Birth Part 1

I wanted to provide a detailed account of their birth... Before I forgot it... How very "The Notebook"of me. But in all seriousness I couldn't provide a detailed enough account of Claire's birth at this point and I want to be sure it's captured somewhere :).

So since about 1/2 way through the pregnancy my OB had set our sights in 12/27 as the delivery date. We set a date since Conor was low and lying across the uterus and Ella was breech. At 34 weeks I had another ultrasound and they were in pretty much the same position. I was told it was very unlikely that at this point there would be much more movement, or at least enough to move to where I could avoid a c-section.

I had my doubts... Since it sure felt as though they moved A LOT! And sure enough at 36 weeks the ultrasound showed they were both transverse, head down and ready to deliver! 12/27 was looking good!

My last scheduled day at work was Friday 12/21. It made sense since Monday & Tuesday were holidays and Thursday I was having twins!

On 12/27 we got up, drove Claire out to Monroe to spend a couple days with Grammy & Grandpa and took our time coming back. I had called L&D that morning and was told there were no beds. I was shocked and horrified to say the least :) of course a bed would open up once we were ready to go.

We stopped at the grocery store and ran a number of errands.... Last minute tasks that didn't really need to happen but what else were we to do? The car seats were loaded, my bag was packed... We sent some packages, cleaned out the cars & fridge, took the garbage out... That kind of stuff.

I was calling into L&D every 90 minutes or so at this point... The nurses were getting a little annoyed... But I was even more so. A new charge nurse came on after dinner and seemed to have a brighter outlook on my potential to come in. I assured her no time was too late... We had some hurried back and forth around 9:30pm and by 11pm I was checked in my room and getting ready for a long night!

The Pre labor, per petosan was started to "ripen the cervix". I was this until about noon the next day 12 hours! Chris and I jut tried to sleep and answer emails. I met with anesthesia a few times and decided to go with an epidural pretty early inning the process. It was a long 24 hours to be hooked up to monitors and just hanging around with really no contractions or anything going on. Since Conor was being very elusive on the fetal monitors the medical staff decided to connect a new kind of monitor to him... Actually up inside and attached to his head. In order to do this they needed to break his water. This seemed all well and good. So ahead they went.

The petosan was slowly increasing, one sac was broken now so I prepared for things to speed up. A couple hours later the staff changed over in shift and I got a wonderful nurse who had it as her mission to make this happen. She got me sitting up on the edge of the bed doing some breathing and movement. This got the contractions going so in went the epidural. It was beautiful! I stayed in the edge of the bed position for 30 minutes then moved to the next position she showed me. No sooner was I on my side, closing my eyes when in rush 3 of the medical team caring for us.

They're hurriedly asking me what I had just done and I was explaining I rolled to my side. They were calm but clearly concerned.

Everyone was checking different monitors and asking questions. One nurse leaned over and told me that Ella's monitor showed some decelerations while another staff member checked my cervix. I was 10cm and ready to go. REALLY?!?

So Chris was instructed to gown up and I was being wheeled to the operating room.

Off I went with Chris hopefully close behind me. It was 8pm when I rolled on my side... I was wheeled into the operating room at 8 or 9 minutes after 8pm and told to push. I pushed 3 times and Conor was out! So fat I fact that hardly anyone was gowned and ready to go. But lucky for all of us they caught him and he let out a healthy cry right away. The Peds team that was there took him over to the corner and began their cleaning up and initial assessment. Luckily another Peds team was arriving because as soon as Conor was out they checked Ella's orientation and she had flipped around. With her feet facing down now they had little time to decide to go for it. They reached up inside and pulled her out by her feet. When her shoulders were close to out they had me push her the rest of the way 1 and a half pushes and out she came.

There was a slip of the clamp on Ella's umbilical cord which allowed blood to flow freely causing her to bleed out a bit. So my first glimpse of her was all covered in blood. She didn't cry right away and was a little purple it seemed. I later learned that she had been bruised by the extraction. We ended up having some follow up tests on Ella to make sure the blood loss was not significant and to confirm the bruising was heeling well.

Conor Daniel Herrman arrived at 8:11pm weighing 7lbs 14oz and Elouise Morgan Herrman was yanked out immediately following at 8:15pm weighing in at 6lbs 3ozs. They were both beautiful, healthy and alert.

Ella being smaller and bruised I was instantly a little more concerned about her. We got back to the room and did some breast feeding. Ella was a champ from the start. Conor seemed sleepy and not interested. He did have this little squeak he made though that was so very cute.

We we're end to the post partum room by midnight that night. Mom & Annie arrived just as we were moved.

Mom held Conor and they both got to hear the delivery details.

Claire & Grandpa along with Grammy visited the next day too!

By morning Conor's super cute squeaking had turned into more of a constant grunting. This concerned me and I pages the pediatrician. No sooner did he enter and suggest taking Conor over to the Progressive care nursery (with Chris in hot pursuit never leaving Conor's side) did they make a quick decision to head to the NICU instead.

Ella and I were left feeling quite alone and scared for Conor. After evaluating him it was determined his lungs were still filled with some of the fluid from pre birth and had collapsed a bit.

More to come in part 2....