Author: Kirsten Smith
This is part two of my birth story – being induced with twins. You can read part one below.
Pre-eclampsia and twins. Part one of my twin birth story.
Being induced with twins
It was finally time to be done with the hell that was carrying two babies at the same time – I could of cried out of happiness … because there really was a time where I thought I’d be pregnant forever, or the babies wouldn’t last the entire pregnancy.
So off to the birthing suite we go to be induced with twins. Because I was already 3 centimeters all they needed to do was break my waters. So that labour could start.
That sounds pretty simple right … after all when waters break spontaneously its pretty simple with no pain. (I know because it happened with my oldest Bradley, I just thought I was peeing)
Ha ha HA (that’s me laughing at myself for thinking it would be an easy process)
My midwife (who was amazing and quite honestly I would have never got through the next few hours without her) pulls out a HUGE crochet hook … yep you read that right, a GIGANTIC CROCHET HOOK … which she shoved up my cervix and hooked Twin A’s amniotic sac.
I have never experienced pain like that before – and keep in mind that I gave birth to Bradley without pain killers, (not bragging just trying to explain where my pain threshold sits)
This. Was. Worse!
But then came immediate relief when the water finally broke.
And then it was a waiting game to see if contractions would start on their own.
Being induced with twins and preparing to give birth to twins
In the meantime, the room was starting to be prepared for the girls to arrive. Two newborn checking stations were brought in and an ultrasound machine to check Twin B once Twin A was born.
You see that’s the real problem with birthing twins, once the first one is born the second one can flip sideways or transverse if you want to be technical. If that happens they need to manipulate the baby around … by shoving their hands up there!!!
Which is why they recommend you have an epidural so you don’t feel them sticking their hands up your hoo ha!
Contractions were starting but not quite as quickly as we would of liked, so they gave me Oxycontin in a drip to get the contractions to start coming more regularly.
Argh, man I know I’ve done it before … but holy crap contractions hurt.
Epidural with twins
We had agreed to the epidural a few weeks earlier, but I was super scared of it. I was more scared of it than actually giving birth to the twins. It was probably the fear of the unknown, the fear of all the things that can go wrong.
Also fear of that GIANT FREAKING NEEDLE THEY WERE ABOUT TO JAM INTO MY SPINE!!!!!
Now I don’t know if all doctors do this, but the doctor who gave me my epidural started the whole thing off by telling me ALL the ways it could go wrong …. from an incurable headache to paralysis ….
Good god Good god Good god Good god Good god Good god Good god
Then he jumped straight into prepping me for it …. I was terrified …
Scariest half an hour of my life … curled over a pillow trying to hold my breath so the needle wouldn’t puncture anything.
But I must say, it wasn’t nearly has painful as I was expecting, just uncomfortable pressure – and I think that was my mind making me uncomfortable (because I kept thinking about what he was doing which was threading a damn tube in my back!)
*Shudder*
Looking back at my epidural with twins
I actually have pictures of the whole process, and I haven’t been able to look at them until now – my body just wasn’t ready.
Epidurals are fun once they are in, they give you a button and you’re allowed to press it 4 times an hour to up your dosage … very handy.
It’s handy because I could make it so I could still feel contractions if I wanted to … and I wanted to. Because it meant I was in control, which was really good. It also meant I didn’t need to feel the unbearable pain that is someone checking your cervix to see how far along you are.
Seriously, I’m never going to stop saying how painful it is – biggest shock of my life.
So we were ready, contractions were regular, the epidural was in and now all we had to do was wait for Twin A to make her arrival.
Now do you remember at the beginning of this painfully long story I told you I had a horrible cough?
A really bad cough.
A really bad no good cough!
Do you know how hard it is to be in labour with a cough …..
Really freaking hard.
Although I’m pretty sure my Midwives would say it actually helped labour.
Once I had the epidural in everything went calm, which was super weird considering how chaotic Bradley’s labour was. But of course the calm didn’t last very long (or maybe it did … I was high!).
This is part two of my birth story – being induced with twins. You can read part one and part three below.
Pre-eclampsia and twins. Part one of my twin birth story.
Twins born different days. Part three of my twin birth story.