Birth Story Part 2

So ... where did we leave off? Yes, in the middle of the c-section. There really isn't too much to tell at this point ... a lot of pulling, pushing, pressure, etc. And me and Chrissy and Ant were just kinda talking on the other side of the curtain. Suddenly the doctor said "Get ready!" and Chrissy and Anthony stood up to see their little girl being born. My sister immediately started to cry, and said "Oh my God, she's so beautiful! Thank you!" and sat down next to me crying and hugging me. I was crying, as was Anthony. I doubt there was a dry eye in the room.

Then just one minute later, the doctor again told them to stand up and look, and Anthony made is way out, feet first! Both babies were brought over to the warmers, cleaned up, and wrapped up in blankets. Sami was screaming her head off ... where Ant took a little longer to shout out, but soon enough he was letting his presence be known as well.

At this point, honestly, I was so spent, that it all kinda was a blur. I think I was just SO exhausted (having barely slept the night before) and it all finally hit me, since the birth was over and the babies were out. I just laid on the table as they closed me all up with my eyes closed, as Chrissy and Ant took a million pictures of the babies, held them, walked around with them, etc. It was a totally different experience than with my two, because after Boots and Moop were born, they were immediately taken to the NICU for 12 hours of observation. So I didn't even get to hold them in the operating room. Since Chrissy's babies were bigger and full term, they didn't rush them out. So we got to take lots of pics in the OR. At this point, they decided to let my husband in, so he came in to see me. Then Chrissy and Anthony left with the babies to go to the nursery, and me and my DH went to the recovery room.

This is when I started to notice that the nurses were concerned with my blood pressure. I could see it on the monitor, and it was like 160/90, which is really high for me. I was consistently 110/65 throughout my entire pregnancy. But I figured it was because I just gave birth. I didn't feel great, had a headache, my neck hurt, my back hurt, I was just uncomfortable. So I basically just closed my eyes and tried to relax best I could. I think I dozed off here and there.

About 2 hours later they moved me to my post-pardum room. It was AWESOME. It was private, HUGE, had a couch, recliner, flat screen tv, full table with 4 chairs, just a huge room. This was so great, because I delivered my twins at the same hospital, and ended up having to share a room, and it was the worst experience EVER. So I was so happy.

Once I was moved into my room, they gave me some pain killers and some blood pressure meds, and then everyone came in. My parents, DH, my brother, my sister and her husband and the babies, as well as my BIL's relatives. My sister also gave me my gift, a beautiful tennis bracelet as a thank you. Like I needed to be thanked anymore than she already has!

Besides having a headache and being tired, I was doing ok. And then my OB came in and said "Erica, you are pretty sick". That was kinda surprising, considering that I didn't feel bad. She told me that I had HELLP syndrome. I didn't know too much about it, but I knew it had to do with high blood pressure and something with the liver. They told me I needed to go on Magnesium Sulfate. And that I was going to be moved to the ICU. That is what scared me the most. ICU? Isn't that for people near death?? Yeah, that was pretty scary. So bye bye nice room, and off to the ICU. Luckily, they were able to find a room for my sister and her family to stay and visit with the babies. And me and my husband went up to the ICU.

I was only in the ICU for one night, thankfully. I was on the magnesium the whole time, and it just made me exhausted. I slept the whole time and just couldn't leave my eyes open. They came and took blood every few hours, and luckily all my levels were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The ones that needed to go up were rising, and the ones that needed to go down were lowering. So I was headed in the right direction, but my doctor did tell me that it could take a few weeks for everything to be back to normal.

So, I'll fast forward at this point. I went back to a regular post pardum room after one night in the ICU (not that great room I was in, but a private one, none the less!) They monitored me a little more closely than I guess the normal post pardum patient ... taking my blood pressure and blood more often to test everything, but everything was going well.

They finally set me free on the Saturday morning after giving birth. The babies left the same day that I did and went home with their mommy and daddy. It was nice that we were all able to leave the hospital together.

I did have one more scare after going home. The first night I was home, I woke up in the middle of the night with shortness of breath. It was worse when I was laying down, and I could hear this weird noise from my chest, almost like I had pop rocks in my chest, like a crackling. It scared me, so I called my OB to ask them about it, and he said I should go to the ER. So we called my mom to stay with the kids, and off I went! Ugh! We had a battery of tests, chest X-Ray, MRI, etc, and it turns out that I have fluid in my lungs from the HELLP. It actually looked like congenital heart failure, but it can happen to anyone who has recently had surgery, and it's a side effect of HELLP. So they gave me a diuretic to help me pee out a lot of the fluid, and told me it would work itself out.

It was definitely scary, and the whole thing was so unexpected. I mean, I carried twins before, and I have NO issues after they were born. So it kinda caught me off guard to deal with all of these issues after having this set of twins. But, most importantly, now 2.5 weeks later, the babies are healthy, I'm healthy, everyone is doing good, and that's really all I could ask for.

Thanks for reading all this if you made it through!!
Caba