Our family expanded 4 more feet

The arrival of the girls was straight out of a book.  Everything went smooth and shockingly quick.  For the twin boys I was in labour for almost 12 hours with 1.5 hours of pushing Zachary was born followed by Mathew a speedy 11 minutes later.  For the birth of Joshua my water broke and then I was in active labour for 6 hours and had almost 3 hours of pushing.  So when we went to the hospital to deliver the girls, we expected a similar drawn out delivery.

My in-laws arrived late on the night of December 29th and Jason and I headed to the hospital mid morning on the 30th.  At this point I had made it to 38 weeks and 5 days with the twin girls and I was gigantic :)  I was not in labour when we went but we were going to be induced at some point that day.  When we arrived I was 3 cm dilated but since I had been 2cm for over a month it was no big deal.  My contractions were approximately 3-7 minutes apart but again I had been having those same non-progressive contractions for months.  The doctor was going to be coming in to see me after she finished her office hours for the day so we stayed at the hospital where I was monitored.  Jason and I walked around, went shopping at the gift store and basically hung out for the day.  When the doctor arrived at 6 pm that evening we were shocked to find out that I had progressed to 6cm without knowing it.  She broke the first water sac and we became top priority to receive an epidural in case of emergency c section during the delivery.  Baby A was head down and baby B was transverse (sideways) with her feet down.  45 minutes later I was 9.5 cm dilated and we were rushing to get to the operating room where I would deliver.  I had never delivered in the operating room before and was shocked with how quickly they get it all set up and how great all the nursing staff and doctors were.  I remember thinking everyone was working so quickly like busy little bees.  It could have been a crazy stressful situation but our doctor had a way of making you feel super calm.  A specialist (perinatologist) she delivers twins with her husband (an obstetrician).  For our situation he would do the ultrasound so she could see the position of the second baby as the first was born.  He was also there as a back up in case an emergency cesarean section had to be done. 

Once everything was set up I specifically looked at the clock and this is the conversation that pursued

Doctor  "okay time to start pushing"
My mind:  Ugghh here we go again ....hours of horrendous pushing......

but to my shock after just one push

Doctor "Okay next one needs to be a good one"
My mind "yeah yeah been here before..."

One more push later

Doctor "Okay she is crowning"
My mind and perhaps I said it out loud too "Are you kidding me....already!!"
Jason as he jumps up from his chair that he was sitting on beside me "Already!!!"

And sweet Emma was born a mere 7 minutes after we started pushing.

At this point I was kind of in disbelief at how quickly everything was going.  Jason went over to cut the cord and check on Emma.   It was kind of neat at this point because doctor #2 was still performing the ultrasound so that my doctor could grab on to the feet of baby B. 

At this point I remember my doctor saying come on little baby. I asked if everything was okay and she just replied "yes, this little one just keeps moving her leg on me". I asked again if everything was alright. It was quiet for a minute and then she smiled and said "I have her".  I remember calling Jason to come over quick and little Sarah was born (feet first) a quick 2 minutes after her sister. 

 

I laid there in shock at how quickly this was all going.  Sarah took a little longer to pink up (transition) after birth but my two babies were now both here and everyone was doing great.  We left the operating room less then an hour from going in. I had no "repairs" as they call it. The girls came to the room with us and I required only a few ibuprofen for pain the next few days. After only a couple hours, I was able to get up and walk around. What a different experience and recovery then any of our other births! 

 

Things went so well during the delivery that I was actually the one who took the picture of Jason and the Emma!

 

Emma was born weighing 6lbs10oz and Sarah was 5 lbs 14oz.  Emma was 4oz bigger then Mathew's birth weight but these two little girls just had such different builds then the boys.  Everything on them seems so tiny and petite and dainty.  We were supposed to stay in the hospital for at least 48hours (standard for babies born under 6lbs) but because the girls barely lost any weight after birth and we had no jaundice issues (which we did with two of the three boys) we were released 30 some hours after the girls were born.  Being our fourth and fifth baby not to mention our second set of twins, the staff quickly recognized that we were experts and didn't need any assistance. Our experience at the hospital was absolutely amazing.  We had amazing doctors, nurses and all the hospital support staff were top notch.  I am still in shock with how smooth and enjoyable of a delivery and stay this was.  On new year's day we came home where the girls joined their brothers and we started to settle in as a family of 7. I'm still a little shocked when I think about that.  Who would have guessed when we got married 8 years ago that we would be spending new year's day of 2015 bringing home two baby girls and completing our big family (by today's standard) at 7!!!