Alex & Nathan are here!!

At 38 weeks 2 days on July 26th, I was finally induced after 12 weeks of bed rest due to preterm labor. Labor and delivery was VERY quick- a total of ~5 hours. I arrived at the hospital at 6am, silently suffered through an administrative fiasco, until induction finally began at 8:45am. From the start I was 2-3 cm dilated. After only ~2 hours, my contractions became so intense that I asked for an epidural. I felt like such a wimp because it was so soon (I think the nurses and my doula thought so too), but I just couldn't take it.

10 minutes after the epidural was administered, I felt MUCH better. When my OB checked at that point, I was already at 8 cm!! I felt somewhat vindicated that there was a reason for the intense pain that happened so quickly :) Everyone was really surprised, and said that normally you progress at about 1 cm per hour with induction...I guess my preterm labor really had me primed.

About 2 hours later, I was 10 cm, and ready to start pushing. 11 minutes later, after about 3-4 sets of 3 pushes, Alex was born at 1:46 pm. My OB was very focused on making sure baby B stayed head down, and reached back up to pull him into the birth canal. Only 1 or 2 sets of pushes this time, and Nathan was born 6 minutes after his brother at 1:52 pm. Apgars were 8, 9 (Alex) and 8, 8 (Nathan). Afterwards, I was very happy to learn that no episiotomy was performed!

Their stats:

Alexander Theodor: 5 lb. 4 oz., 18 in., born 1:46pm 7/26
Nathan Lucas: 5 lb. 10 oz., 18.5, born 1:52pm 7/26

We're all doing well, but things are incredibly busy. I'm recovering well, and I'm pretty mobile at this point. My progress is probably a bit slower than it would have been since I had been on bed rest so long, but honestly I'm doing better than I had thought. My husband has been fantastic and is a tremendous help with everything. He goes back to work this Thursday so I'm a bit worried about being on my own. But we've gotten this far, so I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Good luck to everyone in the rest of your pregnancies!

Karen