The Story...

Several people have asked for "the story"...did you go into labor, did you have a c-section, I thought you were sent home on bedrest, etc. so since I've been terrible at email lately here's the story... ****some info may be TMI so here's your warning***

On Friday, March 20th, HG & I went to my regular weekly appointment. He doesn't normally go to these because they take 15 minutes and they are usually mid-morning and really no big deal. Well, HG was supposed to go to Shreveport on Saturday for work so he wanted to get confirmation from the doctor that all was good and he could go out of town. Not that my doctor would've done that because his normal response was "everything is going great, but with twins things can change overnight" and boy did they!

My feet had been swelling for a few weeks, but I always pointed that out when I went to the doctor, but other than that I wasn't having any other symptoms that I knew of. I will admit that the week before I had seen spots twice and thought "oh, I should tell Dr. Payne at my next appt", but I promptly forgot and all seemed good. Well, at the appointment on Friday my blood pressure was up significantly and there was protein in my urine. So he says I'm going to have you go next door to Labor & Delivery for monitoring. Ok, what exactly does that mean? I'm thinking that I'll be hooked up to the fetal monitors for 30 minutes or so and be on my way...ha, ha, little did I know.

So HG & I walk over to L&D and tell them I was sent over for observation and in no time, I'm whisked into a hospital room and asked to change into a gown. Excuse me??!!! I thought I was just going to be monitored. Well, my little monitoring session lasted the ENTIRE weekend!!! I was on total bedrest all weekend...NO FUN! By Sunday morning, I'm allowed to go home but only if I agree to STRICT bedrest. This basically means that I can lie on the couch during the day, my bed at night, and go to the restroom and that's it. I'll admit it's normally hard to keep this girl down, but I really wanted the babies to cook for as long as possible so I was going to be a stellar patient.

I asked my Nana (grandma) to come stay with me because I knew if someone wasn't there I'd be trying to make my own meals and that wasn't even an option. So on Sunday my dad, Nana, and grandpa drove down for a quick visit and to drop off Nana.

We got home from the hospital around 1pm on Sunday and my wonderful husband helped me set-up camp on the couch. Amanda & Chris came over for a visit, brought us lunch, and they brought me a "beat the boredom" goodie bag. I thought all was going well except that HG was a little nervous because each time he took my blood pressure it was getting a little higher and closer to the danger zone (which would put me back in the hospital). Around 5pm, I started feeling kinda bad. I just couldn't get comfortable so I moved to the bed. I tried to nap, I tried to watch tv, but nothing was working and I was getting more and more miserable and my blood pressure was getting higher and higher.

After several phone calls to the on-call doctor and a last-minute call to Alison for her medical opinion, HG decided we were going back to the hospital. I looked horrible, I felt horrible, and my stomach was so tight that I was absolutely miserable. Plus, I SWEAR that my stomach grew that day! So just as all of this is decided my family walks in the door just to turn around and follow us to the hospital.

So back to L&D I go. We arrived around 9pm and I think by 1am it was decided that I would be having the babies that day. Initially, they had told HG that I would be staying in the hospital until I delivered, but they were hoping that we could keep the babies cooking for at least a week and hopefully longer. Unfortunately, this time around the medicine didn't work to lower my blood pressure so I was treated to the lovely magnesium sulfate and then to a c-section.

The magnesium does a number on you and with the other drugs, I was pretty out of it so for those of you that have had a scheduled c-section and can actually remember the details...not me! The details of Monday (all day) are a bit fuzzy and even part of Tuesday. According to HG, I could fall asleep mid-sentence and even once while eating my lunch. Good thing, I don't remember!!! ;-)

HG was wonderful through the whole process. I had no idea he'd be able to watch them deliver the babies during the c-section, but he says it's something he'll never forget. I was still on bedrest/recovery for Monday so I only got to visit the babies once in the NICU and not for very long. I was able to hold Hudson, but not Kennedy since she had a rougher start. Honestly, I was so out of it that I didn't really even question it and just knew that HG was taking care of everything and that the babies were in good hands. On Tuesday, I was moved to a post-partum room and was still pretty much on bedrest. I had to take a wheelchair to the NICU and they suggested we visited on the babies feeding schedule (8,11,2, & 5 am/pm). We did skip the 2am & 5am feedings so we could get some sleep.

We spent the rest of the week in the hospital and I was discharged on Friday afternoon. All I can say is that Baylor Frisco is a FABULOUS facility and if you live in the area and are having a baby I highly suggest considering Baylor Frisco as your hospital of choice.

So that's the story...