Baby Time: Kennedy and Kinley Part 1

We had a big ultrasound to see their growth on November 21st. Everything looked great and they were each measuring in at the size expected of a singleton. We scheduled our 36 week growth scan and our appointment for 34 weeks. The guy at reception laughed and said we wouldn't make it to the scan, but see you next week! We enjoyed the weekend, finished a few things for their room, asked my friend Serena and my mom if I would know if my water broke (it didn't break with Claire), and went to sleep on Sunday not expecting a big week.

Monday morning my mom and I had planned to go pick up some Christmas presents and go to lunch with a friend. Kennedy had other plans for us. I woke up at 8 am and went down the hall to tell my mom I was up and was going to jump in the shower quick and would be ready soon. When I turned around I felt something pop, literally, and then I started screaming "my water broke I think!". Some people told me it would be like a trickle and not like in the movies. This was the movies. I called the hospital and they asked me if I peed myself. Nope. For sure not. They told me to relax and come on up. I had called Justin at work before the hospital and told him what happened. I'm pretty sure he has never gotten home so fast in his life. Good thing we live 10 minutes from work and 5 from the hospital.

When we got to the hospital there were a couple other women waiting in the waiting room in obvious pain and one walking the hall. I sat on a beach towel as I tried to not freak out that today could be the day. At 33 weeks and 2 days we weren't prepared for this event. They called me back before the poor woman who were sitting there before me and I got hooked up to the machines. Sure enough water had broken, I was at a 1 (I'd leave that out, but it gets important), and they were still breech.

They wheeled me back to a room where various doctors started coming in to brief us on what they wanted to do over the next FEW days! WHAT! I wasn't having contractions I didn't think and I figured it was going to be an emergency to get them out since someone had broken their water and the risk of infection would be high. Apparently not. My nurse was great and got me nice and comfortable in bed while I was told I wouldn't be getting up anymore due to the medicine they would give me. My doctor came in and had me sign some forms that I knew I would have surgery and I knew the issues we could have.  He then told me they were going to start some antibiotics so that we could keep the babies in, they would give me some medicine to stop the little contractions, and we were going to keep them inside until 34 weeks which would be Saturday. I also would get a steroid shot at 9 that morning and then one in 24 hours. After the first one I wasn't sure I'd make it through the second one. (Who the heck willingly shoots themselves up with steroids is beyond me) I wouldn't be leaving labor and delivery for almost a week. I know there are women who are up there for months so I tried not to complain, but my butt started going numb by hour 2 and I wasn't going to make it 5 days on that bed not getting up.

At that point I told Justin he could go back to work and finish whatever he was doing for the day. Since he's on shore duty it's pretty nice and he gets off mid afternoon. Off he went to work and in came the NICU doctor. She came in and started the NICU brief with me- their lungs aren't developed hence the steroids, they would be in the NICU for awhile, she answered my questions if there would be long term issues, and was overall wonderful. She told me we would shoot for Saturday but would like me to wait until next Monday (tomorrow) to have my c-section because the full staff would be here. So, one week. I figured okay get me a more comfortable bed and I'll sit here for a week and try not to go insane. My nurse was on it. It never came.

I sat there all day and it wasn't too bad. Justin came back, my friends Serena and Karissa came by, my mom and Justin ran to Target to get me some magazines, went and got Claire, and brought her back up to see me. I hadn't been allowed to eat just incase something happened during the day and they needed to do the c-section. Everything was good though and at 3:30 they let me eat.

At 6, I got my dose of medicine to stop the contractions and was settled in to be there for a week. My nurse left and a new one came on duty. Justin and I decided to watch The Hangover and just hang out for a bit before trying to sleep. At about 10:30 Justin decided he was going to sleep and maybe I should too. I could not get comfortable! I kept moving and we kept losing the babies on the monitors. I called the nurse in at 11:30 and asked to move on my side. At midnight I needed to take another dose of medicine to stop the contractions which had started to increase. My blood pressure, which is always low, was too low and they couldn't give me the medicine. We tried moving from side to side for about 30 minutes to see if it would go up. No luck.

At 1:00 the doctor was called in to evaluate what should happen. He decided he would see if my contractions had made me make any progress. I'm praying no and yes at the same time. No because I would love for the girls to stay put for the second dose of steroids and yes because I was so uncomfortable. These contractions felt like they did with Claire and I knew I had made some sort of progress. Justin asked the doctor at what point would I need to be at for something to happen. He said more progress than this morning. Well well well....I was at a 4 and that was for sure more than this morning. He looked at me and said "we will have babies within the hour".  Dr. Squires must have seen my panic because he asked if I was okay and if I had any questions. I just looked at him and said please don't kill me. Cue the anesthesiologist who had obviously just been woken up from his nap. I thought he was drunk, but my nurse assured me he'd been asleep and he was just a weirdo who got paid too much and had too much on the line to be drunk :) He did turn out to be amazing at his job and talked to me through the whole procedure he did before the surgery and after the girls and Justin were gone from the OR. He was from Houston I found out so I knew he would be okay!

Within minutes my nurse was out of the room and back in dressed for the OR, Justin was in scrubs, and I was in a wheelchair making my way into a freezing cold OR without Justin to get ready to meet our two newest babies.

I think I'd been in denial for 33 weeks that we were having twins until I rounded the corner to see two little isolates and two warming beds waiting for Kennedy and Kinley to make their debut.

Stayed tuned for Part 2!