This birth story is part 2. You can view part. 1 HERE
It was a head.
Two babies born head down, I couldn’t believe it.
I asked if I could take a break, his heart rate was good so they said sure. I told them to crank up my epideral again because it was doing nothing!
But the paediatrician called out – “Ya might wanna start pushing, you’re about to have babies born on different days!”
Different days ?!
That would be terrible! They were twins and come on it was 05/05/15 ( best birth date ever ) —
I would not allow that to happen !
So I pushed, HARD ( again – haha! )
I heard a ” oh boy” from my midwife and a gasp from Steve, but the next moment, he was in my arms.
I freaking did it.
And that relief, I had it now.
My forever baby, my extra little gift.
I swear, who was born smiling —
- Cove Huntington David*
5 pounds 5 oz - { I heard later that his cord had been wrapped 3X tight around his neck. Had he been baby A like he was supposed to ( At 32 weeks him and Meadow switched A and B spots ) , and descended down, he honestly might not have made it. I’ve thought about that a lot ever since I had him, he really and truly is my little gift. }
I immediately looked over at the clock and asked if I had done it in time?
They said I hadn’t- although only 3 minutes apart, Cove was born 1 minute after midnight.
Different birthdays! What were the chances of that!?
I asked if I could lie and just tell them they were born on the same day, because C’mon, a minute ! Whats the big deal??
They told me I could say whatever I wanted, but legally…;)
I had felt a cold gush go down my spine right as I pushed Cove out, Steve told me later that the anesthetist came over and said, ” oh, no one connected her line”
The epideral wasn’t even connected, no wonder I felt everything !
They took him away too and I could hear them both crying like crazy.
I looked over and saw them being wrapped in the hospital towels.
I whispered to Steve, ” Quick, tell them to wrap them in those matching trendy swaddling blankets I had bought and picked out and matched and dreamed of for 6 months. ”
He looked at me, shook his head and said quietly, ” honey, come on..”
cue – ” let it go..”
I got Meadow back first and had that crazy Mama Bear feeling, like –” give me my baby!”
She immediately stopped crying the moment she was in my arms and we locked eyes on one another and I took her all in.
( I could have cropped out that fresh postpartum belly, but I didn’t want to. Just keepin it real friends! )
A minute later Cove was handed to me and for the first time in 9 months I felt the weight of every fear and every bad, scary story fall off of me. I left all that bad stuff in that O.R room.
Because they were here, safe in my arms –right where they should be.
Cove started to cry again and I just whispered to them both, ” Shh…Mama’s here, mama’s here..”
I kept looking back and forth at them and now lookit, I’m a realist — my babies typically come out pretty banged – up. I honestly imagined them both in there completely squished and figured they would come out just like that.
But they didn’t and it doesn’t really matter, but honestly, they were so beautiful.
Completely opposite looking, a blonde and a brunette, so boy and so girl.
We got wheeled back to our room, with both babies and I am so thankful for the paediatrician on that night who is a firm believer in skin to skin and that baby is best with their Mama ( I don’t know who this man is, but I love him! )
I just kept staring at them both.
So completely, madly, deeply in love with two babies at the same time.
Why didn’t anyone tell me this ?
NO ONE told me I would feel those same feelings I had felt looking down at all my other children for the first time and the rest of time — and that those feelings would be magnified each time, by two.
All I was ever told was how hard it was all going to be.
No one told me about the love.
Why didn’t anyone believe in me or my body? Woman are strong. We have been having babies and raising babies ( lots of them ) for hundreds of years and for some reason, now we think we aren’t capable of it. I’m not saying it’s easy, nothing so important ever could be —
I’m just saying that we are enough.
Once we got settled in our room my midwife came over to me and said, ” you feed those babies non – stop Michele. You have that donor milk with you right? Use it. If those babies blood- sugar levels drop at all they’ll be in that NICU. “
{ I always joke that I could write a novel on my breastfeeding story. I’ve written some of it on my IG page ( @WhatDreamsMayBecome ). I’ve added the hashtag #NursingCoveAndMeadow — you can check it out for more info and support }
I nursed them one at a time, while Steve had skin to skin with the other. We let family and close friends know, and hoped someone would come and visit that night so we could show them off !
My sister and brother in – law came with one of my BFF’s and their faces are priceless
I honestly have the best community of women surrounding me.
Both of them were nursing so I asked if they would be willing to nurse the twins for me before they left. I knew I would feel so much better going into the night with two babies knowing that they were well fed.
It was the most natural, beautiful thing to see and made complete sense. My friends who were still nursing their own babies continued to nurse the twins all throughout my hospital stay and guess what, their blood/sugar levels never dropped once.
( My friends continued to nurse the twins whenever we were together right up until 4 months. I know a lot of them will say they have a special bond with them because of that.)
It was 3 am by this point, Steve was literally falling asleep ( I was on that crazy birth high ) and I was excited to snuggle up with the two of them and just bond and stare at them all night.
Around 4 am I finally got around to looking at my phone and all the messages I had missed. One was from my sister, it read:” Too bad the babies aren’t going to be born tomorrow.. Do you know who’s Birthday it is?”
I couldn’t think of anyone, and then it dawned on me. It was my Step Dad’s Birthday ( I had lived with him since I was 6 ). and he had passed away from Cancer 6 years previously..
I grabbed Cove in the pitch dark of that hospital room and I literally just silent sobbed all over him.
He was born 1 minute after midnight you guys, you cannot make these things up.
If there was ever a message or a letter right from Heaven itself it was right there in that moment, and it said, I’m sorry.
I’ve always had this undeniable connection with Cove and he signifies redemption and redeeming love.
There is so much more on this and what that moment truly meant and means to me, but some things are meant just for yourself, and this is one of them.
I spent the rest of the night snuggled up to two perfect babies and I replayed our journey the last year and thought about all the things the happened to get us to this very moment. I remembered those first scary weeks when we found out #4 was also going to be #5 and the terrible things I thought and what I had seen pictured for our life. I saw that girl curled up on the couch in the fetal position, crying and all I wanted to do was scrreeaam at her — ” You foolish girl, don’t you SEEE!!? Look at all that God has given you . “
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We were so excited to see the kids and show them their new brother and sister. I couldn’t wait to see their reactions and have them all together. Finally I could say, our family was complete.
My baby, holding babies. She had only just turned 2 when we had them.
We told Dion that Cove looked just like him when he was a baby and he loved it.
I’ve had this entire year to process everything, think it through and understand what it all means. And I want to say this –
Birth for a woman is one of the few monumental and defining ones. I think we focus so much on making sure our children’s experiences in life are good ones, yet fail to give credit for the own ones we walk through in our adulthood.
If that ” moment ” doesn’t look or go right, you can never get that back.
Never underestimate the power and strength of a woman’s body, mind and soul and do not disregard the power of ONE moment.
Their birth slide show, I hope you watch it –