Birth

Aaron and I both feel so blessed by how our delivery went.  We know many of you were thinking of us and keeping us in your prayers.  Thank you,  we sure needed those prayers!   Here's a little run down of how things went.  I tried to keep all the really nasty delivery details out, but read at your own risk:

5:35 am: Aaron woke up to a phone call from the hospital.  We were supposed to go in at 8 am to be induced,  but we were told that Dr. Bigsby had a family emergency and have to postpone until a later time..  So they just left it up in the air and said they would let us know when she was available, it could be that afternoon or possibly later.  This was bad news for a pregnant woman to hear! I hadn't been sleeping for about the last 3 weeks,  I was swollen basically from the waist down,  especially in my feet and ankles, and I was just down right cranky! We'll blame the pregnancy.  Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long.  The hospital called at about 11:30 and we were admitted an hour and a half later.  

1:00 pm:   Before heading to the hospital, we stopped for a last meal since I knew I wouldn't be allowed to eat once they induced me.  So we headed to McDonalds and I had a McChicken and a Mango Pineapple smoothie.  Smoothies have been one of my biggest cravings over the past two months!  At the hospital, it was good to see that they had a room all prepared for me, so they took me right in and had me get changed.

 I was still only dilated to a 1.5 but luckily the babies were positioned just right, so  Dr. Bigsby broke Baby A's water immediately.  Apparently the bag of water around her was pretty big, because both the doctor and nurse were surprised by how much water came out.  She said "Can I get a towel?  Actually, make that two."  For some reason this made us all laugh pretty hard, it was fun to see my doctor laugh, she was usually a down to business kind of lady, and it felt so good to have some relief on my tight belly!  Already my tummy felt and looked much smaller.

This photo was just after they broke my water - our last photo as a family of 2!

3:00 pm:  For the next few hours I just rested in bed.  Then at 3 they suggested I get up and walk around a bit which could help everything progress faster.  So Aaron and I took the grand tour of the hospital, wandering around all 5 floors - that's right, we even took the stairs!  By the time we got back to our room, I was starting to feel some pain.

4:00 pm: I felt like almost immediately after I laid back down contractions started increasing in pain.  By 4:30 I was breathing through some tough ones.  The nurse came in to check me and I was dilated to a 4 and she gave the anesthetist a call.  She said he could take up to an hour to come up, but we got lucky and he came within about 10 minutes!  The worst part was sitting on the edge of the bed while he inserted the epidural.  The needle really didn't hurt bad at all, it was just the fact that I was sitting up and leaning forward during contractions.  But the relief was so worth it!

5:25 pm:  Contractions were coming every 3 minutes, but by this time I wasn't feeling a thing!

6:45 pm:  The nurse came back to check me and said I was dilated to a 7 and contracting every 3 minutes.  This made me feel so good!  I was worried that I would be there for hours and hours just waiting to be fully dilated.  So it was good to hear that I was progressing fairly quickly.  My parents also arrived right around this time.  My mom was amazed that I was just laying in bed in good spirits not feeling a thing.  It was so good to have them there!

9:45 pm:  Around this time I started feeling contractions again.  It seemed like each one was getting stronger.  The nurse came in to check me and I was dilated to an 8.  The anesthetist came back to ballast the epidural, and it kicked back in.

This is the monitor that showed when I was having contractions, and the babies' heart rates.

10:50 pm:  Dr. Bigsby arrived and we started doing some "practice pushing," but sometime within the next hour we started pushing for real.  All the times after this get a little fuzzy.  Aaron had been keeping good track of what was going on, but he was right by my side during any pushing, so the rest of the times here are estimations.  

11:45 pm:  After pushing for a while, the doctor let me rest a little.  I told her that i did NOT want the twins born on separate days!  So I was glad once we reached midnight that both would be born on the same day.  

12:15 am:  I started feeling contractions with significant pain again, so the anesthetist came back and gave me another ballast for my epidural.  Around this time we started pushing more aggressively.  My mom and Aaron were both on either side of me, and I'm so grateful they were each there!  I couldn't have done it without their support and encouragement.  

2:00 am:  So at this point it kind of became routine that my epidural would kick back in (but never completely take away the pain like it did at first) and I would push until it wore off and the pain became too severe for me.  We're talking yelling and screaming and crying through contractions.  That kind of pain.  Then the anesthetist would return and give me another ballast and I could make it through another 2 hours of pushing until the epidural wore off again.  The babies were both head down, and we were working on getting Baby A out first, but she was face up, which I was told was a very difficult way to deliver.  Not to mention the fact that Baby B was also very low and was crowding the other one.

4:00 am:  This last round of pushing was rough on me.   Aaron asked if I wanted a blessing, and I couldn't say yes fast enough.  So Aaron and my dad, who had been sleeping on a recliner out in the hallway, gave me a Priesthood blessing.  They blessed me that I would have the strength to make it through this delivery, and that the doctor would be inspired about how to proceed.  It was amazing to feel the Spirit there in the delivery room as they gave me this blessing.  I felt calmed and reassured.  The entire rest of the delivery I kept reminding myself of the words spoken during the blessing.

So at this point, they called the anesthetist back in and he removed my epidural and re-inserted it in a slightly different place in my back.  This 2nd epidural was never as strong as the first but it seemed to work differently.  Up until now I had been feeling lots of pain in my hips and lower back in addition to all the pain I felt when I pushed.  This time I could just feel where I was pushing, which helped me to better know where and how to push.  That might not make sense, but it was a relief not to feel any extra pain in addition to feeling the pain of pushing.

Dr. Bigsby told me she was going to be more aggressive in trying to turn Baby A head so she would be easier to deliver.  I told her okay, even though I knew that meant she was asking permission to hurt me even more.  So I just kept pushing and pushing while the doctor tried rotating the baby's head, which finally worked just enough to be effective.  I think this was my longest round of pushing, and I know it was such a blessing that I didn't tire out and had the strength to continue.  As the baby got very close to being born, the doctor used a suction cup on her head to help.  

6:53 am:  Baby A was FINALLY born!  Maria Lynn Baird. She was 6 lbs 6 ounces and 20 inches long.  I didn't get a glance at her for a while, but it was good to hear her cries and the cries of both of my parents.  She was very alert and had her eyes wide open.  I was resting for a few minutes before trying to deliver the next baby.  Aaron said he turned around once to see what they were doing with her, and she was laying in the warmer with her neck craned around just looking at dad :)

Dr. Bigsby said, "Okay, ready for the next one?"  I said,  "No! I need a break!"  I was imagining that I would have to go through that whole process all over again and that terrified me!  But  after resting for about 5 minutes she convinced me that Baby B was very low and breaking her water would be very easy.  So she broke her water and had me start pushing. 

7:02 am: I only had to push through 1 contraction, and half way through the 2nd contraction she was born. Elaina Aspen Baird.  She was 6 lbs 12 ounces and 20 inches long.  After they took her to get all cleaned up, they brought Maria over for me to hold.  They set her on my chest and my first thought was how big her eyes were!  They were wide open and looking right at me.  But I was too exhausted to actually hold her so the nurses took her back.  

Here the babies are about an hour old!

I loved that Maria snuggled up to her sister when we laid them in the same little compartment.

Everything after this point is kinda blurry in my memory because I was so exhausted.  I remember they were trying to figure out if I was passing out, and were trying to give me oxygen, but I couldn't explain to them that I was just tired.  I was nodding in and out as they were asking me questions, I felt so exhausted!

I have no idea how much time passed, but at some point I remember they brought me both babies to nurse.  Later I remember the nurses putting me in a wheelchair and taking me down to my recovery room where they let me sleep.  I think a few hours passed while they did all the testing on the babies' vitals and what not. 

Then they brought the babies back into our room and this is the first time I actually remember holding them for the first time without nodding off.   

Once we got them back to our room we put headbands on them with pink and purple flowers so we could tell them apart more easily!  

For the first few days, Maria was much more alert and awake than Elaina.  Her eyes were always open looking around the room.  But they both look so much like Aaron!  The first thing I noticed were their eyes - exactly the same shape as their dad's eyes.  But the funniest thing is their hairline!  Aaron has a very distinct hairline since he has a cowlickon the right side.  They both have the exact same hairline.  Too funny.  But I think they have my little sweetheart lips.  So I guess we'll see when they get a bit bigger.  Aaron keeps apologizing for the fact that they look so much like him, but I just love it!

My parents were so fun to have around with these sweet newborns.  My dad was excited to be the first one to hold both of them.  I think even before I did!  My dad stayed for about 3 days, then had to head home.  But I was so glad that my mom got to stay for an additional week.  It turned out that we would really need her help.    We didn't know why but the girls slept less and less each night.   They started getting a yellow tone in their skin, and tests showed that they both developed jaundcie.  So we ended up staying an additional day at the hospital so that they could spend time under the UV lights to help the jaundice go away.  We were released on Saturday afternoon, and it was so good to take our little girls home!

But unfortunately they were still not out of the woods.  They were getting very little sleep, if any, between feedings.  My poor mom and Aaron let me get some sleep, but they basically went without sleep for two days.  We didn't know what was wrong, Aaron thought they had really bad gas.  I didn't know what was normal, so I had no idea what to think.  We went in to the Pediatrician on Monday morning and found out that both girls had significant weight loss.  Maria lost 13% of her birth weight, and Elaina lost 16%.  So our pediatrician suggested that we get admitted back into the hospital and they could help us get them back on track.

So in tears, we headed back to the hospital.  I felt so sorry for our little girls!  Aaron gave the three of us each a blessing as soon as we got to our room at the hospital.  It was so neat to see Aaron step up as a dad and give his daughters blessings.  That was so comforting to me as a new mom.  Aaron said "It's a good think I just bought some more oil, I've used more this week than I did in the past 6 months!"

 We found out that our girls were not getting enough to eat.  I had no idea!  When I fed them they would both eat and eat, but apparently they were burning more calories than they were gaining since my milk still hadn't come it.   I had to have a blood transfusion after labor since I lost so much blood during delivery, and I was told that could have delayed my milk.  One baby probably would have been fine on the limited supply that I had, but it was definitely not enough for twins.

So at the hospital our girls got checked out and we were told to both breast feed and supplement them with formula.  So every feeding, I breast fed, then gave them formula, then pumped to increase my milk supply.  That is quite the long process with twins!  But thankfully we were discharged from the hospital the next day, and after about 3 days of supplementing with formula, they were back on track enough to cut out the extra supplements.  It was amazing how drastic the difference was in our girls once they had their first full tummies.  They slept like babies the whole time at the hospital, and even now after bringing them home they are very good sleepers.  Thank goodness!  

Now the only problem we have is telling our girls apart!    Maria had a bruise on her head from the suction cup, and that's how we told the girls apart for the first few weeks until the bruise went away.  Maria was also slightly thinner while they were in the hospital, but she has been the better eater, so that didn't last long.  We're quickly realizing that they are very hard to tell apart!  Currently, Maria has pink toe nails, and Elaina has purple.  Also, grandma made them bracelets with their names on them while she was here.  Thank goodness, they have been so helpful!  When we lay them down in their cribs, we make sure that Maria is under a pink blanket, and Elaina is under a yellow one so we don't have to check their wrists to know which is which.

Maria Lynn

Elaina Aspen 

 All the photo credits go to Aaron.  He took almost all of these photos, other than a few that my mom took for us.  Good job AJ!