Tesha's Birth of Twins

Plus Size Birth

Providing plus size women resources to have a healthy and empowered pregnancy and beyond!

"Infertile" that's what my chart read. Why? I had one perfect child already but for some reason we just couldn't get pregnant with our 2nd. We tried and tried and before we knew it we were trying for over a year. The almighty Clomid was introduced and we found ourselves on a rollercoaster of medicines and timed sex. On our 3rd and final round of Clomid we had sex ONCE that entire month so I just knew that this was it, we'd have to go into something deeper and more expensive.

On July 4th I woke up and peed on my last stick and walked out of the bathroom. Came back to see a beautiful red cross in the window. OMG I WAS PREGNANT! I swung the door open, scaring my husband, and yelled "WE'RE PREGNANT!" naturally he didn't believe me, you wouldn't believe how many negative tests I knew I saw something in, so I through the test in his face. He was shocked! We were all on Cloud 9.

Our first ultrasound was very anticipated. We sat in the room with our daughter and looked up at the screen. Before she even zoned in on the baby, we both saw two sacs. Sure enough, she gets a clear shot of two bouncing babies, I cried, my husband laughed, my daughter said "What's that?". It was amazingly scary and perfect at the same time. Our #2 turned into our #2 AND #3.

I knew I wanted another vaginal birth and I wanted NO drugs this time. Naturally I went to a midwife. My weight and my weight alone made me too high risk for them to take me on. I was heartbroken, I spent the ride home bawling in the passenger side, I was numb. Finally, I found a doctor that was okay with me delivering vaginally as long as our Baby A was head down. GREAT!

Later we find out we're having another little girl and a little boy; to say we were over the moon is a grand understatement. Baby A was our boy and Baby B was our girl. Fast forward to 29weeks and besides having gestational diabetes this pregnancy is amazing and to my surprise our little boy has been head down this whole time. YES VAGINAL BIRTH FOR ME!!!

Then the labor came, I was in and out of the birth center for pre-term labor almost weekly now. At 31weeks my little boy was no longer head down, I was devestated but my doctor said he had more than enough time to turn. I was on procardia to stop the contractions as well as a shot of terbutalane, neither of which helped.  I went in to my appointment on January 28th for a regular check up and to be put on the non-stress test. After already being in pre-term labor I knew I was having contractions on the way to the appointment so I knew the non-stress test wouldn’t go over well. As soon as I was put on the machine the contractions started showing up. Not painful but pretty close together. My doctor came in and took one look at the strip and immediately sent me to the Birth Center to be admitted.

The plan was to put me on an IV of Magnesium Sulfate to try and stop the contractions, I was already on a dose of Procardia at home which was obviously not working so we had to move on to the strongest medicine possible. When I got to the hospital I was put on the machine right away and my contractions started coming more painful and more frequent. They started the Magnesium Sulfate and I felt like lava was running through my body but I tolerated it well. They gave me my first steroid shot for the babies’ lungs. I was at the lowest dose of 2mg but I was still contracting and they were not slowing down. Just a few days ago my cervix was hard and closed tight by then I was soft, effaced, and dilated to 1cm. They bumped my Magnesium to 3mg and I did okay but I still didn’t stop contracting. I was finally moved to what my doctor told me was the limit at 3.75mg of the Magnesium and I was still doing okay but yet again still contracting and not slowing down.

The doctor came in and checked me and I was at 2cm now, so I was progressing but they still wanted to give the Magnesium time. Finally the contractions started slowing down but then the doctor came in and sat on my bed and said we needed to talk. I was so scared at what I was about to hear. He told me that the NICU at the hospital was full and that if we stayed where we were that the babies would need to be sent to another hospital that is ½ hour away and that’s precious time when it comes to preemies. He told us that parent to parent he didn’t want to separate the family so he was giving us the option of being transferred to the other hospital and to their high risk labor and delivery. We agreed that we didn’t want to be separated. I took an ambulance ride to the new hospital, the whole while contracting like crazy, and way more painful and frequent.

As soon as I got there the new doctor upped my Magnesium to 4mg which shocked me because I knew my doctor didn’t want me to go above 3.75mg. And here is where the problems arrived. I was on way too much Magnesium and had too much and it was beginning to affect me horribly. My heart rate would race so high and then drop so low that I was passing out unconscious literally every 2hours. On top of passing out I was throwing up every 2-3hours as well, just medicine and bile because I wasn’t allowed to eat anything or drink anything. They finally lowered the Magnesium but it wasn’t helping, I was still contracting, still passing out, and still throwing up.

They finally came in and gave me the second and final steroid shot for their lungs. They checked me again and I had no change. I begged them to stop the Magnesium because I honestly felt like I was dying and they agreed to turn it off for 20minutes. For 20minutes my heart was fine and I felt a little better. After that they turned it back on at the lowest setting, 2mg, and all my symptoms came back. I had an EKG done as well as an ultrasound done on my heart to see if there was a serious issue. My heart was perfect; it just couldn’t handle all the Magnesium. I finally declined the Magnesium and demanded it be stopped, period. They turned it off and tried giving me Procardia, the drug I was already on, to stop the labor. I labored throughout the nights and they all strung together into a blur. Finally I was just contracting non-stop, there was no break in between the start of one and the ending of another. The doctor came in and checked me again and I was at 3-4cm, he was not happy that I had progressed and he left to talk to his attendee.

He came back with papers in his hand and told me that I’ll be going for c-section in about 15minutes. I was scared but I knew after all the stress my body was going through that it was the best thing for the babies.

At 4:27p I was in the operating room and at 4:33p I heard the screams of my son, about 30seconds later I heard the cries of my daughter. My twins were born on January 30th 2011 at 33weeks 2days weighing 4lbs 6oz and 3lbs 14oz. The babies were rushed up to the NICU were they were both put on CPAP machines; they both needed no oxygen help and were breathing on their own. I was in recovery when my husband came in and showed me pictures of my beautiful babies, I bawled looking at all the wires and the masks. On my way to my post-partum room we stopped at the NICU and I was able to hold both of the babies and I just cried. By the next day my son was off the CPAP and doing everything on his own. The following day, my daughter followed in her brother’s footsteps and had the CPAP machine off and was doing everything on her own.

Today they are eating via a tube in their noses but are having no troubles digesting the breast milk and they get bumped up on volume after every feeding because they are doing so well. The nurses all have faith that they will be out of the NICU in just a few days and moved downstairs to a less severe newborn care area.

My labor was not at all what I expected it to be or how I wanted it to be, in fact it was a nightmare but without that nightmare my 2 little blessings wouldn’t be here. And when it comes down to it I’d do it a million times over.

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Plus Size Birth

Providing plus size women resources to have a healthy and empowered pregnancy and beyond!

Tags: plus size birth, birth stories, birth stories on demand, premature, Magnesium Sulfate, NICU, clomid, c-section, cesarean section stories, premature labor stories, 33 weeks, premature birth