Saturday, February 9, 2008

Reality sinks in

Wow! Brooke, my best friend who is also having twin boys and is due a week before me, just had her babies last night! She was 36.5 weeks along. They'd been a little concerned about twin-to-twin transfusion for a while, which is why she was put on modified bed rest, but she went in for an appointment yesterday and there was a big enough difference in their fluid levels that they wanted to induce her that day. Yikes! My first reaction was to clean my house. Funny, but seriously, you never know - she went in for a doctor's appointment and will come home with two babies! So yeah, seeing as she was due exactly a week before me, it's definitely becoming more real now.

It was funny talking to her though. She called me two hours after and I guess the thing that struck me was that she just sounded so good. I guess she's the only person I actually know well that had a c-section (the second baby was breech). It seems you don't have quite the war stories that you do with vaginal births (for planned c-sections at least). Not that it's any picnic to recover from, but you walk in, they cut you open, and minutes later you have a baby. Or babies. I guess I'm so used to women sharing their stories of 24 hours in labor, epidurals not working or not getting them in time, pushing for hours, having to use forceps, tearing from here to there... you know. My husband thinks it's so funny how women always must talk about it, but seriously, it's almost like pinching yourself to make sure that's really what your body went through. I totally understand those war veterans now. So anyway, it was just funny how good she sounded, and I sure bet it makes those immediate post-delivery pictures look a heck of a lot better. I sure looked like a drowned rat by the time I had mine. Actually I looked like a really stoned drowned rat. But of course I mentioned that even though she sounded so good, she may wake up tomorrow feeling like she was hit by a bus.

Anyway, I'm starting to realize this whole going into labor on your own thing may be over-rated. With Cash that was all I wanted - to go into labor on my own. And I tried everything possible to make that happen (except castor oil - knowing me, I'd just be a pooping mess and still have no baby). But it was to no avail, and I got induced. This time it's like I'm going into a slow and agonizing labor. For a few weeks I was having 15-30 contractions a day. Now it's up to about 30-60 contractions a day. And just recently I've started just feeling super crampy all the time. (It's all fine - I'm in the doctor's office twice a week). So now I'm starting to think, hmm, that getting induced thing wasn't such a bad gig. You walk in the hospital still feeling ok, you know you're within arms reach of medications as soon as things get going, they crank out the pitocin and the drugs and wham - your body does it's thing in a matter of hours. And I really do mean wham, because man that pitocin is rough. Anyway, I was mad it turned out like that last time, but heck, it sounds way better than these weeks of feeling like I'm slowly going into labor. And even though I really don't want a c-section (and both babies are head down anyway), even that's starting to sound better than this drawn out agony. Although my uterus has been practicing so hard, I guess I'd better give it it's chance to shine.

Well, Brooke, congratulations! You're a champ. You made it to 36 weeks - that was our goal. And I'm sure glad that if one of us had to go through this, God let us at least do it together.

Now send me a dang picture so I can see those babies!

4 comments:

steveandjonelle said...

I can't imagine what it's like being almost 9 months pregnant with twins, being 9 months pregnant with one seems unbearable. Although, I like the idea of the two for one with pregnancy. Keep up the good work! I hope you go into labor soon. . .I hope I go into labor soon. I was told to eat lots of fresh pineapple to induce labor. Have you tried it?

Gavin and Shawna said...

C-sections get a bad rap...but they really aren't that bad. Especially if they're scheduled. If we ever get to have #3, it has to be a c section...and scheduled a nice week ahead of time!
I am so excited for you...I know, easy for me to say since I am not the one carrying 2 bunchkins and going to try and push 2 out...but its awesome anyhow~!

Chadlee said...

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out for you and the babies in the end. They are probably just as ready to get out of there as you are ready to have them out. I can't wait to read the story and see the pictures!
Hopefully you can keep them in just a little longer - Steve just finished a NICU rotation and those tiny little preemies need a lot of help.

todd & nicole said...

I remember sitting in the pre-natal class and watching a movie of different ways to have a baby..."natural", with some pain medication and the planned C-section. Todd and I were talking about after and I said I wanted to have a planned C-section, that definitely looked the nicest way to have a baby to me.