Let the journey begin....

As of March 10th, the greatest journey of our lives began. After 17 hours of labor, our precious miracles were introduced into this world. Here is how the journey started....Tuesday morning at 1:10am, I awoke needing to do the norm...pee!!! As I got out of bed, I felt a little pop and immediately knew that my water had broken (thanks to a little hint from my girl Whitney). I ran to the bathroom yelling to Sean, "My water just broke, my water just broke!!!" He immediately popped up out of bed, called the doctor's office and had the on call doc paged. While Sean is getting in touch with the doc, I was trying to figure out how to get dressed with water pouring out of me. I do not care what other people say, when your water breaks, your water breaks!!! I had the hardest time putting clothes on, but knew that I could not show up to St. Luke's naked. I finally dressed and had a towel between my legs. Very attractive I might add. Meanwhile, Dr. Rosenbaum called us back and said, "are you guys on your way?" We were walking out the door!!! Thank goodness it was 1:30am, because Sean was driving so fast trying to get us there. We arrived, ran to the yellow elevators, and up to the 3rd floor. They checked us in a room and as of that moment, I had still not had a major contraction. But it did not take too long for them to start. As soon as I was settled into our room, they started and did not stop. I was dilated at a 3 and before I knew it I was at a 5 and decided it was time to get the Epidural, just in case I missed that "window of opportunity". I will have to admit, I was scared to death of the Epidural. I did exactly what I was told and the Epidural was inserted beautifully! (According to the Anesthesiologist anyway). As most of you know, I was scared that we would have these babies before Dr. Ivey returned from his vacation in Vegas. He was paged that morning, came to see us around lunch and headed to a meeting for the afternoon. He contacted all through the day on my progress and was expected to return around 5:30 and deliver these babies. Once again, we were asked to "keep those babies in" until he returned. So I did my best to keep them in as long as I could. Around 4:00, I was in so much back pain, I just could not take it anymore. The nurse measured me and I was 10 cm dilated and ready to deliver. They paged Dr. Ivey and he showed up just in time for me to start pushing Brynlee out. After everyone was asked to leave the room for me to start pushing, I pushed for little over an hour. With the help and encouragement from Sean, Mom, Toni and Holly, Brynlee started to crown and they wheeled me back to the OR. Mom and Sean came back to the OR for the rest of the delivery and after just a few more pushes, Brynlee Grace was brought into this world...kicking and screaming!!! She was laid on my chest, gooey and shaking with the sound of the lungs she has so been blessed with. ;0) After they took her back, Dr. Ivey did an ultrasound to see where Chance was and the little guy had turned himself around and "swam" back up into my stomach. Dr, Ivey tried to turn him around and push him back down, but he would not budge for anything. So he tried to go in and turn him around..nothing. Dr. Ivey suggested that he would go in and pull him out by his feet, but after going in, he could not get a hold of his other foot. Dr. Ivey looked at me and said, "I am so sorry sweetie, but i cannot pull him out by one leg. We are going to have to do a section." I did not care, I just wanted my baby boy out!!! They prepped me for surgery, deadened my whole boy and went to work. Chance was very hesitant about joining us out here in the big world and gave Dr. Ivey a really hard time. He did not want to come out and was doing everything he could to stay in his warm little place. At one point, the resident was literally on top of me pushing my stomach with Dr. Ivey trying to pull Chance out. Mom said that they were pulling on me so hard, that my body was coming up off the table. After tugging, pushing and pulling on Chance, Dr. Ivey cut my uterus in half and pulled Chance out. When he came out, he was not crying, was very "floppy" and not very responsive. They called the Neonatal unit to come in and assess him. Sean left the room and went to be with Chance, leaving me freaking out why my baby was not crying. Mom kept trying to tell me that he was okay and kept bringing Brynlee over to me to put my mind elsewhere, but I was still freaking out. Having the Neo called as soon as your baby comes out, it the scariest feeling ever. They were gone just a few minutes, but seemed like an eternity. He came back in letting us hear the powerful set of lungs he has been blessed with as well. As soon as I heard him and knew that he was okay, I was able to focus back on my procedure. Doing that, I got very sick and had a very bad reaction to the drugs. It took about an hour for them to sew my uterus back and then sew me up. Everything went well and our babies were perfect!!! They took me back to recovery for 2 hours and there were tons of friends and family there waiting on us. All 4 sets of parents, B and Steph, Ryan and Aimee, Whitney, Autumn, Vanessa and Missy, Tracey and Kristie and many others. It was so nice to see so many smiling faces when we came out. I am so glad to have experienced both sides of delivery. It was a crazy, scary and amazing experience, but I will tell you that I do not see myself doing it again...not any time in the near future anyway!!! Take a look at our sweet angels in our Family albums to the right. ENJOY!!

Love to all!