Labor and Delivery

So I have never gone into labor on my own before and didn't really know what to expect. My due date for the twins was March 27th, but no one expected me to make it that long. My plan the whole time was to have the babies at the Spectrum hospital in Grand Rapids so there would be a NICU in case either of them needed it. I had felt all along the boys were okay, but since out odds haven't been that good 2 of 3 so far needing the NICU for an extended stay I thought delivering in Grand Rapids was the best choice. Once we got home from Brazil I went to my regular OB and then to Maternal Fetal Medicine who said I had to get special permission from my OB to deliver in Grand Rapids. I was really hope it was all going to work out. Luckily the OB agreed and she actually did my Group B Strep test on the 17th and found out I was dilated to 3 cm and 70%. I think all of the activity around Gretta's baptism had been a little bit stressful and work. Luckily Linda was in town because Eric was out of town and I was able to take it easy for the rest of the week. They started following me really closely after that and told me to follow up with MFM. I meet with them on the 20th and we had a plan all in place to be induced on March 7th which would make me 37 weeks.  The next Tuesday, March 25th,  the baby sister  I went to the acupuncturist, chiropractor and then the OB for a non-stress test and to be checked again. I had two really strong contractions while on the monitor, but they had forgotten to attach the contraction monitor so there was no way to see how often I had been contracting. Dr. Proctor checked me and I was a 4. She was really concerned and said she didn't think I would make it to the 7th. She reminded me again if my water broke to go to the hospital here and that if my contractions we hard and less than 6-8 minutes apart I should probably go to the hospital. Well I left the office and never stopped contracting. I contracted every 7 minutes for a while. I had the babysitter stay so I could lay on the bed and she helped the girls back bags in case they needed to spend the night some where. I called Eric and told him he needed to come home. He got home around 5:30 and I called my friend, Amy Barfuss, and asked if the girls could come over to her house. We rushed around and got packed. I hadn't packed anything and couldn't even find my suitcase!!! Eric dropped Gretta off at Girl Scouts at 6:30 and we finally made it out of town around 7:30. I had contractions every 7 minutes on the way to Grand Rapids, but they never got closer or worse. We arrived at L&D and they checked me and I was still a 4 but with a bulgy bag. The resident wasn't very convinced I was going to progress and told me they would watch me over night and send me home in the am because we lived so far away. Well that turned out to be far from the truth! It's a good thing we made it to the hospital when we did!
Once they decided I was going to stay the night they started on IV. It took 4 tries. It hurt so much. I can't believe how many IVs I started as an L & D nurse. I guess it's my pay back for all of the ones I missed. They finally got on IV in. I was super thirsty, but they wouldn't let me have ANYTHING even ice chips. I guess it's because I was high risk to be c-sectioned, but it was super annoying. Especially since the resident wasn't even convinced I was going to stay. Then he forgot to order some blood work in the initial workup, so they had to come and draw blood again!!! Let's just say I think the resident wasn't very bright! I was not his #1 fan!
We didn't get upstairs until around midnight because they were waiting for a bigger room for me since I was having twins. The bed downstairs was super uncomfortable and I couldn't really rest. I was looking forward to sleeping since the resident said they weren't going to do anything for me all night. Then the MFM doctor on called showed up, Dr. Susan Fee, and everything changed!!! I was dilated to a 6 and she told me I could have my epidural and as soon as I got the epidural she broke my water and they wheeled me into the OR for delivery. It was the most intense 3 hours of my life!!! My epidural wasn't working and I could feel everything. At first it seemed like it was just very one sided, but then I could feel everything. The Anesthesia tech came to push a bolas of meds and told me I could push my button, but nothing seemed to work. I could here her saying, "I can't find the scanner." Which she was looking for to record she was going to give me the bolus. I just kept thinking give me the bolus and then find the scanner!!! Then the bolus didn't work. It didn't do anything!!! She kept putting ice one my leg to see if I could feel it and of course I could feel it!!! They finally called back the anesthesiologist and he basically told her she mixed the dosage all wrong and had way under dosed me. She was also not so bright! Luckily he stayed with me until they got me more comfortable which was forever. I was pushing by then and at one point thought they should just put me to sleep because I hurt so much and this wasn't what I signed up to have twins without an epidural and then possibly  an emergency  c-section  I ended up pushing John out at 3:31am. It is a weird sensation to push one baby out and still have another baby inside because you are having to push around another baby. They put him on my chest and he was perfect and beautiful! He was super Once he came out all of the pain med hit and I was super numb! Which was good because then the resident was pushing on my belly to get baby b in the right position. They couldn't get him head down, but they did get him feet first. So it was good I was numb, but of course by then they had over dosed me and it took more than 24 hours for all of the meds to wear off! So one baby I could feel almost everything and the other I could barely push because I was so numb. Not ideal! Then I pushed for 1 hour but didn't seem to make much progress. Then I heard Williams heart beat drop twice. and she told me she was going to break my water and pull him out. I am still not sure why she didn't do that sooner, but William was born at 4:31. His color wasn't quite a good, so they whisked him away, but he still looked good! I was so happy to have not been c-sectioned. I didn't even tear because they were so much smaller than Carli. Even with Dr. Fee putting her hand up me and pulling William out.