In mother Kristen's words:
My poor husband ;) . . . it all started the month I said, "Don't worry honey, it takes 6 months to get pregnant." So at the end of that month, I couldn't contain my excitement after taking a pregnancy test and called him while he was working a Saturday and said, "I AM PREGNANT!" 9 weeks later...our first ultra sound and our doctor didn't say anything for 5 minutes (literally). I thought, "Oh no! Something is wrong with the baby." Then his first words were, "Well, I think we have a friend in there." Which I followed up with a confused look and "Um, what does that mean?" He said "Well, I think we have twins." :) LOL, my husband and I just stared at each other and laughed. Nowhere in our families are there twins, so it was quite the surprise!
Then 24 weeks came and the preterm labor with it. I was in and out of the hospital every 2 weeks and at 30 weeks my hospital couldn't get my contractions to stop and sent me to a different hospital...thinking they were coming, but the new doctors got them to stop. I was sent home with a terbutaline pump that I got to stab in my leg once a week and a home monitoring system. Finally at 36 weeks, I was taken off the pump and played the waiting game. May 9th, I was having contractions all day and called in to the doctor, but the nurse said, "Don't come in until you have to breathe through them and they are painful." I was thinking, "Um, ok, but they are every 3-5 min?" So, I waited and waited and they never became painful, just a bit uncomfortable. My husband got up for work at 5 a.m. on May 10th and came out to the living room where I had been sleeping on the couch because it was the only comfortable place to sleep. So, I got up and made my usual trip to the bathroom and came back and said/asked, "Well, now there is some pink showing, so even though the contractions aren't painful, maybe we should go to the hospital?" As soon as these words came out of my mouth, I felt a heavy sensation and sprinted back to the bathroom, where Irey's water broke. At this point I could feel her head putting massive pressure down there and called the doctor and said we were coming. This was when the contractions started getting painful...by the time we got to the hospital I was having horrible back labor and the most excruciating pain I had ever felt.
At the hospital
We finally made it after our half hour drive and there was also another woman gingerly walking in acting like there was nothing to this labor thing, while all I could do was hold my extra large stomach and think, "PLEASE JUST GET ME AN EPIDURAL!" They put me into the small triage room and gave me the test to see if my water had actually broken(to which there was no question, since it gushed out!), but the nurse said, "Are you sure your water broke, because the litmus test says it hasn't." I just looked at her and said, "YES IT BROKE AND I CAN FEEL HER HEAD, SO CAN I PLEASE HAVE MY EPIDURAL NOW!" I knew that I had to have an epidural anyway just in case I needed a c-section, but since both twins were head down, I would try for a vaginal birth.
I was finally given the epidural and could breathe. After this everything went so smoothly. I figured God must have made this part easy, since my pregnancy was so difficult. After an hour of pushing, they wheeled me into the OR(where I had to deliver, just to be safe) and I pushed a few times and Irey came out weighing 5lbs 10oz. I had always assumed that twins just came right out, one after the other, but apparently not. I was lying there waiting and asked the doctor, "Um, just wondering, but what are we waiting on?" He casually replied that my contractions had stopped and we were just waiting for them to start back up and 20 minutes later Cohen came weighing 5lbs 2 oz. They were so beautiful and such a wonderful gift from God.
