While doing his internal exam he said I was at 2cm and he could feel either a hand or foot right there. WOW. He sent me for a non-stress test while my blood work was being tested. I contracted a little while there. It was coming up on 6:30pm and I was past due for my next dose of medicine and could feel the contractions starting to come on. I was laying on my side and not sitting up so they were light ones. That same time a fellow/resident came in and did and internal to check me since I was showing some mild contractions. Daddy had left the room to call Granny & Pappy to let them know we would be real late and asked them to keep Elizabeth for the night. While he was gone, the resident did her internal and I thought I was going to die right there! I never experienced pain like I did during that exam. She hurt me so bad I couldn’t catch my breath I was crying so hard. Daddy came back just as she left. It took a while for me to calm down long enough to tell him she said I was at 3+cm and we would be able to deliver today. Daddy left to call Baba and tell her and when he came back I was crying again. This time because that resident left to get a 2nd opinion and when the other resident checked me, she said I was only at 2cm which was no change from office check earlier in the day. I would be going home soon. I was livid. I knew my body was contracting and if they released me I’d just be back in later tonight. It’s an hour home and then another hour to come back. So, they agreed to let me stay till my blood work for preclampsia test came in.

The real doctor on call came in and checked me after this and agreed with 2nd opinion. Since we had time and travel issues, she heard us out and said she’d come back in 1 hour and check me again. But if there was no change, I WAS going home. It was 8:00pm now. My pre-clampsia blood work came back negative. Thank goodness.

This was multiple night at the hospital! The doctor just delivered 2 sets of twins before coming to see me and was going back to deliver another set before coming to check on me. I told her if she’d let me sit up then I guarantee the contractions would be stronger and my cervix would definitely change. She said okay and she’d see me in an hour. I sat up and felt a little better. Daddy reluctantly left again to make some calls. I was scared because each time he left something happened. So, I didn’t let anyone come in to see or check me till he came back.

Well about 10 minutes after sitting up, the contractions started. And sure enough, they started coming stronger and stronger. Soon they were coming less than 5 minutes apart and I could hardly catch my breath. I forgot how much labor pains hurt. And I had no pain meds yet! At 9:30 Doctor came back and confirmed I was at 3-4cm. Called the “O.R.” and they said they’d have it ready at 11pm. I laid back down and the contraction pain lessened a bit.

They made Daddy go somewhere else and he will see me in the “O.R.” later. So, daddy went to call everyone. By the time I was in the O.R. my mom, her husband, my brother and his wife were all in the waiting room so daddy went to see them to let them know what was going on after he was instructed on procedure and got his scrubs on.

They brought me into the “O.R.” and I saw 3 open incubators and a whole room full of people. They wheeled my bed to this little narrow slab of metal they called an operating table and told me to get on it. I looked at that so-called table then looked at the nurses and said “I can’t. There is no way that is going to hold me!” After about 3 minutes of us going back and forth on how "I had to get on the table" and "it was okay" and me telling them "it was too small and I’d fall off - if nothing else". The anesthesiologist (only guy in the room) finally said “Get on the damn table!” I looked at him and laughed and told him he would be responsible if anything happened. He said he’d take his chances. I did manage to get myself on it somehow. Now they tell me I have to sit up and scoot myself down to the middle of it, so they can do the spinal block. You gotta be kidding me! With some assistance, I was able to do all that too. My lower spine was so compressed that it took them 30 minutes to find an opening large enough for a needle to fit through. A nice warm sensation washed over the bottom of my body and all the pain went away. It felt very nice.

Everyone started to assemble around me. It was about 11:40pm or so when they let daddy in. The doctor asked me if I wanted them all born on the same day since it was so close to midnight. I could have some on the 4th & some on the 5th. We wanted them all on the same day. Then they asked if I wanted to wait till after midnight or start now and see if we can get them all in before midnight. I said do it now. They also asked me if I wanted them out in order. Meaning baby A first, then B, then C or just pull out whoever they found first. We wanted them in order. ("A" was on the bottom closest to my cervix. "B" was on top of "A" and to my left and "C" was to my right and up a little more.)

We heard “Dad get your camera ready” and a few minutes later at 11:50pm they pulled out baby “A” and I heard “It’s a boy!” Without thinking, my first word were “Happy Birthday Charles! Thank you God!!” They put him over the drape and I got to see his head – I never saw Elizabeth that way. Daddy snapped a picture. He was allowed to stand up and got a picture of baby “B”s little bum. I heard “It’s another boy” I said “Happy Birthday Andrew! Thank you God!!”. Daddy snapped another picture. This was of what would have been a nice picture of baby “C” but the doctor’s hand slipped off her leg so we got a photo of her umbilical cord and belly. After the doctor got a better grip, baby C was born and I heard “It’s a girl”. So I said to her “Happy Birthday Erin! Thank you God!!”

“That’s it” was the next words from the doctor. I just kept smiling.

I heard several different little voices crying coming from another part of the room and knew everything was going well. Daddy was able to take pictures of the teams working at the baby’s beds. Each baby had their own team of doctors and nurses. They had to wait till the shift change at 11 so they could have more staff available for us. So those nurses who were suppose to leave at 11 had to stay till 12:30am or 1:00am I think. Thank you!

They brought over Charles Jr. in a blanket to show us before he was whisked away to another room to be checked out better. All the babies Apgar scores were 8’s & 9’s (out of 10). How wonderful. They brought over Andrew for a minute then Erin, we got to see them all. Daddy left while they finished me up. He was taken to where the babies were and was briefed on their status.

I was wheeled to their room. When I got there, Erin was in a bubble looking thing and Andrew had some big tubes on his face. I didn’t get to see Charles because I was getting nauseous and vomited, so I had to leave. I just wanted to sleep. My family visited me a little while then daddy took them to see the kids so I could rest. The next day he would fill me in on what was going on.