The Twins Birthing Story

Chase and Emma's Birth Details

Mark and I found out we were having boy/girl twins early in the year. We were shocked but very excited. We were due October 7th, 2011, however full term for twins is only 38 weeks, making our new due date Sept 23rd - our 5 year wedding anniversary.

We made it full term - everything went very well medically throughout the entire pregnancy. I, of course, had "twice" the pregnancy symptoms though. I had my last Dr. appt on Tuesday, Sept 20th. I was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced, so my Drs didn't think I would make it to the 23rd, but, just in case we scheduled an induction for the morning of the 23rd. Needless to say, I made it to the 23rd.

Mark and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30; however, there were a few scheduled c-sections that morning, so, Dr Hoegh waited until 9:45 to break my water. He wanted to wait until noon to see if I progressed on my own; if not, we would start pitocin. We walked the halls and checked heart rates every 30 minutes. No contractions and still at 5cm. We started pitocin at noon. We started at a very small dose (2), upping the dosage by 2 every 30 mintues. Dr Hoegh checked at 1:30--no progress.

At 3PM, I started having some contractions, and I started to feel some discomfort, so we did an epidural at 3:30PM. From 3:30 to 5PM, I rested and had contractions and progressed to 8cm.

At 6:30, I was still at an 8 and we had a small conference about how to proceed. I wasn't progressing. Pitocin was maxed out at 20. I had been on pitocin since noon. Baby A's head station was still at -2 (the same as it was on Tuesday), so. Dr Hoegh thought it would be wise to discuss how long we would wait before calling it quits and doing a c-section. He thought my uterus was so stretched out from carrying the twins that it was having a hard time contracting. We decided to wait another hour and see where I was. It was very emotionally trying to decide how much longer to wait - what if I was right around the corner, or what if I was still hours away. In the next hour, I went from an eight to a nine to a 10! What a relief and also a burst of excitement!! I started pushing around 7:30, pushed 3 times in our room and then they wheeled me to the OR. The OR was packed full of Drs, NICU staff, nurses - we estimate around 20 prople were there. Once in the OR, I pushed 2 more times and Chase was born at 7:58pm.

** All twin births are done in the OR just in case something happens.

Chase came out screaming --great lungs!! He got an Apgar score of 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. He was 6 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long. He was checked out and Mark got to hold him right away. He brought him over to me where I could see him - he was adorable!

On to Baby B - I pushed and pushed, but she was so far up in my uterus and she wasn't descending. I kept pushing. And pushing. And pushing. They tried using a vaccum with little success. Her heart rate was dropping. So, it was decided to do a c-section. Emma was born at 8:48PM. She weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce, 19 3/4 inches long. Her Apgar score was an 8 and 9. She was also very cute!!

Mark got to hold both babies in the OR. They both checked out great. I was extremely tired. The Drs worked on me till around 10PM and then wheeled me back to our room to recover, along with the twins.

In the end, we have 2 wonderful, beautiful, adorable babies. We could not be more thrilled! Cole was so excited to meet them and to hold them. He has been so gentle and he is a wonderful big brother!