Birth Story of Colt and Kade

    I'd been having sporadic contractions that wouldn't get going regularly off and on for a few days.  I had an appointment with my doctor first thing on Tuesday morning.  When he saw me he said he was surprised I hadn't gone into labor yet.  I told him I was ready to have the babies, as pregnancy was very uncomfortable at this point.  We went ahead and had an exam done which showed I was already 5 cm. dilated and realized we were closer to having them then I thought.  Jeff and I discussed our options and we decided to go to the hospital after lunch where the plan was to have the doctor break my water to help get labor going.  We went home had breakfast, puttered around getting things ready to go to the hospital, got supper going in the crockpot, and had lunch.  While I was fixing lunch I felt a contraction or two and thought I hope this keeps up and won't have to have my water broken.  By the time we headed to the hospital I'd had a few contractions, but they still didn't seem to be getting regulated.  After we checked in and they hooked me and the babies up to the monitors we found out the contractions were regularly coming 8-10 minutes apart and I just wasn't feeling all of them.  After struggling to get 20 minutes of the twins heart rates, which seemed to take more like 45 minutes because twin B kept kicking the monitor off, I was allowed to get up and go for a walk.
    After the walk, we returned and they hooked us up to the monitors again.  The contractions were in the 6-10 minute range and I was just starting to feel them a little more.  The doctor came in around 6:10 and we decided to head out for another walk to keep things going.  We headed out onto the skybridge, which connects the building where we were with the main hospital.  Shortly after starting out to walk I had a stronger contraction and stopped for it to finish before I kept walking.  Jeff had gone to meet his sister and get something from her that she was bringing him.  My mom and Jeff's mom were walking with me.  I walked a little farther and then began having a contraction that just didn't seem to want to stop.  During this contraction or maybe I should say series of back to back contractions, Jeff and his sister came to where we were.  Jeff looked at my face and asked me if we needed a wheelchair.  I said, "Yes," but as he started to walk away I said "That's a pushing contraction."  Jeff took off running for the Labor and Delivery ward and called for our doctor and a wheelchair.  Our doctor heard him and took off running for where I was.  I remember looking up and seeing our doctor sprinting as fast as he could up the skybridge with Jeff not too far behind.  Following them was the rest of the labor and delivery ward nurses coming in what looked like slow motion.  The doctor called for a gurney after he got to me.  It was time to push though.  One of the first nurses to get to us helped lower me down toward the floor.  We thought the baby was going to arrive there, but the gurney arrived and between pushes the doctor, Jeff, and two other people lifted me onto the gurney and Colt was born a few seconds later.  They put him up on my belly and he was just precious to look at. 
    They raced me back to my labor room.  Jeff was handed the scissors to cut the cord, which he did for the first time of any of our babies.  Then my doctor broke my second bag of water and felt for the position of the baby.  The cord had prolapsed and he shoved it back inside while he got ready to help twin B come into the world.  I heard him say, "I feel hands and feet," at which point he asked if we were sure we were only having two babies.  I told him that we had only ever seen two babies on the sonograms and it would be quite a surprise.  If there were still two I told him I hoped one was a girl.  I thought maybe he was joking around.  He pulled Kade out feet first with the next contraction, five minutes after Colt was born.  Then he told the nurse he needed to check to make sure there wasn't another baby.  There wasn't ;)  WHEW!
    We were excited to have our boys born healthy.  Usually, twins are delivered in the OR because of the potential for an emergency c-section, but I guess Colt had other plans.  Jeff's sister hadn't expected to get to be there for their births, but her timing was perfect and she was very excited to be able to be there, as were both Jeff's mom and my mom.  We were the talk of the hospital and the first to have a baby born on the skybridge.   Colt was 9# 2 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long and Kade was 8# 6 oz. and 21 inches long.

Welcome, Colt and Kade!

Colt (orange) and Kade (yellow) with Daddy