Doodle's Birth Story

One of the parts of having twins that terrifies me most is the birth. I am very scared of having a c-section, scared of the recovery and not being able to do things right away that I feel I should be able to do. Since this has been on my mind so much I thought it might be a good time to share Doodle's birth story with all of you. I wrote this 7 days after he was born. The process was somewhat trying at the time, however, I think it is such a beautiful story and I have very fond memories of the actual birth and labor.

I remember Nichole from work saying.... "you will have a birth story" like it was the neatest thing in the world. Now I realize it is. Keith's birth story is quite the tale, with the most happy ending!



I had been fighting pregnancy induced hypertension for about 2 months when I went to the doctor on January 13th. At this appointment my blood pressure was again high and I had traces of protein in my urine. I had been on bed rest for over a week now. Dr. Yazdi asked, "so when are we going to have this baby?" to which I replied "I don't know you haven't told me yet". After some more conversation back and forth he called the birthing center and set up an appointment for me to be induced the following day, January 14th at 7:00 pm.


Nate and I got the house all ready for the baby to come. Just last minute things like changing our sheets and sweeping the floors. We were all packed and ready to go. At about 6:40pm we knelt at our bedside and said a prayer for the impending labor and delivery and the health of our son. We then left the house thinking that when we returned our lives would be forever changed (in fact we told the kitty's that their lives as they knew them were over!)..


At 7:00 on January 14th we arrived at the hospital. They checked us into room 222 ( a room we became quite familiar with). My nurse's name was Karri. I ended up having a special place in my heart for this particular nurse because she had been through in-vetro 5 times and had just found out she was pregnant with twins! We had both seen the same doctor for the procedure. My vitals were taken and my first misoprostol was given at approximately 8:00pm. Throughout the night my cervix was checked several times with little to no changes. At about 2:30 am I woke up with pretty steady, strong contractions. I was given a misoprostol approximately every 4 hours. After about 39 hours of getting my cervix checked and misoprostol inserted every 4 hours I was sent home. I guess it wasn't really a failed induction because we didn't really even get to the induction point. The misoprostol was supposed to thin my cervix, but it was not working. So I returned home, with no baby... and continued on my bed rest. Sadly we also had my mother, Nate's mother, Nate's sister, and Nate's father who had spend the last 38 hours at the hospital with us waiting, who all returned to their homes as well..Over the next two days I lost my mucus plug, so I knew things were progressing and could not wait until my doctor appointment on Monday!


Monday at about 3:30pm Nate called the doctor's office to be sure that they were on time for my appointment, something that we had been doing the last couple of weeks trying to avoid me having to sit up for to long because being up would make my blood pressure spike. When he called he was informed that we did not have an appointment, but in fact, were being induced at 7:00pm that night, something that we had not been informed of. After much confusion it was determined that this was the new plan. So, Nate and I began to prepare yet again to have the baby. This time was a lot less stressful. We had already been there, done that... Luckily the house was still quite clean so we got everything together again, knelt by the bed for a prayer, and headed back to the birthing center hoping that this time when we returned we would have our son...


We were checked into room 222 again and Karri was our nurse. Dr. Yazdi came in at approximately 8:00 pm, checked me, and gave me a pill. After my two hours laying down, Nate and I began walking. I was having pretty good contractions. Dr. Yazdi was still at the hospital at about 11:40 when it was time to be checked and get another pill because he had another patient in labor. Dr. Yazdi checked me and said that I was still only about 1c m but my cervix had thinned to about 80%. He then left. At about 11:58 I felt a weird pop inside my body, it was like nothing I had ever felt before. Then I felt something wet between my legs. It was just a trickle so I didn't think to much of it. When I felt a little more a few seconds later I said to Nate, "I think my water just broke". We then called in the nurse. She and Dr. Yazdi checked and in fact my water had broken. We were on our way to having a baby!! As Dr. Yazdi walked out of the room he said "that is the best news I have heard all night!". Karri told me that at any point from then on I could have my epidural. I stated, "oh,no I don't need that yet" after about 45 minutes I changed my mind. My contractions were coming one on top of the other so I called for Karri. She asked if I would like to try some pain meds in the arm first so I said ok. She then said, well let me check you really quick and make sure your body hasn't made a big change on me". She checked me and found that I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated! I had changed a lot in about 1 hour. Karri then said she would just go ahead and call for the epidural. I was also put on a pitocin drip at this time, but not to induce contractions, to regulate them, something that never did happen throughout the labor.


Wow! That was the most agonizing 45 minutes of my life. My contractions were STRONG! and right on top of on another. Finally the epidural came. It took about 20 minutes and 4 pokes to get it in. Turns out I have a little bit of scoliosis and my vertebrae are very close together so it was hard to get it. Thank goodness it was even possible! Once it was it it was almost instant relief! I was able to drift in and out of sleep for the next several hours.


At about 7:00am I was checked and was very close to being 10 cm. I only had "a rim" to go. The shift changed and our new nurse, Silvia, joined us. By this time my epidural had began to wear off and I was feeling my contractions again. They called up the Doctor and I was given a "booster". At this time I lost all feeling in my legs and could not move them! I was able to fall into a pretty good sleep at this time until about 8:30.


At 8:30 Dr. Yazdi came in. He checked me and stated that if I did anymore sleeping he would turn off the epidural. It was time to push!! Pushing was quite the experience for me because I was so numb. I really couldn't feel the contractions coming or going and didn't even know if I was pushing right. Unfortunately my contractions were still coming one on top of another and could not really be charted. Silvia my nurse kept making me flip from side to side and push. It was at about this time we found out that the baby had defecated in the womb. We were informed that there was a chance that he would breathe in his meconium at birth and that if this happened he may have to go to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. I did not like the thought of this!! Over the next 2 hours I continued to push. At about 10:30 the epidural began to wear off again and I could somewhat feel the contractions, something I was thankful for because now I knew when to push! About 15 minutes later Dr. Yazdi came in. This is when we were told that the baby was "sunny side up" or facing, face up in the birth canal. My pelvis was not expanding much and the position he was in was not allowing for him to pass through. He need to flip over into traditional birth position for the extra space to move through. Dr. Yazdi tells me that he will have to get the forceps to flip him. He states that this is a one push try and if it does not work we will be having an emergency c-section. Dr. Yazdi states that there is a chance I could tear during this procedure. I looked at Nate wanting him to tell me what to do and then said "just do it". The next few minutes were a whirlwind! I felt the forceps going in, felt some pressure, and the next thing I knew I was looking at my screaming, green, cone headed baby! I looked over at Nate and tears were streaming down both of our faces.... At 11:02 am, on January 20th, 2009, just as our nations 1st African American President was sworn in, Keith Douglas DeLaet was born. A miracle, a blessing.


Keith did not breathe in any of his meconium so he was cleaned, given his Vitamin K shot, and Nate cut his umbilical cord. During this time I was stitched up. Keith weighed 7 lbs and 4 oz. He is 20 1/2 inches long. He is the most perfect, wonderful thing that has ever happened to us. We will thank God everyday for him. I can't wait to watch this little man grow up... He has already been through so much, from being an egg retrieved from my uterus, to being fertilized in a lab, to being frozen and unthawed, to being flipped in the birth canal with forceps. My baby is a fighter... The beginning....

24+ weeks

Friday the 1st was my second appointment with the High Risk Doctor. The appointment was extremely long, but I felt better after it than I did the last one. Peanut had a heartbeat of 150 and weighs 1 lb 10 oz, Butter had a heartbeat of 139 and weighs 1 lb 12 oz. They checked out both of their hearts thoroughly and she said she cant give me a 100%, but she is 95% certain there are no heart problems and that they look very good. Praise God!  My cervix remains perfect and Peanut's placenta has moved away from it, which is a very good thing. The only bad news was that Peanut is Breech and Butter is transverse so unless they move (Doc says there is a 3% chance) I will have to have a c-section which terrifies me. I was able to have a vaginal birth with Doodle and was really hoping for the same with the twins. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that they will move for me. I go back to see my regular OB on Monday so I plan to talk with her more about it then.

We got some amazing pictures while we were at the doctor this time:

Peanut's profile

Butter's Profile

Their profiles next to each other

Butter's foot. 

Doodle kissing his brothers 

Movin' and a groovin'

I hit the "twin half way mark" on Sunday. Only 5 more weeks until the first major milestone for twins: viability. Meaning the earliest that the twines can be born and still have a viable chance of making it.

The babies have been moving more and more, thankfully, I was beginning to get worried. Last night their Daddy felt them for the first time. It was so exciting! I cannot wait until Doodle can feel them, I think he will love it.

I go back next Friday for my first meeting with the high risk doctors. They will be doing my big anatomy scan. I am excited for that, but nervous to meet with them....

Sweet Emotion

Holy emotional. I have been crazy emotional the last couple of weeks. Honestly I can cry at the drop of a hat. Sheesh. Normally I am a pretty emotional person anyway, but I can usually hold it in a bit. I don't remember being this emotional when I was pregnant with Doodle.

Today was our 16 week ultra sound. I went in *hoping* that we would find out the genders of the babies. My birthday is tomorrow and it would be a great birthday present. I was not disappointed.

The ultra sound showed very clearly that we are having 2 little boys! I wont lie, I was a bit disappointed, I wanted to have at least 1 girl, but the important thing is that they are healthy. Honestly, I was a little disappointed when we found out Doodle was a boy as well, and I wouldn't change him for the world.

Besides the gender identification we learned that they are both as healthy as they have been the whole time. Butter was up and dancing for us again, and when she showed them to us side by side, they were kicking each other. A look into the future, most likely.

Butter's little leggies

Butter = Boy, heartbeat 154

Peanut = Boy, heartbeat 161

Now its time to start getting serious about names.. I go back again in about 1 1/2 weeks (a little early this time due to a vacation) and then on June 3rd to meet with the high risk doctors and get my BIG ultra sound. Looking forward to it! 

12 weeks gone hello 2nd trimester!

Ahh. The 2nd trimester. I have such fond memories of you from my 1st pregnancy. You were complete with the ability to brush my teeth without then gagging, the renewal of energy, and that pregnancy "glow" that everyone talks about.

I have to say I am happy the 1st trimester is over. For those of us who have dealt with infertility this means a "graduation" of sorts from our Reproductive Specialist to our regular OBGYN. It also means the completion of many, many weeks of shots (particularly exciting!) and a sense of confidence that you have passed a milestone that you may have never thought you would see.

My 12 week appointment was fun, uneventful really, but anytime I get to see the sweet little babies it is fun. I have been a little under the weather, sick with a cold or allergies, I'm not sure which. The babies are looking great, measuring just right, and wiggling around (Butter did some pretty incredible rolls while we were watching).

Here is a picture of both of them together.

Peanut had a heartbeat of 167.

Butter had a heartbeat of 161

It is so fun getting to see them every 2 weeks. I really hope it keeps up throughout the entire pregnancy. I am very excited to find out what we are having in a month or so! For now everyone participate in the poll guessing what we are having!

8 weeks and going strong

Today was my 8 week appointment. It went well. The babies are doing great. Peanut (Baby A) has a heartbeat of 160 and Butter (Baby B) has a heartbeat of 169. They are both measuring up to date and looking good. Its somewhat hard to see Butter. He/She is always hiding.

My morning sickness has not been bad. I have good days and bad days, but if my memory serves me right, I am not near as sick as I was with Doodle. This has worried me a bit so I am very happy that I have ultra sounds every 2 weeks to fill me in on how the babies are doing.

Sounds like I will have to stay on my shots for at least another 2 weeks. Ugh. I was hoping to be off them today. They did finally give me an official due date of October 17th, however Dr. Johnson said they do induce or perform a c-section if you make it to 38 weeks so I am expecting them at least 2 weeks earlier than the October due date.

Heartbeats and throwing up

That's right I said HEARTBEATS! Plural. As in two, dos.

Craziness! We are floored! Thrilled and terrified at the same time.

The ultra sound went great. As soon as she got in there I could see the 2 sac's. Both had yolks, fetal poles, and heartbeats. Baby A's heartbeat was 112 and Baby B's heartbeat was 109.

This picture shows both sac's. You can see Baby A in the right sac, Baby B is hiding in the second.

We are a bit stressed about the whole idea, but thrilled.

I have been feeling very tired and having waves of sickness. Its nothing to terrible and actually makes me feel better about the babies. I am praying for a healthy pregnancy and life for both of them.

BFP BFP BFP!

The 2 week wait is over! Whew, and ended in good news!

My first beta was Saturday and resulted in a positive with a 156. That is a great number and Suzie (my doctor's nurse) said that it is borderline multiples (oh my word!). We were thrilled. Of course I knew it would be a positive because I had been taking home pregnancy tests since Wednesday, well Monday, if you count the one I took at my husband's insistence and told me that the Trigger shot of the HCG hormone were out of me. I got a very (when I say very I mean barely there) light positive on Wednesday morning. Thursday it was darker and Friday even darker. It was fun watching the lines change each day.

My second beta was today. The number jumped to 514. I feel good about this. I looked back and Doodle's first number was an 85. I don't remember the second, but not 514 (I will have to look again). My 1st Ultra Sound is on the 21st. We cant wait!

As for telling our family, we are going to do so tonight. We had all these great plans of telling them via t-shirt, ect. but honestly we are entirely to excited and don't want to wait the 2 or 3 weeks it will take to get to everyone in person. Maybe I will just send them here. All the information has been right here under their noses the whole time.

Bed resting

Transfer went well yesterday. We were able to transfer 2 "absolutely beautiful" embryo's according to Dr. Maude. I am now on bed rest. Oy. I ended up coming home from work early on Tuesday because I was sore from the Egg Retrieval. Not near as sore as last time, but still sore. I think that the novelty of sitting at home is gone, I am a busy body and going crazy at this point. We should hear tomorrow how many of the remaining Embryo's will be able to be frozen.

An advantage to doing IVF is that you get pictures of your little embryo's, something that most parents to do have the luck of having. Here are the sweet little guys I am hoping will stick in my belly:

Sweet Little Embie 1

 

Sweet Little Embie 2

Another fun little item. My girl Ci-Ci has been creatively coming up with ideas for us to help tell our friends and family that tie in to the Casino theme suggested by my http://www.babycenter.com/ girls. Yesterday I got an email stating "I'm not excited" with the following inside:

The front will say I've hit the Jackpot rather than the Lottery.. I think she did a pretty awesome job! Love ya Ci!

A basket full of eggs

Wow! Stims have gone fast! We did ganerelix on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday we triggered. The ball is really rolling now. Egg Retrieval was on Sunday, today. Its so weird going under. One minute you are BSing with Dr. Maude and the next.. Your awake with a bad taste in your mouth. So far I am feeling pretty good. It was a crazy week getting here.

Our son's 2nd birthday was Thursday, the same day I had an Ultra Sound and Blood work at  our local clinic. Shortly after this our RE's office in Omaha saying that the local clinic had called them and told them their Estrodol machine was broken and they were concerned about the measurements from my Ultra Sound of my lining. So they wanted us to drive up to Omaha and be at their office between 7 and 9 to have the RE redo the Ultra Sound and do the Blood work. So off to Omaha for the night we went, with a short stop at Applebee's to celebrate our son's birthday.

Turns out the trip was worth it, my lining was quite a bit thicker. I was told I have to take a baby aspirin each day and Retrieval would be Sunday. Now that in and of its self was a journey.

We have only told 3 people that we are in this process, my boss, my husbands boss, and a close friend for babysitting purposes. Well we had our son's 2nd birthday party on Saturday and had previously asked my mother to babysit so that we could take our friend out for her birthday. Turns out we are needing to head to Omaha on Saturday so I have to think fast of a good excuse as to why we need to be gone overnight. We ended up telling my mother that we were going to go to Council Bluffs to the Casino for this friends birthday and would be staying the night. She agreed to watch our son, but was worried about the weather for our driving. Later during the party the whole family found out we were going "gambling", needless to say several family members were quite shocked and probably less than impressed. It turned into an awkward conversation and my white lie was getting bigger.

We ended up driving to Omaha in a winter storm warning (I swear my family is going to have an intervention) and a drive that usually takes just about 2 hours ended up taking over 3. Ugh. At least we had a nice meal in the end of it :)

Retrieval was easy. As I said before, awake one minute, out the next.. They were able to retrieve 21 eggs, which made me a little happier. Obviously I do not need that many, but I want to make sure we have several frozen in case we have to go to a Frozen Embryo Transfer as we did with Doodle. We wait a few days and Wednesday we transfer. Tomorrow I will know how many were fertilized.

Stick, Shoot, OUCH!

We started stims this week. I am on 3 powders of HMG in 1 cc of diluent each morning and night. Ugh! Last time I think I only had to do shots of stims 1 time per day. My bottom is already bruising, but Oh well, means to an end, right?

My 1st ultrasound showed 7 follicles on each ovary, which I was a little disappointed with because last time I had SO many. Oh well. It was only a few days into stims. I have been having headaches in the mornings sometimes when I wake up, but otherwise so far, the side effects haven't been to terrible.