Our twin boys Sonny and Theo were born on March 27, 2022 at 1:55am and 1:57am and let me tell you their birth story is wild! I could not have anticipated how everything would happen, but I am so happy they were born into this world so strong and healthy! I always want to remember their birth story because it truly is one of the best days of my life.
We had been taking my blood pressure daily for about two weeks after it started creeping up around 34 or 35 weeks. My OB told us to let her know if we ever had two readings four hours apart that were higher than 140/90. We took my blood pressure the morning of March 26th and it was a bit too high. We waited the four hours and took it again and it was still high.
I sent my doctor a text and she called me back right away. She said to go to the hospital and get evaluated for preeclampsia. My doctor also said to bring our hospital bags because the babies may need to be delivered. She also let us know that she would be at Fairview Southdale Hospital that night which was not the hospital we planned for or wanted. She said we could either go there and she would deliver the babies or we could go to the Mother Baby Center at Abbott (where we wanted to deliver) but another doctor would deliver the babies (potentially). It was more important to us to have our doctor than a specific hospital, so we decided to head to Southdale to meet my doctor! My mom came over right away to take care of rosie.
We got to the hospital around 5:30pm on March 26th. The nurse did the evaluation and they saw protein in my urine indicating preeclampsia. At that time we were admitted to the hospital and told we would meet the babies the next day!
Both babies had been head down for a few weeks, so my doctor and I decided that I would labor and push these babies out! At around 8pm, the nurse started me on Pitocin to get labor started. At around 8:40pm, my doctor broke Baby A’s water, hoping to speed things along!
I labored for a few hours and decided that it was time to get the epidural! At around 11pm, the anesthesiologist gave me my epidural. I was excited to get some rest and have the babies in the morning. Well, the babies had other plans! Both babies were in distress and their heart rates were just too high. My doctor said it was like they were sprinting and that she didn’t want them to sprint the next 5-6 hours until delivery. At around 1am, we made the decision to do a c-section since the babies just weren’t tolerating labor.
Although we always knew that a c-section was a possibility, we were both pretty scared of the surgery. I could tell that Tony was super nervous. We had it in our minds that I would be laboring and delivering the babies, so to get surprised with this was certainly jarring.
They wheeled me into the OR to get me all prepped, and let me know that Tony would be there shortly. There were so many people in the OR with us, and they were all talking to each other as if I wasn’t there, very surreal! The drugs for the c-section made me super nauseous so Tony held a puke bucket the entire time. Although I couldn’t see anything, I could feel them tugging, pulling, etc. We requested a double curtain (one panel solid and one panel clear) so that they could lower the solid curtain and let us see the babies when they came out.
At 1:55am on March 27th, Baby A came into this world! Tony said, “it’s a boy!” and they held Baby A up in the clear curtain for me to see. Then they took Baby A to get a little cleaned up and Tony got to cut his cord! Then, at 1:57am, Baby B came into the world. Tony said, “it’s a boy!” but I didn’t see him in the curtain. I was very worried. I kept asking if he was okay and no one was really telling me. The doctor later said that she was worried about Baby B. She wanted to get him looked at right away. Thank God he was perfectly healthy! They cleaned him up and Tony cut his cord too. They brought both babies (all wrapped up!) over to me. Tony and I each held one of the babies and it was so special!
It took us many many hours to decide on names but eventually we decided Baby A would be Sonny Wilkerson Schrank and Baby B would be Theo Charles Schrank. After deciding on the names, we let our families know about our new additions. I plan to share more about their names very soon!
Sonny and Theo (and me!) are all healthy and doing well. We are so in love with our sweet Sonny and little Theo!
