Happy birthday

I've been dying to write John and Hunter's birth story for almost week now! Let me rephrase that, I've been dying to write MY babies birth story for over two years! I can't believe that my turn is finally here that these babies are actually ours. Here it goes, enjoy!

Home alone, contracting, binge watching Once Upon A Time on a Friday night was how I spent my last Friday night as a non-parent. I had been having break through contractions despite my anti-contraction medication all day so I had been watching them closely and taking it extra easy unsure whether or not to trust my uterus. But once I took my 10pm dose and had steady contractions less than two hours later I knew it was time to call. Taylor rushed home from his night shift to grab me packed and ready and by 4am I was checked into labor and delivery having contractions 2-3 minutes apart. Before we left I insisted I get my 35 week chalk board done, just in case it was my last one! I had drawn it up the day before, so glad I did and we managed to do it on our way out the door, cause my gut was right! Obviously their weights we were significantly off and we had way less than one week to go, if only we knew then what we know now lol.

We spent the morning in limbo with my doctor deciding to "wait and see" or to proceed with my c-section, she decided to consult with my specialist. Around 11:15 I was laying in bed still contracting singing/ playing "ice ice baby" on my phone to Taylor begging him to get me some more ice chips when the anesthesiologist came in and said "Okay I'm here to talk to you about your epidural!" I dropped my jaw "Uh what?!" at this point I thought we were still in limbo. "It says right here you're to have a c-section as soon as possible, so I'm going to need your consent on these forms". Before I could answer my doctor came in and said "Alright we are having babies today!" not realizing we'd already been blind sided until she saw me filling out paper work.

They wheeled me back to the operating room and I had another "holy crap moment" the second they got me on the table. Before I knew it the epidural was placed and they put the screen up and Taylor was back in the room holding my hand smiling from ear to ear. There was pulling, tugging, pushing and Hello John! John with a huge knot in his umbilical cord that we now know was responsible for his back and forth growth during my pregnancy. He was rushed out of the room immediately and taken to a stabilization unit. Some more pulling, tugging, pushing and according to Taylor "the doctor grabbed his legs like a frog and pulled him out", he too was rushed out of the room with Taylor following behind. From that point on they removed my cerclage (and I immediately dialeted) and closed me up, but I didn't care I was watching the door like a hawk. Taylor came back in with the neonatoligst and she handed me John for a brief minute and then I handed him to Taylor and they were off. Next to enter the room was Hunter, only he was in an incubator with an oxygen hood. I kissed his hand and just like that they were all gone.

They finished up the surgery and about fifteen minutes after being taken to recovery Taylor met up with me in my recovery area. He updated me on the boys conditions, showed me pictures, told me their weights and lengths, they were both stable but Hunter was in an oxygen hood. I begged my labor and delivery nurse to wheel me into the NICU holding unit where the boys were, thankfully she agreed. On the way to the unit we passed my parents and sisters in the waiting room, my parents took off after us and the four of us met up with the boys. I was so relieved to see them okay. Those five minutes were the only time since birth that the boys have been together. I really wish I hadn't been so out of it and would've though to take a family picture. Shortly after Hunter was moved to the level 3 to be hooked to a ventilator and John into the level 2, where they both are now. Both boys have some things to accomplish before coming home. John will inevitably come home before Hunter, but Hunter is on the fast track to joining his brother in level 2!

So here we are, exhausted, and busy those are understatements. But I finally feel like we are getting the hang of things. I think I'm managing to split my time between the boys evenly and I know what I'm doing now when I walk into their rooms, the NICU is no longer a foreign place I know (mostly) how things run and where things are kept. I wont lie though it's been a lot of work, we are going 90 to nothing on any given day. I'm recovering from a c-section, I've got two babies in two different towers of a hospital on the other side of town that I can't drive to, and I'm pumping around the clock since about four hours after my boys were born. I'm actually pumping as I type, (really the only chance I have to get this done) let me tell you it's a full time job I have so much respect for working moms who still manage to breast feed. I'm so very thankful that I've been able to give my boys the gift of breast milk and all it's nutrients, hopefully the supply God's stay on our side through year one!

Hopefully sometime next week I get to sit down and update you guys on John and Hunter's first week (maybe two by then, lets be realistic) of life, Until then thank you so much for the endless words of love and support and all the prayers, we definitely feel surrounded by love during this time.

Until next time,
Momma D
XOXO