Welcoming our Twin Daughters: A Birth Story

February 27, 2014

The days leading up to our scheduled C-Section on February 27th, 2014 were full of emotions for our little family.  We spent our time finishing last minute details around the house, giving our dogs Colbie & George a little extra love, and despite everyones advice to "rest while you can!" my pregnancy insomnia & general discomfort resulted in sleepless nights in my recliner where binge watching episodes of Scandal kept my anxiety at bay.

I know I've said it before, but we really couldn't believe that we had made it to a scheduled C-Section. For MONTHS we waited for the doctors to give us bad news, but it never came.  Our hard work had paid off.. we were having our daughters on the scheduled date we picked 3 months ago, NEVER thinking we would actually make it to the date we picked.

February 26th felt a little bit like the day of our rehearsal dinner.  We were anxious, excited and in total disbelief the whole day. Trae was working, but getting off work early and came home with a lovely gift given to us from his whole office, celebrating the girl's birthday. Our parents drove into Austin & we all had an early, casual dinner together at our house: Lupe Tortilla Fajitas- our family favorite.  I spent the day relaxing in comfy clothes & watching my favorite TV show, Scandal to keep my mind at bay.

Everything had been done: our bags were packed & ready, camera batteries were charged, we went over the next days timeline with our family and all we had to do was relax, "get some rest" (yea, RIGHT!) , not drink or eat anything after midnight (for me)  and report to Seton hospital at 5:30 AM.

We took some last obligatory belly photos posed in front of our weekly chalkboard, celebrating our final pregnancy accomplishment- FULL TERM.  Trae and I got ready for bed, cried tears of joy as we prayed for the events that were ahead of us and thanked Sawyer & Tristan & God for helping us get to this day before Trae went to sleep in our bed and I went to relax in our recliner.  A short 4 hours later (and 3 Scandal episodes later) I took my last pregnant shower, Trae loaded our bags and we left in the cold dark morning to go to the hospital to have our babies!

Car packed with everything we need.. or think we might need! 

Typical new parents.. we didn't need half this! 

Walking inside Seton, carrying all his girl's bags!

It was a cold February morning as we arrived to welcome our daughters!

We arrived at Seton promptly at our 5:30 AM check in time.  What an AMAZING feeling it was, walking in, hand-in-hand EXCITED to be at the hospital! Everything was perfect: We were showered- even my hair was clean & curled, our doctor would be there to deliver our babies and our good friend Katie was scheduled to be our nurse anesthetist for our surgery- what could be better?!

Getting ready to meet our little girls!

We met our nurses and I was hooked up to the monitors within 15 minutes of arriving.  Each girl had a nurse and I had a separate nurse that would take care of me pre and post surgery.  As I sat in my hospital bed feeling the girls kick in my belly for the last times, I started getting nervous for the operation ahead. We met with the anesthesiologist, pediatrician, OB, surgery nurses and next thing we knew- Trae was putting on his scrubs and we were being wheeled back into surgery.

Trae ready for the Operating Room!

Trae was told to wait outside the operating room while I was administered anesthesia. I was walked into the large, cold, bright Operating Room where I saw 8 nurses, 2 infant beds, 3 Doctors, a surgical table and many silver surgical tools neatly laid out. I immediately started shaking- I was nervous!!  My nurse and Katie knew our history and had done a great job of filling in the staff with our story, so that everyone was aware to be vigilant in giving us every piece of information regarding what was happening during surgery and when the babies got here.  See, Trae and I understood that while this day was perfect in so many ways, it would likely bring up PTSD moments from Sawyer & Tristans delivery, and one way we could try to alleviate this was to be as comfortable in the situation as possible, which for us means giving us TOO much information, rather than having us ask if everything was ok.  The Doctors, nurses, everyone knew this and completely participated in our wishes- we never had to ask what something was, when something was happening, what options we had, nothing- it was all offered to us as information in advance- something we were so happy with.

We are nervous, but ready to meet our daughters!

Holding hands & praying while in surgery.

Wiping away tears as I heard Lyla for the first time

Anesthesia took no time and before I knew it, Trae was by my side, holding my hand that was stretched out and looking at me with his smiling eyes, assuring me that all was going to be ok. Some rough tugging, pulling, poking and prodding is all I felt, Thank God.. it definitely didn't feel like I was about to deliver my twin girls.  At 8:00 on the dot Dr Reue said "OK.. here she is.. Happy Birthday, Lyla... whoa.. she is LONG!!"  It felt like forever until she cried, but Katie continually reassured us (without us having to ask) that she was ok and they were just suctioning her out. Trae took pictures continually of her as she let out her first big cry.  I had dreamed about that exact moment of hearing my healthy baby cry and it was better than I could have ever imagined! Trae and I squeezed each others hand and tears rolled down our cheeks as we listened to Lyla's sweet cry.  She was dried off and brought over to us to meet her until we heard "Here is Baby B- Baby Nixon! Happy Birthday, Nixon- 8:01 AM!"

As soon as Dr Reue announced her arrival, the room was filled with Nixon's HUGE cries. We were all shocked to hear how little she was, when her cry easily drowned out her sisters!

Trae holding Lyla's hand as she is checked over

Looking at Lyla for the first time

Papa & Lyla

Papa & Nixon

Meeting Nixon for the first time & having skin to skin time

Both girls were weighed, given their perfect APGAR scores, quickly wiped & wrapped by the nurses and given quickly to Trae and me to love on & for me to begin to breastfeeding them.  Once swaddled, the girls stopped crying and were looking around the room and at us, as if they were taking it all in.  It was an amazing feeling to finally be holding our healthy daughters!  Once we were able to hold them together as a family, Trae and I thanked God again for our daughters and sons, prayed for our journey and began telling Lyla and Nixon about their big brothers.

Our First Family Photo

Lyla & Nixon bundled up together

Nixon Sawyer Schultz

Proud Papa holding his girls together for the first time

Trae & Dr Reue posing with the girls

After Nixon was born, it took about 30 minutes for Dr Reue & his staff to finish my surgery and close me up.  Prior to closing, Dr Reue explained that one of the two cerclage bands placed around my cervix (my TAC) had eroded through my uterus due to how large it had gotten during pregnancy due to my full term pregnancy, so he had to remove it.  I was so thankful that my surgeon had placed TWO mersiline cerclage bands in case we had twins again (which we did!) because without the second band doing its job, there is a good chance we wouldn't have made it as far into the pregnancy as we did.  I was and am so thankful for my cerclage(s).. they saved my daughters lives.

We were wheeled back into our hospital room where our family joined us quickly to meet the girls and learn their names for the first time before we had a few hours alone, just the 4 of us to recover from surgery and relax as a family.

Our Family coming in to meet the girls & learn their names for the first time

Mama holding Nixon for the first time

Loving on my babies shortly after they were born

Blissfully in love

We were transferred to our post partum room and asked how we wanted the them to assess the girls, in our room or in the nursery.  While we had been given sound advice from friends & family to allow the girls to go to the nursery at night so we could get sleep, we told the nursing staff that we didn't want the girls to leave our side unless completely necessary.  Call it PTSD, but we worked so hard to have our little girls by our side that we didn't want them to go ANYwhere without us, unless it was needed.  Aside from 2 assessments that had to be done in the nursery, our girls didn't leave our sides for the next 4 days we were in the hospital and we loved every minute of it!

Standing outside our hospital room door

Lyla Tristan

Nixon Sawyer

Nana & Papi holding the girls

Nana & Pop-Pop

After 4 days in the hospital, both girls passed their hearing tests, Nixon's bilirubin was elevated enough to graduate from the light therapy she had been on for 2 days and Nixon passed her car seat test allowing us all to leave to go home together.  We dressed the girls in their special onesies we had made with their full names on them and pictures of both pink and blue birds that reminded us of their brothers always looking over their sisters as they carried their brothers' name as their middle name forever.

We felt so blessed and happy to leave with our girls on that cold day in March. It felt surreal to put them in our carseats that we had unpacked 2 months prior, then put them in our car we bought just for our growing family.. and finally to pull away from the hospital that brought us our 3rd and 4th children, only to head home to start our life.

About to head home with our beauties!

Home with our girls!

My Mom got us big storks with the girls birth details on them for our yard, to welcome us home. It was so fun to pull in our driveway with our sweet girls to see them there, Congratulating our arrival.  We would see people walking by and staring at them throughout the week and we felt so special and blessed!!

Colbie & George love their little sisters. We gently introduced them to them and any worries we had in the back of our mind drifted away very quickly as both dogs smelled the girls, sat by their side and gently kissed their heads.  To this day, the dogs want to be by their side all the time, but they are VERY gently with them.  It's a lovely thing to watch our sweet dogs love our little girls.

In a short month, we have learned SO much about parenting and we're continuing to learn a lot every day. Our little girls are great teachers to their naive parents!

Despite our lack of general parental information and learn-as-we-go mentality,  I can confidently say that while we have no idea what we're doing sometimes, we NEVER forget how lucky we are to have Lyla & Nixon home with us, happy, healthy and HUNGRY!! :-)