The Birth Story

Harper and Allie have been home for one week now. It has been one of the most blessed, tiring, and rewarding weeks of my life.  I feel so blessed when I think about how smoothly the delivery went.  So many of the nurses could not believe that I had the girls without a C-section and even my doctor seemed amazed that Baby B's (Harper's) head fell right into place after Allie arrived.

A little bit about the birthing experience, my apologies if this is too much information, but I want to be able to remember the events myself:
Pitocin (the labor-inducing drug) really didn't start until 9 am because after 3 different nurses tried to insert my IV, they called in the "IV team" who was one lady -- who finally succeeded.  I've got the bruises to show for this. Dr. Knoer tried to break my water and the second time he tried, around noon, I think, he was successful- what a gush!   I wanted to feel some of the contractions, so ended up waiting until around 2pm to get the epidural. And man did I feel them!  I've thought that it would be cool to have a natural birth, you know, experience what women since creation have experienced, but an hour of painful contractions cured me of that notion!  After the epidural, I took a nice little nap until Dr. Knoer checked me again at 4:00 to learn that I was fully dilated and ready to have these babies.  The nurses took down my epidural a bit so that I could feel the contractions enough to push and I was wheeled into the OR around 4:30.  There were at least 10 people in that very bright room: 2 nurses for each baby, 2 nurses for me, 2 anesthesiologists in case a C-section had to be performed, Dr. Knoer, and of course, Michael.  I felt quite exposed in the stirrups but from the beginning of my hospital stay I had begun to get over any sense of modesty.  I was shaking pretty badly, which everyone said was normal, but besides that, I was just excited and ready to push. 

After what seemed like only a few minutes to me, but was closer to an hour, little Allie was here!  I really only got to see her right when she came out and when the nurse briefly brought her over for us to look at.  10 minutes later, and maybe only 3 more contractions of pushing, Harper arrived, too!  Dr. Knoer said, "Here, hold this!" and Harper girl was squealing and squirming on my belly.  The whole thing was awesome.  Then Harper was whisked away and the most disappointing thing of the birth was that I didn't get to see or hold either of them for maybe an hour.  Michael was amazing; completely there to comfort me and giving me every report he could on the girls while they dealt with the afterbirth and stitches for me.  Honestly, delivering the placenta and Dr. Knoer kneading my stomach afterward was far more painful than the birth. 

Michael and I were flooded with emotions watching the nurses wash our babies and run all the tests in the transitional nursery. We felt so blessed!  Our families did some detective work at the nurses station and found out they had been born and busted in the room saying it was unfair to keep them waiting.  But I hadn't even held my babies, so they had to.

You can't describe how it feels to hold your baby for the first time.  It took some time for it to sink in that they were mine and my life was forever changed.  The family gathered in our recovery room, we announced the names, drank champagne, and then they briefly got to hold them before our families were shooed out for the first attempt at breastfeeding.  I had one nurse on each side trying to get the babies to latch.  I'm sure it was a sight.

Breastfeeding has certainly been the hardest part of being a mom.  Allie sometimes cries and roots around for 45 minutes before latching on.  We joke that she is our foodie because the dining atmosphere has to be just right and then she slowly takes in each taste.  It makes for long nights.  Eventually I will feed these girls in tandem, but so far I've only been successful 3 or 4 times.  I've given up trying for now.  Harper is my little piggy and usually latches right on, though sometimes she picks up some tricks from her older sister and takes forever!  Pray they would get this eating thing down.

I'll post more about the first week soon.  Just wanted summarize the birth and let everyone know that we are thriving.  I absolutely love my new job as a momma!

Posted by Kakhi (can't figure out why it says posted by mbwakefield)