A "Weild" Ride: The Birth

I thought I would try to summarize and recap our 9 months so far with some memories and reflection for each few months. We'll see how this goes.

We made it to 38 weeks! Hallelujah! I know it was all because of answered prayer. God was so faithful through it all. We had a scheduled C-section on Friday, June 3rd, 2011. Both babies were transverse (sideways) with their heads on opposite ends. We called it their bunk bed position. I had been on bed rest for the past 6 weeks and was pretty ready to be able to move again and get back to a new normal. The bed rest was so good for me, especially in the sense of mental preparation for all that was about to happen. I was an emotional wreck the day before though. I literally cried off and on the whole day. I felt...everything. Excited for what was ahead and sad for what was ending. I don't know that there is ever a bigger change than walking into the hospital just the two of us and leaving with two tiny infants who depend on us for everything. So surreal!

We got to the hospital (about 10 minutes late of course) a little after 7 and Pastor Scott, our children's pastor, was already there to be with us for a bit. I got changed into my gown and settled into one of the beds and he came in to pray with us. Sarah came a little bit later and got some fun video of the before. I had been praying for weeks that I could be calm and in the moment on their birth day and I was! I felt a divine peace and surprised myself with how calm I felt. It ended up that Dr. Cooper was running a little behind, but before I knew it I was being taken to the OR to start my spinal. This was the part I was most nervous about, but I had a wonderful anesthesiologist who walked me through everything and it wasn't bad at all. The actual c-section was another story though! It felt like the two doctors (who, by the way, chatted casually with each other throughout all of it) were pulling and pushing and taking my breath away. It was more intense than I expected and BJ and I were going through every bible verse we could remember. Before long they dropped the curtain and we met Pierce Edward for the first time. He peed across the room as they took him to his warmer and that seemed to set a precedent for later diaper changes! Then there was some more pushing and pulling and the curtain was dropped again and we met Blaine Robert. Those moments of the curtain dropping are frozen in mind like a mental picture I will have forever. I was a mom! I was so excited to hear that they both had made it past be hoped-for 5 lb. mark. Pierce was 5 lbs. 8 oz. and Blaine was 6 lbs. 2 oz.

My mom and dad came into the recovery room, but could only meet Blaine. I'm still not sure why Pierce got caught up in the nursery, but he joined us once we got back to our room. It was so fun to reveal their names and see what our babies finally looked like. I had been dying to really see them for so many weeks and here they were- living, breathing babies. What had started as microscopic bunch of cells were now two healthy baby boys. I don't think I will ever get past that.

The rest of our hospital stay is kind of a blur. I do know that neither of us got more than a few minutes of sleep that whole time. Both babies were pretty much nocturnal and poor BJ was on his feet around the clock. We had a wonderful day and night nurse the majority of our stay who made our experience even better. We found out who fortunate we were to have them after some bad ones at the end of our stay. We had lots of visitors in and out and I loved showing off our sons. To this day I am still so grateful for their health and that there was no NICU needed. They stayed with us in our room and we got to go home as a family.

Speaking of going home... that was my first lesson in life with children not going as planned. We were all 3 checked out and ready to go when we realized one of the cars eats wouldn't loosen. BJ worked and worked at it, but we couldn't get it. I was already starting to think what we could possibly do to get our children home. Run to Wal-Mart and buy a new one? Take one at a time home? BJ finally figured it out (something was stuck on the back) but then it was time to feed again. I think we finally left (with Pierce screaming his head off out the door) about 4 hours later than planned. We got home and had about 4 visitors dropping food off all at once. We also realized that we didn't have anywhere to lay the boys downstairs. Why hadn't I planned for this? So I got laundry baskets with blankets. They seemed to little and curled to just lay on the floor! So the entry home was not at all how I pictured. No hospital going home pictures, no relaxed drive, no house tour with the four of us. This was our new life!

Our first week home is another blur, but I remember that time as incredibly bonding. Despite the lack of sleep and delirious exhaustion we were a family. It felt like the world around us had stopped and time stood still. BJ was incredible and jumped in with both feet. I was hormonal, emotional mess when he went back to work, but slowly I got used to my new life as a mommy and the new routine (or lack thereof!) that came with it.

Our last pic "before kids".