There's a Whole 'Lotta Babies Up in This Joint!

So I'm not even going to split this up, I'm just going to give it all to you at once. :)

Last Thursday I had a doctor's appointment with an ultrasound. Both babies were right where they needed to be, and measuring over 6 lbs. Then I met with one of the other doctors in our practice because my OB was on vacation. My OB had set a date for the following Wednesday (the day he returned from vacation) for me to have my labor induced. At this checkup however, the doctor asked me how I was doing, checked my progress (I was the same as I had been the week before, measuring at a 3), asked me about contractions , and then basically asked me if I wanted them to go ahead and get started that day. I was taken aback and not really prepared for the question. I was only 2 days shy of 38 week, so he felt that it was up to me basically. I turned him down and said I would just wait until Wednesday because I knew Tyler was in important meetings that day and also had a golf tournament in the afternoon that he had been looking forward to. He gave me a look like, "are you sure?..." and then told me that was fine but that he was on call on Sunday and so if I went in to labor then he would help me have two beautiful babies. He was funny.

All that afternoon I was kicking myself for not just taking him up on the offer to get induced that day. I was feeling pretty miserable and done, Done, DONE. When I got home, I went and rested in bed for the rest of the day trying to ignore the painful contractions I would have every half hour or so, and texted Tyler that I wanted him to come home that night so we could try walking to get this show on the road. He came home late and we went to the mall and walked for about half an hour until the mall closed. I felt like no matter what I did, my contractions weren't really much closer together. They just hurt more. So, we went home and went to bed.

At about 2:30 am I woke up and was so uncomfortable that I couldn't go back to sleep, so I sat in my glider and tried to relax. When Tyler's alarm went off around 3:30 he asked how I was doing, and how close together my contractions had been. I told him I hadn't been tracking them, but if he wanted to help me we could see. So, I got back in bed and every time I had another contraction I asked him how long it had been. They were between 5 and 7 minutes apart, which surprised me. He asked if we should go to the hospital, and I was not sure. Pretty much everyone I know had gotten sent home when they thought they were in labor. It would either stop while they were there, or it was just false labor or something. But after my 3rd really strong contraction I said OK let's go. I figured even if they said it was false labor, I could refer them to the doctor from the day before and beg them to start me with pitocin.

When we got there they hooked me up to the monitors and I felt like the contractions had slowed down some but the monitor said that every 8 minutes I had big ones, but I was having 2 or 3 smaller ones in between that I didn't feel. The nurse said that they put my name on a room but needed to get the final approval from the doctor on call, and check my progress again to make sure the contractions were causing me to dilate more.

So, turns out I was in labor, every time they checked me I was slightly more dilated and they put me in a labor room. After a while I got my epidural and at around 2 pm they brought me to the operating room to deliver the babies. I was pretty oblivious to a lot of the details, but I think the time was 2:37 pm when "Baby A" was born:

James Malin Johanson  -  6 lbs, 7 oz  -  19 in. long

After James came, I still had to push out the next baby. My contractions were only a minute apart or so, so by then I was really exhausted, but heard them saying that I was no longer dilated to a 10, but had gone back down to a 6. Then I heard the doctor say that the baby's heart rate was dropping and she thought we might need to go in and get him. We tried another round of pushing, and she determined that while his heart rate went back up between contractions, when I was pushing was when it dropped to 80 and she didn't think it was wise to continue. So, they prepped me for a C-Section. Tyler stayed with me, and my mom went with James to the nursery. The extra anesthesia that they gave me made me shake and shiver really badly so at that point I kind of checked out. I just had to lay there and try to relax enough that the shaking would stop, but wasn't very successful. I did hear the doctor say as she opened me up that this baby had his foot up by his face, had cord around his head, and was face up. All-in-all, I'd say it was a wise choice to go with a C-Section and get him out safely. :) So, once again Tyler might have to correct the times but "Baby B" was born at 3:16 pm:

William Russel Johanson  -  7 lbs, 9 oz.  -  19 3/4 in. long

So that's the full story. I left nothing out. And now, without further adieu: the pictures.

MOM! He's sticking his tongue out at me!

Counting baby toes