How our family grew to be four

This is the exciting and true story of how our twins were born. On Wednesday, August 27th, we left for the hospital at 4:30 in the morning. Steve thought I was joking when I woke him up to tell him it was time. When we got to the hospital I wasn't very far along, but my contractions were getting intense fast. After several hours of seriously hard labor I was finally able to get an epidural. The doctors were worried about my blood platelet levels, so we had to wait on several blood and clotting tests before the anesthesiologist agreed it was safe. Once the pain was gone and I was able to talk again, Steve and I finally agreed on what to name our babies: Shane Michael and Scott Matthew. We thought it would be cute to have their initials be the same as their daddy's.

When it was finally time to push, baby A took his sweet time coming. I swear they told me "this is it, here he comes" for about 20 pushes. It turns out he was facing up, so my doctor gave me an episiotomy and used the vacuum to help him out. When baby A cried it was absolutely the cutest sound I have ever heard. The nurses all said he was the cutest baby (which I suspect they tell every new mom), and he had the longest eyelashes. I thought Shane had been born, but Steve whispered to me, "His name is David," and he was right. He was our baby David.

Then it was baby B's turn to meet us. The doctor pushed him all around, which was not very pleasant for me as they had purposely let my epidural start to lessen to help me push. Baby came head down into the birth canal just as we had hoped. Then my doctor broke the baby's amniotic sac, and his cord prolapsed, which means his umbilical cord came out with his head. This cut off his oxygen, so my doctor had to do an emergency c-section. A nurse gave David to Steve, and Steve got pushed to a corner. When I realized something had gone wrong, I asked for Steve to hold my hand, but they basically threw him out of the delivery room, baby and all. I don't remember much about the surgery except that it hurt, and I didn't really understand what was happening. I found out later that my doctor got the baby out in just a few minutes, and his quick action saved our baby's life. When baby B came out, I didn't see him and I didn't hear him cry. I asked if he was okay, but nobody would answer me. The nurse just kept telling me it was going to be alright. I kept praying that we would all make it through so we could be a family.

I don't really remember anything after that until I was in the recovery room. Steve came in and showed me a picture of our baby in the NICU. He looked so tiny and fragile with tubes everywhere, but Steve told me that he was already doing better. He wasn't breathing when he was born, but now he was on a respirator and doing better all the time. Steve called him Scott, but I told him that I wanted to name him Erik after my doctor because he saved his life. I was pretty sure that Steve would have agreed to anything I asked at that time because he was just so glad that I was okay. They had left him waiting for over an hour before they told him what had happened to us. Then a nurse brought David into the room, and I got to hold my baby for the first time. He was so tiny and perfect, and I loved him so much. The moment was bittersweet though, knowing our other tiny baby was fighting to stay alive. A nurse took me to the NICU to see Erik before she took me and David to our room. It was so surreal. I don't think anyone plans on seeing their baby for the first time like that, but everyone seemed very hopeful that baby Erik would be fine. I was exhausted and hurting, and that night seemed to last a week. Steve spent the whole night going between my room, the nursery, and the NICU to check on his family. I don't think he slept at all.

Thankfully Erik recovered faster than anyone would have guessed. By morning he was out breathing the respirator, and they had him on a different machine called a cpap that gave him higher levels of oxygen through his nose and kept his airways open. Then next day, they removed that and his IV, and I was able to hold him. Then next morning, a nurse unexpectedly rolled Erik into our room - tube and wire free and just as perfect as can be. We were so happy to have both of our beautiful baby boys with us. We stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon, and then we all went home together as a family.

David and Erik are basically the cutest, best babies in the whole world, and we couldn't be happier! Their birth didn't go at all as we had planned, but I would do it all again to have these precious babies in our family.