The Birth Story - Alternate Title, "What the Heck Happened?"

I'm going to start a few days before the birth with a seemingly unrelated event, Roland and his endless kicks.

Do you remember the name meanings? Roland is our Gunslinger, our restless wanderer, and we knew that his name fit before they were even born. For the past two months there has not been a time of day or night that I would push this spot on my stomach and not feel our little guy kick out his legs and push back.

And that brings me to last Thursday, September 10, 2015. We had gone to our doctor's appointment the previous day and gotten glowing reports, four strong heartbeats, four sacs with plenty of fluid, and great blood pressure on mom. In short, a perfect pregnancy with nothing out of the ordinary. We celebrated with lunch at McDonald's giving the babies what we didn't realize at the time would be among their last calories on the inside.

I went to sleep that night thanking God that we had hit 30 weeks, fully prepared to go to 32, even anticipating a birthdate of the 22nd. I woke the next morning at 6am, with the usual urge to urinate as strong as ever.

As I stood up from the couch a flood of hot liquid hit my legs. Not a trickle, not a flow, but a full on movie type gush! I waddled quickly to the bathroom trailing water all the way, in the back of my mind thinking that I had heard of plenty of pregnant women losing control of their bladders late in pregnancy, while the more rational part of my mind protested "true, but this is a LOT of liquid, even for you."

As I sat in the bathroom the flood seemed to have stopped, but I knew I needed to go upstairs and talk to Andy. To be safe I wadded up some toilet paper and stuffed it between my legs as I set off for the bedroom. Reaching the foot of the stairs the monsoon began again and I quickly had water running down my hand onto the floor. Running back to the bathroom again, I this time rolled up a hand towel and set off on my second attempt to get upstairs to Andy.

Waking him up as I entered the bedroom I told him that I had either completely lost control of my bladder or one of my waters had broken. Andy immediately got on the phone with doctor's off hours service while I set to packing a few last minute items in my hospital bag, one handed of course, since I still had my towel. The doctor called back quickly and told us that we should head over to Triage. We calmly finished packing as we chatted, Andy packed some snacks in case we needed to stay a while, we fed the dogs and let them out. Since I wasn't having any contractions I didn't feel like there was a great urgency to rush to the hospital. As we tried to figure out what I should wear to the hospital I realized that in my certainty that I would reach 32 weeks, I had not prepared with any maxi pads for an event such as water breaking. We spent a surprisingly long time discussing what I should stuff between my legs to ride the short distance to the hospital that would keep me from getting the seat wet in the new van. After a few minutes I could see the light come into my brilliant hubby's eyes as he raised a finger and triumphantly exclaimed "puppy pad!" And since I would be crazy to argue in the face of such genius, I agreed, and off to the hospital we went with a puppy pad between my legs.

We were immediately put in a room a Triage and gowned to wait for a doctor from the Maternal Fetal Medicine team. On arrival the doctor quickly confirmed that a water had broken and I just as quickly murmured "Roland!" under my breath, knowing before the doctor confirmed later that it was The Gunslinger who had broken his sac. The doctor told me I would move over to Labor & Delivery, and that I would not leave the hospital until the babies had been born. He told me that I would be monitored closely and that they would not let me go into labor. It was around 8:30a. Still no contractions.

We were wheeled over to L&D and introduced to a team of several doctors who would evaluate the situation. I was thrilled to discover that the head doctor was named "Columbo", because, well, it's just a really cool name. I was hooked up to various heartbeat and contraction monitors and received an IV of magnesium in a concentrated dose. Columbo confirmed that our goal was still 32 weeks and that, barring infection, they planned to keep me pregnant for at least another week. The ultrasound team was summoned to verify that Roland still had enough fluid in his sac. Still no contractions.

Around 10a, the contractions came! Remember that I was told I would not be allowed to go into labor? I went into labor. Hard! I went from having no contractions to having them every five minutes apart. The docs made the decision to hold off a bit longer to see whether the ultrasound team would arrive soon. Then, in the blink of an eye, the contractions moved to every two minutes lasting a full minute and a half! I barely had a break from one before the next one hit. Finally, at 10:45a, we got the news that today would be the day. As a team of over twenty five doctors and nurses prepared for our little miracles, I laid in my room having contractions as Andy tried to soothe me.

At 11a I left Andy to be wheeled to the operating suite, a room already packed with staff when I arrived. I was quickly given a spinal as I endured the last of the contractions and Andy was brought in to join me. As the doctors finished prepping me for delivery, the reality of the babies arrival hit us both and we were overcome with emotion. Months of prayer and anticipation. Hundreds of baby clothes. Anxiety. Excitement. Fear. And today was the day.

There was no pain but I could feel a lot of movement and pressure as they pushed the babies down. As Andy took video the doctor's let me know as each baby was born and the whole room oohed and aahed and I breathed a sign of relief as each baby announced their arrival with a healthy cry. Each received an APGAR score of 8 or 9, amazing for 30 week preemies. Andy was even allowed to cut a couple cords, as I watched on in awe. Four babies were born in just five minutes, from

11:24a - 11:29a.

As I was stitched up and moved to Recovery, Andy went to be with the babies in our little corner of the NICU. He was back shortly with pictures and reports of how beautiful each baby was. Here they are less than an hour old.

Marin getting warmed up.

I was given a bracelet for each baby, plus one for me and another declaring me a "Fall Risk". Andy told the nurses that the Fall Risk bracelet should stay on me all the time, pregnant or not. Yes, I'm a huge klutz.

Before I was moved to my room the nurses were kind enough to wheel my whole bed into the NICU so I could get a quick glimpse of God's majesty in the form of four tiny, perfect little creations. I was brought to each isolette in turn, and as we arrived at our Baby B, Becker, the nurse opened a side port so I could touch a son for the first time. It was absolutely precious.

There is so much more to write but it will have to wait a while. My body desperately needed a rest today, but just as desperately, Andy and I are longing to get back to the babies. Very soon I will get you individual updates on each baby.

In the meantime, I want to thank you again for all the prayers and kindness. Everyone who sees the babies, including the doctors and nurses, exclaim at how big and healthy they are for 30 weekers, and I know we owe that miracle to every one of you who has lifted us up in prayer over these past many months. Our God is an Awesome God indeed.

Love and Blessings,

Jen and Andy, Micah, Becker, Roland and Marin