The Birth Story...

Well, well, well...we have lot's of ground to cover, so keep in mind this will be a longer post.

At 36 weeks, everything was going as "planned". Now we have discussed throughout my pregnancy..our plan vs. God's plan. Our plans fall short because all we can see is what is right in front of us and we are unable to see how these short term plans we make work in the grand scheme of things. I am a person who likes to be in control of a situation, the loss of control is not something that I handle very well. Needless to say, the Lord has used my Pregnancy as a learning experience and it has been a trying journey, but a great one!

This verse has kept Cody and I sane this entire pregnancy..."For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

As you can see, the last post that I wrote was on Wednesday, December 16th. That day I was taken off my Terbutaline and was patiently awaiting my scheduled C-Section on Tuesday, December 22nd. As it turns out, the Lord had different plans for us!

Around 6:00 p.m on Thursday, December 17th I started noticing that I was having contractions every 8 minutes. I was worried that I was going into labor, but wasn't sure if I would know for sure if I was actually in labor. I called my mother, who was scheduled to visit on Friday morning. She reassured me that I would know if I was in labor.

Cody and I had a relaxing evening, watching our favorite shows on DVR, while Cody was putting together a folder for work. Around 10:00 pm, I started noticing that my contractions were around every 6 to 7 minutes apart, but they weren't painful. I have been having contractions for several weeks now, so this wasn't worrisome. I did ask Cody to help me wash my hair and get all cleaned up "just in case".

Cody went to bed around 11:15, I stayed up to dry my hair and read a book. At around midnight, I started having a backache and noticed that my contractions were every 4 to 5 minutes and they lasted about 1 minute each. At that point, I woke Cody up and we decided it would be best to head to the hospital to check everything out. I didn't want to end up being one of those woman who has my babies in the car because I was too stubborn to go to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, my contractions definately started to intensify and I was very happy that we had made the decision to head to the hospital.

Upon arrival at the hospital, we went to Labor and Delivery and they hooked me up to monitors. They were monitoring my contractions as well as the babies heart rates. Turns out I started having contractions every 2 minutes. I called my mother who immediately hit the road on her 5 hour road trip to Ft. Worth.

Around 3:00 am after a discussion with the on call physician, they decided to give me a shot of Morphine and Zophran to slow down my labor until my doctor became available at 6:00 am. They didn't want me to dilate anymore and I wanted Dr. Tatum to be the one that delivered the twins. Cody called his parents around 4:15 and they headed our way to meet the babies.

Dr. Tatum arrived at the hospital, took one look at my contraction pattern and said that we would be having babies in the next hour! Everything after that was a whirlwind... Within 30 minutes, Anesthesiology had taken me back and started my epidural/spinal block combo. I was numb from my breasts down. They prepared everything and brought Cody into the room and he sat next to me.

Everything happened so quickly. Cody was in the room for about 4 minutes when they told us that they were getting ready to pull out Baby A (Lukas), I felt some pressure on my stomach and hear Lukas screaming as the doc said, "we have Baby A with boy parts". Four seconds later I feel pressure again and the doc said, "we have Baby B with girl parts". Cody left my side to go see the babies as the nurses tended to them.

Lukas weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 20 in long. Maddox weight 5lbs 13oz and was 18.5 in long.

Maddox came out and she wasn't breathing, so they took her to her station and had to bag her for a few seconds to start her breathing, once they started her she became a live wire.

Everything was going great, they stapled everything up and handed me my babies and wheeled me into recovery. My mother made it just in time and got to come visit us in recovery and see her grandbabies!! It was in recovery that they realized that Lukas was having some difficulty breathing. The nurses took him and Maddox to further evaluate them.

Lukas ended up having to be checked into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). He was a little sluggish from the Morphine they had given me, so they gave him a shot of Narcan, which is a drug that counteracts the effects of Morphine. Once they gave him the medicine he was perfectly fine. However, he had to stay a mandatory 2 days in the NICU. Lukas was released from the NICU on Sunday evening. They didn't have a doctor available to circumsize Lukas until Monday morning, so we stayed one more night and we all were released together on Monday morning.

We have been home now for almost 2 weeks and everything is going great! The babies are wonderful. We have had lot's of help from family and friends and we feel truly blessed to have our kids home!

I will post pictures sometime in the near future, as for now, I'm going to go hold my blessings!

Thanks for checking in on us!