Birth of the Twins

 November 30, 2003:

“Three weeks ago today we were blessed to have two sweet babies come into our lives. I usually write of the birth experience before leaving the hospital, but things were so busy that I never did get the chance.

Larry and I climbed into bed at about midnight on November 9th. Our good night's sleep was short lived, however. I woke up at 1:00 am. and realized that my water had broken. I had went into labor at exactly 36 weeks. It was about 2:00 by the time that we finally made it to the hospital. Luckily, we didn't procrastinate too much longer as I was dilated to a 5 by the time we got there.

Unfortunately, I was not able to deliver vaginally as both babies were in the breech position. By about 4:00 am. all of the doctors were ready to deliver. Before going into the delivery room I had Larry and the doctor give me a priesthood blessing. It was so comforting to know that our babies were being delivered by a doctor who was worthy to have the Spirit with him.

Our baby boy was delivered first and then our baby girl. They were so tiny - the boy weighed 4 lbs. 10 oz. and the girl weighed 4 lbs. 3 oz. As I glanced over at them, I noticed that the girl wasn't crying. I really did not think too much of this and later I found out that she didn't breathe for almost 4 minutes because she had so much amniotic fluid in her lungs. I am so grateful for modern technology or we might not have our precious little girl today.

The next challenge was finding names for our babies. I was a little bit frustrated because we had always had a name before we went to the hospital, but nothing clicked for both of us this time. When they were two days old we finally agreed on Benjamin Thomas (interestingly, we later learned that Thomas means “twin” in Hebrew) and Rebekah Jillene.

Another challenge we were faced with was getting them to breathe and eat right. They were both hooked up to a bunch of cords and monitors when they were first born, including oxygen. It was very difficult to hold them in the beginning because, not only were they so small, but you had to fight all of the cords.

Benjamin was grunting a lot in the beginning, because he wasn't breathing right. The nurses had placed them in separate bassinets and someone finally came up with the bright idea to put them together. Benjamin's breathing improved remarkably. They were both completely off of the oxygen after only 1-2 days.”