Our Twins’ Birth Story: The Hospital Stay and C-section Recovery

To read part 1 & 2 of our twins’ birth story, click here. This is a recollection of the babies’ transition from birth, our hospital stay, and the c-section recovery.

Minutes after birth

The twins were birthed via scheduled c-section. My husband and I were incredibly pleased with how well the whole scheduled c-section experience went. After the babies were assessed, measured, and I was put back together, we were wheeled into the recovery room. In the recovery room, more assessments and vitals were taken. However, I was able to immediately start doing skin to skin and breastfeeding my twins. I was extremely thankful I was able to do this. 

I remember them being so peaceful and content for just being born. All they wanted to do was to snuggle and I was there for it. Since I just had major surgery, I wasn’t able to move much. The nurses helped unwrap them, place them on my chest, place pillows for support, and teach the babies and myself how to navigate breastfeeding twins. The nurses thought it would be best to tandem feed them at the same time. This means that I would hold them in a football hold with one baby on each side. Since they are newborns, and they don’t have much muscle tone or know how to eat yet, it was a little difficult. I definitely needed assistance to get the twins in the right position. Honestly, it took a few weeks to a month before I felt I could get them into breastfeeding position myself. 

Transition

Overall, the twins did a fantastic job adjusting to the new world. However, we needed to be cautious and take it slow. Birthing units are trying to limit visitors right after babies are born because it is just too overwhelming for the babies. Not to mention the mothers recovering from birth and the parents wanting to bond with their newborn(s). For the first day, my husband and I only got to hold and enjoy our two new bundles of joy. 

The pediatric nurse practitioner was concerned that having visitors would be too stressful for them, especially since they did have some mild complications transitioning. Both twins had some instances where their temperatures were slightly low, but nothing some skin to skin couldn’t resolve. Our daughter did have some mild and short-lived grunting. This however can be normal, especially being born at 38 weeks and via c-section.

When a baby is born via vaginal delivery, the fluid in the baby’s lungs and airway is squeezed out. When a baby is born via c-section, they do not experience the compression of the birth canal and thus have some extra fluid and grunting when transitioning. Providers and the healthcare team are prepared and monitor for this. Our children had some extra fluid but nothing that needed any extra intervention (My Doctor). 

Blood sugar regulation

Our son, on the other hand, was almost admitted to the NICU. He was having a harder time transitioning and regulating his blood sugar. When in utero, the placenta and mom’s body regulates babies’ blood sugar. When they are born, their bodies need to do this on their own. There are many reasons why this occurs. Our pediatric nurse practitioner thought it was happening in this case because he was small for gestational age (SGA), slightly premature, a multiple, and the stress of birth and transitioning (Stanford Children’s Health).

Our son needed many heel poke blood tests to monitor his blood sugar. Poor thing, even as a nurse I felt bad watching this – even though I’ve done this countless times before. The nurses were fantastic at this, though. We all didn’t want to admit him to the NICU, so we were doing our best to keep him out. 

Our plan for this was to decrease stressors (no visitors and procedures), keeping him warm, lots of skin to skin, and trying to get successful breastfeeding sessions. The nurses even tried to supplement with donor breast milk in a bottle, but that was proven to be unsuccessful. We quickly learned that he preferred and did better drinking from the breast.

We battled with this for almost two days. In the middle of the second night, he finally passed all his blood sugar tests. I was extremely thankful that our healthcare team worked slowly, and introduced new procedures one at a time to make sure they would tolerate it well. Once they were clear we were able to give the babies a bath. When the twins tolerated the bath, we could move on to procedures. 

Tongue tie and circumcision

Now that the twins were proven to be transitioning well, our pediatric nurse practitioner gave the babies the all clear to have any procedures done that were needed. Both of the twins were tongue tied and after speaking with our provider, we found it necessary to get them clipped. I actually never saw this procedure done so this made me slightly nervous because it just sounds so uncomfortable. However, the pain is extremely short-lived, managed, and the benefits are well worth it (Mayo Clinic). At the same time, we also asked for our son to be circumcised. Once they rest, recovered, and nursed, they could have visitors!

Visitors 

Once we knew the babies and I could tolerate guests, we were able to introduce the babies to their new family. Our older, singleton daughter, was so excited to visit us in the hospital and meet her new brother and sister. Our daughter reacted so well to becoming a sister. She was excited to see them and respectful of their personal space. She would laugh whenever they cry or make noise. Grandparents were overjoyed to meet them as well. We kept the first visits short and didn’t pass around the babies, trying to keep stimulation low. All of this was doctor’s orders which I appreciated. 

Adjusting to twins

Thankfully the nurses and pediatric nurse practitioner were super supportive in helping us adjust to having twins. They had us do skin to skin as much as we could during the day for bonding. They didn’t make us feel judged, actually they encouraged us to have the babies sleep in the nursery at night. The nurses would bring them to me in the night and assist me with breastfeeding. I am extremely thankful that my nurses would stay with me all feedings to make sure I was safely holding and feeding the babies correctly. I felt confident breastfeeding the babies by the time we left for home. 

We were extremely blessed and lucky to have easy going twins. Our twins would only cry when they were hungry and thankfully weren’t gassy or reflux babies. Making our adjustment to twins much easier than we imaged. I think it helps that we already have gone through this experience once before with our daughter. I’m sure it would be way more overwhelming if we were first time parents. I will say, all the props go to parents of triples or more. At least with twins, there is one parent for each crying baby. If you are having multiples, you’ll get used to crying quickly! Well, you do with twins as well!

C-section recovery

Not going to lie, it’s pretty rough. Not only are you recovering from major surgery where they cut you open and pull out two babies, but you also need to now care for two babies as well! The first day is fine, not much pain because of the spinal and opioids. However, that night and the next couple days are the toughest. I remember wincing every twist, turn, sneeze, laugh, and cough. Moving from a laying to sitting position to breastfeed was extremely painful. I would put off using the restroom as long as possible to avoid the pain. Probably not recommended…

I got exhausted and out of breath quickly. The first night, the nurse needed me to walk, and I could only walk to the bathroom and back. The second day, I mustered up enough energy to take a sitting shower. It took me until the third day to get up and walk around the hallway. I was so worried. How was I supposed to walk up and down the stairs in my house if I can’t even walk around the hospital? Time and rest. Just take it slow mama. 

Belly binders

I did try a belly binder (aka belly wraps, compression bands, postpartum girdles). Many moms swear by these. My tip for you is to not buy one, but ask your unit for one. Ask before you deliver if the unit does have them. This way your health insurance will cover it. If you find you like it, then you can decide if you need another one. However, it wasn’t for me. It did help some the first few days when I just was in so much pain. Ideally, it compresses your abdomen to reduce pain caused by moving around after surgery. I couldn’t get comfortable wearing it. The binder did help some with limiting pain caused by moving around. However, the pain of actually putting the binder on and how tight it was, made it not worthwhile for me. If your unit has one, definitely try one out for yourself. 

Bleeding

There is bleeding, similarly to a vaginal birth. It was heavy the first few days and it slowly waned. As well as the cramps. Breastfeeding does cause cramping which can be painful but it is similar to early labor pains. If you haven’t experienced this, this may be unexpected, but to me it really wasn’t bad. The massaging of the fundus (top of the uterus) is also unpleasant but the nurses are aware of this and try to be gentle. 

Pain management

Pain meds and ice packs were the best. I personally loved always having a cold ice pack to hold on my belly. To me this was more effective than a belly binder. I would keep this on my entire stay, press it firm against my belly whenever I needed to cough or move, to help decrease the pain. I did go home with a small amount of opioids. Only for a couple days or so. Opioids can cause constipation so your nurse will give you a stool softener as well. I do remember being so scared to poop for the first time. The stool softeners really help and are safe to take when breastfeeding, so take your Colace and simethicone. It is well worth it. 

Going home

We spent three nights in the hospital and went home on the 4th day. The pediatric nurse practitioner offered us if we wanted to stay another night to get the extra hope. This was extremely tempting to me, but the other nurses made this sound like this wasn’t a normal thing and was not probably possible unless there was a medical reason for this (insurance wise). Plus, my husband was really ready to be home and sleeping in his bed and not on a small couch. I too, thought it would be nice to be home and be with all five of us. 

Coming soon, a blog post about my long term c-section recovery.

Click here to read about what I packed in our twin hospital bag. As well as products I used in pregnancy, birth recovery, and breastfeeding.

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