The Birth

The birth process went so much better than I had imagined/feared, praise the Lord! We woke up yesterday, loaded our bags in the car, dropped off our cats at a friends' house and arrived at the hospital 2 hours before the scheduled c-section. They hooked me up the a monitor and had us wait in a room until the surgery. I met the nurses and anesthesiologist then and once my doctor arrived, they took me down the hall to the operating room. This was when I began to get really freaked out, but everybody was so nice and encouraging that they really helped to put my heart and mind at ease.

The epidural was by far the worst part (why oh why did I ever watch Discovery Health shows of actual epidurals being inserted??) But a nurse helped me to breathe and calm down and let me lean on her when it was inserted. It stung a little and then gave me a burning sensation all down my legs. But it was all over in about 3 minutes and then I began to go numb. They let Brandon in the room after the epidural was inserted and he sat with me and held my hand throughout the entire operation. They put up a sheet so that neither of us could see anything. I could feel some pressure (but no pain) so I thought for sure that I'd know when they were cutting and taking the babies out. But I couldn't tell at all, I was shocked when a minute later they announced "Baby A is out!" A nurse took him and paused in front of me so I could get a quick glimpse before taking him to a warmer on the opposite side of the room. I let Brandon leave my side at this point so he could see our babies and take some pictures. Then Baby B came out 3 minutes later.

They were only a few feet away from me but they were above my head so I couldn't really see anything. Brandon took some pictures and showed them to me as the doctor began to stitch me up. Once the babies were relatively clean, they swaddled them and Brandon brought them over to me. They let the babies stay with me for about 10 minutes before they had to bring them to the nursery. I'm not sure of their exact scores, but I do know that both babies received excellent APGAR scores, thus the reason why they let me spend 10 minutes with me before whisking them off to the nursery. Brandon went to the nursery with them and I spent another 20-30 minutes being stitched up. He met me at the exit of the operating room and showed me all the pictures he'd taken of the boys. I was a little disappointed at how little time I got to spend with my babies immediately after the birth. I know there's no way around it since I was in surgery and then had to be monitored closely afterwards, but it was still a little sad because I was so anxious to see them and spend time with them.

I had to spend nearly 2 hours in a recovery room being monitored by a nurse. They put these super awkward leg-squeezing devices on my legs, an IV, and hooked me up to a portable epidural dispenser. Brandon kept going back and forth between my room and the nursery. He took pictures of the babies and brought them back to me every 30 minutes or so. I was so glad for at least that little glimpse of my sons!

At nearly the exact time that I was able to leave the recovery room to settle into the room we're currently in, Brandon brought Jackson back from the nursery. He was all bathed and warm and had been thoroughly checked out by the nurses and received a clean bill of health. There was apparently another baby in the nursery who needed some attention so Cullen's release was delayed for another 3 hours or so. I was really bummed out about that since I had only seen him for about 10 minutes at this point. But I was extremely grateful to have at least one of my sons with me. I was able to hold and cuddle with Jackson for a few hours, it was love at first sight!

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally released Cullen. He had a slightly low level of blood sugar so they had had to feed him some formula in the nursery. Then they bathed him and put him under a warmer until he reached a safe temperature. By about 6 pm, we were finally all together as a family!!

The nurses came in every hour or two to check either me or one of the babies. We didn't really get any sleep and I was numb from the waist down the entire time, but it was so special to have time to get to know our sons. It was such a wonderful first night!

I also made my first attempts at breastfeeding the boys which went just ok. Both are slightly smaller than the average singleton baby and aren't that strong of suckers so we have had some difficulties. A lactation consultant came by this afternoon and helped us a little. She brought me a hospital-grade pump to use to help stimulate milk production. She also showed us how to wake up the boys by switching breasts often and un-swaddling them before feedings. Otherwise, they either don't latch on at all or simply fall asleep after 1 or 2 sucks. So far we haven't had to feed them any formula (aside from what Cullen received in the nursery) but we probably will later tonight. They just aren't able to get enough milk and I haven't produced that much so far. I will spend the next few days doing everything I can to build my milk supply and get the boys to learn how to breastfeed. It's much harder than I thought it would be but Brandon is as helpful as can be and encourages me to keep trying when I get discouraged.

Anyways, that's the birth story and a rundown of our first afternoon and night together as a new family. The boys are healthy and sleep alot and LOVE to be cuddled. Cullen often fusses until he's picked up and cuddled. Last night, I slept with him in my arms for a few hours and let me tell you, there's no better feeling in the world :-)

Me in the monitoring room anxiously awaiting the birth of our babies

This is immediately after Cullen was out and he was placed in the warmer next to Jack. Funny story: Cullen peed on Jack as soon as they were face-to-face out of the womb. You can see it if you click on the picture to enlarge it ;-)

This is Jack right after he was weighed

and Cullen right after he was weighed

This is the first moment that I met them both, what a wonderful moment!

Here they are on their way to the nursery

This is Jack receiving his first bath

Brandon's holding Jack and Cullen is in the bed

Here's a picture to show how small the boys are, their heads are about the size of my palm. However, when I think that they were this size inside of me, they seem like gigantic monsters!