Hey y’all! I hope everyone is doing well. Here is the long-awaited birth story for my baby girls and my experience with the NICU at the hospital where I delivered.

The story of the birth of my baby girls starts on May 29th, when I was exactly 35 weeks pregnant.

May 29- I felt off all day long, and I couldn’t really explain it. I was a little nauseous, I couldn’t sleep, and I was having lots of Braxton Hicks. At home BP was in the 140/90 range. I called L&D triage and was instructed to come in for monitoring. I went in around 8pm and was admitted for monitoring of protein levels in urine (concern for pre-eclampsia, but my BP was in the 130/80s the whole time, so no actual pre-eclampsia diagnosis was made).

May 30- My water broke at around midnight while being monitored for unrelated issues— they scheduled my C-section for 7:30 that AM due to the breech position of both babies and my preference of delivery method. My IV was started at 7ish, I got consent forms signed, and then, I was wheeled back. I got spinal anesthesia and a catheter and then I was prepared the rest of the way for the surgery. My husband arrived in OR shortly after the first cut was made and the babies were born at 7:45AM (~15 minutes after the surgery began). Then, it took them roughly 45 minutes to “close up” and get me to recovery. My husband went to NICU with the babies immediately after birth and met me in recovery when I arrived. Then from the recovery suite, I moved to the postpartum room after 2 hours. 

I spent 4 days in the hospital healing and going down to see babies/help with care in the NICU. Baby A was released from the NICU on the same day that I was able to go home. Baby B was released 2 days later. I was really blessed to only have a few short days of NICU stay for my baby girls. They were 3 lbs 13 oz and 4 lbs 5 oz at birth and they needed help feeding & gaining weight as well as keeping their temperature regulated. The NICU team was amazing. They were thorough in teaching us how to care for our premature babies and let us get all the practice in while in the comfort of their presence. Their discharge education was extremely critical to our success so far as parents of premies. They even helped us fill out paperwork to get free samples of the Neosure Formula that we have to feed them until they get up to a good weight.

Caesarean Section Experience: Throughout the surgery, I felt tugging but no real pain. The spinal anesthesia that I was given did the trick. I was lighthearted and happy throughout the entire procedure. We chose not to have a clear drape or cut the cord as my husband and I are both squeamish. My hospital put in the catheter after the spinal anesthesia was already on board, and I am eternally grateful for that.

I will update everyone on my recovery as I approach the 6-week follow-up with my provider, but given the circumstances, I feel like I am doing really well!

Until next time…Stay Golden,

Emily