Welcome McKinley & Brooks!!!!!!

McKinley Grace 1st born, September 8th 2010 3:25pm

Where do I even begin?  It all started Wednesday morning at 2:30am with a massive gush of water in the middle of a deep sleep. I sat straight up in bed, grabbed Tony's arm and said "I think my water just broke!" His response of course was "are you serious?!?"  In a matter of seconds we had both jumped out of bed, all the lights in the house were on and we were running frantically all over.  Ok, I have to admit, I may have been the only frantic one running all over.  At least Tony was being productive, grabbing our bags etc... I just remember running all over shaking and frantically talking (that's what I do when I'm nervous).  I have no idea what I was doing.  Thank goodness Tony was there or I probably would have forgotten to actually go to the hospital!
I think we arrived at the hospital by 3am. We checked in (BTW, why do they make mothers in labor stop at the front desk and sign paperwork?!?!?  I could have been signing to give away my first born for all I knew, I didn't read any of those papers!)  They took me to triage where they hooked me up to monitors to check the babies heart rates and monitor me for contractions.  I was having some contractions but I couldn't feel them and they weren't super consistent.  They ran a test to see if my water had actually broke and that came back positive.  They hooked me up to all my IV stuff and then the Dr. checked my cervix.  It was closed and about 1.2in long.  They checked me into my room around 9am and decided that they were going to give me a steroid shot for the babies, hook me up to antibiotics, and give me a Turbutaline (sp?) shot to stop my contractions.  They explained that they wanted to keep the babies in until they were at least 34 weeks gestation and would deliver me most likely on Monday the 13th.  Since I wasn't going to have the babies that day they fed me breakfast and lunch, thank goodness since I was starving! :)  During lunch my contractions started to come back, they were a lot more painful and more often then before.  They finally decided to give me magnesium sulfate which they really didn't want to do, but they needed to stop those contractions.  After lunch they hooked me up to Mag.  Apparently this usually makes women very sick.  I didn't get any sickness from the Mag, and it also didn't stop my contractions.  They kept coming stronger and stronger, so they upped the dosage of Mag. The nurses and Dr's kept talking like I wasn't going to deliver until Monday, but I knew that wasn't going to be the case.  At this point my contractions were so painful.  I could have sworn that I was moaning and groaning like a big baby but apparently that wasn't the case.  No one was paying attention to me!  My Dad was at my bedside looking at the contractions print out and trying to figure out how far apart they were.  Apryl and Tony were sitting on the couch checking Facebook, or by my bed checking my reflexes.  (Thanks Dr. Tony!)  Mom was trying to decide whether or not to go home for a bit and Lindsay was at my house finishing up the nursery.  The nurse was asking how I was doing but seemed to question me when I said on a scale of 1-10 my contractions were a 9.  Finally I yelled out "listen, I've never had a baby before so I don't know what it feels like to be dilated, but I'm pretty sure a head is coming out!"  Hesitantly the nurse decided to call the Dr., I'm sure thinking that I was being over dramatic.  The Dr. wandered in and started explaining to Tony that if I was 1 cm dilated, we have time and if I was a 5 then we might want to head towards delivery.  She finally checked me and quickly said, "she's a 9 - let's go!"  Immediately I panicked.  I started crying uncontrollably and was shaking from the pain.  (Later the Dr's and nurses congratulated me on a completely natural labor with no pain medication as well as a c-section.  Lucky me, I got to do both!)  They rushed me to the operating room and most of what happened after that is a blur to me.  I remember them trying to give me a spinal but I was in so much pain from the contractions I couldn't stay bent over well enough, so he had to try 5 times before it finally worked.  Then I remember needing to throw up.  Then I remember lots of pressure and pulling and feeling them pull McKinley back out of the birth canal where she was already on her way out.  I also remember Tony telling me that everything was going to be ok and consoling me like a champ.  I remember hearing McKinley cry once and then Brooks almost immediately after.  I remember Tony leaving my bedside and going over to the babies, and giving me 2 thumbs up from across the room. I remember them saying how pink both babies were and how much blonde hair McKinley had.  I remember them whisking both babies out of the room and off to the NICU and my mom coming in to be with me.  I remember thinking, "what just happened....this is way too early to be having these babies!!" and being scared of what was to come as far as their health was concerned....