Well the big day has come and gone and now we have two adorable boys at home. They were delivered by planned c-section on May 25th. I ended up being put on bedrest the month before the twins were born. Here is the story of how it all came about.
I was still focusing on teaching and we had just finished up the big state testing. I was planning on teaching for one more week and then using my sick leave to relax at home until the babies came. The week before I had gone to have a regular ultrasound and the doctor told me that I had begun to dialate. I was dialated two centimeters so I was given directions to take it easy. That day I had woken up feeling fine and teaching was going well. After teaching a couple of hours, I started feeling a little bit sick to my stomach. As the day wore on the naseua increased and I mentioned how I felt to a coworker. That coworker then told my co-teacher who approached me and told me that if I was feeling sick I should just go home and relax. After she talked to me I thought that she was right so I called in a sub for the rest of the day. I called Darin to come and get me and as he came, my back started to really hurt as well.
Some of the students saw me leaving and told me that they hoped I would be feeling better and I assured them that I would see them the next day. When I got home I immeadiately went and laid down on the couch thinking that I would be feeling better soon. I did not begin feeling better, in fact I started feeling worse! Darin thought it best to go to the hospital to get checked out and get some medication. I agreed and we rushed over and had to wait a while in the wating room. While in the waiting room I felt so nautious that I went into the bathroom and threw up. I will never forget how horrible and uncomfortable I felt. I was sure that I had contracted the flu from a kid at school. After throwing up, I went back into the waiting room and they finally called me back to a room in the maternity triage unit. They hooked me up to monitors and the nurse asked me, "How long have you been in labor for?" What?! I didn't know that I was in labor I only though I had a nasty case of the flu. They immediately put an IV in my arm and started pumping in medication to stop labor since I was only 31 6/7 weeks along.
After being the recipient of many medications including the dreaded Magnesium Sulfate, I finally got feeling somewhat better. After they got the contractions stopped I was told that I needed to be on bedrest until they were born. They gave me steroid shots to help the babies lungs develop faster in case they were born early, but they were able to stop the labor for the time being. I had to stay in the hospital for several days and then they sent me home on a medication called Tributelene. That medication was very nasty. My body was shaking, my athsma was flaring up, and I was feeling like my heart was going to pump out of my chest. All of those sympoms and stresses caused me to start contracting again. After being home for not even 24 hours I couldn't take anymore of that medication. Darin and I returned to the hospital and I was checked in again. Back to Magnesium Sulfate to stop the contractions a second time. They ran some tests to see why my body was reacting so strongly to the medication. They decided to put me on another medication and a few days later sent me home again.
While I was in the hospital the second time, I had the best nurse. Her name was Jean and she worked with me and taught me how to help my body relax so that it would be better able to support and take care of the twins. She was amazing and looking back, she is one of the reasons that I carried the twins as long as I did. She taught me how to use gravity to my advantage to alleviate stress and pressure on my cervix. She advised me to take baths a couple of times a day (which really were wonderful when I was huge). I also learned how to use pillows to get comfortable and relax.
After I went home, Darin and I got into a routine. Darin wasn't working at the time and we were still being supported from the school district. He was absolutley amazing. He fulfilled every craving that I had and cooked and set up baby items and entertained me. It was truly an amazing time to be together for the last time as a married couple without children. Every day was long and I was worried the I wouldn't be able to make it to 37 weeks, which was my goal, but with a lot of prayer and faith we were able to make it through.
Darin had scheduled an interview for a government position on May 26th. He had scheduled the interview back in April so it seemed that the babies would have been born before that date. As we approached the date, we knew that we needed to make sure that they didn't arrive when he was gone. I was ready to meet my babies and I didn't want to wait until after he was home from DC. After speaking to the doctor we decided to have the babies the day before he flew out. That way we could be together that day then he would fly out and come back while the babies and I were in the hospital.
The babies were born when they were 37 1/2 weeks along. There were days when I never thought that we would make it and we did! They were born absolutley prerfect. Cameron weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and Dallin weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz. . I decided to exclusively breastfeed them (which I didn't know what the heck I was getting myself into at the beginning but it all turned out okay). They were little champs and I was known throughout the maternity ward as a great breastfeeding mom of twins. Darin's interview went well and he got the job.
The first week having them home was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. Hormones, crying, oozing body, painful incision, painful other body parts, and that was just the beginning. The babies somehow were peaceful and calm all throughout the day and then cried and screamed at night until about 4:00 am. We went through a million diapers and were peed on almost five times a day. Closet malfunctions, boiling hot desert temperatures, and stress all contributed to that dreadful week. I am glad that we are all past that.
Fast forward 1 1/2 months... Cameron and Dallin are so much fun. We have enjoyed having them be a part of our family. They have already grown so much from the time that they were born. We went to the doctor on Monday. Cameron weighed 12lbs and Dallin weighed 10lbs 6oz. That is a long way from their birth weights of 6lbs 12oz and 5lbs 9oz. They are starting to sleep better at night thank goodness! I cannot believe how far we have come from the last time we blogged. We are truly blessed!
Does every parent think they have the cutest kids in the world? I keep asking myself that question. Even though I am pretty sure that is the case, I can't help but thinking that I really do have the cutest kids in the world. It seems like they are doing something new and cute every day. For instance, Darin was folding some of the babies clothes after doing the laundry the other day. He left just for a minute to go and get Cameron from the other room and he came back to find Dallin had pulled all of the clothes down from their neatly folded piles and was playing with them.
