Ava & Mason were born on January 14th 2011 via scheduled C-section.
Things have been nuts!!
Arrived at hospital at 5 am. on Friday Jan 14th. They first did another nst. They were having trouble finding two heartbeats that weren't exactly the same. I got my iv and cath put in & my doctor checked my cervix and gave us the option to try a vaginal birth since ava had flipped i was scared either way so i did the csection as planned.
At 8am they wheeled me down to to the OR. & had the spinal completed. That was sooooo strange and hurt. I was so scared. I was shaking all over before they began but then they said my upper body was shaking because of the spinal.
At the last minute dr lepi decided to do a vertical incision. I'm so glad because when mason presented he was footling breech and they would have had to re-cut me to get him out because my uterus was also contracting.
Hunter came in after they had me all draped and then got kicked out of the OR for having a video camera. ( we were told we were allowed. Nice huh). I'll have to upload the nurse bitching us out. So hunter ran down the hall to my room to get our reg camera. And got back just before Ava came out.
Ava Marie was born first at 8:25 am She was 5lbs7oz & Mason James was born at 8:27am and weighed 6lbs11oz Both were 19.5 inches
Mason had a large knot in his cord and i'm so glad they I didnt do the last minute vaginal. Dr lepi said Mason could have died.
After surgery both babies latched and breastfed like champs after that I don't know what happened. I have to supplement with formula but i am having trouble with latching. We started using breast shields & I've been using a syringe to give them the formula. The first night Mason screamed all night after having the formula so we asked for the soy formula and that seems to be working just fine for them both.
After I got to my room we had visitors all day long and the babies kept sleeping and after looking back we didn't feed them like we were supposed to. Of course they didn't come with an instruction manual haha but the staff never said how often to feed them etc. and being kind of high on pain meds and the stun of giving birth and having the babies here I just fed them when they woke or cried. I finally had to start kicking people out of the room so I could feed them after I realized that we weren't feeding them often enough.
The first 8 hours after birth were really really hard. They put me on a pitocin drip to get my uterus to contract and put me on a morphine pump which did NOTHING I SWEAR. They changed out my meds to something else and it helped some but only got a dose every 15 minutes. By the end of the 15 minutes I had a death grip on my bed from pain. But it only lasted about 8-10 hours. I really don't remember who all came to visit us during this time but I do remember my room being full and me trying to hit the med clicker. lol.
Sunday they were cluster feeding and were up all night in the first 3 days we had 4 hrs of sleep so we utilized the nursery on sunday night to get some rest. they were to bring them to me at 2am to feed & didn't. I kept asking for them and kept getting....they are sleeping. I was so upset. That & they bottle fed them while they were there. I got Hunter up at 6am and he went & got them. I really didn't get more than 1-2 hours of continuous sleep because I knew they needed to feed but I wasn't able to get up by myself and walk to the nursery to get them.
Monday they were diagnosed with jaundice & had to spend the next 24 hrs under the lights. they brought them every few hrs to feed but would only give me 30 minutes so I tried to breast feed with the shields but ended up having to give them bottles because they just weren't getting enough to flush out the jaundice. I was so upset after not having them on sunday night and then only limited visits for the next day. I was released on Monday but they were not. I was able to continue to stay in my room that night under the hospital bed & breakfast program and tuesday morning they were discharged to come home.
Arrived at hospital at 5 am. on Friday Jan 14th. They first did another nst. They were having trouble finding two heartbeats that weren't exactly the same. I got my iv and cath put in & my doctor checked my cervix and gave us the option to try a vaginal birth since ava had flipped i was scared either way so i did the csection as planned.
At 8am they wheeled me down to to the OR. & had the spinal completed. That was sooooo strange and hurt. I was so scared. I was shaking all over before they began but then they said my upper body was shaking because of the spinal.
At the last minute dr lepi decided to do a vertical incision. I'm so glad because when mason presented he was footling breech and they would have had to re-cut me to get him out because my uterus was also contracting.
Hunter came in after they had me all draped and then got kicked out of the OR for having a video camera. ( we were told we were allowed. Nice huh). I'll have to upload the nurse bitching us out. So hunter ran down the hall to my room to get our reg camera. And got back just before Ava came out.
Ava Marie was born first at 8:25 am She was 5lbs7oz & Mason James was born at 8:27am and weighed 6lbs11oz Both were 19.5 inches
Mason had a large knot in his cord and i'm so glad they I didnt do the last minute vaginal. Dr lepi said Mason could have died.
After surgery both babies latched and breastfed like champs after that I don't know what happened. I have to supplement with formula but i am having trouble with latching. We started using breast shields & I've been using a syringe to give them the formula. The first night Mason screamed all night after having the formula so we asked for the soy formula and that seems to be working just fine for them both.
After I got to my room we had visitors all day long and the babies kept sleeping and after looking back we didn't feed them like we were supposed to. Of course they didn't come with an instruction manual haha but the staff never said how often to feed them etc. and being kind of high on pain meds and the stun of giving birth and having the babies here I just fed them when they woke or cried. I finally had to start kicking people out of the room so I could feed them after I realized that we weren't feeding them often enough.
The first 8 hours after birth were really really hard. They put me on a pitocin drip to get my uterus to contract and put me on a morphine pump which did NOTHING I SWEAR. They changed out my meds to something else and it helped some but only got a dose every 15 minutes. By the end of the 15 minutes I had a death grip on my bed from pain. But it only lasted about 8-10 hours. I really don't remember who all came to visit us during this time but I do remember my room being full and me trying to hit the med clicker. lol.
Sunday they were cluster feeding and were up all night in the first 3 days we had 4 hrs of sleep so we utilized the nursery on sunday night to get some rest. they were to bring them to me at 2am to feed & didn't. I kept asking for them and kept getting....they are sleeping. I was so upset. That & they bottle fed them while they were there. I got Hunter up at 6am and he went & got them. I really didn't get more than 1-2 hours of continuous sleep because I knew they needed to feed but I wasn't able to get up by myself and walk to the nursery to get them.
Monday they were diagnosed with jaundice & had to spend the next 24 hrs under the lights. they brought them every few hrs to feed but would only give me 30 minutes so I tried to breast feed with the shields but ended up having to give them bottles because they just weren't getting enough to flush out the jaundice. I was so upset after not having them on sunday night and then only limited visits for the next day. I was released on Monday but they were not. I was able to continue to stay in my room that night under the hospital bed & breakfast program and tuesday morning they were discharged to come home.
Ava & Mason are now 21 days old and still have not successfully latched to breastfeed which literally breaks my heart. I wanted this closeness so much with my kids. I keep trying though. The twins really try to breast feed but I don't have much milk and they get really frustrated fast. Right now I am pumping as much as possible and get 2-4 ounces PER DAY! IT's crazy. Not sure how much longer I can keep this up. Its really draining pumping for so long just to get a few drops.
They are absolutely GORGEOUS!!! They honestly look like a poster of adorable babies. I'm so happy for you. Don't be too hard on yourself about the breastfeeding. My baby is a great nurser, but I don't feel like it has been the main reason for our bonding. It's just her way of eating... :)
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