A Birthday for Ethan and Emmanuel

Ethan and Emmanuel were born on May 5th 2009 at 6:09 am and 6:10 am respectively. There arrival was a big surprise... Prior to their birth I had been in the high risk maternity unit of the hospital for eight days. The rollercoaster ride began on April 27th as I began having contractions.. At around 10 pm I began feeling something weird, I had yet to feel any contractions so I wasn't exactly sure what it was... In my mind I thought to myself "hmmm, these must be braxton hicks contractions. I'm sure they'll just check me at the ER and send me home... no big worry".... boy was I wrong. I had my husband take me to Mercy hospital because it was up the street from our house and I didn't think it was anything serious. Once we got there they hooked my up to the monitors and verified that I was having contractions... I was 23 weeks 3 days, if my babies were born then they wouldn't even be considered viable. The nurse also checked me and informed me that I was dialated 3cm. This came as a big surprise.. what is going on I began to think to myself. Because I was in pre-term labor I was transferred by ambulance from Mercy to my hospital Sutter Memorial in downton Sac.

Once I arrived at Sutter I was put in a room in the High Risk Maternity Unit and was put in Trendelenburg position (head lowered and feet elevated). This was to take the pressure off the cervix to keep me from dialating more and to keep those babies in for as long as possible. The next morning the doctor came in to see me and informed me that I would be in the hospital for the remainder of my pregnancy and that I would have to stay in Trendelenburg position as well. They also had neonatologist come in to talk to me about what to expect if the babies were born at 23 weeks. He asked me if I would want them to do everything possible to save my babies because at this point they would not unless I absolutely wanted them to. I told the doctor yes do whatever it takes to save their lives. Over the next few days things weren't really looking up at all and it was becoming harder and harder to lay in the bed 24 hours a day upside down.

On Monday I had another ultra sound and the doctor informed me that I was completely dialated and 100% effaced. WHAT! How did that happen, I hadn't been in that much pain. (Everyday since I had been admitted I continued to have contractions, I was on 11 different medications and this point 3 of which were to stop/subdue the contractions but the meds obviously weren't working) At about 4pm on that Monday they decided to put me on Magnesium as a last resort. They started me at the highest dose to try and calm the uterus for as long as possible, at least to hold off delivery for a few more days. The magnesium didn't work at all and was absolute torture. I got hotter than I have ever been in my life, it literally felt like my bed was a lake of fire. The nurses continued to pump me with magnesium over the next hours. At about 1 am the next morning I was able to fall asleep for a couple of hours I woke at 3 am due to increasing strength of contractions, I was sure the babies were on their way at that point. They increased my dosage of magnesium to the max as a final resort. I fell asleep again for about 2 hours. I woke around 5 am on May 5th and felt alot of pressure, I called the nurse immediately and thought that my water may have broke. The nurse came in called the Doc and I was rushed to the OR for an emergency C-section.

By that point I couldn't really tell what was going on I was on so many drugs that it was all a daze for me. The one emotion I can clearly remember was worry.... worry for my babies... would they be all right?

Ethan was born at 6:09 am weighing in at 1 lb 4 oz and Emmanuel was out less than a minute later at 6:10 weighing in at 1 lb 6 oz. They were 24 weeks 4 days, micro preemies. My doctor was surprised at how good they looked for 24 weeks.