Lucky Friday the 13th

At 38 weeks 6 days pregnant, I finally got contacted with a date for induction, to happen one full week later. I was miserable. One week seemed like an eternity. Still, Elizabeth and I did our best to enjoy what remained of our free time and made a lunch date with some friends for the next day. We checked out one final daycare, and ended the day with chocolate ice cream. At 4:30 in the morning, I got up to pee and felt a strange pressure on my pelvic bones. Yet the toilet paper showed no sign of a mucous plug, so I attributed it to sleeping funny. I went back to bed, and realized I was still peeing a little. Hmm....I'm not a bed wetter I thought to myself, I should stop this at once. Only I couldn't stop. The trickle grew stronger, and I shook Elizabeth awake. "I think my water just broke" I said as another small gush came out. Elizabeth turned on the lights and threw back the sheets. "Yup, it sure did" she said upon seeing the puddle I was lying in.

I can't ever remember feeling so giddy in my life. We raced around the house following our to-do list...change the sheets, feed the dogs, run the dishwasher. I couldn't stop giggling the whole time. The first few hours of labor were exactly as I'd always imagined- being awakened by my water breaking, and then a drive to the hospital when the streets are dark and empty. The rest of the delivery was completely unexpected.

Once I found out that I was having twins, I knew that many aspects of their delivery would be out of my control. A home birth was out. I knew they would likely arrive early, so I braced myself for spending time in the NICU. I knew they would most likely be born by c-section, with a room full of hospital staff.

I totally lucked out. Both babies were head down, and my OB was excited about letting me go vaginally. While it's policy in this and many other hospitals to deliver all twins in the operating room "just in case", our OB pulled some strings (okay she was downright stubborn and insistent) that we be allowed to stay in the LDR room for their birth. Rather than being surrounded by a team of 8 hospital staff, it was just Elizabeth, the OB and a nurse in the LDR room when the babies were born. Labor progressed slowly and steadily, and I allowed myself to experience painful contractions until I was 5cm. I had a low dose epidural, which my OB asked me to let wear off by 10cm. After an hour and a half of pushing, we had a son.

We waited for the contractions to do their thing and push the next baby down. The baby's heart rate got really wacky on the monitor, and the contractions slowed down. The OB asked my permission to start some pitocin to help bring the contractions back up since the baby seemed to be in a bit of distress. I was exhausted at this point, so I was happy to have any method of help possible. Just shy of 40 minutes after our son was born, we had a daughter. She surveyed the room, pouted, and then peed her disapproval.

One of each. We are over the moon thrilled and excited about these babies, born on an oh-so-lucky Friday the 13th. They could not be more different. Our little boy has dark hair, dark eyes, and is a skinny little thing. Our little girl, a blondie, looks bigger. We learned after having them weighed that her bigger appearance is just due to her chubby little cheeks. He weighed in at 6lb 1oz, and she was 5lb, 11oz. They were 20 inches & 18 and a quarter long, respectively. They're absolutely perfect and precious, and we will post pictures and names, provided we can figure out how to make them un-googleable, very soon!