Their Birth Story Part I

For awhile now I have been wanting to write a post about Olivia and Logan's birth story. I summarized it at the beginning of this blog, but I know that there are many new readers since then. I tried to do it on their birthday, but I just couldn't. This is, however, a story that I could tell over and over. I apologize if you've heard it too many times before. This week as I begin to reflect on what I'm thankful for, I realize that there were many things that went wrong that day, but I am truly grateful for all that went right.




I will begin my story from when I was put on bedrest. My niece, Izzy, was born on August 20, 2007, the day before I was put on bedrest. I enjoyed spending some time with her during that week. After being sent home from the hospital on August 21st, I was told to stay on bedrest until my next doctor's appointment on September 5th. I was almost a week into it and my symptoms were getting worse. On August 27, 2007, Ryan had jury duty. He was going to try to reschedule it, but how do you do that when you know that twins are arriving? Luckily, he wasn't chosen and he was sent home around lunchtime. He brought me a turkey croissant from La Galette. . .my favorite. Because he had the afternoon off that day, we decided to go back to the hospital. I didn't want him to take anymore time off work to take me to the hospital. I remember getting ready and doing my hair before we went. I called my mom on the way there because she was a little upset that I didn't call her the week before.

Once we arrived and got settled in, my cramping had worsened and I was told that I was having contractions. My mom soon showed up and I thought it was a little silly for her to be there. After they examined me, I was dilated 2.5 to 3 cm and they told me that this was my new home away from home. They had mentioned starting me on magnesium sulfate in hopes to stop the contractions. I was told to remain as calm and relaxed as possible. Soon afterwards, my dad and brother made it up to the hospital. I really wasn't expecting them to come, but having my family there was one of God's great blessings.

A high-risk doctor came in shortly to examine me again and I kindly asked my parents and brother to wait in the waiting room. It was then that I learned that I was over 6 cm dilated and 80% effaced. There was no time for magnesium sulfate or anything else. . . .we were told labor could not be stopped.

Now, when I was first became pregnant, I was carrying three babies. I remember searching the internet for everything that came in threes. I came across a website, which is now http://www.chasingbabies.com/ and I learned about Cole, Paige and Kaylee who were born at 24 weeks. This is one of the reasons why we chose Paige for Olivia's middle name. I remember watching a video about the first three months of their life and bawling uncontrollably. Kaylee, sadly, did not make it. No baby or family should ever have to go through all of that. It was my first real encounter with what micro-preemies experience and the first time I realized that some babies don't pull through. When I was told that labor was imminent. . .I knew that I was only 23 weeks, 1 day. In my mind, I kept saying, "Cole and Paige were born at 24 weeks. . .they were born at 24 weeks." I knew that every day mattered, but at least I had some gauge as to what was considered viable and what was not. Many places don't consider a baby viable until 24 weeks, but will resuscitate before that if the parents wish. We had prayed for these babies for so long and we already loved them with all of our hearts. They had to be okay.

Immediately following my second examination, my water broke. The room was immediately filled with doctors and nurses and RTs. . .and two little incubators. My contractions got very intense after my water broke. Ryan completely fell apart and I went into some sort of shock. I remember Ryan asking them if I was okay and I wanted to respond, but what would I say? I was far from okay. This was the worst day of my life.

To Be Continued. . .