The birth of the brothers.

I did a post about Audrey's birth in case she is interested when she gets older, so I feel like I should do one for the brothers too. Here it is.

Other than the timing of the brothers birth, it was perfect. And even the timing wasn't so bad, but it sure would have been nice if they could have waited two more days to come out.

I woke up to roll over at about 3 am on January 13 and felt a little tug and some wetness. My first thought was crap please don't be my water breaking, I really want to make it to 37 weeks. I was 36 weeks 5 days. I got up and turned on a light to see a big enough wet spot to confirm that my water had indeed broken. Well shoot.

Now we had to decide if we wanted to wait a little bit before going to the hospital. I called our doula and we talked a bit and I decided my gut was saying head to the hospital now. I am a pretty big believer in following my instincts when it comes to birth so we had our plan. We were not even a little bit ready to go though. We had not packed anything or installed the car seats. We hadn't even gotten the car seats out. So, before we left we took our time packing a bag and getting ready to go. We stopped on the way for breakfast, best decision ever. I think we got to the hospital sometime around 5 am or so. By that time regular contractions had started, woo hoo.

Our doula met us at the hospital and we got set to labor. An ultrasound confirmed both babies were still head down, so we were still good to go with our plans for a vaginal birth. We talked with the on call doctor and all got on the same page about our preferences for labor and delivery. I would get an epidural, though I would wait until labor was well established (they really, really, really wanted me to get one just in case) in exchange for immediate skin to skin with both babies and delayed cord clamping. Everything in life is a compromise, birth included.

It just so happened that it was the day that the resident doctors had a lecture in the morning, which means the on call doctor for our practice needed to call the office to send an additional doctor because they always have two doctors at twin births. She said she would try to get our primary doctor who was very familiar with and supportive of our birth plans. Woo hoo again.

By about 2 pm I was starting to feel pretty ready to push some babies out. Turns out I probably should have indicated this sooner, because with twins there is a lot of crap they have to do before you get to actually push the babies out. In large part because the babies are born in the operating room just in case. So by the time everyone was suited up and I got moved to the OR baby A was really ready to come out. And he did come out after a minimal amount of pushing. He was born right onto my chest and I got to spend some good time with him skin to skin before we cut his cord and got ready for baby B.

Both my labors have been the same in that I have contractions 2 to 3 minutes apart the whole time. There is no rest. Well, of course after baby A came out everything slowed way down. So, they broke baby B's water and things started moving again. Everyone said "OK baby B should come real quick now." Well, he should have but he had his arm up by his head so it was hard to push him out. And it hurt a lot. But he did come out 40 minutes after his brother. He was born straight to my stomach because he had a super short cord, he couldn't reach my chest.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Baby A, Kai Vincent.

Kai and Dad.

Baby B, Soren Edward.

Baby B, Soren Edward.

We achieved our goal brothers, vaginal twin birth!

I got to spend some time with both babies before Kai was taken away to the nursery because he was born before 37 weeks. Apparently policy is that babies born before 37 weeks have to be taken to the nursery an hour after they are born to have some tests done. It sure would have been nice if someone had mentioned that before they were whisking them away, but it all ended up OK.

Their birth truly was everything I wanted. It could not have gone better. We got to have our doctor and she was absolutely wonderful. She even kept some of the extra people out of the delivery room so that is was as calm and peaceful as possible. I am not sure I could have been happier with how the actual birth experience went. I think credit for that goes to JT, our doula, our doctor, and I suppose me. So thank you to all of those people for helping us to have the best birth possible.

Dr. Halvorson actually delivered Audrey as well. And as you may recall her birth also went pretty much exactly as we hoped. Thank you Dr. Halvorson for helping us have wonderful birth experiences for all of our children!

The brothers are here!

Well, the brothers actually got here 3 and a half weeks ago but I have been a bit busy since then. So, here is their introductory post.

Kai Vincent and Soren Edward were born on January, 13th. Their names are Scandinavian like their mama.

Kai is the oldest and was 5 pounds 1 ounce. Soren was born 40 minutes later and was 6 pounds. We will talk more about how far apart they were born when I write a post about their birth.
 

The little stinkers were born at 36 weeks 5 days. 37 weeks is considered full term. I was really, really hoping to make it to that 37 week mark. But alas Kai had different plans. But it was OK both boys were/are healthy and happy.

Life is finally beginning to settle down a bit at this point. But it has been a crazy blur of sleep deprivation and babies.  I apparently am incapable of making babies who come out working, so when we left the hospital we were on a feeding regime that involved nursing, feeding pumped milk, and pumping for each feeding. Which is normal for later pre-term guys like these, but still. So. Much. Work. To top it off Soren did not want to eat as much as the Dr thought he should and was slow to gain weight. So on top of the other stress we had to go to weight checks at the doctor's office several times a week.

Soren, I want you to know this was a hard, HARD time. Mom was a bit of a wreck and dad was equally stressed as he was tasked with trying to get you to eat. Seriously, pretty awful buddy. But mom has some great friends in the breastfeeding community and we were able to get some really good advice and just when the doctor gave us a "he must gain weight by Monday or..." you gained 3 ounces and have not slowed down since. Thanks dude, I'm not sure how much more we could have taken. We know they are still gaining weight well because I weigh them in a pie pan on the kitchen scale a couple times a week. Mom life.

Other than that hiccup the boys are doing great. They both already nurse better than Audrey did at this point so good work there little men.

Audrey is starting to adjust to her brothers. She really likes to help and make them feel better if they are crying, but she also misses being the center of attention. She is adjusting more each day and it is so sweet to see her with them. My sweetest girl.