Oh, the irony...

Child: Mom, so-and-so is coming to tattle.

Mom: So, you're coming to tattle first?

Child: [silence]

One of the joys of parenthood...coming up with the unanswerable!

Birth Day Times Two

Since Michael did so well documenting the day that the twins were born, I'll just add some pictures and fill in any gaps.

This is just before we went to the hospital. Eliza and Nathaniel left for school just before we left.

In the labor and delivery room.

I was hooked up to two heart rate monitors and a monitor for my contractions. The pink strap had Zac's monitor on it (on the right side of my belly) and the one on my left was for the contractions. The blue strap had Sam's heart rate monitor.

After we went into the OR, they prepped me by giving me a lovely hat, oxygen and a pulse monitor on my finger. We waited for a while until I was a 10 and felt the urge to push. Meanwhile Zac's heart rate monitor kept slipping, so they put a monitor on his head. I started feeling cold so they put a warmed blanket on my legs. I started getting pretty sleepy after that.

A few minutes later, I finally felt like I had to push and my doctor had me push through a contraction. I then asked him if Michael was allowed to come in. There were so many people in there and I think he was so focused on the babies and me that he forgot about Michael!

After a few contractions, Zac was crowning and the doctor turned around to grab something. Zac continued to progress and the nurse told me to stop pushing. I told her I wasn't, so my doctor turned around real quick! A couple more pushes and he was born at 5:51 p.m. on June 1.

Immediately after Zac was born, Jen, the resident doctor, did an ultrasound to check the position of Sam. I know our prayers were answered because he had continued from transverse (sideways) to vertex (head down). I had to push A LOT to get Sam down.

It was strange because after Zac was born, I didn't feel the urge to push anymore. It was difficult to tell if I was pushing the right way. The nurse kept telling me to push down the center and I couldn't really tell if I was. Maybe if I didn't have an epidural I would have been able to feel it better...

After almost 20 minutes of pushing, Sam was born at 6:13 p.m.

When Sam was born, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was having trouble breathing, so they had to take him to the NICU. I was pretty sad because I didn't get to see him and scared, too. But I was glad that he was getting the medical attention that he needed.

They gave me Zac and took me back to my labor and delivery room. I got to nurse him and hold him for quite a while. Michael held him when they brought in my dinner and went with him when the nurse came to take Zac to the nursery.

When the nurse and Michael came back, we went up to the NICU to see Sam. I noticed when we first got there that Sam looks different than Zac, but it was sad to see him with so many wires. The tube in his mouth was for oxygen and the silver heart on his stomach was for his heart rate. The pink spot on his chest was to monitor his breathing. He also had an IV in his hand and a monitor for the amount of oxygen in his blood.

Even though I couldn't hold him, I got to hold his hand. It was really hard to leave him, but I wanted to go see Zac, too. I felt like my heart was in two places at once.

After we saw Sam, we went down and I got settled in my room. They brought me Zac after a while and we got a little better acquainted.

It was a physically and emotionally long day, but I was so happy that my babies were finally here!