day 1-9: the birth story

The early morning of March 19th anxiety and excitement mixed with anticipation and fear wrecked havoc on all potential sleep before the big day. At 5:30AM we all gathered at the hospital... all a little drowsy but all wide eyed with excitement and anticipation of meeting the two little arrivals soon to come. My mother, sister, Jeramie, and I met at the entry of the hospital. With bags in hand and smiles on our faces we trekked back to the birthing center. We signed in and shortly after was shown our room where we all settled in for the long haul.

By 6:30AM, I was settled in bed and the pitocin was kicking in. I was only dilated about half a centimeter... this is going to be a long day. Now we just had to wait. By 8:00AM, my doctor arrived and checked me out... wow I have only dilated half a centimeter by this point. My doctor went ahead and broke baby A's sac. I was not expecting the rush of fluid that just keep on coming and coming. Oh the joys of pregnancy...shortly after I got my epidural. Hours and hours tick by slowly... My doctor was expecting to be back in only a few short hours... pitocin bag one... bag two... has come and gone... 12 hours has passed with little progression... Doctor comes in and I am only around 2 and a half centimeters... we decide to sit it out. Sister and mom are taking turns going to the hotel to take naps... Jeramie is passed out in the chair... and time is droning on. I am beyond starving and thirsty at this point and they are all drinking and eating non-stop in front of me... It is torture... Finally I get the ice cubes. We watched TV... American Idol was on when my doctor came in. Jeramie and I blamed it on my sister haha we don't watch that lame show I swear :D still nothing significant but we decide to just ride it out. We watch a movie laughed and talked. My sister snuck me a couple of sour patch kids to suck on and spit out... oh how good that little flavor was... and then I conned my nurse into giving me a popsicle... grape flavor it was soooooooooooooo good. I have never had a better popsicle in my life. March 19th had come and gone and we were nearing the 24 hour mark. My doctor called me at 3:45AM for a progress check... after 3 bags of pitocin and 2 changes of epidurals, I was only 4 centimeters dilated... my body does not absorb drugs... it just doesn't work. we have given up all hope. All this torture for nothing. 15 minutes later I was whisked away to the operating room. The C-section began... I felt the incision... they upped the meds... Jeramie was in there with me. His eyes starring at me with tears balancing on the lip of his eyes... I was trying not to yell as they ripped through me. They didn't want to come out... two people are pushing on me to get them out... first one appears... nothing... no sound. I hold my breath looking at Jeramie for something... some kind of answer. He said nothing through this whole process. After a few seconds which felt like years I hear a eeeh she is alive. Arden Magee Fletcher was here March 20, 2008 at 4:18AM. 5 LBS. 10 oz. 17 3/4 in. long. 2 minutes later at 4:20AM Ramsey Todd Fletcher arrived screaming full blast. He was 4 LBS. 13 oz. 17 1/2 in. long. They were both rushed back to NICU. I had a short glimpse and passed out... snoring on the operating table as they sewed me up. They are here.

We stayed for a total of 7 days in the hospital. Arden was diagnosed with TTN and we struggled with that until the last day. I didn't get to hold her until she was 5 days old. We also had a bout with jaundice which we are still fighting to get rid of fully.
Ramsey was also in NICU but got out fairly quickly... against all odds... he stayed in my room most of our stay. He developed jaundice as well and we are still fighting to get him well. I developed a massive hematoma at my incision area 3 days after the surgery. Shortly after my incision opened and began to weep. Thursday I went to the doctor and she cleaned it out as much as she could and I have to go back on Monday. Another area of my incision has now began to open so... they are hoping, as well as I, that my incision doesn't completely open up, making it difficult to heal... besides walking around with my stomach completely exposed. YAY.

Besides that the swelling is beyond insane. I had no swelling during pregnancy and have never heard anyone talk about swelling afterwards... ummmmm all I can say is it sucks... I fear that I am going to get stretch marks from the swelling alone... stretch marks on the feet... that will be interesting. The kids went to the pediatricians on Thursday, took blood test for jaundice... came back on Friday and repeated it and then we have to go back monday morning and do it again. I thought I was miserable and in pain while I was pregnant... I feel a million times worse now. My doctor was just like... you can never make anything go easy... but to the contrary... breast feeding has been amazing! I pumped breast milk for Arden while she was in NICU and she took to breast feeding amazingly! Ramsey did an amazing job, as well. My milk came in super fast at a high volume... all the nurses were impressed. So that, that went perfect and my kids had a short visit in NICU and I was able to stay with them the whole time... so I was luck there as well.

With all that said my poor mom has seen more of me than she has since infancy and then some. Oh the joys of labor and all that you see. Haha. I hid myself from my sister at the beginning and she was holding my breast trying to get Ramsey to feed at the end. I was whipping out the boobs all over... I had nurses touching my boobs and touching my crotch non-stop. All I can say is, with giving birth all modesty goes flying out the window.