It has been a little while since I last posted a blog. Well, a lot has happened since then :) I will start with the birth of Brett and Emma. It was long...so prepare yourself if you intend on reading this entry. I will spare a few details but this might be TMI for some, or just uninteresting.
Last Monday morning (1/31) Brian and I went to see my OB and find out why I was still pregnant! It was a good appointment. Babies looked great and we scheduled another induction for Wednesday morning (38 weeks, 6 days) . I would come in Tuesday night to start the cervidil and hopefully things would progress more quickly than last time. I am sure you can imagine Brian and I were excited but at the same time questioning what the outcome would be of all this. We told the doctor that we needed a "backup plan" this time! We were not leaving the hospital without babies. He laughed and promised they would be coming out, one way or another!
I think the babies finally started feeling guilty for making us wait so long because Tuesday morning around 6:30AM my water broke spontaneously! I had been laying in bed for over an hour with back pains and was flipping from side to side. After a few minutes I felt what I thought might be my water breaking so I stood up to go to the bathroom and check. When I stood up I knew my water had definitely broken, it was sort of like in the movies - well, a little less dramatic. I woke Brian up immediately and he was a mix of emotions. He was excited, scared, nervous...it was very cute to see him so frantic. I called my doctor and he said to go to the hospital. YAY -- we were having babies! Brian walked our dogs and gave them food and water while I got dressed and finished grabbing a few things to take to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital Brian was getting annoyed at every car on the road! Even though I was in labor, I had to keep him calm. I guess we never expected this to actually happen this way. We had planned to be at the hospital at 11:30PM that night and had already made one other scheduled trip to labor and delivery. But it seems Brett and Emma were coming on their own time and this was finally it!
By 8:00AM I was checked in to the hospital and laying in a bed in a delivery suite. I was started on pitocin a little while later to get my contractions stronger so I could go into more active labor. My doctor warned me that the pitocin would cause very strong and painful contractions and that I should get my epidural sooner rather than later. I knew for sure I would be getting an epidural so I went ahead and had it ordered. When the epidural came I was so scared and nervous, but it was painless and quick! I promise!! Just a quick pinch in my back and I was numb from the top of my stomach down to my hip area. The nurses told me I shouldn't feel any pain from the contractions but that I would feel pressure when the babies were coming. I would still be able to push through labor but it would not be too painful. I could handle that! Once the epidural was in I had to stay in bed. I watched TV, read, played Words With Friends (thanks Tressa and Brian!), and listened to everyone tell me how boring I was! The time went on and on and every few hours my doctor would pop in to see how my labor was progressing. It was moving very very slow. I had only dilated a couple of centimeters but my contractions were coming very close together and lasting over a minute each. My doctor and nurses told me 4cm was the golden number. Once I was 4cm dilated labor would speed up. Every time I had my cervix checked, I was hoping to hear that number! But instead I kept hearing "2cm" over and over. And then "3 cm." I was being checked every two hours and it was discouraging to have been making no progress between checks. Also, I was starving! I hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before, and I was not allowed to eat or drink the whole day. Brian was being a trooper and hadn't really eaten anything either, even though I packed him snacks and told him to just eat! Finally around 9PM he went to the cafeteria to get some food.
When Brian left the room...the action started! I was hooked up to some monitors that watched the babies' heartbeats and my contractions. There was a yellow box that showed where the babies' heartbeats should be. Out of nowhere Brett's heartbeat dipped out of the box, way down to the bottom of the screen. My older sister, Kathleen, was visiting me and noticed it right away. She started freaking out and panicking but I told her to relax, I was sure everything was fine. And if there was a problem my nurse would come in and check on me. I guess I was way too relaxed because within a minute three nurses ran in. They unhooked my pitocin and told me to roll onto my side. I guess the contractions were getting to be too much for Brett. They were too close together and the babies were not getting a break in between. After just a minute his heartbeat went back to normal. My pitocin dose was lowered and everything seemed to go right back to normal. Phew! I think Kathleen was still pretty freaked out, but I really trusted that the nurses knew what they were doing. A few minutes later, my doctor came in for another cervix check. I crossed my fingers! What was my lucky number going to be?!! A 4? 5? NOPE! He said I was maybe 4 cm, but it was more like 3. Ughh! I thought I was going to be in labor until the next day. It was already 9:30PM and my water broke at 6:30AM...so it had already been 15 hours. Not that I should complain. The epidural had made it a very easy labor. My doctor told me if I had not had the epidural, there was no way I could have made it 8 hours with how many contractions I was having. That was a relief, I guess.
Brian was still out of the room at this time. He had been in the room with me all day and the second he leaves things start to get interesting! Poor guy. I figured my doctor would come back in a few hours to check me again, but I was wrong. He told me I would need to have a c-section! WHAT?! Since my water broke so long ago, there was a risk of infection. My labor wasn't going anywhere even though my contractions were regular. I asked him when the c-section would be (tomorrow morning?) and he said right now! An anesthesiologist would be in to talk to me and within 30 minutes I would be in the operating room. My mom and sister started texting and calling Brian, he was still gone! I couldn't believe it. After all this time, I was going to have a c-section. This is what I avoided doing an entire week ago! So all the waiting was sort of for nothing.
When Brian finally got back into the room it was about time to leave for surgery. I could not believe we were about to finally meet our little babies!!! The next few minutes went by so fast. I was wheeled into the operating room and Brian had to wait outside for a few minutes. My epidural was turned up and I was numb and ready to go! Brian came in and stood next to me and held my hand while we waited for everything to begin. There was a big curtain in front of me and I couldn't see anything, but Brian was able to see everything! And he even got some of it on video. I could watch the video a hundred times, it is so cool. From the time the doctor started cutting to the time the babies were out was probably less than ten minutes. My doctor showed me the babies real quick and they were taken over to a table to be examined. Brian went with them to the other side of the room and I was able to see everything from the table. It was pretty cool. Brian left with the babies to go to the nursery for a little while. I was cleaned up and taken to a recovery room. Within 30 minutes our little family was reunited and we were taken to the mother baby suite, where we stayed for 3 nights.
Brett Owen Boksen was born at 10:32 PM. He was 19 3/4 inches long and 6 lbs, 6 oz.
Emma Zoey Boksen was born at 10:33 PM. She was 19 3/4 inches long and 7 lbs.
Both babies were healthy and able to come right to the room with us after their check-ups and baths. They truly are beautiful and are keeping Brian and I so busy. We love just looking at them and are falling more and more in love with them all the time. We are lucky to be parents and to have such healthy and beautiful babies. They are a week old and the time has gone by so fast!
