Say What?!!

"You had better get to the hospital! You are dilated to a 6 with a bulging bag!" my doctor said with big eyes. Words that every woman at the end of her pregnancy would love to hear! Well, in my case, it really happened when I was 37 and 1/2 weeks pregnant with the twins. I was a bit in shock, because we weren't really prepared to hear that. I had almost told Dan to just meet me at the doctor's office on his way home from work, as the appointment was at 4:30. We had Catherine with us and had planned to get something to eat afterwards. Luckily Dan had put my bag in the car just in case.


Then the doctor said, "I'll meet you at the hospital and we'll break your water and have some babies." So Dan took me over to the hospital and we walked up to the labor and delivery desk and I said, "Yeah, um, my doctor sent me over here because I'm dilated to a 6 and oh, yeah, I'm pregnant with twins." You should have seen the looks I got with that statement! I don't think they really believed me. While I got checked in, Dan raced back to our neighbor's house 20 min. away, left Catherine there, and raced back. When the doctor came in, I was dilated to an 8 and it was all so surreal. I had been having contractions every 10-15 minutes for the past few days, but nothing that wasn't tolerable, so I didn't think I was in labor. Go figure. A woman who used to deliver babies doesn't even know when she is in labor.

Then, the hospital bureaucracy kicked in and they said I had to go deliver in the operating room, even though we were planning a vaginal delivery, you know, just in case. So by the time they moved me there and everything got set, I was dilated to a 9, and remarkably, still fairly comfortable. The nurse next to me was just shocked that I didn't have an epidural. Then, the doctor broke my water, and my pain level went from tolerable to full-speed transition labor to the max in the space of about a minute. Yet, somehow, I was able, on that very narrow operating room table, with about a thousand people running around (okay, maybe it was 10), to sort of relax and breathe through the contractions.

After about 30 minutes, all of a sudden I felt that urge to push and so I did, and Dominic just came flying out. The cord was around his neck, but he just went through it. Wow, was I surprised. My next thought was, oh my gosh, I have to do that again?! Then 9 minutes later, at 7:02pm, Anne made her appearance. After a little bit, I sent Dan to check on the babies and take pictures, and then once they were done with me, they took me to my recovery room and brought the twins in so I could hold them. Wow, it was so amazing to see those two perfect little babies. Dominic and Anne, our precious twins, now big 3 year olds. We love you very much!