April 30th...so here's how it went down.

I had officially hit 37 weeks that day and I had been off of bed rest and Procardia (the pill I was on to stop my pre-term contractions) for a week. Nothing had been going on in the contraction realm, so I felt pretty confident that I would make it to 38 weeks when they would just give me a c-section.

My morning consisted of taking Cameron to story time at the library, then to the park for an hour or so. Then we went home and packed lunches so that we could go eat with Jayce at school. He was really busy studying for some major tests he had at the end of the week, so we thought eating lunch with him would brighten his day. (Of course I go into labor a few days before his tests and a few days after Mom Porter leaves, right??)

I had been feeling some cramping on and off all day, but that wasn't super uncommon so I didn't think much of it until lunch time when they started to get a little more intense. Jayce and I thought it would be a good idea to go home, put Cameron down for his nap and lay down for a nap myself. I slept for about an hour or so and when I woke up...the cramping was still there and it had gotten more consistent and a little more intense again. I knew from Cameron that this kind of cramping most likely meant the real deal, but I refused to believe it for a while. I drank a lot of water and laid on the couch trying to talk myself out of thinking I was in labor. Didn't work.

Maria was coming over to go somewhere anyways, but ended up sitting on the couch with me as I talked everything over. Her response: "Sarah. You are 37 weeks pregnant with twins. You are in labor!" Haha, so glad you could be there for that moment girl! I talked to Jayce, then I called the on-call nurse at my clinic and she told me to go to the hospital to get checked out. Maria helped me get ready to go, I picked up Jayce and then we dropped Cam off at a friend's house before going to the hospital. At first Jayce was pretty worried about everything that was going on with school, but as it started getting more and more real we both started getting more and more excited. 

Except for the pain. In the car on the way there (it was probably 6 something at this point) it was getting harder to talk through the contractions. I had hoped that I would go into labor on my own at home and I did indeed get my wish! Don't know if I'll ever go natural though!

I was dilated to a 4 by the time they checked me and then everything took off. I got dressed, people came in to explain this that and the other to me, I got an IV put in, they strapped bands and monitors to me, I signed paper after paper, etc. The contractions were getting worse and worse though, so I was just thinking, "Get me to the prep room, give me the juice, and THEN talk to me in a calm voice about my insurance information!"

By 8:00 I was in the surgery room getting prepped-yay!! I looooved the anesthesiologist. He was super personable with me, he did great on giving me both of the shots, and he was very good about explaining what was going on (especially after they put up the sheet that blocked me from seeing my belly), what I could expect to feel and what I shouldn't feel, and he checked on me through the whole surgery. 

Jayce came in after all the preparations and held my hand and stroked my arm while watching what was going on on the other side of the sheet. I could tell from his facial expressions that he thought it was pretty cool. Unfortunately he couldn't see everything because my belly was in the way, but the stuff he did see was pretty neat. The best part was feeling when each baby had been removed from my belly and then hearing them cry for the first time. That was really tender for us.

Everyone was really curious about how the c-section went and honestly, it was not that bad. I'm kind of glad I got to experience it because it was actually really cool. Plus, it was kind of nice to go in and have the babies within an hour and a half of arriving at the hospital. Downside= recovery. I had a much easier and quicker recovery with Cameron. For the first while you feel like your guts are spilling out every time you do something that uses your abdomen, but it still wasn't a horrible experience thanks to modern medicine. Bottom line, it was cool to experience a c-section, but I'm definitely hoping for a VBAC next time around.

I didn't really intend for this to turn into a novel, so if you read all of that I'm thoroughly impressed!

 Here's the whale after getting checked out in the triage room:

And the stud getting ready to go into the operating room:

All numbed up and waiting for everything to start rolling.

8:30 and 8:31, Jackson Donald Porter and Benson Jeremy Porter!

Jackson on the left and Benson on the right:

 Family time in the post-surgery room.

Benson:

Jackson: