In this post, I will write about the birth of both babies and tell exactly how it happened.
I had been on bed rest since 30 weeks, and by Saturday, January 25, I was 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant and very much over being on bed rest. I was trying to make it to 37 weeks, and I only had two more days until I got there. We wanted Gibson to stay in as long as he could so he could be as healthy as possible.
That Saturday, the weather was perfect and I really wanted to get out of the house. The three of us went to Tapioca House to get bubble tea (I got a fruit smoothie). While there, Liam kept talking about wanting to go to the park. So we swung back by the house so I could take a potty break, and we went to the park. Once there, I promptly parked myself on a bench and watched Will and Liam play. While there, I had a contraction that actually had a little bit of pain to it, not bad, but the first one that was a little uncomfortable. We went home after about an hour, and I parked myself back on the couch, which had been my home for nearly three weeks since I had gotten out of the hospital.
Throughout Saturday evening, I had contractions, but they were 2 hours, 1.5 hours, etc. apart. They weren't regular, or very painful, and they had so much time in between them, that I didn't think much of them. I figured my little outing had been a little too much (even though I basically just rode in the car to places and sat down) and a good night's sleep would help. After Liam was in bed, Will and I sat on the couch to watch Saturday Night Live. Pretty quickly, though, I got the feeling that I should start preparing. There was no way I could sit there and watch TV. So I got up and took a shower. The contractions were still irregular, but were roughly every 30 minutes or so. They were uncomfortable but still not very painful. Around midnight, we called our friend Sarah to let her know we might be bringing Liam over sometime in the middle of the night. At that point, we weren't really sure labor was really happening, but I thought it probably was. I made a playlist of music on Will's phone for the hospital. I went with the acoustic guitar versions of Beatles songs by Laurence Juber again, which is what I listened to while laboring and delivering with Liam. I continued to have sporadic contractions that still weren't quite convincing me that this was the real deal.
(This next part is a little graphic.)
Around 1:00 a.m., I had a light contraction, and I felt something falling out of me. I instantly knew it was Collin. I pulled him out, looked at him for just a second to confirm it was indeed him, and then I understandably starting freaking out a little bit. There was no blood at all, just a tiny lifeless baby. I told Will what happened, and then we quickly started getting ready to go to the hospital. I didn't know if my body had been contracting just to get Collin out, and would wait to try and get Gibson out, or if Gibson would be coming quickly now. We got everything together, and put Liam in the car still asleep. We took him to Sarah's house, and then we headed down to Baylor. I called the doctor on call (since it was the weekend, my doctor would once again not be delivering my child) and told him the situation. He agreed that we should go in to get checked out.
We got to Baylor around 2:00 a.m. My contractions were still about every 30 minutes apart. The nurse hooked me up to the monitor. Gibson's heart rate was great; I was occasionally having contractions. I think they were less than 30 minutes apart by then. Around 3:00, my cervix was checked and I was dilated to 6 cm and was effaced, so I was actually in labor and wouldn't be leaving until Gibson was born. I got my first round of antibiotics for the Group B strep, and then we were just waiting. My contractions did pick up speed again and were less than 10 minutes apart by then, but they were still irregular in strength and time between them.
Since I wasn't in much pain at all, Will and I had a lot of time to spend together with Collin. He still looked like a baby, just like I had hoped. He had arms, hands, legs, feet, a rib cage...everything. There weren't really any facial features left except you could tell where his eyes were. He had been perfectly formed. No one had ever told me it would be possible for me to deliver him first. I had been told he would get pushed aside while Gibson was born and come out after him. I had not mentally prepared to deliver Collin first, and especially not at home. But that's what happened, and at the hospital, I realized that God had worked it out perfectly. He gave us two very separate, distinct births for our twins. With Collin coming first and me not being in too much pain, we were able to spend time with him and say goodbye to him by ourselves. We were able to talk to the chaplain about our plans for him, and we were able to have him sent to the morgue when we wanted instead of him being rushed away from us after Gibson's delivery. I think everyone there treated Collin with a lot of respect, and respected us and the unique situation we were going through. And we were able to do all of this before Gibson was born. It worked out perfectly, actually. After we said goodbye to Collin, we were able to focus solely on Gibson.
During labor, Will actually napped since I could pretty much handle my contractions on my own. I spent what ended up being at least seven hours going between the rocking chair, yoga ball, bed, and bathroom. Sometimes I would have several contractions only a couple minutes apart, but then I wouldn't have another one for six or eight minutes. I knew that labor wasn't progressing much for whatever reason. The contractions were definitely painful by then, but nothing I couldn't easily handle. At 11:30 a.m. (yes, nearly 8 hours since the last check), the doctor checked my cervix again and said I was only at 7 cm. Good grief, I had only advanced 1 cm in all those hours. I was looking at an extremely long labor, and I had already been awake for more than 24 hours. I was tired. So I agreed to have my water broken. Before it happened, the nurse said that breaking the water would RARELY cause labor to progress super fast. It would speed things up, but not super quickly she assured me.
So at 11:45 a.m., the doctor broke my water, and he and the nurse both left the room. I went to the bathroom, and when I came out I felt intense pain. It was all I could do to make it to the counter and lean on it. I knew that I was one of the RARE ones who progressed super fast after their water was broken. Poor Will tried to help me, but I was in transition where there is no comforting or relief to be had. I could barely talk, but I told Will, "Get nurse!" He had to call three times before one (but not my nurse) finally came in the room. To her, all I could say was, "Baby soon!" Then the nurse and doctor came in and quickly got everything ready. I remembered a lot of people being in the room right before I delivered Liam, but that was probably because the delivering doctor was not yet there that time. This time, the doctor was here. While standing up by (well, leaning over) the counter, I got the familiar urge to push. I somehow walked myself over to the bed and got on it. I pushed once, and the doctor said he could see the head. It definitely hurt...a lot. I was pushing hard, but the doctor would tell me to stop pushing for a moment to ease him out. He was really calm. I was holding it together pretty well, I thought. I was definitely making noise, but you would have to ask Will if I was screaming. I don't think I was, but I don't remember. I was focused on getting Gibson out and experiencing instant pain relief. I pushed just a few times, and Gibson was born at 12:16 p.m., so it had only been 30 minutes from my water being broken to birth. Not bad. It was the most painful 30 minutes of my life, but hey, I survived it! I achieved a non-medicated birth for the second time.
The first thing Gibson did once he was out was pee on the doctor. He cried. They put him on my chest. He seemed much bigger than I thought he would be. Will once again declined to cut the cord, so once again I did it. He looked healthy and perfect! He was then taken to be weighed, measured, and checked out by the nurse. Gibson weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was measured at 21 inches long. We think the length was definitely wrong. Three days later at his pediatrician appointment, he was 19 inches long. We are averaging it out and calling him 20 inches. If he had gone until 40 weeks, I have no idea how huge this child would have been!
After that, he was brought back to me for snuggles, but he fell asleep before breastfeeding. He spent most of the day asleep, but did eventually breastfeed.
So that's the birth story of Collin and Gibson, our twins. Gibson's birth certificate reflects that he is the second born of twins.
Beautiful...I loved reading this! Your strength in the midst of a very challenging yet joyful situation is a true testament of the Lord's sustaining work in your life. Love you friend.
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