Once upon a time (A Birth Story)

Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife, who desperately wanted to have a baby. They tried and tried, but had no luck. Then they went to a wonderful Dr, and prayed and fasted, and God allowed the wife to become pregnant with twins. With Alexander and Max. It was the biggest blessing anyone could ask for. The wife had a ridiculously awful pregnancy, and almost had they babies far too early. But the Lord protected them. The wife was reminded of her favorite verse Psalm 37:24, which promises that the Lord upholds the righteous with His hand, even though they stumble, they wont fall. Even though the pregnancy was hard and awful, the Lord upheld them, through lovely people bringing meals,  through family willing to drop everything and help, through a few decent healthcare professionals, and His amazing grace. The wife spent far too much time at the hospital, it seemed like she got sent to triage at least 2 times per week at the end. But each time, she got to go home, or only stayed a day or two. Until the end. That time they wanted to keep her for a 24 hour test. That time the lab was backed up and the results did not come in for another 24 hours after it was sent. That time the test results revealed it was no longer safe for the wife or twins for her to stay pregnant. (The wife suspected this may be the case, as her feet and legs were swollen beyond recognition and her blood pressure was steadily rising despite tons of extra blood pressure medicine.)

So, at 8 am on Thursday, January 20, the doctor came in and said it was time to have some babies. They wheeled the wife away from her room to a new labor and delivery room (with an ugly view of a trash filled ditch and a mirror right across from the bed so the wife could see how awful and miserable she looked) Then the nice Doctor who had stitched the wife shut came to remove the stitch so the babies could come. Unfortunatley, he couldn't get it, and the iv medication was wearing off, so after much begging and pleading on his part, they went to an OR and she allowed an epidural to be placed (she requested it not be a student, but it hurt so badly she was pretty sure a student placed it) and the doctor took out the stitch. Then the wife asked for the epidural to be turned off so she could labor naturally. No one wanted to do this, but they did upon her insisting. Even though she had been having contractions for weeks, they started her on pitocin to allow the contractions to get strong. They did get stronger, and they hurt more, but she still wanted no part of the epidural. They begged her to let them put it back on. Then the Dr came and broke her water, and everything hurt way worse, and they begged her to get the epidural, and she said ok. And they said they would turn it right on, it would only take 15 minutes. 2 hours later, after her mother and the man chased down hospital administrators, they actually turned on the epidural. (And changed the iv that had infaltrated and her nurse ignored, and went home without changing) and the wife felt better for about 45 minutes. Then the epidural wore off.  All night she labored, and told them how it hurt, and every once in a while someone would come and put more medicine in the epidural, but the pain never went away. They also came in a lot to chase the babies around with the dopplers, because as little room as there was in there, the boys kept hiding from the monitors.

Finally, at 4:30 am the nurse announced the wife was at 10 cm. They had her push. They called the doctor. Everyone scrubbed in and they went to the OR. The wife was hurting very badly, but her legs couldn't move. She pushed and pushed. And then the Dr asked the nurse to come feel and look. It turns out the wife was only 5 cm dialated. So they wheeled her back to her room. And begged to place a new epidural since the one that was in wasnt working. She consented, but it hurt very badly. And she only got about 15 mins of relief. And her legs could move. She was ok  except for the horrible pain in her back from the stupid epidural. She decided she was done. But then the DR came and said if she didnt have a working epidural and they had to c section she would miss her babies birth. She really didnt want to do that, but said no to the epidural. Two hours later, she decided to let them try one more time, and made them give her iv meds while they did the epidural, which this time the anesthesiologist placed along with a spinal. The spinal worked, but the wife kept saying that once it wore off the epidural probably wouldn't be working. They scoffed at her. But she was right. The spinal wore off and the epidural was not working. An hour later she really was 10cm. They went to the OR again. The wife pushed and yelled and screamed and pushed (she was very mad she went to all the trouble of having an epidural and it was not working!) and then, after about 30 minutes The wife heard the most precious sound in the world, a tiny cry. The wife was a mommy. The man was a daddy. And the daddy cut the infant's cord, as he lay on the mommy's tummy. He was Alexander. He was perfect.

Then the drs and nurses took him away and began to work on his tiny body, assessing him and giving him oxygen. Then mommy's dr then told her something terrifying. Baby B had flipped over. She gave the option of a csection or her pulling him out. AS soon as the Dr said it was safe, the mommy said "go for it" and the Dr did. She pulled him out by his feet. Only two pushes from Mommy and he was here. Max was here. They were a family. A mommy, a daddy and two beautiful sons. God is very good to allow such things. The doctors and nurses took Max away to assess and work on him. He didn't cry until he was over at their station.

This worried Mommy. Daddy followed the drs and nurses around and made sure the boys were safe and ok. The Dr fixed the mommy up. The boys were cleaned up and wheeled over for Mommy to say goodbye. Goodbye for 29 hours. The same amount of time she had labored. This 29 hours was much much harder though. She missed her little guys very much. On the way to the NICU, the boys met their grandparents, who marveled at their beauty and health. They praised God. We praise God. For you my sons, we praise Him. Though the time when you came into the world was hard, and filled with trials, we praise Him. He took care of us, and we became a family. And the Mommy and the Daddy and Max and Alexander would be together again, but that story , along with many others is for another time.

 The End

Stay tuned for more information on the boys first days of life,  as well as updates, and photos.