Our miracle boys

Two years ago today I would have never imagined our lives like this, with twins. After our miscarriage, I felt as though our perfect, beautiful life, was slowly crumbling. Now, looking at the miracles that God has given us, I see that it was just the beginning of more beauty.

These two perfect little angels decided to make their entrance on April 14, 2010. I woke up in the morning, having contractions, but no different than any other day. My friend Valerie had come to help us for the month until the boys came. We got her return ticket for 37 weeks (April 14th), thinking for sure, that I would have the boys by then. As the time approached, we realized, these boys had no intentions of making an appearance any time soon. It was a Wednesday, so Zya had school. It was to be a very busy day for us. Dennis took Zya to school, Valerie to the airport, and picked Zya up from school. All through out his absence, I continued to have more contractions, but in no pattern. Dennis came home, we all ate lunch and then left for my doctors appointment at 2:30 pm. Dennis, Zya, Amara, and I were sitting in the waiting room as my contractions started to get worse. Sandy, the ultrasound technician took me back to get my weekly sonogram. She did the boys measurements, but could tell that I was contracting quite a bit. Sandy said that baby A was about 7 1/2 lbs, and Baby B was 6 lbs,6 ozs. She had me skip my Non stress test since she could see I was in a lot of pain and sent me straight back to see the doctor. They took my blood pressure and it was getting dangerously high. Dr. Rankin checked me and said that I was 3 cm, 50% effaced, and shortened to a 2 (last Friday I was 2 cm, 25% effaced, and shortened to a 3). She said since there was cervical change and my blood pressure was so bad, she wanted me to go to the hospital.

We still didn't know if this was "IT" but wanted to be prepared. After calling three people to see if they could take the girls, our friends Brian and Meghan came through! We dropped the girls off at their house and raced to the hospital. At this point, my contractions were getting worse.

We checked into the hospital and Dr. Goldberg soon told us, we would not be leaving. My blood pressure was getting worse, my labs showed that my Liver wasn't doing well (a sign of pre-eclampsia) and my contractions were starting to get into a pattern. We called Jenny (my sister), to let her know to start driving, today was going to be the day! They had to put me on Magnesium (a muscle relaxer) because of my high blood pressure. I was upset about that. I was put on it when I was in labor with Zya because of my pre-eclampsia and remember hating the feeling it gave me. On Magnesium I felt like I had the flu, achey, hot, and just all around yucky. This also meant that I would have to labor in bed, you can't get up and walk around.

Dr. Goldberg asked if she could break my water to move things along. I agreed, I was just ready to get this moving. After breaking my water, the contractions came strong and fast. They started me on pitocin to put the contractions in a better pattern. I asked for my epidural, I was ready, and I didn't want Jenny to see me in pain (she would be there soon). I had a really bad experience with my epidural with Zya. It was at a teaching hospital, and they ended up having 4 different students try to put it in. They ended up just turning it off because it wasn't working. So as the anesthesiologist was asking me questions about previous experiences with Epidurals, I told him about the students, and how I would never let a student near me again. He then proceeds to tell me, he is a student. I started to get another contraction, and Dennis said that I apparently told the man that he had one try, and that is all I would give him. We ended up just having the anesthesiologist do it, not the student.

Jenny showed up just after the epidural started working, perfect timing! After about 2 hours, I told them I had a lot of pressure. Dr. Goldberg checked me and said I was 5 cm, 80% effaced, and baby A's head was right there. She said she could feel his hair. I kept feeling more and more pressure and kept telling them to be ready, because I go from 6 cm to 10 cm in literally a minute. I had to deliver in the OR just in case they had to do an emergency c-section. I heard Dr. Goldberg tell the nurses to start getting the OR ready for me. We didn't know if they would let Jenny come back with us, since it was in the OR. Our nurse said she was going to try her best to sneak Jenny back with us. About 5 minutes later, I felt so much pressure and pain. She checked me again and I was 8 cm, fully effaced and ready to go. It went so fast. They gave Dennis scrubs to put on, and our nurse got Jenny scrubs to put on too. Dennis grabbed the cameras as we left the room and they pushed me down the hall to the OR. It seemed like everyone was running and it all was in fast forward. I kept telling everyone I needed to push, to please let me push. We got into the OR and they told me to breathe through the pain and pressure, they weren't ready yet. I remember Dr. Goldberg asking me if I could move from the delivery bed to the OR bed. I looked at it and thought, "UMMMM NOOOO!" She just said not to worry about it and I could push soon. It seemed like forever till they let me push. Dennis was holding one of my legs, and Jenny was at the foot of the bed, trying to stay out the way so she could stay. I loved being able to look at her and see her face while pushing. I could see by her reaction if I was making progress and if everything was okay. I don't remember how long it took, but I think it was about 6 pushes and our perfect little Dennis Wayne III was born. He arrived at 9:06 pm and weighed 7lbs, 3.8 oz and was 19 in long. He was so beautiful, I forgot I had another one I still had to push out. I remember thinking, "Ohhhhh wow, I have to do this again!" The contractions stopped for about 10 minutes. During this time, one of the nurses kept monitoring baby B to make sure he was still head down. I kept asking, "Is he still head down, he's head down right??!!" They kept answering me that he was. I looked over to baby Dennis on the warmer as they said, "9 out of 10 on Apgar!" Tears of joy came bursting out. I remember yelling, "No NICU??" and the doctor replied, "No NICU!" I then felt a burst of adrenaline and the need to push again. My contractions stared back and I was ready to do this again. Our baby B was a lot harder to push out. I felt like my pushes weren't doing anything. After about 8 really hard pushes, Elias Bruce was born. He arrived at 9:21 pm and weighed 5 lbs, 8 oz and was also 19 in long. I looked down at him as he came out and Eli looked so tiny and fragile. I was so worried and waited for him to cry. They took him over to the warmer and I could hear was lots of crying. I thought it was baby Dennis still crying but Dennis said, "Jill, you hear Elias, he's crying." The room was filled with the sound of crys and it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Our little miracles, that we had waiting so long for, were finally hear and perfect. God came through in the most beautiful way. I felt an overwhelming love fill my heart for my husband and my two sons. My family was complete. Just as I was in this euphoric, loving state I hear, "9 out of 10 on Agar!" I repeated again, "no NICU?" and again I heard, "No NICU!" Everything I did, all the pain, all the struggles, these whole past two years, throughout this pregnancy, all came full circle. My boys were okay and healthy! They would be able to come home with us, I did it.

As soon as I was taken care of and the boys were all checked out and perfect, I got to hold both my boys for the first time. They wheeled me back to the labor and delivery room. I had to stay in that room until they could take me off the Magnesium (24 hours after delivery), and then I could move to the recovery room.

We had a few ups and downs along the way- I wasn't clotting right, my blood pressure was high and then really low, and I had a reaction to the codeine they gave me. I ended up passing out at one point and they had to give me a shot to get me to clot. The first night was a bit of a mess, but things were much better in the morning. My clotting was better, my blood pressure was perfect, and I finally got some pain relief.

After all was said and done, I got everything I wanted- perfectly healthly little boys and a vaginal birth. I couldn't ask for more.

The girls came to meet the boys for the first time on the 15th (the next day). Dennis went and picked them up and brought them to the hospital. The girls were in heaven. They had already picked which baby was "there's" before I even had them. Zya said she wanted baby A and Amara said she wanted baby B. Upon walking into the room, they stuck with these requests. Zya ran to Dennis III and Amara ran to Elias. We asked if they wanted to trade and the both yelled, "NO!" at the same time. It was really funny.

I was discharged on Saturday afternoon, feeling tired, but ready to come home to my baby girls. We were ready to start this new adventure in the Woodfork household. Life with 4 children, I'm sure, will be a challenge, but we all feel so blessed. More to come on this exciting endeavor...