It was also nice because I got to read 4 books in the matter of a week. Which was fun but I think it may have added to my lack of sleep for the three days before the babies were born. You read that right the babies are born.
Friday 11th of August I had my last doctors appointment and between my doctors concerns, my blood pressure, and talking to my intended parents it was decided to have the babies. I got my steroid shots and decided to do a little shopping for my children. My children have been wonderful in this entire experience. I told them what we were doing from the beginning and what it meant in helping people have a family. Not once did they complain about the pregnancy, ask to keep any of the babies, want to meet the babies or do anything for them. They wanted to take care of mommy and they wanted to help somebody have a family so I decided they deserve the reward and I got all three of my daughters a lovely gift to give to them after the babies were born. Then I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed bringing my blood pressure back down because I went shopping and that was bad.
Something else that I did do was contact my fellow surrogates and ask them if this was going to be hard. This is not been hard for me yet and I have felt very strongly that I have set myself up mentally to walk out of this with no problems, but then we also don't know what is going to happen until it happens and the hormones start surging and things change. Everyone is different but I felt confident even after talking to my friends who've done this before that everything would be OK.
Sunday August 13, 2017 at 6:00am
My husband and I and the intended parents arrived at the hospital for check in. I got my name bracelet, I changed into my hospital gown, and got all hooked up to machines to hear the heartbeat and monitor contractions. We were all pleasantly surprised to find out that I was already dilated to a four. That is very encouraging when you have a long day of labor ahead of you. The IV was started after the second poke of the needle and then the IV fluid and Pitocin started flowing. I could feel the tightening of the contractions but wasn't having any pain which is wonderful to experience but not very encouraging when I wanted to wait until I was in pain to get the epidural and I didn't know when that would start. I also didn't want to wait very long to get the epidural so we just did it before I was in pain. I didn't like it too much but it was done and a good thing to because it seems like labor went much quicker after that.
Approx. 4:15pm
It became time to deliver the babies! I had that special feeling and the nurse checked! Sure enough, I was right and it was time to deliver.
The original idea was that the parents would be in the delivery room. But with this being a twin pregnancy and the second baby was in a breech position it was necessary to deliver in the OR in case a cesarean was needed. So the plan for the parents changed and they went to the nursery which is where the babies were being handed as soon as they were delivered.
Once they were situated I got rolled to the OR and made all comfy cozy. Baby A was delivered after 4-5 contractions, and handed off to the waiting staff. She has been named Prim. That is when the fun challenge of turning baby B around started. It didn't seem to take too long and my Dr Gundersen was able to get her where she needed to be and the pushing started again. She was born exactly 30 minutes later and handed off to the nursing staff. She has been named Lily.
After that the attention was set to making my bleeding stopped and cleaned up, epidural out and switched to my new bed then I was escorted to my new suite for my stay. As long as I wasn't being poked and prodded I was very comfortable, who wouldn't be!!!
6:40pm
Methergin, cervidil, ancef, and tordol were are a few of the things I got settled down with. My mom was able to bring my children to me so that I could get my snuggles in. I also got to give them their gifts that I bought for them, they loved them!!!! It was a wonderful time. Then I sent them home to sleep (including poor tired David) it had been a long day and everyone needed to just sleep and the girlies needed their daddy.
Once I was finally alone I crocheted and had a little Gilmore Girls marathon until my eye balls closed of their own free will. It was a very restful night with only a couple night time visits from the nursing team dream fairies.
Hospital Time/Babies/Going Home
How did I feel? It seems like this is the question on everyone's mind now that the babies are born and with their parents. I feel like exactly what was supposed to happen has happened. I gave a wonderful, happy, and deserving family two more family members and they could not be any happier. Their smiles couldn't have been bigger and their hugs couldn't have been tighter. I am so happy for them. I feel blessed and this is the only way I can describe what I feel that someone else could understand.
There is that moment when you see your own children and your heart melts at the over whelming and indescribable love that you have for them. Then there is that moment when you see a friends baby and hold them and admire how cute they are, then you hand them back their baby and wish them congratulations. I had the second emotion. I will love those babies but I love them like I love my friends kids or my nieces and nephews. I am completely happy, content and at peace with this.
God has blessed me in immeasurable ways through this entire experience and I could never be more grateful for this success to him than I am at this moment. At the end when we were dealing with blood pressure and modified bed rest I know that I was able to make it because of the Priesthood blessing and the many prayers that were given on behalf of me and the babies for everyone to be happy and healthy.
I am happy to answer any questions. And I will continue to share my thoughts and experiences for the next few weeks as the families are complete.
