Labor Day: Twins Born 7 Days Apart!

Bringing back our favorite labor story this Labor Day weekend! Have a great weekend!

How would you like to explain that your twins were born SEVEN days apart!? That seems impossible, but it’s not. Jenn and her husband Dennis have that very story to tell!

It all started on Monday March 22, 2010. Jenn was 28 weeks pregnant with her twins. She was at a routine Doctors appointment when she went into labor! So she was sent over to the hospital and soon after getting admitted her water broke.

Jenn recounts: “Then they sent me down to get an ultrasound to see how big the babies were. While down there I couldn’t get comfortable! I was in tears so they finally started bringing me upstairs. My butt and back were killing me and they couldn’t get the elevators to come. When I got back up they checked me again and I was dilated 10cm! I was rushed to the OR where Baby A was born at 5:13 PM, after only 4 hours of labor! She weighed 1lb 13oz and was 13.5 in long. They rushed her to the NICU before I could even see her. Then my labor suddenly stopped! I went down to 5 cm so I was started on Patocine to encourage labor and then taken back to my room until baby B was ready. But after 13 hours I was down to 3 cm. Finally the Doctor said Baby B was happy and still had all his fluid so we would call this a “gift” and let him “cook” a little longer. This is extremely uncommon! So the Dr. cut back baby A’s cord, but her placenta wasn’t delivered because they weren’t sure if it was attached to baby B’s and didn’t want to chance disturbing him.”

“Pushed Like There Was No Tomorrow”

Written by: Toby Amir Fox

It was August 14, 2008. The only thing worse than being pregnant in Arizona in the summer is being pregnant with twins during the Arizona summer. So by the time I reached 36 weeks in mid-August I was miserable. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to have made that far without any complications, but I was huge, hot and exhausted.  At 36 weeks 5 days the decision was made to induce my labor. The babies and I were both healthy, but for two weeks my blood pressure had been on the high end of normal. I was also very swollen and my doctor felt that the risk me of staying pregnant developing complications outweighed the benefits to the babies. So off to the hospital we went.

The induction started at 10:30 am and I labored without any major complications for the rest of the day and into the night. Around 11:15 pm two things started to happen: my epidural began to wear off and I started to feel my contractions more intensely. I paged the nurse, who determined it was time to push. Now this is when things started getting really interesting. I was determined to deliver vaginally and agreed to deliver in the operating room in case there were complications. The next 15 minutes were a blur as the staff prepared to transfer me. I remember very little of what happened during this time, with one exception. I clearly remember my doctor coming over to my beside for a quick chat with my husband and me. At which point he calmly explained that it was getting close to midnight and there was a real possibility that our twins would be born on two different days, with two different birthdays. Were we ok with this and did we have a preference one way or the other?