They're here!

My two beauties have arrived! What a whirlwind the last few days have been! It's going by so fast and yet it doesn't feel like we're doing all that much! M & N were born at 12:26am and 12:30am on Mon. 1/28 via vaginal birth! We got there at 9am Sunday morning and it felt like it took forever to get things started. They began with a pitocin "test" at around 11:40am to see if the girls would do ok or if they needed to switch to a c-section plan, but they handled it just fine, so they started a regular drip of pitocin and kept raising it.

Gabby, her husband, L and I spent the whole day hanging out in her room. There was a chair/bed in the room that I got to lie down on and straighten my back occasionally (and I took a nap because I barely slept the night before) but it was nice to spend so much time together. My parents and my inlaws arrived at 2pm (we totally thought she would have given birth by then given how quickly she's given birth previously) but it was still around 1-2 at that time. They had to sit in the public waiting room the whole time which must have been so boring. We would go down every few hours to let them know what was happening, which wasn't much.

Around 7pm she was 4-5 cm dilated, and they were planning to break her water. She kept debating whether to get an epidural or wait till after her water was broken, but we convinced her to get it sooner rather than later. We thought once her water was broken things would stop happening, but not...

The wait continued...and continued...and around 10:30pm we began debating if the girls would even come on Sunday, and of course we kind of hoped one would come just before midnight and one after! But around 11:30pm we knew it wasn't going to happen. She was still only about 5 cm dilated.

Finally, around 12:15am I told L to tell the parents they should just leave or get a hotel room because who knew when it was going to happen, and they'd been sitting down there for so long. But right after L left, all of a sudden Gabby was like, "Ok, this is happening, I think we need to go." She called the team in and they checked her and she was 10 cm. L came walking in and I told him to quickly call the parents to let them know because they were about to leave. He did and then we were rushed into the OR (just in case we had to switch to a c-section, but we didn't) and they were telling her to not push because she really wanted to. It all of a sudden happened so fast!

There were three teams in the OR - so many people! There was a team for each of the girls, and one for Gabby as well. There were two chairs set up behind the table, it was sort of weird and I felt a little sad, like we were such spectators when everyone else had a role. Gabby's husband was with her the whole time, holding her hand and talking to her (he is so sweet) and we were behind them sitting (because of my back) for a bit, not able to see anything behind all the people standing around her.

We started to stand up, and Gabby pushed ONCE and Baby M came shooting out! They grabbed her and worked SO fast, cutting the cord (we thought L would be doing that) and getting her over to her team.  L went over to her and I stayed because I wanted to see Baby N come out. Gabby wanted to push again and the team was trying to tell her not to. People were reaching up and I think something was happening that wasn't great because someone had their hand way up there in her - so either Baby N was starting to turn the wrong way or the cord was wrapped around her, I'm not sure. Even though it felt like a long time it was only 4 minutes apparently, and Gabby got permission to push again, and BOOM, N was out. Same thing happened with N being passed quickly to her team and L was with M so I went over to N. I saw L trimming M's cord, and I just stood by N's team. I almost felt lost, but incredibly happy. They were still working on Gabby and I wanted to go to both N and M, and then felt bad that I was ignoring Gabby. I kept turning to her, because it felt like, now that the girls were out, I was just going to forget about her? It didn't feel right, but Gabby caught my eyes and said, "it's fine! Go to your girls," so I did.

Both apgars were 9, and M was 4lbs3oz. - quite a bit higher than the 3lbs11oz. they were concerned about that led to this induction! N was a little lower than they'd estimated, 4lbs9oz vs. the 4lbs13oz they'd previously estimated. And they were so perfect! In fact, they were doing so well that we got to have the girls their first two hours of life before we had to send them up to NICU. Finally both sets of parents got to come up and they melted. I was grinning ear to ear.

They did so well in NICU they were released after the minimum amount of time - 18 hours, and they came to the well-baby nursery last night at 6:30pm. They're keeping up their heat, their blood sugar levels are great, and they're nursing champs. They're just small. So we're hoping to get their weights up so they can go home soon!

I am head over heels for these girls already. They are so laid back, I don't know how they were born to me! :) And L is so in love as well.

A nurse said to me yesterday, "These girls were worth all the pain, weren't they?" (everyone knows our story as we're the only surrogate birth there right now)...and I stopped and thought, because I've heard other people say after their babies were born (IFers who've had hard times too) how worth it all it was and I really have been so bitter that I thought I would never ever be able to think that - that I would love my girls and be so grateful for them but not be able to say, I'm glad for the pain I had. And honestly, all of a sudden, I am. It has been SO MUCH pain, and me of all people can say it was all worth it.

Here are my burrito babies less than 2 hours after birth. Perfect little girls.

More later, when I get a chance!