so happy and relieved to have them here and get to know our two newest children. We are already absolutely in love with both of them.

I'll post more soon to let you know how life has been going since we got home and what we're figuring out about having twins!