Today is the day!
I took it easy on Sunday, April 17 , mostly sitting on the sofa reading. I went to bed early Sunday night. At this point, I could no longer comfortably sleep in our bed, as it was too hard to get up from to have to use the bathroom, which seemed to be an hourly occurrence by this point.
I was awakened early Monday morning, April 18, around 6am by a gush of water. I immediately knew that my water had broke so I called to Dave from the sofa and said "I think my water broke." He got up much quicker than his usual self; we called L&D and told them we were coming in. By the time we got our stuff together we ended up leaving the house in the prime of LA rush hour traffic on the 405. Ugh. It took about 45 minutes to navigate 10 miles up the 405, and upon our arrival we parked in valet and were whisked away by the nurses to the maternity ward.
I don't why I thought so at the time, but I figured I would deliver by the end of the day. It was really exciting! My parents, sister, niece and nephew were on their way to UCLA, and in the meantime, our amazing nurse set up the whiteboard in our room with a place to place bets on the time of arrival. Everyone was banking on tonight, especially me! Time ticked on, the evening rolled in, and things were moving along slowly. They determined that "Baby A's" water broke (the lower left baby), and that "Baby B" (the upper right baby) still had an intact sac. I was having contractions according to the monitor, although I couldn't feel them at all. At this time I was measuring about 2cm dilated. I was placed on NPO status and couldn't eat or drink anything except for occasional ice chips. Talk about torture! The fear was that this would progress to an emergency C-section and they needed to ensure I could tolerate the anesthesia without fear of vomiting. I was STARVING!! I hadn't eaten since Sunday evening dinner and it was now a full 24 hours later.
Dave spent the night on the sofa next to me, and the next morning we were greeted by Dr. Boyer. She informed us I was still on 2cm dilated, and suggested starting ptocin. We were in a timeline crunch, being that one sac was popped already, and the other was intact. The usually don't like people to go more than 48 hours once your sac has popped. We agreed, and the ptocin began, as did an IV infusion of fluids. Things started moving along, I could begin to feel the contractions, although they weren't to the point of being too painful at this point. However, the thirst was killing me. Every once in a while, my favorite nurse would "sneak" me some frozen juice ice chips (so much more satisfying than water). My tongue was so dry that my entire mouth continually stuck together. Labor was progressing.... 4cm, and more. We could see the contractions getting bigger on the monitor. That night, we realized, we need to make a final decision on our names. We worked on our list a little more, and narrowed it down to 2 pairs. We decided to sleep on it.
We woke up the next morning, after having contemplated the names individually at night, and both spoke nearly at the same time, selecting the pair Arianna and Mattea. We didn't know who would be who yet, but we knew we wanted their names to be unique. Arianna, derived from the Greek culture (we were engaged in Greece on Sept. 11), is also found in the Italian culture, a nod to my mother's roots. It's a beautiful name and we both fell in love with it immediately. The most popular Arianna the time, was Arianna Huffington, of the Huffington Post. Mattea, of Hebrew origin (a nod to my husband's roots), is very unique, not even making the top 1000 names in the U.S. Census Bureau report. It can be found in the Italian culture, as it is a feminine derivative of the name Matteo. Ironically, even though it is so rare, after her birth we met a number of other Mattea's (my parents' neighbors' daughter and a co-worker's daughter).
By 9am, things were moving along. I was noted to be fully dilated (finally!) and we were rushed into the delivery room. Delivering twins is no intimate process. We had 2 NICU teams present, along with our doctor, nurses, and a number of medical students. In all, there were about 20 people present, and I was gowned up (as well as Dave), and placed under a giant spotlight for all to attend to. I had been pushing for about 2 and 1/2 hours already (since 9am), and then they began to see "Baby A's" head. Dave was so excited to see her for the first time. Dr. Boyer was trying to help guide her out, but then noticed that her arm was stuck over her head. The entire team of delivery people began manipulating me in every possible position in an attempt to get her out. Dr. Boyer ended up actually reaching up inside and trying to pull her through. THAT was not fun and I was becoming really uncomfortable. After many attempts in numerous positions, our little lady still refused to move her arm and she was beginning to show signs of distress, occasionally dropping her heart rate. It had now been more than 48 hours after my water broke, and not only was there risk for infection, but also she was at risk due to stress, as she was stuck. They quickly decided to proceed to a C-section, turned up the epidural, and within minutes we were presented with Baby A (she was beautiful and looked so much like Dave's grandfather and we both immediately noticed she inherited Daddy's adorable "moon eyes"), and the following minute, Baby B (she still had her eyes closed and looked so peaceful sleeping away through all of the chaos around her). They were amazing!
Each NICU team took one baby, quickly cleaned them off, cleared their nasal passages, and weighed and measured them.
Baby A born Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at 11:53am. She was 4 lb. 5 oz. and 16.5 inches long.
Baby B born Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at 11:54am. She was 4 lb. 9 oz. and 18. 1 inches long.
Being that they weighed so little, they were taken to the NICU along with Dave, for assistance with breathing and feeding. Both had NG tubes started to aid with eating (they were so early, that hadn't yet developed their sucking reflexes) and they both needed supplemental oxygen. They were placed on EKG monitoring as well. Dave spent the entire day with them in the NICU, peaking at them through their incubators. I had a rough time post-up, and developed rigors from the anesthesia as well as severe nausea and heaving (I was in starvation mode, so nothing was coming up). My mom sat with me in the post-op recovery "area" (the maternity ward was full, so I was shuffled to the waiting area at L&D). My mom went off to peak at the girls and I took a much needed nap. I was in severe pain post-operatively, and given that I was housed in the waiting area, the intern rarely came by to check on me. I was beat tired and in severe pain. After spending the next few hours in rigors, I eventually fell asleep with Dave next to me in an upright chair and my suitcase in the hallway.
I woke up the next morning, and things were better. It was a new day, and I was being transferred to a delivery room, FINALLY! The nurses there were so much more attentive. My pain was quickly brought under control, and a sweet nurse came by with a wheelchair to escort us to the NICU. Dave had seen the girls yesterday and spent considerable time with them, but I had yet to meet them.
We scrubbed up and entered the NICU. There were beeps and alarms everywhere, and it was quite a sterile environment. But in there, our girls were lodged next to each other, beds 10 and 11, the healthiest, most beautiful girls in the entire unit. They had name signs on their incubators, "Baby A" and "Baby B" and the nurses inquired what their names were. I looked at them and immediately told Dave, Baby A looked like Arianna, and Baby B looks like Mattea. Arianna was given the middle name Lilian, after my dad's Aunt Lil, Arianna's great Aunt Lillian. And Mattea was given the middle name Anne, after my middle name, and my mom's mother, Mattea's great grandmother, Anne Plescia.
I went back to my room relieved, but still stressed out and in pain. I still could not eat. There was concern that they may have accidentally clipped my ureter during the emergent C-section, as there was notable bleeding. This led to me being whisked away to Imaging for an emergent MRI on Thursday evening. The imaging tech struggled and had a very hard time getting the dye injected, which led to multiple attempts, and extravasation of the dye into my body (very painful!). Eventually they got the line established and whisked me into MRI which showed everything looked great. I was allowed to begin walking around a a little more, and finally given the okay to start eating Friday morning. It had been 5 days since I last ate (my prior meal was dinner on Sunday night). The nurses brought me the menu and I think I ordered cheese enchiladas, rice, beans, and 5 side dishes. Apparently, breastfeeding/pumping moms are entitled to free meals and unlimited sides -- I was in heaven.
The girls ended up staying at the hospital for about 2 weeks each. They were in the NICU for the first week or so, and then the step down unit ("feeders and breathers" unit) for another week. All of the nurses were amazing and they taught us a lot. But it was an extremely draining experience, both physically and mentally. I was discharged home after about a one week stay, which made visits more complicated for us. Dave and I slowly got into our rhythm, spending days at the hospital, enjoying holding our girls for a few hours, feasting on free meals, changing their diapers and bathing them, and occasionally taking a short walk into Westwood (we were like zombies every time we exited the hospital, flooded with bright lights.). I pumped every 3 hours, around the clock, all through the night. Eventually our girls were transitioned from tube feeds, to tiny bottles, with only the oxygen supplementation remaining for Mattea. They continued to monitor their breathing and heart rates, and they were growing like crazy.
On May 5, we brought Mattea home, and on May 6 Arianna came home.
These past two weeks have been the most crazy, yet amazing time in our lives thus far. We are all doing great. The girls are amazing and each is already developing her own unique personality. Arianna is definitely the active one, she's always moving around and she loves to grip our fingers tightly. Mattea loves just relaxing quietly under a our hands, soaking in the warmth and resting quietly.
We appreciate each and every one of your phone calls and emails. Although we have not had time to respond to them, we are listening and reading all of them when we have time, and we appreciate the love and support from all of you. We will try to reach everyone personally as we have more time over the next few weeks. Here are a few photos for now. We'll try to post more later.
