Nobody likes long stories about labor and delivery, so I will spare you the gory details. I started contracting at 6PM on the 24th and they happened all night, about 7.5 minutes apart. They make several nice apps for my phone that make it easy to monitor contractions, but as far as stopping them… no app for that.
By 4am, things started to progress and everyone realized that these babies were definitely on the way. Both babies were head down and so that meant a c-section was not a necessity. If I was given the option of a normal delivery, I had every intention of getting the epidural. But due to the blood thinners I had been taking while I bedrest and the time of my last injection, anesthesiology would not even consider prepping for one until 10am.
They gave me some demoral which really did nothing to help, it just made me feel groggy and worse in between the pain. They tried something else which just made it worse, and Bill had to stand by me and yell at me to keep breathing instead of sleeping too soundly.
By the time I was wheeled to the big OR room to start pushing, everything happened super fast.
Brendan Shane – 4lbs 10oz. 17.75 inches in length – born at 9:27am
Trevor Corbin – 5lbs 0.2oz 17 inches in length – born at 9:35am
Brendan, who all this time had been my “Baby B” tricked everyone by coming out first. I caught a glimpse of him as they whisked him away for immediate testing and intubation. Trevor got checked over, wrapped up like a burrito and they waved him in front of me a little before he followed his brother out too.
Within a few hours, we heard that they were both intubated and stable in the NyICU (Nursery Intensive Care Unit), vs the NICU which is the Neuro-ICU. Brendan’s heart got an echocardiogram right away and there were no surprises or new developments over what they had seen in the fetal scans they did. It was pumping well. Having had ruptured membranes for so long, Brendan was at a disadvantage because his lungs did not get a chance to grow and develop as well as his brother’s. And to add to his series of medical misfortune, he had a collapsed lung which may have happened during the intubation process.
The poor boy got a chest tube and was put on this oscillating ventilator that made his poor chest/belly flutter and looked extremely uncomfortable.
Both boys got an IV line in to their umbilical cord for nutrition and fluids. And they are all hooked up with wires, monitors and sensors to track their vitals as they lay in their little incubators.
They have a long road ahead. Both boys will spend a great about of time to finish growing in the nyICU. Brendan will certainly stay longer than Trevor. They will need to determine if he will require a Pulimary Band surgery early, or if he can wait for the Glenn Procedure that is the first step of his Fontan operation. They won’t know if this is necessary until they resolve the problem with his lungs and see how he is going to oxygenate.
Pictures!
Brendan’s incubator in the NyICU
Brendan getting his first echocardiogram
Trevor seems to enjoying the sudden large amount of space he has
No surgery and no epidural means I am up and about almost immediately. I can only say that it is worth it now that it is over!!
