Lynlee & Cambell's Birth Story

August 16, 2012

August 16th started like a "typical" twin pregnancy Thursday :)  Every Thursday for the last 2 months of my pregnancy was filled with doctor's appointments... non-stress tests, ultrasounds, doctor's appointment.  There were times I would be at the hospital for 6 or more hours on these Thursdays trying to make sure the twins were living up the good life in my belly :)  By this point in time, I was miserable and having what I thought was every negative pregnancy symptom in the book.  Extremely swollen ankles, seeing spots, headaches, gestational hypertension, pain, pain and more pain.  Oh yeah, exhaustion, exhaustion and more exhaustion.  Just moving from one appointment to another on these days proved to be difficult for me.

First up on this particular day was my non-stress test.  The twins typically shocked the nurses by cooperating and giving them a viable reading fairly quickly.  Non-stress tests are typically hard with twins but my two babies always cooperated (I was already proud of their good behavior and they weren't even born yet!).  This day the twins decided to trick us all.  The nurses could not find two heartbeats simultaneously.  I kept hearing nurses repeat "We only have one baby on here."  I was in complete panic mode which I'm sure was just terrific on my already high blood pressure (which was reading 150/90 - 160/100 at this point in time).  It typically took me 40 minutes to get a strip for both babies... this day took 2 1/2 hours and nurses still weren't positive they were reading two babies and they were highly concerned about my blood pressure.  They discharged me from the hospital only on the grounds that my next stop was ultrasound and my doctor's office.

Ultrasound... I finally could breath a sigh of relief since I could visibly see that both babies were doing just fine.  Baby A was still breech and squished in the lower right side of my abdomen while Baby B was head down and sprawled out with his feet in his sister's face :)  At every ultrasound they would give me growth numbers... estimates of how much each baby weighed.  At previous appointments we had been concerned because Baby A's weight percentage had been dropping.  She dropped from the 68% to the 33% at the last appointment.  My doctor told me that she wouldn't get concerned until baby approached the 10%.  On this day the reading came back that Baby A had dropped to the 12% :(  Baby B was in the 90%s.

I went into my doctor's appointment worried about my baby girl (A).  I knew from all the research I had done about twin pregnancies that she was showing signs of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) due to her loss of size.  Add that to the fact that my blood pressure was sky high and I could barely walk and I was all ready to give the Nobel Prize winning presentation to my doctor about why the babies needed to come today.  I honestly didn't think I'd have to beg... but my doctor saw it otherwise.  She seemed to think that my scheduled c-section 4 days away was a better plan... along with sleeping pills to get me through the weekend.  I was adamant that I was not comfortable with her plan and that I was worried about Baby A.  She wouldn't budge.  To say I was irate would be an understatement.

I left her office in tears.  Hobbled to my van and started the airconditiong and just sat there and cried.  As I was sitting there I see someone sprint behind my van... low and behold Josh had gotten my frantic text messages and was running into my OB's office to come find me.  We got in the van and talked about what to do.  Josh insisted that we walk back into the hospital (where I had been earlier that day for my non-stress test with all the concerned nurses) and get a second opinion.  I am not one to make waves and go against doctor's orders, but I had to follow my mother's instinct on this one.  This proved to be the best decision ever.  Thankfully our new neighbor Dana was the charge nurse in Labor and Delivery that day... she had the doctor on call (Dr. Hess) look at my stuff and she agreed that Baby A needed to be monitored and that I needed 24 hours of observation and tests for my high blood pressure (to make sure this wasn't pre-elampsia).  Dr. Hess disagreed with my doctor's assessment of the situation 30 minutes prior and thought the situation was more emergent than my doctor was leading me to believe.  We got checked in and started the 24 hour monitoring and testing.  I really just thought they would do the c-section based on high blood pressure and Baby A's situation... low and behold within two hours of being in the hospital I was starting to have regular contractions.  Within another two hours we knew they weren't stopping :)  I'm pretty convinced all that stress put me straight into labor. 

The on-call doctor was busy delivering other babies and ended up with an emergency c-section ahead of us (who we found out later was actually Maya's preschool teacher who went into labor after teaching her 1st day of school!).  I was just sitting there laboring along and not dialating much (due to fact that Baby A was breech...apparently this is common).  The nurses kept trying to round up the doctor but there's not much you can do when both OBs at the hospital get pulled into the emergency c-section.  Finally Dr. Hess came in to see me around 10:00.  I was not having  a lot of fun laboring knowing that it was all just going to end up with a c-section.  Luckily the doctor didn't even hesitate... "Are you ready to have these babies tonight?  Alright, let's meet these twins!"  And so the whirlwind of c-section prep started and by 10:30 I was being wheeled down the hall to the operating room. 

To say I wasn't terrified would be a complete lie.  While the anesthesiologist was placing my spinal I was resting my upper body on my nurse Amanda (who was fantastic by the way!) and out loud kept repeating a prayer that our pastor says quite frequently "I can't do this Lord, but you can, and I trust you.  I can't do this Lord, but you can, and I trust you."  I was shaking like a leaf and my teeth were chattering, which is a normal response for me either when I'm really nervous and/or when I'm in labor.  The combination of the two had me almost jumping off the OR table by this point in time.  They put the sheet up and continued to prep around me.  Thankfully the anesthesiologist was fantastic (I lucked out and got the head guy!) and he made conversation about my girls to keep my mind off what was going on.  Soon they lead Josh into the room.  I've NEVER in my life seen him more nervous.  He was white as a sheet and looked like he was about to pass out.  I figured he would be okay because he was fantastic thru the births of our other three... I guess making a guy walk past his own wife strapped down to an operating table with all the tools sitting there ready to cut her open was enough to send him over the edge.  He came in, kissed my forehead and held my hand (that was strapped to the table).  He couldn't barely talk so he just sat there with me.

Very, very quickly (like surprisingly quick) I feel some pulling in my abdomen (not pain, just pulling) and then I hear "It's a girl!  Wow she's big for a twin!"  I started crying immediately as I heard her sweet little cries.  I was shocked to hear that she's big since she was looking so little on the ultrasound.  One minute later Baby B was pulled out.  They had to do some maneuvering to get him out and were even more shocked by his large size :)  I made Josh run over to make sure they were okay.  Both babies were fantastic.  They acted just like full-term newborns and needed no extra assistance of any kind.

Lynlee Kate was born at 11:03 pm and weighed 5 lbs 15 oz.  Cambell Reed was born at 11:04 pm and weighed 8 lbs 4 oz.  Mommy and Daddy were immediately in love... times two :)

And just as a side note, all mothers should ALWAYS go with their gut.  Sometimes the professionals are not right and do not know what they are talking about.  The head OB (who wasn't my doctor and wasn't even on call that weekend...he heard about our situation from the head nurse) came in to tell us that Lynlee did in fact have Intrauterine Growth Retardation, which basically means she wasn't getting enough food and wasn't growing properly in utero any more.  Josh and I could tell this was his attempt to smooth things over so we wouldn't be mad at the hospital given my doctor's negligence.  Quite honestly we were just relieved our babies were here and healthy.  I was shocked though that my doctor never stopped by or even called post-birth to apologize or just check on us.  The head doctor told me that I didn't have to go back to my doctor for my post-birth check-up (which is protocol) and that Dr. Hess could be my new doctor.  I happily obliged.


Right before they wheeled me back to meet our twins!

There they are!!!  It was a busy, busy OR!  I will never forget laying behind that curtain and hearing the doctor exclaim "She's so big!" when she pulled all 5 lbs 15 oz of Lynlee out.  Then the absolute shock that echoed through the room when Tank (ie. Cambell) came out next at 8 lbs 4 oz!

Lynlee Kate - 5 lbs 15 oz

Cambell Reed - 8 lbs 4 oz

Twins in the recovery room getting checked over

I love this shot because it sums up my memories of the first few hours... Lynlee's eyes were wide open and she was silently taking in the world around her.  Cambell wouldn't open his eyes even a smidge.

Lynlee

Cambell

My first time holding my twins in my arms.  Hard to believe I'd just had major abdominal surgery about 45 minutes prior to this... oh what adrenaline will do for you!

Checking Cambell over.  Love at first sight!

Our little Lynnie!

Proud parents (look at Lynlee's wide eyes!)

Our baby boy Cambell

Twins!!!  Most commonly heard phrase the first few weeks "Oh my gosh there is really two of them!"

Lynlee's 1st bath

All clean!  And looking pretty with a bow in her hair!

Cambell's 1st bath

All clean and looking like the brute that he is :)

Brother/sister love.  I adore this picture.  It kind of looks like they are conspiring or something :)  Lynlee is finally getting a good look at the guy that was sitting on her head for 9 months!

Mommy loving on Lynlee

Lynlee Kate

Cambell Reed

Josh and Makenna checking out Lynlee

Maryn and Cambell - Maryn was so excited to meet the babies.  One of my strongest memories in the hospital is her bounding into our room overwhelmed with excitement to meet the twins.

Maya with Cambell

Makenna with Cambell

Cambell

Maya with Lynlee  -  so proud to finally be a big sister!

Oh Lynnie!  Now you're showing your true colors!

Our family of seven!!!  Never, ever did I think this would be my life.  I'm so glad God is in control because He obviously had a much better plan for my life than I ever could have dreamed of.  I am so blessed!

 

Cambell snoozing at the hospital

Daddy with his first baby boy.  Josh was a trooper at the hospital... he changed every single diaper and did most of the walking of fussy babies since I was laid up in bed.

Sweet Lynlee sleeping in Daddy's arms

Cambell