The Birth

So lets keep this brief. Due to the risk of a uterine infection after premature rupture of membranes, 34 weeks was my expected date of delivery. My contractions became more regular than usual at about 2am on Friday, April 26th (33 weeks and 6/7 days). After some initial assessment at LDS Hospital, I was sent up to the U of U on Friday morning at about 10am. We had bonded with the staff at LDS, and we had a plan, so we were not pleased to be sent to another hospital. However, we were safe, and we were able to have our Dr. Ponder at our birth so we were grateful.

We were going to try to have the babies naturally, using the hypnobirthing method. Well... try is the operative word here. After hours of laboring with slow results, we were reluctantly persuaded that pitocin was the way to go. The labor came on and the pains also. On Saturday morning we decided to try some fentanyl and then we had an epidural and more pitocin. The thought was that as I relaxed we would move things along. My dreams of natural childbirth went up in smoke... like a brief sparkler on Guy Fawks night!

Sawyer had been waiting a long time. His little head had been pressed against my pelvis for weeks, and now the pressure of the contractions proved too much for him. Sawyer's heart rate had been lowering with each contraction. This had been hapening for weeks but now I was not comfortbale with the dips, and I opted to have a c-section just minutes before an emergency one would have been imminent. We were pleased that with the epidural, Drew could come in for the delivery.

I remember watching Drew the whole time as he viewed the procedure over the shroud. I watched his eyes intently for every sign of emotion. It was as if he were watching for both of us... and he was.

The babies were born! Dahlia came out screaming but the stress on Saywer was too much and he needed a little encouragement. I had a moment's glimpse of my treasures before they were whisked away. Sawyer was born first and Dahlia was born one minute later at 12:41 and 12:42.