St. Louis Documentary Photographer | Physiological Birth of Twins
November 6th was my due date with the twins and they've been here for 3 weeks already! I wanted to share my birth story and officially announce the arrival of our twins! Quickly, I'd like to remind you, dear reader, this is a blog that tells my birth story. Since it is a birth, there's some nudity (mostly my back side), there's some blood, there's placentas, breastfeeding, love, support, amazingness, tiny little newborn humans, laughter, and hospital stuff. Birth can be messy and there's bound to be some skin showing. If that's not your thing, this is likely not the place for you and you can probably just stop reading once you get to the first photo :)
Though it should be obvious that the photos I'm sharing here of myself giving birth are not mine (ha!), I want to be sure to give credit to Page Avenue Photography. All photos in this post are her amazing work and she has graciously agreed to me sharing them on my blog. So, go check out her photography page and work because, duh, she's a fabulous artist.
Side note: Why has it taken me 3 weeks to get this on my blog? Let's see, my days go a little something like this: 5am nurse babies, 6:30am, wake up for the day, nurse babies, babies fall asleep, get up, brush teeth, get dressed, change babies, nurse babies, eat if I'm lucky, make coffee if I'm lucky, nurse babies, babies sleep, change diapers, nurse babies that I thought were asleep, babies sleep, 7:40am take kids to school, come home, nurse babies, babies sleep, play with/entertain 2 year old, feed 2 year old 754 snacks, prevent toddler from harming babies, change toddler's diaper, change babies' diapers, nurse babies, babies sleep, 12pm feed toddler lunch, go pee for the first time all day, change toddler's diaper, get toddler down for a nap, change babies, nurse babies, possibly shovel copious amounts of food in my face, nurse babies, get toddler up from nap, deal with alligator toddler for a diaper change who was prematurely woken from nap and is crying, pack up babies in car seats, 3pm pick up 5 and 7 year olds from school, come home, and play the change babies, nurse babies, babies asleep, get snacks tag team game with my husband until 8pm when it's time for the older three to get ready for bed. 8:30pm, nurse babies, try to keep eyes peeled, put babies in bed, babies wake up because they aren't touching me (HELLLLOOOO 4TH TRIMESTER). Nurse babies to sleep, conk out myself, wake once an hour, every hour, and do it all again the next day. Anyway, that's newborn life with twins soo sometimes things like an official birth announcement take a *little bit* of time to complete.
On October 19th, my husband, Tony, and I went to a friend’s Halloween party and left to pick up our older kids around 8:00. We went home and the entire family was in bed by 9pm. The kids like to sleep in our room on special nights and they had somehow convinced Tony to let them sleep in our room that night (guess they knew it was going to be a special night). By some miracle, even our 2 year old, Emma, fell asleep quite soundly. We were all wiped out!
I woke up to go to the bathroom (as was routine for me at this point in my pregnancy) and on my way to the bathroom, my water broke with a small trickle at 12:37am. I was 37 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I sat on the toilet for a minute to see if it was truly my water or to see if contractions would start. When I could tell that I couldn’t control the flow, I knew it was for sure my water breaking. I went to wake Tony -- full well knowing he would jump out of bed in a fury when he heard the news. He had been so nervous about my water potentially being what started labor for me because he felt like if my water broke, that we would have very limited time to get to the hospital. If you aren’t familiar with my last birth story, read up on that - it will explain quite a bit about the interactions and commentary in this post! I woke him and he let out a good expletive and jumped out of bed like I thought he would. I quickly calmed him and let him know we had time since I wasn’t yet having contractions.
I called my Doula, Nicole, and asked her to come over since we knew my labors have a history of happening quickly. I also called my birth photographer, Page, to alert her that things were starting.
We agreed to go ahead and call his parents and have them come over rather than getting the kids out of bed. His parents were over shortly followed by Nicole around 1:25am. About 1:30am, I had my first contraction and they came on every few minutes lasting 30-45 seconds. Tony very calmly asked what our plan was and we decided it would be best to just get everything in the car and that way when we decided it was go time that we could just leave. Tony let on that he was nervous about us just waiting around so the decision was made that 2am would be our cut off time to leave regardless of the pattern of contractions. At 1:55am, we decided it was time to get moving. When we got in the car, contractions were a little less than 5 minutes apart, lasting 45 seconds to a minute. On the way there, I took two videos of myself giving a run down of the situation and how things were going. We laughed as we made it past where we had to pull over to have our last baby. As we made the 30 minute trek to the hospital, contractions steadily increased to the point where I could no longer talk through them and when we got there, they were 2-3 minutes apart lasting a minute. I had sent a text to Nicole and Page to let them know contractions were steadily increasing and we needed to hurry in to the hospital. Nicole parked right by us and Page was just a couple minutes away.
Once inside, I had to stop a few times in the hallways to work through contractions, swaying my hips and breathing/moaning through them. We got to the labor and delivery check in area around 2:30am, checked in with a nurse in one room and then they took us to a triage room to assess. Page arrived shortly thereafter. I had previously been nervous about the labor and delivery staff possibly having me go straight to the OR because they like to have twins delivered there as opposed to a regular labor and delivery room.
Once we got to triage, however, things were picking up rapidly. I declined the hospital gown and chose to stay in my own clothes, I declined cervical checks and declined the possibility of a speculum that was mentioned to verify my water broke. I handed them the towel I had between my legs catching all my water for the last hour. We all got a laugh when the nurse said “Yep, that smells like birth!” and the House OB smooshed the litmus strip onto the towel and said “definitely your water that broke.” They asked if they could do an ultrasound to verify the position of the babies which I quickly agreed to because I confident that they would be head down still since they had very snugly been positioned that way for weeks. Nicole and Tony were doing hip squeezes on me and helping me work through contractions.
The OB left to get the ultrasound machine, I had a couple more contractions and quickly and quietly let Tony and Nicole know I could feel that I was going to poop (classic tell tale sign that baby is about to make their appearance) and also that the baby was coming. The OB walked back in and said “Ok can we go ahead and do that ultrasound now?” To which I responded, “Yeah, no, that’s not going to happen because she’s coming out.” And with that, the all too familiar fetal ejection reflex kicked in and our baby girl, Alexandra Jordan, was born right into my shorts (it was then that I was super thankful I had shorts on as opposed to a skirt that I wasn't able to find at home when my water broke). I quickly said, "Someone catch my baby, someone catch my baby," and Nicole swooped in and caught her as Tony helped to get my shorts down. I wanted to hold her, but couldn't as I felt too weak and just needed a moment to breathe. Nicole handed Alli over to the nurse and I asked to hold her, but we realized her cord was far too short for me to reach and hold her. There was a nurse who wanted to get me down to labor and delivery immediately, but I declined and said, "Can I just have a moment to chill? I need a minute to breathe." It was around this time that I also asked if anyone got a time on when she was born and wouldn't ya know it, a whole room of people and not a single person recorded the time! When I asked, Tony check his watch and it was 2:58. Page checked the time stamp on her photos and it looked like 3:00am or so. The hospital recorded it as 3:03am. We split the difference and agreed it was some time around 3:00am - an hour and a half after active labor began.
At this point, they also wanted to cut the cord, but I let them know I wanted to see it and I wanted it to be completely white and drained before we cut it. Once it was white, Tony cut the cord and they had me get on the bed to be transported down to a regular labor and delivery room. I got on all fours to ride down there as I knew I wouldn't be comfortable laying down on my back. Once we got to labor and delivery, I had a couple more contractions on the bed and looked at Tony and said, "We have 4 kids. For this very short time, we have 4 kids..." And I said it because I wanted to remember that moment. Our lives were changing and I've learned in big moments of life to take it all in, to remember the details, and to look into the eyes of those we love and take mental pictures. We had a laugh that our time having "just" 4 kids would be so fleeting.
Moments later, my water broke a bit on the bed, and thanks to a suggestion by Nicole, I got off the bed to stand and let gravity help me again. Once on the floor, I had another contraction, and my water broke Hollywood style -- it was a huge gush that ran like a river all over the floor. A couple contractions and another fetal ejection reflex later, Max's head was out, followed by his shoulders and the rest of his body. 3:23am, Maximus Julian, was born. Another short cord that we let finish pulsing before cutting it. I wanted to hold the babies right then, but didn't feel like I had the strength until my placentas came out. It was a bizarre sensation after they came out of feeling like a fish out of water where I couldn't breathe. Thankfully, Nicole was there to calm me and helped me regulate my breathing. They told me it was an odd thing that occasionally happens with twins because there's such a drastic shift from all the weight of the babies, the water, and the placentas coming out that the body tries to quickly catch up. I was finally able to take a seat on the bed so they could assess any tearing. I yet again earned myself some second degree tears, but my awesome Midwife, Carolyn, was able to stitch me up while I worked through the adrenaline shakes.
Shortly thereafter, I got to hold my sweet babies I had felt inside of me for the last 37 weeks and 4 days. I latched them both on to nurse and though it was a bit challenging holding two newborns to nurse immediately after birth, it felt like I was made for this. TWO newborns. Unbelievably surreal. So there we were...parents to TWO more newborns in the blink of an eye. A labor that began at 12:37am, turned into active labor at 1:30am, a baby born at 3:00am, and a second baby born at 3:23am. Just like that, we had become a family of 7. SEVEN.
We were so proud we made it to the hospital this time! And I was beyond thrilled to not be in the OR to deliver my babies. I didn't have a bed that I was confined to, didn't have an IV, had very little monitoring, and didn't even get my hospital bracelet until both babies were born. I had my husband there, I had my Doula, Nicole, there, I had my photographer, Page, there, and I had my Midwife, Carolyn there. The OB in attendance for Alli's birth *asked* me if I was ok with things like having an ultrasound done. He didn't flinch when I said I didn't want to have a cervical check and gladly took the wet amniotic fluid soaked towel I handed him. It was like it was meant to happen at that time with that staff. I wasn't pressured into things I didn't want to do and I held my ground when presented with things I preferred not to have (cervical checks, hospital gown, speculum). I could not have asked for my birth to go any better, and I'm so proud of my birth team for being so amazing, calming, and supportive. I had the physiological (unmedicated, without intervention) birth I wanted, hoped for, and prepared for. I am a huge advocate for informed choice regarding prepping for birth and I think it's important to plan for the birth you envision. I envisioned not being in an OR. I envisioned my support team being present. I envisioned no emergencies. I envisioned a full term pregnancy with healthy babies who didn't need NICU time. I practiced Hypnobabies. I did my research. I stayed active, kept a positive mindset, and surrounded myself with supportive people. Or they surrounded me -- I'm not really sure which is accurate, but holy cow did the support come out in droves this pregnancy and I will forever be grateful for it. I am sharing my birth story not just in words, but in photos because I think it's extremely important to normalize birth, to show what birth CAN look like, and to show people you have choices, you have a voice, and birth can be challenging, beautiful, exhausting, fast, and wonderful.
I'm often told that I'm "lucky" for my circumstances regarding my pregnancies and my deliveries of my 5 kids, but I don't fully agree. Perseverance, patience, education, health -- all of those play a huge role. Sure, genetics helps (my mom and sisters all had relatively quick labors as well). Also, that I had access to quality healthcare, that I am not a minority, and that I had a hefty amount of support -- it is not lost on me that *all* of those factors matter. All of those factors combined are things I'm thankful for, but above all, I'm thankful for the opportunity I've been given in this life to grow a large family, to have my mental and physical health where it is, to practice and practice and practice patience all day every day (HA!) and to continue this crazy adventure as a mama to five beautiful children and a wife to one loving, patient, doting, high-fiving, high-kicking, stud-muffin husband.
