To This Day

C-Section

Meredith's POV

What I thought was labor, was in fact, not.

Whether I liked it or not, I was going to be pregnant a little while longer. While I knew the longer the babies stayed put, the better, a selfish little part of me also wanted them out of my body as soon as possible. After being pregnant for nearly nine of the recommended months, I was quite ready to just have my babies and be done with being pregnant.

I was, self-admittedly, the most miserable and cranky pregnant woman to ever walk the planet. Addie made it look easy; her hair got thicker, her nails grew quickly, she gained weight in all the right places and she didn't look like a hot mess every day. I, on the other hand, was swollen, sick and in pain a majority of the time.

I suppose that's why they call it the miracle of life; because it's a damn miracle anybody would ever want to go through this ever again.

At my thirty-six week ultrasound, I had received some news that I really, really had not wanted nor expected. As far as I knew, everything was going perfectly; the babies were moving constantly, they seemed to be growing bigger and bigger by the day, and we had constantly been checking their heart rates with a portable fetal doppler that Mark had ordered on Amazon. Everything was looking good.

Until it wasn't.

"So the good news is" Arizona started, as she looked around in my uterus intently "they're both healthy. However, it does look like they're not exactly cooperating with us" She pointed at the ultrasound, which of course Addison could read perfectly, but I had a bit more trouble. I hadn't had to read a twin ultrasound that wasn't my own in what felt like years; not to mention that as a surgical resident, the OB ward was something to be actively avoided.

"Baby A is breach?" I ask, seeing where the little grey blob of baby was laying, and noticing that it was not, in fact, head down. "That isn't an issue though, eventually they'll move back to where they need to be" I tried to sound enthusiastic, but apparently my enthusiasm was all for nothing.

"Baby B is also transverse. Completely sideways" Addison sighs, pointing towards the second baby on the screen. "See? they're turned all the way to the side, blocking baby A" when she pointed it out, I actually did notice that baby B was not where Baby B was supposed to be.

"The spawn of Mark Sloan would do this to me too" I groaned, knowing that the chances of either baby moving to the exact position they needed to be in was slim. "I don't know how they managed that, but they've definitely got themselves in a huge game of twister in there" I wasn't going to lie, the idea of a c-section was not appealing.

However, the idea of getting the babies out of me was.

"If you want, we can wait. As long as everyone looks healthy, they can stay in there for another month and we'll see if they flip" Arizona suggests, which earns a literal groan from the back of my throat.

"And option B would be...?" I ask, not liking the idea of being kicked and punched by tiny little ninjas for another month. They were both measuring good weights, so I knew that they'd be perfectly okay to be born literally any day now. If anything, it was strange that they were so content to sit for thirty six weeks straight without any issues.

"We can schedule a c-section for thirty seven weeks; get them out before they can move and potentially make things worse" a c-section was not in my plan, but it was very clear that there was no option C.

"How heavy did you say they are again?" I ask, sighing as Addie held my hand comfortingly. She looked concerned, and as she looked over to me, a piece of red hair fell in front of her face. I longed to reach over and tuck it behind her ear, but she'd already beat me to the punch; swiftly, she tucked it out of the way while staring intently at the ultrasound screen.