Simply Simons: February 2015

What an incredible past couple of months since I last posted. We welcomed our precious twin girls into the world on Saturday, January 3rd and I think our hearts pretty much burst on a daily basis with love for them and each other. What a heavenly experience this has been and continues to be.

Kate Ray Simons

10:05 p.m.

4 lbs. 11 oz.

17.9 inches

Olivia Rae Simons

10:10 p.m.

4 lbs. 11 oz.

17.5 inches

Be prepared. This is basically my first novel, haha. The events leading up to the birth of our precious girls began the day after Christmas, Friday, December 26. We were still up in Draper and I woke up with crazy back pain. I was miserable most of the morning and Robbie and I ended up going into Labor & Delivery for a labor check that afternoon. The contractions came in waves and the back pain would turn into abdominal pain. After 2 brethane shots, an I.V., and steroid shots for the girls' lungs, they sent us home that night once my contractions were at bay. I was just over 32 weeks at this point and knew how much it would help the health of the girls if I could keep them in another month. However, my body had something else in mind...

Saturday and Sunday were pretty uneventful. I remember sleeping super well Saturday night and feeling good Sunday. I relaxed at home while Robbie went to church. I felt fine. Monday came along and I was in pain again. After debating back and forth whether to go in or not (I was talking with Robbie, my mom, and my Aunt Lisa who's a nurse), we decided we’d rather be safe than sorry. Mom came and picked me up because Robbie was at work and we went in together. Mom stayed until Robbie could come after work. We had a hoot playing Monopoly Deal and ordering oodles of stuff for the girls on Amazon. I tell ya, she wouldn't stop clicking "Add to Cart." She did an excellent job distracting me. After more brethane shots and some niphetapine that gave me the worst headache and nausea, they shot me with some morphine and I was finally able to get some good sleep. They kept us for two nights and sent us home Wednesday afternoon. Dr. Berry, my OB, said they weren't really going to try to stop contractions anymore because I was far enough along that the girls would do just fine if they came early. I was given orders to take it really easy at home.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with my parents and the Shaws Wednesday night and I felt really good, better than I had in a while. I had a hard time sleeping that night, and Thursday night was pretty much a flop. I slept on the couch and could not find a comfortable position that gave me relief from my pain. Oh, the back pain. It was terrible. I slept maybe three hours. I had times both of those days where I actually felt pretty good, but the nastiness would return. Robbie and I took it easy Friday morning and went to see my chiropractor, Dr. Wilde, to see if he could alleviate some pain. He helped, but I was still more miserable than I’d ever been in my life. After calling Aunt Lisa again (such a helpful resource through this all), Robbie and I decided we needed to go in because I was in so much pain. After more morphine shots, I was so grateful to get some sleep that night in the hospital with little pain. At this point, I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. At one point during one of these stays, a nurse checked me and said she felt baby A's little hand. Crazy!!!

Robbie went into work Saturday morning and mom came to be with me around noon. Mom and I hung out and over the course of the day and my pain started to increase. Mom started helping me breathe through some of my contractions (who knew we were in active labor here). The pain got so bad I asked for a morphine shot, but this time found no relief. That's when I knew this could be the real deal. I continued to labor with mom until Robbie got there. Lamas 101 with my mother! Because of my pain level and the fact that the morphine didn't help, the nurse checked me around 8 p.m. and said I was 5 cm dilated. She turned to us and said, “You guys are having babies tonight.” I'll never forget the look we gave each other after hearing that. We were shocked and I pretty much went into panic mode. Wait, wut? Robbie called our parents and informed our siblings. He was the sweetest in the world and was helping me through contractions. I was getting delirious and said a lot of things I didn't mean (i.e. we’re never getting pregnant again). Everything was happening so fast! The nurse came back literally 15-20 minutes later with the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural. I was freaking out a bit inside and I remember my body shaking. They let me hug Robbie tight and the epidural went a lot smoother than I anticipated with little pain (compared to my contractions). Within 10 minutes, I was feeling much better, just super cold. I loved that epidural. Let me just say I have a lot of respect for those that give birth without medication. Wow. Dr. Berry came in shortly after (he had literally just gotten back into town 30 minutes previous—miracle!!) and broke my water. He said the babies could be born in the next 5 hours or the next hour, depending on my body. He also did a quick ultrasound to double check the positions of the babies. They were both head down still. We were thrilled!! I spent some time chomping on ice (Robbie snuck me a couple sips of root beer) and talking with Robbie about how insane all of this was. It was fun for me to see the excitement on this soon-to-be daddy’s face. They checked me 30 minutes later and I was 9 cm dilated, fully effaced, and we were going to have these babies!!

Robbie got suited up and they wheeled me into the operating room. I had the sweetest nurses with me talking me through everything and helping to calm my nerves. I was SO happy Dr. Berry was there delivering my babies. I trusted him with my life and theirs. Despite the craziness going on around us as everyone prepared, Robbie proceeded to give me a priesthood blessing. Time stood still as he blessed me and the Spirit filled the room. It was such a sweet experience. Once the NICU team was in place next door, they told me I could start pushing with the next contraction. They put a mirror there so I could see what was going on. I saw Kate’s head, but my eyes were glued shut with the force of each push that I didn't see much else. I pushed with all of my might and 7-8 pushes and an episiotomy later, Kate came out. She gave a few cries and Dr. Berry remained super calm as he suctioned fluids out of her nose and mouth. His calmness helped me more than he knows. He gave me a quick look at her and then they took her away. She looked so perfect! I could hear here crying like a banshee in the next room. That’s my girl. Dr. Berry had a back-up obstetrician there in case they needed to do a c-section, but once Dr. Berry checked to see Olivia’s positioning, he said she was right there, head down, and so that doctor left. No c-section!! I was thrilled and so proud of my two girls. Five minutes and a handful of pushes later, Olivia came out. They quickly sucked out her fluids and she was quickly transported next door. Our girls were here!!! I gave Robbie a big smooch and told him to go be with the girls while they cleaned me up. We were both beaming. The sewed me up (2^nd degree episiotomy) and got me all clean. Apparently I had lost quite a bit of blood, which made me super cold and shaky. My temperature rose and they were nervous about it for a bit, but things calmed down quickly. I got all of the sudden deathly thirsty and drank three huge cups of apple juice. Nothing had tasted so good in my life. They took me back to my L&D room and I waited for Robbie to come back. It was strange to not be with him or our babies. He showed me some pictures of the girls and we didn't speak much. We both knew what the other was feeling and we just smiled and smiled at each other. Our girls were perfect. I was a mom!!! We were parents! They brought our parents back and it was nice to see them, but mostly I just wanted to be with Robbie and our babies. They finally took Robbie and me up to the NICU to meet our girls and I almost lost it when I first saw Kate. She looked so perfect, yet my heart was so sad she had to be there and I worried she was in pain. Olivia had a CPAP mask on, which was also hard to see. My heart suddenly belonged to these precious girls. I wanted to hold them and kiss them, but couldn't. It was so hard. Thankfully, I was too exhausted to really think much about it. Our parents eventually came back and we were all together for a half hour or so. We said goodbye to our parents and they brought us to our new room in Mother & Baby. It was the craziest, happiest night of our lives.

The delivery of our girls was definitely different than I thought it would be. I did not see myself delivering this early on in my pregnancy (33 weeks and 3 days) and therefore felt super unprepared for delivery. It came as such a shock. Looking back, I wish I could have relaxed enough to enjoy everything more and to marvel at what a miracle this all was. Now I can look back and feel that, but at the time I was just in total shock! But, after all is said and done, everything happened as it should and it truly was a sacred experience. I felt very close to heaven and knew I was in a holy place.

Interesting fact, Olivia was actually named Elizabeth for almost a whole day. Sunday morning as we were holding them for the first time, Robbie turned to me and asked me how much I loved that name. He felt like it didn't really fit, so we decided to look at some other options. We came across Olivia and as we thought about it more and more, Olivia fit absolutely perfectly. Robbie was definitely inspired in changing her name! We love our little Kate and Liv.