On Sunday, May 10 (Mother's Day), I was 36 weeks and 6 days pregnant with our twin girls. The night before, I had received a text at 2am our time from my husband saying he was coming in a couple of days early because he had a "gut feeling" that he needed to be here. We now know that was the Lord getting him here sooner to be with us...........
To say I was excited is an understatement. I already was not sleeping well, but now with that news I was AWAKE and PUMPED to be seeing my man sooner than I had expected.
My mom, Beckett and I skipped church because I was just plain exhausted. It was storming that morning and the tornado sirens were going off. The afternoon proved to be even more eventful though, because after my nap (thank the Lord I got a nap in that day!) I was in the bathroom and my water broke! To be honest, I wasn't sure my water had broken. I felt like a kick and heard even a pop that made me jump from the toilet seat, but the first thought I had was that a twin had kicked and landed on my bladder. A slow, steady stream started trickling down my leg when I stood up. I thought I was peeing on myself........... I was on the phone with my sister-in-law Kari while all this was taking place, and she was doing her best to keep me calm and go through all options with me. My husband was due home in 24 hours, this could NOT be my water breaking!!!!
We had family driving through for dinner on Sunday night, so mom starts preparing dinner and I go to the couch to sit on a towel (just in case) and am steadily filling up the pad I had put on to catch the fluid I was excreting. After a couple of hours--I'm not one to just call up the doctor at first sign of alert--I called the doctor and the doc on call suggested I just come and get the fluid tested to make sure it wasn't amniotic fluid that I was losing. She suggested I come sooner than later because with twins, I'd have to get an ultrasound and they would have to come from home so they'd need to be notified. My family shows up and at that point, I feel it necessary to go to the hospital.. I had started experiencing some cramping. In order to avoid throwing off our plans for dinner and keep everything pretty "normal" around the house, I call up our neighbors/close friends, the McCones. My main concern at this point is my two-year old son who thrives on routine. I needed my mom there to keep with the program of dinner, bath and bed for him. And for me... for my peace of mind.
Tom and Jan show up with a towel in their front seat and are ready to go! Tom shares that he actually had a dream that he drove me to the hospital to give birth. What the heck.
We get to the hospital around 7:30pm and I tell them my situation..... the nurses tested the fluid and it was indeed amniotic fluid. And... I was already dilated to 4 cm. I told the nurses my husband was coming in the next day, and none of them seemed real hopeful that I could hold out until then. So I have to start prepping myself to welcome my husband back from deployment with two babies in hand.
Things start progressing pretty rapidly from this point. My contractions are growing stronger and I am growing more uncomfortable. I had to wait for the ultrasound tech to check the positioning of the girls.... both head down=natural labor, otherwise I was heading to get a c-section. At my last ultrasound (about a month ago), Baby B had flipped to breech position. So for the last month or so, I had about everyone in Arkansas praying that she would flip back down so that I could deliver naturally. Nothing against c-sections or those that choose to go that route. We all have preferences. This was mine. While I was open to whatever was safest for me and the babies, my goal was to deliver vaginally.
When the tech came in to check, all I could think about were my contractions and trying to massage my back/hips for some relief. I was in the room by myself at this point because there wasn't much room for the equipment.... but the McCones were still there, thankfully! The ultrasound showed that BOTH were HEAD DOWN.... meaning, I GET TO GO DELIVER THESE BABIES! And then... I start regretting my preference and having people pray so hard. I'm starting to grow fearful of having to push TWO BABIES out and the exhaustion and the fact that anything could happen at this point. But, no turning back. This is happening.
I get to my room and am letting the nurses know that whenever convenient, I'd love to have my epidural. They would laugh and say she was on her way. My mom and my Aunt Sarah show up at the hospital after laying Beckett down for the night, and so the McCones return home. My friend Lindsay also shows up and is ready to have a first row seat to the birth of my babies. I get checked and am at 6cm dilated now. It's no fun being checked with no epi in yet...... just FYI. I dreaded it each time. Once I got the epidural, all was right with the world. The nurses come to take a look one time and notice some green fluid.... meaning I had some meconium from a baby, so they setup an area to aspirate if need be. It was getting later, probably around 11:30pm now. I feel a sort of "tap tap tap" down in my region and think nothing of it. Nothing painful, I just knew something was going on down there. Maybe I was just making that feeling up. But.... I feel it again. I tell the nurse and she looks at me like I'm crazy.... 1. Because I came at shift-change and she hadn't caught up on everything and the room wasn't quite setup. 2. Why the heck would I be thinking something was going on when I was JUST at a 6. She checks me and..... it's go time. I am at 10cm and that was clearly Baby A letting us know she was ready. I start pushing about ten til midnight, and the nurse jokingly says I could have babies born on separate days.
Ummm, NO THANK YOU.
If I'm having twins they are doing the twin thing and having the same birth day. So.... I had to stop pushing. I started back up at midnight and 17 minutes later we welcomed Korbyn Ruth Kremers into this world, a whopping 6 lbs even.
I was expecting my husband to fly in later that morning. He wouldn't know about the twins' birth until 6am (5am our time, he flew into Atlanta) and I was SO anxious for him to receive all the text updates I had been sending him... and now pictures of his two beautiful baby girls! It made me sad that he missed the birth, mostly for HIS sake because I know how badly he was trying to get back to be with me for the births.
I get a text at around 5am saying that his next flight was overbooked........ WHAT. He ended up on standby, shared his story of how he was getting back early from deployment overseas to come be with his wife who just gave birth to twins. The airline made an announcement and even offered $1,000 PLUS a free flight for the person who gave up their seat for my poor husband............ ZERO TAKERS. Uuuunnnnbelievable.
He was then placed on standby for the next flight which came in a couple hours later.... a lady who was 7 months pregnant ended up giving her seat up. PRAISE JESUS!!! She was then placed on standby but was able to get a seat........ RIGHT. NEXT. TO. BRAD. So even though he was pushed back a few hours, I know that the Lord has His hand in all of this. And you know, there was a reason he wasn't supposed to get on that first flight. We don't know why....but I do believe there was a reason.
My brother Jay heads to Fayetteville to retrieve my husband at noon, and Brad comes racing through the hospital door at around 2pm. What a GLORIOUS feeling... my man is BACK and SAFE and gets to come see his ladies!!!!
Beckett comes a couple of hours later and our family of 5 is complete. He was so sweet with his sisters, even though he was a bit unsure of what was going on.... He got his daddy and TWO baby sisters all in one day!!!
Thank you Lord for such a safe delivery and for providing all the amazing people that helped during my stay at the hospital, and for safely bringing Brad home to us.