We couldn’t believe the day was finally here. On Friday night as we lay in bed snuggling close, I had that butterfly feeling. Part of me felt a like I used to feel the day before a big exam in university. Anxious, nervous, wondering if I was ready. But a bigger part of me felt like I did the night before Christmas. So excited, so much anticipation, joy, happiness. I couldn’t wait to meet them, to see what they looked like, to hold them and kiss them. I got up so early that morning and made myself eat some toast and orange juice. I was being induced and we were to expect a call anytime between 6:30 am and midnight to go the hospital and begin the process. It was difficult not knowing when the call would come.  We tried to keep busy. We ran a few errands and dropped off Marley at a friends house. I got the same stares and comments I had been getting for the past month, only this time when I was asked when I was due, I could smile and say ‘TODAY!”. Was such a surreal feeling but the more I said it, the more real it felt. After grabbing a light lunch, we headed home and put on a movie to keep ourselves distracted. We were about 20 minutes through it when the call came. I think my hands shook a little as I picked it up. I knew from the private number display that it had to be the hospital. The nurse said “well, are you ready to come have those babies?” This was really happening. I said YES and we packed some last minute items before getting into the car and heading across the city towards the hospital.

After checking in, we sat in the waiting room for a while and then were escorted to a big, bright private room where the nurse asked me to put on my hospital gown and get comfy on the bed. I was hooked up to monitors that were strapped to my belly. One for each of the babies and one to monitor my contractions. They started by putting me on an oxitocin drip to get things going and a few hours later, one of the residents came in and broke my water. I tried to remain calm and comfortable and the nurses kept saying they couldn’t believe how relaxed I seemed.  My contractions started to show up pretty regular on the monitor but I didn’t have any pain for about the first five hours.  Around supper time, I suddenly wished I had eaten more that morning. I was starving! I was only permitted to have fluids, or jell-o or popsicles which thankfully tied me over for now.  Around 10:00 p.m. I started to feel my contractions quite strongly all of a sudden. The nurse told me that was great and she said that when my pain level got past a 5 out of 10, it should probably get the epidural. That didn’t take long and I was so thankful for the relief after it began to kick in.  The nurses predicted I would likely go pretty slowly this was my first time giving birth and the average rate  for dialation is about half a cm per hour and I was measuring  about 4 at that time.  Ron went to tell my parents who were waiting out in the waiting room to head over to our place and get some rest for a while as it would likely be a while. The next couple hours went by pretty quickly as the epidural allowed me take naps during contractions. Ron stayed by my side the entire time and tried to get a little rest on the cot beside my bed but he said he was too excited and anxious to sleep. The resident came back to check me at about midnight and I was a good 8 cm dilated. I couldn’t believe how fast that went! One hour later I was completely dilated and they told me I was ready to start pushing. Ron called my parents to come back as we figured our boys would be born in the next hour or so.

They wheeled my bed over to the OR as this is protocol for multiple births in case of emergency surgery for one of the babies.  With the way things had progressed over the past 3 hours, we expected the next events to happen A LOT faster then they did. But instead, I pushed for a long hard 4 hours with only slight progression. Those babies were just too darn comfortable in my belly! The only thing that kept me going was the encouragement from my nurses and midwives and having Ron at my bedside cheering me on, while holding my hand and feeding me ice chips. I found myself napping on and off between contractions and at around 5:00, they suggested I take a good rest. When I got up close to 6, I still felt like I had just run two marathons and had no strength left to take another step.  I gave it another go but I did not have much left in me. Our OB came down to discuss our options. There were two. A c-section or delivering the babies with the help of forceps. I cried a little as I didn’t think I was in the right state of mind to make an informed decision. I didn’t want to give in to a c-section after all I’d been through in the past hours but I also didn’t want  my little babes to be harmed in anyway through the optional procedure. After a lot of reassuring and with everything I had left in me, we went with the second option, the forceps. Less then an hour later, Skyler Kenneth and Bryson Michael were born at 7:01 and 7:26 am on September 22nd, the first day of fall. As I heard their little cries and saw them for the first time, I couldn’t believe that they were mine. It was a very long and difficult night but worth every moment when we got to see and hold and kiss our little babies. They were perfect. So perfect.  After family and visitors had come and gone later that night, I looked at our boys and cried and cried. I couldn’t believe that we had been blessed with this most precious gift.

We went into the hospital the day before with no expectations of what was to come in the following hours. We had prepared ourselves for the unexpected we knew about the possible complications that could arise with a twin birth. All we had hoped and prayed for was the safety and health of our precious baby boys as they entered the world. We thank the Lord for answering our prayers.

We stayed in the hospital for two nights as I had lost a lot of blood during delivery and they wanted to make sure I was stable before we went home. When we left the hospital with our two precious bundles in our arms, it didn’t feel real. Today, they are almost two weeks old and it still sometimes doesn’t feel real. We often just stare at them together in awe and wonder, wondering how our hearts could be so much more full then we ever thought they could be. There are definitely challenging moments. Moments when we wonder how we’ll get through the day. But life with our beautiful baby boys is still more wonderful then we ever imagined it being. We are blessed.

Thanks for reading our story. Check back for more updates as the twins grow!

Photos by Raw Footage Photography.