Pink Bows and Pigtails: Our little miracles are here!

Hailee Noelle and Hannah Faith arrived on January 27th. After a long, high risk pregnancy we are so happy that they are here and doing ok at this point. Below is my birth story and some pictures of the girls.

My c-section was originally scheduled for January 26th at 2:00p.m. Paul and I were in the recovery room waiting from about 1:30. My surgery was pushed back twice due to other emergency c-sections that had to take immediately. We were notified at different times during our wait that other very small and preterm babies were being born. Many of them were other sets of twins. On that day, there were 7 preemies born: twin 25 weekers, a singleton 26 weeker, twin 27 weekers, and twin 29 weekers. Finally at about 4:30 my doctor came in to talk to me. With all of the chaos in the NICU and in the OR they would have to push us back until the next day. I was upset just because of the anxiety built up from that day, but we understood that these other babies and moms were in more critical condition than we were.

My c-section was then scheduled for the 27th at 4:00p.m. They came in at 1:30 and told us to get ready because it would be at 2:00p.m. I didn't have much time to worry at this point. Before I knew it, we were headed down to the OR. The c-section was not like I had expected. There were so many people in the room, probably around 15. There were high risk doctors because my girls were going to be preemies, because they were twins, and because it was a c-section. I did not like being awake during the surgery. I feel like I didn't have the same "birthing" experience that I did with Ella. It was strange doing no work for the babies to come out! Hailee was born at 2:38p.m. weighing 3lbs 10oz and Hannah was born at 2:39p.m. weighing 3 lbs. We were shocked that the girls were so close in weight! Either Hannah really plumped up that last week or the last ultrasound was wrong as far as their weights were concerned. They basically walked past me with the girls and I barely got to see them. They both cried when they were born which was a blessing. Hannah ended up being breech, so it was a good thing we went with a c-section for their safety. She was a wild one in my belly so we were not surprised she had flipped again! My doctor examined my placenta afterwards and Hannah's umbilical cord was inserted on the very end. This was probably a big part of the reverse blood flow that she was experiencing while in the womb. Paul was able to go back and watch as they cleaned them up. They took them to the NICU right away to get them settled and stabilized. My parents and Leah were in the waiting room, so could peek at them as they walked by. I then went into recovery for about and hour and a half. My doctor went to check on the girls and came back to give me updates. Paul couldn't even be in there for the first 2 hours while the girls were getting all hooked up. My doctor was truly amazing during my whole pregnancy and birth experience. He came to visit us and the girls again yesterday in the NICU.