So I'm writing this twelve weeks after the boys were born. I should have done this much earlier, but...um...I've been kinda busy. So, from what I remember, this is the birth story of our twins!
I don't remember exactly how early Steve and I had to be at the hospital, but I drove us there and waddled my 190 lb. self to delivery. Yep, that's right, I gained 70 pounds for these babies! They took us back to our room immediately. We got a huge room usually used for water births. Steve thought we got a hot tub. :) We also had a couch and little table. It was all very nice. After the normal vitals check and all that, the nurses started the meds. My mom and Linda eventually made it to the hospital and we all hung out for most of the day. Throughout the day, each time Linda would leave for a walk or drink etc., the doctor always came in. We started trying to kick her out at random times just to hurry things along. But my mom almost missed the birth altogether. She had gone out of the room to get something to eat when the doctor came in and said I was fully dilated and ready to push. After frantically texting her, she made it back just in time. So after hours of waiting, I was getting nervous we would go home babyless, and so I gave the babies an ultimatum of 5pm. And by golly, they almost hit it!
At 5:40pm, Brant Douglas was born weighing 5lb 14 oz and 18 inches long. I pushed a total of four times during one contraction. My mom held one leg and Linda the other. Daddy stayed up by my head and held my hand. He swore that he wouldn't be able to look, and he didn't. I watched in a mirror. Since Daddy didn't feel comfortable cutting the cord, Mimi did it for him. After Brant was detached from me, Daddy followed him to the nurses' station. Brant screamed for a long while, and Daddy tried to comfort him as best as he could. He also came over to kiss me, and I noticed that he was crying.
At 5:56pm, Brax Robert was born weighing 6lb 7oz and 19 3/4 inches long. I only had to push four times with him also. This time, Daddy peeked and told me that he would watch the next time we had a baby. Grandma Linda cut the cord this time. Brax didn't cry nearly as long as his brother. And after what seemed liked forever, I finally got to hold the babies.
Lynn and Brooke came in later that night. Lynn commented that I seemed very calm. I was watching the Cubs game and chilling in bed. There really wasn't much else I could do! Papaw brought Elias up to see his brothers. He was extremely excited and was heard saying, "Now I never have to play with mom and dad ever again!"
Around 10 o'clock that night, we were moved to a postpartum room. It was very, very tiny. Daddy slept on the couch "bed." Brax scared us that night when he started coughing and gagging on a ton of mucus that he eventually spit up. We were told that mucus was normal, especially for babies that don't hang out in the birth canal very long. After that, we asked for both babies to be kept in the nursery while we slept. Neither of us trusted ourselves enough to wake up if it happened again. And it did happen again, more than once.
In the hospital, I noticed that Brax seemed to be very aware of things going on around him. I even saw him follow a person as they walked past his bassinet. He was very calm and chill. Brant, on the other hand, was more high maintenance. He was constantly hungry and never seemed satisfied. I did try to breast feed them. Brant had no problems, but Brax couldn't latch on. The lactation consultant later determined that the roof of Brax's mouth was too high for him to latch. He hadn't eaten in the first 24 hours, so we had to decide between pumping immediately or allowing him to be formula fed. I started pumping colostrum. It was a little frustrating pumping every 3 hours and only getting a mL of colostrum that Brant downed in seconds and Brax had trouble finishing.
Over the next two days, we had more visitors, both boys endured a circumcision, and we about went stir crazy in the tiny room. We almost had to stay due to the loss of weight by both boys and Brax's trouble with taking a bottle. Luckily, the hospital's pediatrician allowed us to leave as long as we saw our own pediatrician in the next few days.
Stats from their first doctor's appointment on July 11...
Brant: 18 5/8 inches, 5lbs 9 1/2 oz
Brax: 18 1/2 inches, 5 lbs 15 oz
In this first week, the boys have shared their first smiles. Brant has even giggled. Elias says they smell like marshmallows. We've had lots of visitors, and my friends have taken turns bringing us scrumptious dinners. Daddy tries to get lots of skin-to-skin time in, and we've tried to do a little tummy time too. We've noticed that Brant hates the hiccups and will get mad and cry whenever he gets them. We also had our first scare.
Brant was downstairs laying in his seat while I ran upstairs to get Brax. As I was coming down the stairs, I saw Elias holding Brant and walking across the living room. I about fell down the stairs. Very calmly, I took the baby from Elias and made him promise never to pick up a baby without permission EVER again. I don't even want to think about what could have happened in the two minutes I was gone. I do have to mention that Elias was holding him perfectly with one hand supporting Brant's head and had the other around his body.
Oh well, we made it through the first week.
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