Twins Birth story (Better late than never :)

I don't know why it was so important for me to write this now, as my boys are already 19 months...but it was heavy on my heart, so I did it. It is very long...sorry about that, but here it is, my birth story for the twins. 

My birth story of my rainbow twins after a full-term stillbirth

It was exactly 6 months after losing Mateo during childbirth that I found out I was pregnant again. I was so happy, and scared all at the same time. Then at our first dating ultrasound, I found out that I was not expecting just 1 rainbow baby, but two. Twins do not run in my family at all, so it was not something I had expected…except I had a dream that I had twins and even left Peru a couple of months after my loss feeling like I was supposed to have two more babies, not just one. Even using the bathroom just before my ultrasound I said a prayer and said, “God, please let everything be okay with this baby, or babies, if there are two.”

I knew that they were both boys, I just had a gut feeling that they were and the lack of morning sickness (I only had MS with my daughter and none with Mateo) made me sure that there were no girls in there. My daughter told me as soon as we found out that we were expecting that we were going to have two babies, a boy and a girl…and an ultrasound at 15 weeks said one was a boy and the other one she thought was a girl…but I still felt like they were both boys. And another ultrasound at 20 weeks confirmed that.

I had a lot of ultrasounds, NST’s and tests…with Mateo, I was 41 weeks, healthy and everything was normal…and then when I was about 5-6 CM dilated, we couldn’t find a heartbeat. So, no one was going to take any chances. I started spotting at 10 weeks and they found a sub-chorionic hemorrhage…so I was on bed rest until it absorbed into the Uterus….which happened at about 18 weeks…then toward the end of the pregnancy my blood pressure started going up pretty high, so I was sent home on bed rest again. At 35 weeks, on my way home from that doctor’s appointment, I got into a fender bender and started having a few stronger, but inconsistent contractions. A few days later I was very uncomfortable and having a pretty bad day. I felt sick, I felt very, very pregnant (At 35 weeks I was measuring 56 weeks pregnant) and I was so done with everything. I just knew I was going to be pregnant forever and my poor body was going to fall apart. At 5pm I had a contraction that made me really take notice. It was pretty different than the others and 7 minutes later I had another…my husband had brought me food and I was starving, so I took a few bites…and then I realized these contractions were closer to the “real deal” than I was admitting to myself.

We decided to go to the hospital, since I was only 35 weeks 3 days and get checked out. I got to the hospital and they said they would check me,  but the contractions didn’t look that strong, so they took their time…almost an hour before they hooked me up to monitors and then another 30 minutes of seeing my contractions to check me. I was at 3 cm dilated. They said I could have been walking around for weeks that way, although I had been checked a few days before and my cervix was completely closed.

I knew I was in labor. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and they went away for about 30 minutes. Then they came back with a vengeance, stronger and closer together. They waited about 30 more minutes and gave me another shot. They stopped for about 45 minutes and they checked me again…4cm. Hopefully this would work…but, it didn’t. The contractions started again and after another hour they checked me and the nurse said she could stretch me to a 5. She called my doctor who said to see if I wanted 1 more shot to see if it would work. The nurse came over and said, “You have a choice, your body really wants to give birth to these babies, but it is a little too early. You can have one more shot, but I can guarantee you it won’t work. The other option is to go ahead and do a c-section and not make you continue with labor, knowing that your son died during labor last year.” So, I chose to go ahead and have them.

By now, I had been in labor for about 7 hours. It was midnight and I was tired and in pain. They offered me an epidural, but I didn’t want it. I wanted to feel each contraction so I could tell if they were getting stronger or not. They definitely were. I also wanted to feel the babies move constantly…just hearing their heartbeats was not enough for me…

At about 1:30am a nurse came in and said that the NICU was full at the hospital and that there was a good chance that at least one of the babies was going to need to be in there for a little while. My options were to stay there, have my c-section and if the babies needed the NICU, that child or both would be transferred to another hospital. But, I would be at the current hospital still. Or I could be transferred then to the other hospital and they would do my c-section there and if the babies needed the NICU, I would at least be in the same hospital as them. That is the option I chose. At 2:30 the ambulance arrived to transfer me and I went to Banner Desert medical center. Once there the doctor on duty asked me why I was having a c-section and what they had done to stop labor. I explained everything and she said she didn’t think there was any way I was at a 5 at this point because I didn’t look like I was in that much pain. LOL She checked me and said, “Wow, you are about 5 cm, maybe a little more”

After signing and consenting…they gave Renato his scrubs and wheeled me into OR. It was then I started crying…I realized I was about to hear my babies cry. After giving birth to Mateo, all I remembered was the silence…I couldn’t wait to hear their cries and know they were alive.

At  4:18 am on July 13, 2012, (Also my father’s birthday) They pulled Kenny out. He cried. He cried, he was alive! I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. And then at 4:19 am they pulled out Alex. He cried too! It was a very emotional moment to hear that they were alive, they were okay! Kenny weighed 6lbs 8 oz. and Alex weighed 6lbs 2 oz.

Both of their apgars were 9/9, but in recovery they noticed that Alex was struggling a little with his breathing, they took him to the nursery to give him some oxygen and told me they would bring him back in a couple of hours. By the end of the day they told me they had to put in on the C-pap machine and he would stay in the NICU until he could breathe on his own…which turned into a 10 day NICU stay. I finally held him when he was 4 days old for the first time. My little fighter! Kenny was perfect, no problems, and he was actually back up to his birth weight by the time we left the hospital...which is not surprising since he is my chunky monkey :)

I was released from the hospital on day 5, and by day 7 Alex was in his own NICU room, but he started doing badly again…he wouldn't eat and was losing a lot of weight and also was struggling to breathe again...so Renato and his sister Trilce took care of Kenny for me and I moved into the NICU with Alex. For three days I did all of his feeds, all of his diaper changes and baths and stayed with him around the clock. So many friends came and kept me company, donated breastmilk for Kenny and brought me food and supplies. I am so grateful for those who helped support us while we got our little guy better and finally got to bring him home on July 23^rd. One of those amazing friends was also almost 36 weeks with twins and the hospital always tried to direct her to L&D when she would come see me! She actually gave birth on the 23rd of July, the day Alex was released...she was that close!!

Kenny and Alex cannot replace Mateo, they do not heal the pain, or fix the hurt. But they are their own blessings…they are my sweet boys and every time I look at them, they remind me how lucky I am, and how blessed my life is. We have an almost perfect family here on earth…it could only be better if we had our missing son, but I know we will see him again. And, I will still get to hold him in my dreams.