There was James and I. Happily married for a year. Thought it would be swell to have a baby. James has no other children. This is a second marriage for both of us. Got pregnant immediately. (Just call me fertile Myrtle). At six weeks hemorrhaged and thought I was miscarrying. Had an ultrasound only to find--TWO heartbeats! We were having fraternal twins!
My hubby and I have been married for almost 2 years (December 23rd) and this year we were blessed with the birth of twin (!) daughters. (photos to come once I figure this thing out!) The girls were born on September 19th, the day before their brother's 15th birthday and their "official" due date. So if you do the math you will realize that I have two other children from my first marriage. Chris is now 15 and his sis Jess is 12. Baby sisters Annabeth and Molly are now 2 1/2 months old.
One most challenging things about having the twins, besides the delivery of course, was finding a provider who didn't want to rush me off for a c-section or tie me to a bed with monitors, hence necessitating a c-section. After a few interviews and a lot of phone calls and prayer we found a certified midwife comfortable attending a twin birth at home. None of the midwives in our area are "allowed" to do twin birth in the hospital because of the malpractice insurance companies. Alot of them are younger and have not been trained to deliver twins anyway. They aren't even allowing them to attend VBAC's (vaginal birth after cesarean). Our choice turned out to be the right one. It just took a couple of months of searching and a few anxiety attacks over the process, but I finally found peace with our choice and was able to pursue my dream of having a home birth.
My first two children were born in the hospital with a midwife. Preparing for a homebirth was both exciting and scary. The thought of having to transfer to the hospital if something went wrong wasn't pleasant to say the least but we took the responsibility for whatever happened after educating ourselvesa about all the possibilities. Our midwife encouraged us saying that I was a healthy woman who just happened to have two babies instead of just one. I figured if my grandmother could do it, so could I.
I do gotta tell you that the last couple of weeks of a twin pregnancy are not fun. In fact it really sucked. Way worse than a singleton! It hurt to sit, to lay down, to walk... The only real relief I got was the night we took a trial run of the pool. I got to float for few blissful minutes in the kiddie pool in our bedroom. Then it was back to reality. I was a HOUSE. My ankles were foreign to me--all swollen and squishy. My abdomen would morph shapes as the babies wiggled around. Baby B kept flipping around from cephalic to breech and when she was breech her head was literally ON TOP of my ribcage. There were many moments of crying, wondering when it would finally be over.
I had one round of false labor the Tuesday before I delivered. Called in the midwife and everything. But by the afternoon it had disappeared and I didn't have anymore contractions until my water broke Saturday afternoon.
I had just gotten up from a nap before my older kids were coming with a friend. As I was telling my husband James that I was going to take a shower, my water broke, right in the kitchen. Not having had this experience with my first two, it was quite shocking! I couldn't believe how much fluid coursed out of me onto the kitchen floor! Amazing. And it kept coming.
Five minutes later my kids show up with their friend Rachel. So all three were there for the births. Thankfully, Rachel was also born at home and has seen her sister give birth as well, so she was a great support for my daughter who wasn't too sure about the whole thing. The girls ended up watching from the foot of my bed while I labored and gave birth on a mattress just below. Chris opted to hangout in his room until the babies were born.
Labor was on hands and knees the whole time because Baby A wouldn't tolerate any other position but she was fine as long as I stayed on all fours. Mercifully labor was relatively short-only 3 hours until I was pushing and then an hour for the first baby and 18 more minutes for the second. Labor was really painful and I think it was because my water broke, leaving me with no cushion, plus, my body had to work harder being so stretched out with two babies and it being 12 years since my last birth. But it hurt like you-know-what, let me tell you! My daughter Jess' birth, on the other hand, wasn't painful at all. I used the Bradley Method with her and it was wonderful. This labor was so intense though that no amount of relaxing was going to make it better. Plus I couldn't change positions. I did try the tub but by the time I got in, the water had cooled too much and really didn't feel good. I like HOT water and it was barely lukewarm. My friend Jo was a lifesaver, applying back pressure for me with each contraction. I felt like I would have flown apart if she hadn't done that! Thank you Jo! (Jo has 9 children so she knows what she's doing!)
My hubby was a wonderful coach and held my hands as I hung onto him throughout the whole ordeal. He was very supportive of the homebirth and said he wouldn't have it any other way. It was just as he imagined. Did he imagine me being in excruciating pain??? Nice! That part wasn't in MY birth plan.
It was certainly a relief to deliver the babies. Both were head down. Molly was born second and was born sunny side up (posterior) and with her membranes intact. I thought it interesting that Annabeth's "bubble" broke ahead of time but then they actually had a hard time breaking Molly's after she was born. Both fine at delivery. Apgars of 9 and 10. Annabeth even nursed right away while I pushed her sister out!
The sleepless "fun" began-but I'll save the gory details for my next post! I am very grateful to my husband, my friends Jo and Deanna, my midwives (I had 4 of them at my house!) and most of all to my God for a safe home delivery of my very exhausting but precious baby girls.
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