Jacob Daniel was born on Tuesday February 18, 2014 at 8:21am. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long.
Luke Andrew was born 8 minutes later at 8:29am. He weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long.
They are beautiful and perfect.
Now for the birth story....
Ben left on Monday night to pick up his mom at the airport. He got home and we went to bed at 11 pm. I woke up at 4 am to another painful contraction. It wasn't a surprise to me because I wake up several times each night and had been for over a month to awful Braxton Hicks contractions. I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I waited a little because I wasn't actually sure if it was my water that broke. I woke up Ben and he called my doctor and I started to clean the bathroom floor and get ready to go. We left our house at around 4:30am. On the drive I tried to count between contractions. I had about 4 really good ones on the drive down that were distinctly different from my usual Braxton Hicks. So we assumed they were about 20 minutes apart. Ben and I kept good conversation on the way down. We got to the hospital at around 5:45. I was at a 4 cm when the nurse checked me. And she proceeded to tell me that my contractions weren't 20 minutes apart, they were 1-3 minutes apart. My reaction, "Oh okay, that's good."
At 6 am the shifts changed and the new nurse finished all of my registering while I answered questions and breathed through a few contractions. She checked me afterwards and I was at a 10. She was shocked, I was shocked, and then it was time to quickly roll me into the OR because these babies were coming. We had to wait for my doctor to arrive. When he did, I started to push. It is sooooooo hard to push during contractions, especially when there are two babies there getting squashed. I could do it, but it wasn't very effective because the pain surging through my body made it hard to concentrate. Was I pushing? Was I pushing correctly? I couldn't figure out what I was doing. After a half an hour of pushing I heard a nurse say, "Let us know if you want an epidural." Oh, I could have that? Okay. Sure. I am so glad I did. Not because I couldn't handle the pain. I'm not gonna lie, the pain isn't as bad as people say. Instead I got the epidural because it so helpful in helping me figure out what my body was doing. I could concentrate, push, and have success. So I pushed for another 30 minutes and Jacob Daniel arrived. It was so quick, he cried, and then it was onto baby #2.
Baby #2, Luke Andrew, was breech. So my doctor tried turning him. It took awhile and even then there was no success. So he pulled the kid out feet first. It was going well until his poor head got stuck. Ben filmed it and it is the longest few minutes ever. Everyone in the room was dead silent and I could see by the look on my doctors face that things weren't going as well as they should. Not only was he stuck but he was purple. After a little push a few minutes later he came out. But he wasn't breathing. After the longest couple of minutes of my life I finally heard a weak little cry coming from Baby #2. Throughout my entire laboring process I didn't really make a sound. I didn't scream, or cry, or yelp in pain. But as soon as I heard Luke's cry, the emotions flooded over me along with a lot of tears. He was okay, and that little cry was a huge relief.
The rest of my stay at the hospital was so good. All of the nurses were excellent. The service and care were excellent. I have nothing to complain of. We were able to narrow the names down to 3 by Wednesday morning and by Thursday morning we finally confirmed the names. I was home by Thursday afternoon and have quickly recovered. I am adjusting to the lack of sleep and have a lot of help from Grandma. They are on a pretty strict schedule and so far they only wake up once a night for feeding (at around 3am) and then they wake up again around 7am.
Both babies were healthy and strong. They are perfect. They are gorgeous. They are completely different from one another. Jacob has brown hair. He needs a little more attention than his brother. He prefers nursing over a bottle. He struggled eating anything at first and now he's a champion eater who requires more food than his brother. He hates diaper changes and he struggles sleeping and has tummy aches.
His brother Luke is our little squawker. He is chill but he'll randomly shout out to let everyone know he's still there. He is blonde. He burps like a grown man. And sleeps so well. He's already gotten a cold and recovered. He refuses to nurse and will only take a bottle.
Lucy loves her brothers. I would've sworn she's done this before. She's interested in her brothers, but not really enough to smother them. She gets bored playing with them so she does her own thing most of the time. Their crying doesn't bother her. She ignores them more than I thought she would. She's actually pretty helpful.
I am so happy to be home with them. I hated the last couple months of my pregnancy and now I know why...My braxton hicks were as bad as real labor! But I am so grateful my body stuck it out so that my boys could be healthy and come home with me. I am so grateful that I had a wonderful doctor who was willing to deliver these boys naturally and that it was successful! I am so grateful that my water broke so that I knew when to go to the hospital because I had every intention of going back to bed. I am so grateful that Ben's mom arrived the night before. I am grateful that Ben was such a good support throughout the whole thing. This entire process has been miraculous. It is no question in my mind that Heavenly Father wanted these boys to come to earth and join our family at this time.
Jacob (Left) and Luke (Right)
Luke (Left) and Jacob (Right)
Jacob
Luke
Luke (Left) and Jacob (Right)
