Rainbow twins birth story! (Long)

For those of you who don’t know me I am a mother of 3 beautiful boys. A 4yr, 3yr and a 19month old. We tried for years to conceive our first son and did fertility help to conceive him. My next two sons were conceived naturally. The unique part about me is this is my third set of twins conceived; naturally. My second and third pregnancies were twins as well but we would always lose one of the babies in first trimester due to “vanishing twin”. So when we made it to the “all clear” stage and knew we were actually getting twins this time we were over the moon. At 15 weeks we learned that we were going to have boy/girl twins. So that means 4 boys and 1 sweet baby girl. Yes; she will and is already spoiled rotten.

Here’s my twin birth story!

Monday 10/14: I had my 34 week maternal fetal appointment everything was ok except higher blood pressure and twin B had a heart arrhythmia. Due to my high blood pressure and headache I was sent to labor and delivery for a preeclampsia work up. After 5 hours, couple high blood pressures and normal lab work I was kept for a 24 hour hold just to monitor. I was released the next afternoon.

Monday 10/21: I went to my next routine Maternal Fetal appointment with symptoms of intense swelling of hands/ legs and a moderate headache. BP was high so after our normal NSTs and speaking with their doctors I was advised to go to labor and delivery again for a preeclampsia work up... again.

I arrived at our local high risk labor and delivery hospital. Blood pressures were mostly high with only a couple in the “normal” range but still high for me and normal lab work. The midwife who was looking after me explained that due to my symptoms and the fact that they could not get my headache to go away that per the new high risk guidelines of preeclampsia that I did in deed meet the criteria for being induced due to great risk of severe preeclampsia without abnormal lab work. She consulted with my OB and it was decided that for the health of my babies and myself that induction was best. I was 35w exactly.

At 9:00pm on Monday 10/21 I was moved up to l&d started on magnesium for my severe preeclampsia and given cytotec to soften my cervix more. I was 1.5cm dilate and only about 30% effaced. That alone trigger contractions and got me to 3.5 cm within about 4 hours. At about 4am I opted for the epidural bc I have a history of advancing very fast and didn’t want to be put under Incase of a crash c-section. Around 6am I started to get really sick from the magnesium and was given some medication to control my nausea; pitocin was also started. I labored from around 7am till 1:00pm with little to no change at that time. My nurse came in to check me and found me to be 4cm and about 70%. She advised me we would be breaking my water at 2:00 pm if it doesn’t break on its own.

At 1:40pm I was just chilling in bed (with epidural) and noticed my contractions had gotten worse. Then all of a sudden I felt a huge pop and an even bigger gush. Twin A’s bag of water broke. My nurse came in laughing and checked me. I was still 4cm almost 5 cm. Seeing as how this was babies 4&5 for me I knew I would make rapid change so we called the OR team and my OB to warn them.

My nurse stayed close bc my contraction got really intense and anesthesia was in the room trying to get my pain under control. I had one really really large contraction and I could feel Twin As head move into the birthing canal and tons of pressure. I told my Nurse who then checked me again. I went from 4/5cm to 10 cm in less than 10 minutes. Everyone kind of freaked bc twins have to be delivered in the OR where I am from so everyone is telling me to squeeze my legs and I’m trying to not push but I could feel with every contraction the baby slipping deeper and deeper.

I get to the OR and there are around 15-20 people. My OB no where in sight. They move me onto the Or table and I feel the baby’s head crowning. The resident squeezes my legs together 😂. I’m panicking bc I know that even if I don’t push that babies still tend to “fall out” on their own and I was worried my OB wouldn’t be there for delivery. Few minutes later in walks my OB and one small push later out pops Twin A at 14:35. Twin A is rushed over to the NICU team and monitored. I lost all contractions after that and Twin B was still really high so they increased my pitocin and I got the urge to push back. After a few pushes Twin B was born at 14:42.

Twins were taken to the NICU with my hubby and I was taken back to my labor room. Due to having severe preeclampsia and being on magnesium I was allowed to go see the babies till after 2 hours of monitoring. At that time I was transferred to another wing of the hospital for close monitoring and more magnesium. I was allowed a brief run to the NICU to kiss the babies.

On Wednesday 10/23 at around 4:00pm over 24 hours since delivery I was finally allowed to go down and see my babies when ever I wanted. The twins are on C-Pap (breathing support) and heat lamps but doing well for their gestation.

Today is now Saturday 10/26 and the twins have been doing great. Twin A is Elijah James who is off c-Pap, off heat lamps and just getting a little oxygen via a nasal cannula. Twin B is Isabella Zoey who is also off her c-Pap and off all oxygen support. She isn’t maintaining her temperature on her own just yet.

We anxiously await the day they get to come home. They still have some hurdles they have to meet but are predicted to come home in about 2.5 weeks.