Babies Are Here - 34 weeks 3 days

It's been one week since my life turned upside down! I've managed to give birth to two beautiful babies - a boy (Ethan) and a girl (Hannah) last Friday morning.

Let's start back a week ago today when I had a scheduled appt with my OB. We also had our last ultrasound scheduled for that day and the sonographer saw a pleural effusion in Baby A's chest (Hannah). I was told that we needed to go to a larger hospital nearby for confirmation via a Level II ultrasound and probable induction of labor.

A pleural effusion is a build up of fluid in the chest. Hannah's turned out to be a chimera (fat deposit), but it was large enough to be pushing her heart to the side. They needed to act quickly to prevent any respiratory distress.

When I arrived at the hospital I was admitted to L&D and checked - no dialation, barely any effacement. I was given an EZ catheter to force my cervix to open along with pitocin. Inserting the catheter in my already swollen parts was painful! After that was finished I called for the pain meds - ASAP. So the catheter stayed for 6 hours and when removed I was 5 cm dialated, but hardly any effacement. So they continued pitocin.

My water broke on its own around 3:30 AM after being given an epidural. Around 7 AM I started feeling more pressure and by 9 AM I was wheeled into the OR for delivery.

There were no less than 12 people in the OR and after pushing for 1 hr 15 min, Hannah came out. Ethan came out 45 min later - slow going since he was posterior.

Since then both babies have been living in the NICU, it looks like Ethan will be coming home sooner than Hannah. Hannah has had a few issues since being born, none of which seems be be of major concern to the Dr's. I of course, am worried all the time.

That's all for now - will post more later....