A Full Heart

Early Monday morning (2am) I started having contractions that were about 1 hour apart.  I got up, watched TV, ate some snacks, read my book...and by 7:30am they were about 10 minutes apart.  I woke up Dave and told him about it.  He immediately got up and started packing my bag for me while I lay on the bed exhausted.  I am usually an organized person, but I hadn't packed the bag for the hospital, seeing as how I thought I had at least a week if not 2 to prepare still!

By 8:30 the contractions were strong and only 5 minutes apart.  I was in the shower and Dave was brushing his teeth.  I told him, "I'm having another contraction" and he said, "Are you sure - your last one was only 5 minutes ago."  My silence was his answer, I was in pain!

We jumped (well I slowly waddled) in to the car and drove as fast as we could down to the hospital.  By the time they admitted me, I was having contractions 2 minutes apart and dilated to an 8!!

The nurse said, "Were you trying to have these babies at home?" I just had no idea it would progress that fast.  She also said she felt toes and it was time to get me into surgery ASAP for a c-section. Baby boy was breach and baby girl was sideways. I was nervous and a little disappointed because I was hoping to have a regular delivery.

My doctor came running into the room (enter sense of calm and peace) and said, let's get you to the surgery room! They wheeled me in and the anesthesiologist was waiting there for me. Funny thing about getting a spinal block (which I was worried about getting), contractions when dilated to a 8 or 9 hurt worse. So in the moment, I looked at the anesthesiologist and thought, just do it!

Dave was changing into his awesome hospital outfit and hat so he wasn't there for the spinal block part. My amazing doctor held my shoulders and said, "You can do this Jessica." I was like, "I love you mom, I mean, Dr. Orth." Dave came in right after and within 5 minutes we were hearing the sound of our son crying.  Then one minute later was our daughter.  They were perfect and adorable and had big lips. :)

Dave got to hold them and bring them over to me.  I just kept thinking -- how did those fit inside me, they are big babies!  Dave held their hands while they got sponge baths and vitals taken.  I was taken to a postpartum recovery room where I tried to sleep off the meds while they asked me questions and ran tests.

After a while they brought our babes to our room and we got to spend a few hours with them:

Jane Lee Shumway (on the left) and Ethan David Shumway (on the right)

They are both doing great right now and are sleepy, cute little sweeties.  More pics and a video coming soon!  Now I sleep.