On Saturday 7/6/2019 my husband, Adam, and I were babysitting a few kids. We had planned this months in advance and didn’t see that it would be a problem since I would be 27 weeks pregnant.
The plan was to babysit them till Tuesday while their parents were traveling. We had a really fun day with the kids, then when we were eating dinner I started to feel a little nauseous and tired. I went to lay in bed for a little bit and started to notice that I was having contractions.
For those who’d rather watch me tell my birth story…
I made note of when each contraction was and around 9pm I noticed they were consistently 10 minutes apart. I called my OBGYN and talked to the nurse on call. She said that since I’m having twins and it’s a high risk pregnancy that I needed to go to labor and delivery and get checked out.
We couldn’t leave the kids alone, so Adam called his mom and asked her to take me. We got to the hospital around 10pm. They started off with a non-stress test (NST) to track the babies’ movements and my contractions.
It took all night for them to find Baby A (our girl) because she was much lower than expected. They did plenty of ultrasounds and found both heartbeats, they just couldn’t get the test to track her movements.
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At 1am they wanted to check my cervix and my doctor said that it was completely shut. They gave me 2 shots. The first was Terbutaline to stop or slow contractions. The second shot I got was Betamethasone to help the babies’ lungs develop in case they were to come early.
They kept the NST on me for about an hour after the Terbutaline shot to keep watching my contractions. They slowed down a lot and got less intense. I was discharged at 2am and told to come back the next night at 11pm to get a second Betamethasone shot.
I got back to the house of the kids we babysit at 2:15am, told my husband all about what happened, got ready for bed, and tried to go to sleep at 3am. I got 30 minutes of sleep, then woke up and the contractions were starting to come back. I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep and walking around to try to ease the pain.
Adam woke up at 6am and I told him that I was in pain and couldn’t sleep. I took a bath at 7am which gave me some relief. The relief only lasted while I was in the bath and for about 15 minutes after. I was able to fall asleep from 9-10am, then woke up in even more pain. I took another bath and this one didn’t help much at all.
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My contractions started getting closer together and I was even in pain when I wasn’t having them. I told Adam that it was the most pain I’ve ever been in in my life and that I couldn’t imagine how painful labor was going to be. I decided that I needed to go back to labor and delivery. Adam asked his sister to take me so that he could stay with the kids we were babysitting.
Adam’s sister, Amanda, and I went to labor and delivery and got checked in at about 12:40pm. They started an NST and the contractions were going crazy on it. At 12:50pm the nurse checked my cervix and said she was going to get another nurse. That nurse also checked my cervix. They looked at each other and said “are you feeling what I’m feeling?”
They then told me that I was dilated to a 9.5! I couldn’t believe it! Amanda immediately called Adam and told him to get to the hospital ASAP. I texted my family and told them that I was about to give birth. They live in California and obviously couldn’t get there in time, but I wanted them to know what was going on. Amanda also texted Adam’s parents to let them know.
Tons of nurses started flooding my room prepping me to give birth. They put my IV in, the doctor did a quick ultrasound to assess the positions of the babies, and the anesthesiologist asked me a ton of questions.
The doctor said that both babies were head down, but he wanted to do a C-section. Since the babies were so small, he was worried that baby A would be born and that baby B would turn around since he was so small and would have a lot of room after baby A came out.
They rushed me to the OR and prepped me for surgery. They gave me 3 shots in my back. I know I got a spinal block and a shot to help with pain for 24 hours, but I can’t remember what all of the shots were.
They warned me that these shots would really hurt, but I barely felt anything. I might have been distracted though because I was throwing up and in the middle of a big contraction. My lower body went numb super fast from the shots.
There were close to 20 people in the OR for the birth. There were 2 doctors, 2 NICU teams that each had 6 people, the anesthesiologist, and 3 nurses. There was also the head of another NICU who was video conferencing in to help the NICU teams.
This was because the hospital that I delivered at has a level 2 nursery. Level 2 nurseries are equipped to take babies at 32 weeks gestation, but not before that.
Since I was 27 weeks and 3 days pregnant, the babies had to go to another NICU. They had me choose where to send the babies and immediately had 2 helicopters on the way.
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Amanda came into the OR to be with me for the birth. Sadly, Adam did not make it in time since he didn’t have much warning and the hospital wasn’t super close. He got there about 5 minutes after 🙁
The C-section went really well. I was able to stay calm. I think I was just in shock and it hadn’t hit me yet what was going on.
Violet (baby A) was born at 1:21pm and Milo (baby B) was born at 1:22pm on July 7th, 2019. When they were born, Violet cried after about 5 seconds and Milo cried immediately. This was a really good sign!
We found out later that Violet weighed 2 lbs 5 oz and Milo weighed 2 lbs 11 oz. Violet was 14 inches long and Milo was 14.9 inches long. They were both big for how early they came and we feel very lucky for that.
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I know this is not my angle, but it’s my first picture with my baby boy, so I love it!
The NICU teams immediately started working on them and setting up everything they needed. I didn’t get to see Violet in the OR at all, but they let me see Milo on his way out. It was crazy to see how small he was! I loved being able to see him, but was worried I wouldn’t see Violet.
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Violet gripping my finger. This was our first picture with her.
The babies went to the nursery and the NICU teams from the other hospital came to set them up. I got to meet Violet when she was ready to go on her helicopter. The NICU team brought her into my hospital room for me to see her.
I put my finger in her hand and she gripped onto it. Adam then did the same and she gripped his finger as well. It was one of the best moments of our lives.
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Violet gripping Adam’s finger
Adam went to send her off on her helicopter and I got wheeled to another room. Milo’s NICU team brought him into my room when he was ready to go on his helicopter.
This room was much smaller though and they couldn’t get Milo’s incubator close enough to me for me to touch him. It was so nice to see him before he left though.
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Milo all ready for his helicopter ride
It was really hard having our twins go to another hospital from where I delivered. Since I had a C-section I had to stay in the hospital and recover for a few days.
The only side effect that I had to the spinal block was that my face was really itchy, especially around my nose. They gave me some medication for this that really helped.
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I had the C-section on Sunday and stayed till Wednesday morning. It was really hard because I couldn’t go see my babies and recovering from a C-section is no joke. It was hard on Adam driving back and forth between the 2 hospitals, but we knew it was important for him to do so.
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Little Milo with Adam’s hand. I can’t get enough of Milo’s little fingers over Adam’s thumb!
Thankfully, the parents of the kids we babysit were super understanding of us not being able to stay with their kids till Tuesday. We’ve known them for many years and they were very excited for us and told us not to worry.
Adam and I would Facetime when he went to visit the babies and it really got me through those first couple of days where I couldn’t be with them. I left the hospital as soon as I could on Wednesday morning and went straight to see the twins!
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Violet in the NICU
They are both such sweet little babies. I really can’t believe how little they are. They are doing so good in the NICU though. Violet and Milo are both progressing really well.
We appreciate the NICU nurses so much and are so grateful that they are able to take care of our babies. We can’t wait to bring them home in a few months!
Margo
Wow! What a story!!!
Do you know why they were pre term? 27 is super early even for twins!
Elizabeth Morgan
Thank you Margo! We asked our doctor and they still don't know why women go into pre-term labor.