Birth, Baby!

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Welcome, this is Birth, Baby.

Your hosts are Ciarra Morgan and Samantha Kelly.

Ciarra is a birth doula, hypnobirthing educator, and pediatric sleep consultant.

Samantha is a birth doula, childbirth educator, and lactation counselor.

Join us as we guide you through your options for your pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

Today we have Sarah with us.

Sarah grew up in the Texas Hill Country and recently returned in 2019.

She met her now husband in 2021, and they were married in August of 2022.

She loves the outdoors, riding horses, playing with her two French bulldogs, I've seen them, they're so cute, and spending time with friends and family.

Sarah and her husband, Nolan, run a family business, so she's able to stay home with her babies full time, and she's super passionate about medical freedom and wants all moms to feel comfortable and be comfortable with how they choose to birth.

She's here with us today to talk about the pregnancy and birth of her twins.

Thanks for being here today with us, Sarah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to chat with you and share this story with our listeners because it's such a cool one.

So to start us off, can you tell us a little bit about your journey to getting pregnant and what those early days of pregnancy were like for you?

Yeah, absolutely.

So my pregnancy journey, it really wasn't a struggle for us.

I know there's a lot of people that do struggle with it.

So I'm very grateful and blessed that it was not hard for us.

We got pregnant on our honeymoon.

So I kind of knew that I had been tracking leading up to the wedding.

So I knew that I possibly was gonna be ovulating on our honeymoon and we were okay with that.

So we were open to it.

And when we got back, I kind of just had a feeling and took a test as soon as I could.

And it was probably the sixth day before my misperiod and it was very positive.

So I was like, I just had a feeling maybe this is twins.

I don't know if something inside me that kind of just knew, but I wasn't very sick or anything early on.

It was pretty easy pregnancy in the beginning.

So, yeah, it was very quick and easy for us.

And did twins like?

Yeah, we had the same thought, go ahead.

Did twins run in your family or anything like that?

So we learned a lot about twins as soon as we found out they were twins, once we confirmed it was.

So twins do run in my family on my dad's mother's side.

So my grandma, my dad's mom had twin siblings and my husband actually has twins on his side, but I learned that it's not influenced by my husband, the genetic part of it, at least fraternal twins, identical.

I've learned is random and fraternal can be genetic.

So yeah, we learned a lot really quickly.

I learned that too, because I was a nanny for a family that had twins and it was so interesting.

It's like the mom has to drop two eggs for the fraternal twins.

So that's a mom thing.

And then with the identical, it's that the sperm could make it split or the egg could have made it split.

So it's kind of can be on both sides, right?

I know this isn't like a scientific show, but I just thought that was really great.

I mean, I got my knowledge from Google.

So it's not like I'm well-learned, but that's just what I found on the internet.

So yeah, but that's pretty much everyone's first question.

It's twins in your family.

That's everyone's first question.

So we looked that up pretty quick.

Well, because you said you kind of wondered right away with you getting such an early result.

And that's why I was like, oh, did you already know that that was a possibility?

Well, no, I didn't know that my grandma had twin siblings.

They had died really early.

I mean, as that happens, you know, back in the day, I guess it was harder.

So I didn't know that.

It's not like I had met them before, had known that.

But when I told her I was pregnant with twins, she was like, oh yeah, I have twins in my family.

So it was kind of a surprise.

And I don't know why I had it inkling it was twins, I guess just because it was an early pregnancy test.

And also one of my friends, one of my good friends just had twins.

And so twins were on my mind, I guess.

Yeah, that's so wild.

So how far along were you when you found out that you were having twins?

So I was probably about nine weeks.

So I had gone into Austin area birthing center, which is a local birthing center for our area.

And it's funny the tech, she was doing ultrasound, you're kind of quiet.

And she was young and really, really sweet.

And I saw like two blobs, but this is my first time looking at ultrasound.

So I didn't know what I was looking at.

And I was like, um, and she kind of was like, um, so she was like, I'm gonna go get something real quick.

And she walked out of the room and she came back.

She was like, I think that you've got, or she didn't say, I think she was like, this is twins.

She's like, I had just had to confirm because I've never found them before by myself with the ultrasound, but you're having twins.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it was very exciting.

Me and my husband kind of just laughed because it really, right before we went into that ultrasound, I was texting my girlfriends like, just pray it's not twins, like as long as it's not twins.

So I don't know why I had this hunch, but it was.

And I'm so glad that it is, thank God it is, but it was just funny.

That is funny.

It's kind of wild because I feel like some people that are having twins, it's like, that would be like the craziest thing ever.

And it's just a total shock when they find out.

And then other people are like, well, yeah, you know, I just kind of had an idea that that was how it was going to be.

Yeah, yeah, we were definitely, there was some shock for sure, but we were very excited.

That's so awesome.

I love it.

So from there, how did your pregnancy go?

How did you feel?

All that good stuff.

Yeah, so I was kind of expecting like double nausea, like double morning sickness, but I really wasn't that sick.

It was mostly just exhaustion.

I told everyone it felt like I ate a Thanksgiving meal every day, that feeling of when you're like, I've got to take a nap.

That's how I felt for a good portion.

Once I got into the second trimester, it was a lot better.

I kind of got a boost of energy, but really it just takes it out of you early on.

And I know everyone's different, but that's how it was for me.

And then, like I said, more energy second trimester.

And then as I got bigger, it was just like expecting them any day.

And they held in there till almost 39 weeks.

So I got pretty big.

It was kind of hard to walk.

I did have some pain and I had some sciatica back pain even before I got pregnant.

So that was worsened, but thankfully you guys helped me with some stretches and different things like that.

So I was able to cope with all the different things that that pregnancy threw me.

At what time in your pregnancy did you reach out to us?

I don't remember.

I think that I hadn't done the anatomy scan.

So it had to be maybe like 15 weeks or so.

I'm just guessing.

I feel like it was before anatomy scan because I had Austin area birthing center told me they couldn't deliver twins or they were full for twins.

And then, so I got an OB and then I kind of started, we can get into this later, but I started kind of started a question if this is what I wanted to do with an OB or not.

And I think that's when I reached out to you guys.

So yeah, probably 15 weeks or so.

Yeah, I remember when you reached out to us, we were really excited because we had, I think we had just gotten hired by another previous client who was having twins.

And so it was just like really fresh on our mind.

And we were like, yes, like we're so, we're so excited to support that.

We, you know, we love a challenge.

We love something that we can, you know, really support someone through something that is just different and, you know, not weird, but not the average for sure.

So tell us what things did you do to prepare for Birth?

And how did that whole journey with choosing your provider look like?

Yeah, so I was definitely, even though I kind of in my mind thought, oh, maybe it's twins.

And even when I found out it was twins, I wasn't thinking too far ahead.

Just let's get the scans.

Let's make sure they're healthy.

So like I said, Austin Area Birthing Center was my first choice.

I had seen one of a couple of my friends had used this place and they posted these beautiful water birth videos.

And I was like, wow, that's, that seems awesome.

I wanna do that.

I don't wanna be in a hospital.

So I kinda already had that in my mind that that's what I wanted.

And then when they told me that wasn't gonna be an option for me, I just immediately, I didn't necessarily do a lot of research.

I was just like, yeah, twins gotta be safe.

Let's go to the hospital.

That was just my first thought.

I wasn't very educated on twin birth.

So I found an OB in Austin and they were very nice.

But when I got further along, they started talking about things like, okay, well, when are we gonna schedule your C-section and making different comments like that.

And I just got a little bit uncomfortable because I don't necessarily want my, this was my first pregnancy.

So I didn't want my first birth to be a C-section personally.

And I mean, if it had to be, that's fine.

I accept that.

But I wanted it to be as natural as possible because that's kind of how I went into the mindset of this pregnancy.

So that's kind of when I reached out to you guys and I had a phone call with Ciarra before I even hired y'all.

And Ciarra was like, you can do this.

You can find a birthing center.

You can do this at home.

And she kind of gave me some encouragement.

And I was like, maybe I can do this.

So I looked into it a little bit more and then I ended up hiring you guys.

And y'all were just very encouraging.

So it gave me the confidence to look into other options besides the hospital.

And we found a great team of people to help me.

One lady here in, I'm from Marble Falls, so she's in Burnett, which is like 30 minutes away.

Her name is Ashley.

She offered to be the lead midwife, and then she found a team of midwives.

And it's kind of like when you're pregnant with twins, it's like you said, everyone's excited, like, ooh, I wanna help, I wanna jump in, I wanna watch, I wanna catch.

So there was a lot of people that were really nice to come forward and offer to help.

So I was really excited to kind of just jump into this home birth scene, and I was really, really into that.

As the pregnancy got further along, I had some blood pressure issues.

So we were monitoring that very closely.

My midwife was, and I had a maternal fetal medicine specialist as well, who I went to see quite often.

They did a lot of scans, and they were keeping their eye on the blood pressure.

Once it got, it was pretty high.

I think one time I went in, it was like 150 over 90 something.

They were like, okay, you should probably consider going into the hospital.

And that's not something I wanted to do, but so I didn't immediately say, okay, I'll go into the hospital like they wanted me to.

But I talked with my midwife and she agreed, it probably is best that we go.

This is getting high.

I talked to you guys and everyone was very reassuring that the hospital would do a great job.

So I went to St.

David's in Austin, St.

David's North, right?

That's where St.

David's North.

And they were great.

We checked in, we met the hospitalists.

They were very nice.

We had a birth plan, thankfully, that I went over with you guys.

So I felt prepared in the event that I did end up at the hospital.

And I had taken the classes with Ashley and we talked with you a lot about what the birth would look like.

And I felt confident that the hospital would try, once I talked to them, that they would try to facilitate this more natural birth that I wanted.

Am I supposed to go through the whole birth story right now or where do you want me to stop?

You can, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think I'm thinking of, I'm walking through my memories of this as you're telling it.

And I was just thinking about when you kind of decided that you wanted to explore home birth stuff.

I remember Ciarra and I started calling around and seeing who we knew that had availability, because I think you were a little bit later at that point and finding someone was proving to be kind of a challenge and we knew all the birth centers weren't able to take you on as a client.

So we started kind of calling around.

And I just remember, I don't remember where it was that we had posted.

I think it was in one of our birth professionals group, but we had posted and we got so much feedback right away.

And it was just the coolest thing watching like the Austin birth community, like come together to support you in what you wanted.

And I think both of us were just like, this is just so amazing.

It's just women supporting women, people supporting people, just this beautiful community of people who wanted to get you the pregnancy and birth experience that you wanted.

And even though you did end up delivering in the hospital instead of at home, I think having that midwife care during your pregnancy was really beneficial for you and your just confidence in yourself to deliver those babies how you wanted.

And it was just so cool to watch.

I mean, even if I had stuck with the OB originally, I don't think that the birth would have ended up the way that it did because of the confidence that I gained from the midwives and from the process of thinking in my head I was going to do the home birth and that I could do the home birth was really empowering to me, even though some people like, you know, how friends and family are like home work.

But then you, you start to watch videos or do research and listen to stories and think about it.

And you're like, people have been doing this for years and years and with the right team and, you know, the things that's in place, there's not a whole lot to be scared of.

It can be very safe.

And it was exciting to have that, you know, confidence.

And so I think it changed my birth experience, even though I did end up in the hospital, I think you're saying.

Yeah, when you, I think it's important to note too, that, you know, you are somebody that came to us that had already been talking to a birth center.

So it's not like we were trying to talk you in from, you wanted a hospital birth and now we're like, yeah, home birth with twins, you know.

Dulas hopefully are kind of meeting people where they are and listening to people's birth goals and then helping them with the right path to achieve those birth goals.

So for you, that was unmedicated out of hospital, low intervention birth.

And I was so excited we were able to get that team together, everybody.

And I can't take credit for that.

I don't mean we were like Samantha and I were, but just like everybody came together and that was wonderful.

And I was so stinking disappointed for you when you were like, okay, guys, my blood pressure is creeping.

Like I told him I wanted the weekend or whatever to think about it.

And I'm taking it at home and it is high.

And so I wouldn't be disappointed for most people because if that's already their plan to be in the hospital, it's not that much bigger of a deal.

But gosh, I was like, man, we had this home birth planned and she was so excited.

So, you know, but so wonderful that you were able to look back on it and go, that's OK, because I had the confidence.

And you know what?

It wouldn't have been the same situation because that provider wanted to schedule you for a C-section.

So this provider, when we were going in for a hospitalist to take care, which people don't know what that means, it's like not a doctor that you can see throughout your pregnancy.

It's someone that is there designed in the hospital for out-of-hospital transfers.

Or maybe it's a higher risk hospital where a lower risk hospital couldn't take on whatever was happening and they transfer them there.

So you got one of them, which is more used to lower intervention birth people, like mindsets.

And I feel like that ends up being a little bit better of a fit for a lot of people that, you know, were wanting low intervention.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good point.

And I had my friend who gave birth to twins before we had a C-section and she had a pretty good experience.

So, I mean, to each their own.

And if that's what you're comfortable with, then that's what you should choose.

If you thought about it or even if you haven't and that's just what you want, that's great.

But like you said, I had gone in with a mindset of water birth or no medicine.

So I really wanted to stick with that.

And like you said, my OB was mentioning C-section.

She was mentioning, well, you're not going to be able to labor in a normal room.

You're going to have to be in an operation room.

There's going to be you're going to be on a metal table.

There's going to be 30 people in there, yada, yada, yada.

So it just was overwhelming to me.

And that was stressful for me because I was a big change in vision from what I had thought it was going to be like.

So that's kind of when you guys came in and helped support me in what I wanted.

And if I had wanted hospital from the beginning, I think it would have been a completely different story.

But yeah, y'all guys were good at helping me navigate what I saw for myself.

Yeah.

So once you got to the hospital for your induction, what did that process look like?

Did you have to be on like blood pressure medication?

Like what did they kind of walk through with you?

Yeah.

So it was a little stressful at first, just because when we showed up, the last time I took my blood pressure, like I said, it was like 150 over 90, which for people who aren't familiar, that's pretty high.

It's concerning.

But when I got to the hospital, they took it, it was 180 over 110, which is really concerning, which scared me because I'd never seen it that high.

So I was probably making my blood pressure go up just by seeing that.

And the nurses were kind of panicking.

But then once I talked to the hospital, the OB that came in, that was on call.

They were very level-headed.

And they did want to put me on magnesium, which was going to regulate my blood pressure.

But it did create a situation where you have to stay in the bed.

So things are changing like this.

So I'm like, okay, well, I'm in the hospital.

I can still walk around and do this birth.

No, you got to take the magnesium.

You got to stay in bed.

It can make you sick.

There's a whole slew of things that go along with that medication.

So I was just having to adapt to all that really quickly.

I was a little nervous.

I think I was texting y'all like, I'm here.

Can y'all come?

I was just a little nervous.

So yeah, and it wasn't a quick labor.

It didn't come on super quickly.

So I wasn't, it's not like I was dilated very far anything.

So they decided to start me on Pitocin.

The blood pressure was just too high.

So that was not in my birth plan that we created, but we adopted and I just wanted to do what was best for the babies.

And I did feel confident to ask the OB on call, the hospitalist, a lot of questions and they were very accommodating, answered all my questions, explained everything.

So yeah, it was a lot different than what I thought, but it was as good as it could go with high blood pressure like that.

Yeah, so we start the Pitocin, get the babies going and then Samantha shows up, thankfully.

It didn't went a lot better after that, I mean, yeah.

I showed up in the middle of the most ridiculous rainstorm that had ever happened.

I remember, I think I was on the phone with Ciarra because I was kind of like freaking out as I was driving.

Y'all called me.

I hate driving in the rain.

I hate it.

I hate driving in the rain and I'm rushed.

I wanna get there faster.

I really hate weather.

It was so ridiculous.

Because I knew that y'all were about to call me.

So I started leaving before, I think before you had, you know, said like, hey, we need you now because I had an idea that you were probably gonna be calling me soon.

So I was like, I'll just start heading that direction.

I knew a storm was coming in and this just has nothing to do with the birth story, but it just made the whole thing that much more ridiculous.

But I'm driving through Austin and all of a sudden I see this like black wall of clouds and then the whole sky opens up and Noah's Ark goes floating by.

I had to like pull off the road because it started hailing and I'm on the phone with Ciarra and I was like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

The road is flooded and it was just so ridiculous.

It's just this crazy Texas-

I did not know this at the time and I'm glad I didn't because I would have been like, oh my gosh, we're not gonna make it.

No, and it was fine.

I think I even made it to the hospital before y'all were like, okay, we're ready for you.

I pulled in and you were like, okay, I think we're ready for you.

And I was like, great, I'm downstairs.

But it was just the most ridiculous thing that's ever happened.

So I know, I think I even told the hospitalist, I heard the rain and I was like, oh, it would kind of be cool to give birth in the rain, like in a storm.

And he was like, okay, we'll see.

And then you did.

I did, yeah.

You made it.

Yeah, so once I got there, I don't remember, did you have an epidural at that point?

I did not have the epidural yet, no.

So I had told them, and they were, like I said, they were very conscious of the birth plan and the natural birth that I wanted, but it's hard, harder when you get the pitocin, the contractions are a little bit different, harder.

And I had told them that I wanted the, I don't know the official name for it, the laughing gas kind of thing.

What do you call that?

The nitrous?

Yeah, the nitrous.

And the nurse was so sweet.

She was like, oh, I've never used that, let's try it.

So she got it out and she's like, okay, you can try it.

But then once I got that to that point, I was kind of scared because I was like, is it gonna be like, get me high or, you know, make me feel weird?

I never tried it ahead of time.

So I didn't want to try it and then feel sick because the magnesium kind of makes you feel sick already.

So I just didn't want to make it worse and thought I could tower through.

And then I think about maybe five centimeters or so, I was like, let's do that epidural, get them in here.

Which I personally didn't want to do it, but once I was dilated, I really wanted to do it.

I was basically begging for it at that point, which was fine and he did a great job putting it in.

It's so hard to like, an epidural is a tool, right?

And when you have high blood pressure, and this is something that we talk to our families about, just like you who are like, no, I want to do it all unmedicated.

When there's blood pressure issue and we're on magnesium and you're not allowed to get out of the bed because you're a fall risk and you don't feel good, all of the comfort measures have to do with moving around, right?

And if we can't even move you around or help you move around and you aren't able to stand up and sit on a birth ball and changing all of these positions because you're kind of glued to a bed because of the magnesium, it's like at that point, you can't make yourself more comfortable.

So it's almost like an epidural also, an epidural often brings down pressure.

So it can be a really wise tool to use in that situation where it's like not just for pain management at that point, it's like strategy.

Yeah.

You held out a long time though.

You really did.

You were rocking it.

I do remember getting there and you were doing so well.

And then we started talking about epidural and made that decision together based on all of those things.

Because really, I mean, I think if there was ever a perfect situation for an epidural, that is 1,000% it.

That was a great place to use an epidural.

And you got so far.

I mean, really, five centimeters, that's a good place to be to get an epidural, especially in a situation like that, especially on the toe set.

It did bring a lot of relief, though.

Thank God for epidural at that point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then what happened after that point once you had the epidural?

So it was a little hectic.

And I think I probably had some preconceived notions going into it.

Because like I mentioned, I saw those water bursts and they were beautiful.

And she just stood up and the baby came out.

And my friend, one of my best friends, just had a baby like a month before.

And she sent me the video.

It was all of like 30 seconds, her pushing.

And so it wasn't going how I, in my mind, thought that it should go.

And I had watched birth videos with the class of Bonger in my birthing prep class.

And I understood that it could take longer.

But I just had a vision in my mind.

And so I was having to adapt with that.

I'm not good with necessarily changing plans.

So it was just, it was a lot to overcome for me personally.

And I haven't mentioned this, but I had lost my mom just several months prior to this coming.

So she had passed in March, and I had the babies at the end of April.

So there was a lot of emotions tied to it too.

So it was just overwhelming.

And I was glad that Samantha was there to help me with that.

She talked me through a lot of things.

My husband was there, and she would, you know, y'all guys just take a moment, talk, pray, you know, whatever you need.

So that helped.

And then it kind of got more intense where the point where the contractions were closer together.

They're like, okay, I think we're gonna go.

The nurses were great.

We got further along.

And I think, I don't know how to describe this, but one of the baby's heads was like stuck.

They said there was like a lip.

So they were trying to push that back.

So probably, that took like 20, 30 minutes or so.

And it was painful, I'm not gonna lie.

I felt like my epidural was wearing off.

I kept asking for more.

I was like pressing that button.

And then we, they got that fixed.

We went to the operating room.

They strolled me over in my glory.

Just, I looked like Tupac, my husband said.

I had like a cold pack wrapped around my head because I had a fever.

It was a little traumatic, but everyone was just so reassuring.

Go ahead.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

I remember as we were rolling to the OR, there were like nurses in the hall and everybody was so excited that you were gonna go to the OR to push out these babies.

Because for first time moms, not a lot of first time moms, especially in a hospital setting, are delivering their twins vaginally.

And so I think everyone was just like, this is the coolest thing ever.

And so like, I don't know how much you saw of this, but all of the nurses that I interacted with were just pumped.

Like your babies had behaved well on the monitors the whole time, which anyone who's been in a medicated delivery week, that's super exciting for us when our babies stay on the monitors and let us do whatever we want.

Cause we did, I remember I was flipping you all around the bed, doing lots of spinning baby stuff and different things like that.

And your babies were just chill the whole time, which is a delight.

And so everyone was just so excited when you got to roll into the OR to start your delivery.

Yeah, yeah.

They were like cheerleaders.

I remember they, it was mostly women, so I could hear them talking and they were excited.

I remember at one point though, when I was pushing in the OR, you know, I'm just so overwhelmed.

I'm like, I can't hear anything cause the OB is like talking to me like, okay, do this push now and the girls are talking.

There was probably almost 30 nurses in there and the OB is like, okay, can everyone be quiet?

Just like, oh, just, it was a stressful situation, but I think it was just probably self-induced.

I mean, everyone was great.

It was just, it is overwhelming.

I mean, I'm having twins in an OR, a lot of pain, but it was instrumental to have support people there.

The OBs were great.

You were there holding my hand.

My husband was in my ear, so it went as good as it could have.

Yeah, and for anyone who doesn't know, when you're delivering twins in the OR, which not every hospital requires pushing in the OR, but most of the ones in our area do.

So when you're delivering twins in the OR, what that looks like is you have like two or three nurses for each baby, and then you have normally two OBs and an assistant, and then you have an anesthesiologist there just in case.

And then for us, I think there were also like two or three other nurses that were just there for the party.

And then we also had NICU there again, just in case babies needed any sort of anything.

So there's quite a few people in the OR.

And like I said, everyone was so excited.

The nurses were just chatting the whole time.

And I remember when you were pushing, I think I even got a picture of it.

Every time you would start pushing and we'd start seeing just a little bit of that baby's head, all the nurses would like crouch down and like be watching and cheering and getting so excited.

And it was just the funniest thing.

Like everybody would kind of lean in to see, if they could see baby.

And it was cracking me up through the whole thing.

I think I remember them actually cheering.

Like, oh, you can do it, go Sarah.

I was like, okay, here we go.

Like I was like a football team and they were cheering me on to the goal.

We were the whole football team.

Yeah, it was great.

And they were, the OB was fantastic.

I mean, they used, which I did not expect, they were pouring olive oil down where I was birthing, which I think helped a lot.

I ended up not tearing, which was awesome, helped with recovery.

So I think that had a lot to do with how y'all coached me, you and the nurse and OB coached me through pushing.

I had the epidural, so I couldn't feel everything necessarily.

I still felt pressure, but I had a lot of coaching through the pushing.

So it was good.

And we actually used a technique where I held on to one side of like a towel or a sheet, and the nurse was holding on to the other.

And so when I had to push, I was pulling.

So that helped a lot, which was really cool.

I hadn't seen that before.

Yeah, we did some tug of war.

It was good.

So then what happened?

How did your babies come in?

So I remember pushing, my son was first, and I was getting so exhausted.

And they were like, do you want to feel, you want to feel his head coming out?

And I remember saying no, because I thought that if it wasn't as progressed as it was in my head, that I would get discouraged.

I was like, no, I don't want to feel him.

I'm just going to do it.

So I just kept pushing.

And he came pretty quickly after that.

And my husband grabbed him and showed me, and it was emotional.

And then I remembered I had to push another one out.

And the OB had broke her water, my daughter who was second.

And she must have told me, but I didn't hear it.

And I felt it gushing out.

And I was like, I'm bleeding out.

But she was like, no, honey, it's just your water.

It's okay.

And she came pretty quickly.

I think it was 15 minutes after my son.

So, which it seemed a little bit easier that time around, just went a lot faster.

And so, yeah, they came pretty quick once we were in the OR.

So, and it was very exciting.

I think, go ahead.

How time works in there.

Cause us sitting here 15 minutes sounds like a long time.

And when you're in there, that's only a few waves or contractions.

You know, we're just having a few more contractions before the next baby comes out.

And they do have to make their way down.

And I think a lot of people think it's just one after another.

Cause sometimes you hear, oh, I have twins, they're, you know, one's four minutes older or whatever.

And that's really quick.

Be really, really quick.

And I think we had, I think my first set of twins that I was in with, it was an hour between births of each of those two.

So 15 minutes isn't so bad.

Yeah.

Yeah, it seemed quick.

That's awesome.

So after, what did the immediate postpartum look like for you guys right after you had your babies?

So they will this back to the postpartum room.

Like you said, it was like, I felt like famous.

Everyone was like, wow, good job.

I can't, are you having the twins?

Everyone was like peeking in to see them.

So that was cool.

Everyone was really sweet.

And I was just exhausted, you know?

And one thing I will say that I feel like there's a lot of expectations and maybe not, maybe it's just in our heads as women of how we should feel immediately afterwards.

And when they bring their babies to you, like you should just cry and be like, oh my God, I love them so much, which I did.

And I do, but it was true.

It was a little traumatic for me going through all that.

So it took me a minute once we got back to the, to the recovery room to just kind of process everything that just happened and then really connect with the baby.

So I just want people to know if you hold your baby right after you have it, you're not just like gushing, crying, like you see in movies that that's okay.

You just went through a lot, you know?

So, but we nursed when we got back to the room, that helped a lot with bonding.

And I kind of was like decompressing and realizing, you know, okay, we did it, this is over.

Yeah.

And yeah, it was a good recovery experience, just took a minute.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, that's pretty normal for it to just take a little bit of time to, you know, kind of adjust to what just happened.

It's a big thing, you know, that you go through.

So after that, what was postpartum?

Like, how long were you in the hospital?

Were your babies with you the whole time?

Yeah, I kept them with me the whole time.

My son had a low blood sugar, I think it was.

So they suggested, they said you could do formula or donor milk, and I opted for donor milk.

I wanted to breastfeed, so I wanted to keep them on breast milk, which was great.

The lactation consultant was great.

All the recovery people were great.

They do pop in a lot, keep you awake.

So it's hard to sleep, but I probably wasn't going to sleep much anyways.

I was there for two more nights after that.

It's just, they were monitoring stuff with the twins.

I think that when you have twins, there's a little bit more.

I mean, obviously it's just double everything, and they just want to be extra careful.

So, but everything went very smoothly.

We moved to a new postpartum room, and they really set us up for success with, as far as lactation and infotainment and just preparing us.

The nurses were very informative.

I would say just ask your nurses as many questions as you can while you're there, because they have so much information and they deal with babies 24-7, so utilize them for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's great advice.

And what did life look like when you got home?

With two babies?

Yeah, with two babies.

Like I said earlier, the twins were our first, so we had no single baby to compare them to.

So we were like, this is it.

This is just what it's like, two babies.

And my husband thankfully had a week off from work, and then the second week he worked from home.

So he was able to be very hands-on.

I would say if you don't have, if you're not able to have that support, like really take help.

If someone offers to help, take it, because it's really hard to do as one person.

With two, you can pick both of them up, feed them, put them down.

And really it's just, you're surviving, they're surviving.

Really just take that time.

You know, if you've got family over, that's great, but just prioritize yourself and the babies.

Nursing is so important at that early stage.

So just, I just made sure to prioritize that in my health and there's been sleep and rest.

So it was a little crazy, but you know, we just expected every two to three hours, get up, feed the babies, go to sleep.

And we just kept in mind that it was temporary.

And now they're sleeping through the night.

Thankfully, we're so blessed with that, but it doesn't last forever.

You know, one of the things I thought was so cool was your friendship that you had with somebody that already had twins was like invaluable.

I remember coming to your prenatal meeting at your house and you already had like two bassinets or whatever, like everything, you have two of everything already because she just kind of handed a bunch of stuff to you, which was so beautiful.

And so you kind of had a little bit of that village and a little bit of knowing what to expect.

And I remember I live a lot closer to you.

So I was the one who did your postpartum follow up.

You and Sam live about an hour or more apart.

And so I went and did the postpartum follow up and you guys were so cute because you and your husband were like each with the baby, right?

You each had your baby.

And your husband was like, I can't imagine just having one.

Everybody should have two.

Everybody should come home with two.

That's not fair if you only have one.

He's like, because at least if she's feeding one of them, I get the other one.

If it was just one, she would just get to have it all the time.

I mean, yes, I loved that.

Yeah, he still says that.

He's like, I feel like it's just everyone should have two.

Like it just makes sense.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure some people disagree, but yeah, it is nice having two.

We don't have to fight over who gets to cuddle a baby.

I was thinking, you know, what a healthy way of looking at it.

Not everybody.

Some people are like, oh my God, nobody should be able to have two.

This is wild.

You know, I don't get a break.

But instead he had the exact opposite of like, I always want to be on, so I need to have one at all times.

It was precious.

Yeah.

It was really sweet.

Yeah.

That's funny.

And it would still the same way.

We're so glad that we don't have to fight over cuddles.

Oh, I love that.

So you mentioned breastfeeding and nursing.

Were you able to nurse both of the babies?

What did your breastfeeding journey look like with both of them?

Yeah.

So that's something I really wish I did, you know, look into that ahead of time.

I wish that I would have, you know, maybe more heavily prepared myself for that, because there's just so many different things that can happen.

You know, I had the pumps, I had learned some things, and I got a lot of great tips from my midwife and you guys, but I maybe should have set up a lactation consultant that was going to come out.

Just with twins, it's hard, you know, it's a lot of supply, and especially when my son had to have donor milk, I think that affected my supply because I wasn't like, okay, well, should I pump extra?

Do I still feed him?

Is he going to latch?

It was just a big adjustment.

You know, with twins, you're keeping two humans alive.

So to have someone help you take that extra stress off of, like, thinking about breastfeeding, it would probably be very helpful.

And there's a lot of free information out there too, I found, you know, online, if you just Google or Facebook groups, you can get into.

But I did breastfeed them and I pumped as well.

So I would breastfeed and then pump and then store that, then breastfeed them, pump and store that.

But I did have some trouble with mastitis.

I think I probably slept too long at night.

So, you know, it's just things that you got to watch out for.

So I really struggled with mastitis a couple of times I got it.

And I did end up hiring a lactation consultant probably a little too late because my supply had really took a hit from the mastitis.

And that's probably something that you just can't avoid for some people.

It's not like I necessarily did anything wrong, but it's a journey and to have a lot of support is probably really important in that aspect.

Yeah.

So I made it to three months, which for me, I'm like, hey, I made it to like six because I breastfed two babies for three months.

But yeah, it was good to get them started that way.

Sarah is a glass half full kind of gal.

I love it.

She's like, we're just going to times it by two.

It's fine.

Yeah, there was two.

There was.

Yeah.

That's, I mean, that's huge.

And you're right.

When you're dealing with mastitis, probably because you had so, you know, you had to have so much of a supply for two babies that, I mean, that is just a challenge that kind of has to be dealt with.

And it sounds like you did everything that you could.

And that's truly amazing.

You know, a lot of people aren't able to breastfeed twins.

So that's big.

Yeah.

And my friend who I had mentioned earlier, which when she nursed her twins to a year, so she was a lot of help, but I did put that pressure on myself and like, well, she can do it.

I can do it.

I would just say like, like I've mentioned like so many times throughout this whole story, it's just to take expectations off of yourself.

Be informed, but also know that it's not going to be exactly what you think it's going to be.

So yeah, that was a big learning curve for me, but it was still beautiful at the same time.

I remember too, didn't you have access to something called like twiniversity?

Yeah, yeah, twiniversity.

Okay, so that's a resource that people could look into if they're expecting twins.

It has a lot of stuff that's very twin specific to try to help kind of prepare for babies.

Yeah, and another thing I did on Facebook, you can find, I can give you all the info if you want like posted underneath in the link or whatever, but a couple different twin mom groups, they're huge.

There are like 60,000 women in this group and there's all sorts of questions.

You can ask anything and it's just so helpful.

Like, hey, my twins are, you know, showing reflux.

How do I fix this?

Or what bottles do I use?

Or should I buy this boppy or this one?

It's just there's a lot of twin moms who are really helpful.

And it is different than having one baby.

So having connection with other moms who are twin, twin moms is very helpful.

And the Twiniversity and Le Leche League, I think, is a good one for breastfeeding.

There's a lot of free stuff out there that's very helpful.

We love free stuff.

It's the best stuff.

We love it.

Yeah, it's awesome.

That's awesome.

So what advice would you give to parents who are expecting twins?

Before they have them or after they have them?

All of it.

What are your top tips?

Okay, let's see.

So while you're pregnant, I would just say things I wish I knew personally is how important nutrition can be.

I think that that changed.

My perspective changed a lot once I got a midwife.

They just really stressed that.

So my whole first trimester, I wasn't putting importance on that.

And I wish that I had because I think that it can affect things later on down the road.

I think hydration is so important.

It's really hard for me to drink that much, but it helped so much with my blood pressure when I just stayed hydrated.

Even if you don't have a blood pressure, just staying hydrated is obviously very important.

If you've got a doula, they're going to tell you that.

And your OB might forget to tell you, your midwife even might forget to, but drink your water, I think would be very important.

Like I've mentioned, just try to not have expectations or at least be flexible with your expectations.

Do research, be informed, but be flexible.

There's just so many unknowns when having one baby, like especially two babies.

You just don't know what's going to happen.

What position are they going to be in?

Am I going to be healthy?

Are they both going to be healthy?

Are they going to come early?

Are they going to come late?

There's just a lot of variables and times up I do when there's two babies.

So just be flexible and have a good support system.

And I think that's just invaluable.

Once they get here, drink a lot of water.

You know, you got to stay hydrated once you have them.

And then I would say for me, routine is chef's kiss to twins.

I know some of my friends with children don't have a routine and that works for them personally.

We thrive off of that.

If one baby wakes up, I will the other one up.

They are on the same routine always, and that just helps a lot and it helps us get sleep at night.

So that would be my biggest tip for after baby.

Definitely.

Sleep is important.

Routines are helpful.

Anything that will help you get as much sleep as you need.

Exactly.

And take help.

If people offer help, take it.

And be easy on yourself.

Be forgiving of yourself.

Postpartum is wild.

I remember coming home from the hospital and I was just crying because I couldn't find a specific part to one of my pumps.

I was crying like a little kid.

It was crazy.

My husband was like, are you okay?

And I was like, I can't find my pump part.

So just wild things happen.

It's okay.

You will get through it.

And there's all sorts of people out there that want to help you if you're struggling with postpartum too.

I think I felt myself again after maybe like six months or so.

So it takes time.

And for some people, that's longer.

But just be patient with yourself.

Yeah.

Thank you for sharing all of this.

This has been so awesome.

And it's just, I think it's so good to get these kinds of stories out there, you know, different birth stories with, you know, plans changing and alternatives to the usual.

So it can still be positive.

Yeah.

That all of that can happen.

And you can still have a positive outlook on those things that happened.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know that I've told y'all yet, but I'm actually pregnant again.

Shut up.

I'm 20 weeks right now.

Like, bury the lead.

Shut up.

I'm going crazy.

Yeah.

What are you going to do with just one baby?

I'll have three under two, so we will be a little busy.

This is our first pregnancy announcement on the podcast.

Yes, surprise.

Oh my goodness.

And to that point, I picked a different great OB, and it's at St.

David's North.

And I feel very confident with them.

They're very supportive of me.

And so, yeah, just because I wanted a home birth the first time or a birthing center birth the first time doesn't mean that the hospital is not great or I can change my mind again, but I feel confident in the hospital system.

And we're excited.

We're just really pumped.

Well, we want to talk to you more about this offline.

But thank you so much for being here and for sharing everything.

And we can't wait to hear about your next journey.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for joining us on Birth, Baby!

Thanks again to Longing for Orpheus for our music.

You can look him up on Spotify.

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See you next week.