Justin and Ryan's Birth Story

At approximately 35-36 weeks I started having contractions and was about 1cm dilated when checked by the OBs...no one wanted to boys to come that early and kept telling me to stay off of my feet and rest as much as possible. Not only did everyone in the medical field want me to take it easy but Nana and Pop-pop were going/in Hawaii and they really were hoping that I'd wait to have the boys until the got home. By 37 weeks, I had my last u/s growth check and they estimated the boys at 7.13 and 7.7lbs, so needless to say I felt huge, was having lots of trouble sleeping and was ready to have these boys. I then had my Wed. appt and we saw Dr. Silverberg and I said "I'm done, the boys are big can we talk about a date?" and after we found out I was 3cm dilated he was more than happy to give me a choice on Mon. or Tues of the following week.

We chose Monday, Sept 29th to be induced and were thrilled about the dr's that were going to be on call and just needed to make it through the weekend. So on 9/29/08, at 38wks and 2 days, we had an alarm set for 5:30am, I was already awake but we both showered, Guy got the bags in the car, said bye to Nana at 6:20 and arrived at Phoenixville Hospital around 6:40am.

I had two nurses named Carol and Heather, and after we got in my gown and got into the bed in the labor room I was hooked up to my IVs. At 8:35 am Dr. Cohen came in and broke Baby A's water. At 9:10am Dr. Cadiuex came in to do an u/s to make sure that both boys were still head down. We then started the Pitocin. Around 9:30 the nursery nurses came in to take my fingerprints and to get all of the ID bracelets ready for me, Guy, and both babies.

By 10:25 my contractions were less than comfortable and I decided I was ready for an epidural. We tried watching Made of Honor to take my mind off of things but it didn't really help much. Dr. Wilson came in at 10:55 to administer the epidural, he was very nice and knew that although this was what i wanted I'm not a big fan of needles. Much to my surprise, Guy was able to stay in the room and hold my hand and let me lean on him literally while they gave me the epidural. After I got my shot, life was much better. I could still feel pressure, which is what you want but the pain was no longer there. We called to check in with Nana and Grandma and give them updates around 11:20, both were very excited and anxious for you to join the world.

Dr. Cadieux came in to check on my progress at 11:30 and she said we were 5-6cm dilated and were over half way. She then came back around 12:25 and asked how I felt and if I felt the need to push, I said "no" but she checked on my progress and Guy and I had a BIG surprise when she said I was 10cm dilated and we were ready to go. Guy was given scrubs, we got the cameras ready and made a last call home to tell everyone we were ready!! I was then taken to the operating room, just as a precaution--typical twin protocol, at 12:46pm. Dr. Cadiuex had warned us that there would be a lot of people in the room and not to be worried because of it, she said it was rare to go this long with twins who appeared healthy, who were both head down and looked like it shouldn't be a problem to deliver both vaginally. She told me to focus on her and Guy and that no matter what she'd let me know how things were going. She wasn't kidding, I had Guy count the number of people and not including him and I there were 13 others in the room. I'm not sure exactly when I started pushing but I believe it was around 12:50-12:55 and at 1:11pm Baby A was born. I then started to close up a little and Dr. Cadiuex broke Baby B's water and after a few more pushes he entered the world at 1:33pm facing upwards instead of looking down.

I held both babies individually and both together before they took them to the nursery. We then also gave them names, Baby A is Justin William and Baby B is Ryan Lawrence. Guy went with both boys to the nursery while I finished up with the last part of delivery. When they were in the nursery they weighed in at 8.4 lbs and 7.3 lbs and were 20.5 inches and 20 inches respectively.

Later that afternoon, I was able to nurse both boys before they became tired from the long day we'd had. Also Nana and Pop-pop brought Abigail to meet her baby brothers and Grandma and Grandpa also came by to visit. We also had a nice visit from Pastor Krais who said a blessing for our new family. Justin was given his bath and eventually so was Ryan, we realized that the boys needed to be monitored for low blood sugars and that went on all night and made for a long night with both boys being poked in the heel before feedings and various other times. We supplemented with bottles of formula for the first few days, but in the end everything was fine by day two.

We had other visitors as well, including Grampy, Pastor C and Nancy and Trisha all before we left the hospital.

Their birth story was obviously very different from Abigail's but both went very smoothly and were special and unique in their own way. We feel extremely blessed to have left the hospital on 10/1/08 by 11:03am, less than 48 hours after they had been born, with both boys coming home with us, healthy and having spent no time in the NICU. Both boys lost weight and left weighing 7.14 and 6.14lbs and they maintained this weight as we found out when we went to the pediatrician that following Friday. The pediatrician was very happy with how both boys were doing as well as how they were healing from their circumcisions. All in all this whole pregnancy and birth was a long yet amazing experience and the boys have done so many things that aren't typical for twins that we look forward to all of the other things we have to come as we have just begun our journey as a family with twin boys, a toddler and a dog.