TEAM SHAFER: Ava Kathryn & Isabella Irene

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Ava Kathryn & Isabella Irene - Birth Story

Not only have we used this blog as a way to keep our friends and family informed to what is happening in our life we have also treated it as a baby book. The coolest thing we have found out is that you can get your blog printed like a book and you can have a hardcopy of your memories...how cool! I wanted to write out Ava & Isabella's birth story so that we remember it. It was soooo different than Isaac's so here it goes....

Their birth story:

My Mom and I had laughed early in the week because I was in SERIOUS nesting mode and we were wondering if something was happening. My Mom also noticed my stomach had dropped a little. I had been feeling pretty good all week so I didn't think too much about it, but on Thursday night I had gone to the bathroom before bed and I just felt a little "funny." I wasn't having contractions but I went to bed and I didn't take my shot (it's a blood thinner for a potential blood clotting disorder). If you take it and you go into labor you can't use a pain medications (i.e epidural or spinal) for 24 hours.

I didn't sleep well that night...I was going to the bathroom every hour and then at 5:30 I woke up with back cramps that seemed to come and go about every 5 minutes. I had my 32 week appt. at 10:40 that morning but things just did not feel right so I called the hospital and they said to come in. I went in for a non-stress test and they didn't see any contractions on the print-out so then I felt a little silly. I just wanted to go to my normal Dr. appt. at this point but they decided to do a pre-term labor test and ultrasound on me. Well, that is when everything changed!!!!! They checked me out and discoved I barely had any of my cervix left and I was dilated to 2! They then said "you aren't going anywhere 'till you have these babies." At this point they talked to me about hoping to stop labor with medications and have me hold off till 34 weeks (better lung development). They then did an ultrasound to check out the girls' weights and they were both over 4 lbs. so they were very happy with that. I was then admitted to the hospital and once I got to my room I was having horrible back cramps again. They had done a "Pre-Term Labor Test" on me when they checked my cervix and shortly after I was admitted they came into my hospital room to tell me the results...I was going to have a baby that day...I asked how reliable those tests were and they said reliable enough that they usually believed them! :) I wasn't quite sure what to think about this overwhelming piece of news, but my mind was shortly taken over by the painful contractions and the fact that Marc was over a 1000 miles away and wasn't suppose to be in Virginia for almost another week.

Marc had just graduated from his Army course that morning and so was in his graduation ceremony when all this was happening! I had called him as soon it was over (and had sent him NUMEROUS texts) and told him to get on the first flight to Virginia!! Sometime during the afternoon the Dr. had come in and said the medications to slow the labor down were not working and the new goal was to get me to Sunday so that I could get 2 steroid shots to help the girls lung development (they had given me the 1st one as soon as I was admitted). I stayed at 3 cm dilated for a good portion of the day (I guess the girls were waiting for Marc to get there) but I was in some serious pain. Well, Marc got into town around midnight and I guess the girls were excited to see their Daddy because things seemed to speed up. I went from 3 cm to 6 cm in just a couple of hours and everyone knew I wasn't going to make it longer than a few more hours. I was starting to throw up (I know TMI) a lot after I got to 6 cm and they said I was probaly progressing pretty fast. No pain meds to this point and I was FEELING it!! We decided to do a c-section because Isabella was breech. They took me into surgery at 7:00 Sat. morning...almost 24 hours after I got there and once I got the spinal, there was some much needed relief! :)

Ava came out at 7:45 weighing 4 lb. 2 oz. and 17 3/4" long and Isabella came out butt first at 7:50 weighing 4 lb. 10 oz. and 18 1/4" long. The Doctors have been incredibly pleased with their sizes and their progress for being born early (although twins commonly come early...most twins are delivered between 32-37 weeks). All I know is that I ate a heavy protein diet and drank many "boost" drinks (never have to have another one of those) my whole pregnancy. I hope to think that whole protein kick helped them be good birth weights!! I have no idea why they came so early but we are thankful they are doing awesome! They are the sweetest little girls with guite a bit of spunk! :)