Breastfeeding twins - the prelude

I plan to do a series of posts on my experiences with breastfeeding twins, but in order to do so I've realized I need to post a bit about my birth experience to provide a bit of context.  I'm going to try not to dwell too much on the subject. I was induced a few days past 38 weeks. Both babies were head down, so I was able to deliver both babies vaginally. (Side  note - lots of people seem to want to know how you delivered twins, but they try to avoid using the "V" word at all costs, which can make the conversation interesting....)

Because I was a twin delivery, I delivered in the OR, and had monitors placed by the anesthesiologist. After BW was delivered, one of them started going off because my blood pressure was dangerously low. They couldn't get my uterus to cramp down, and every time they pushed down on my lower abdomen, blood would gush out. 

Long story short, I lost quite a bit of blood - normal hemoglobin is around 12; by the next morning mine had dropped to a six.  The babies arrived in the evening - when we returned to our room after delivery, I nursed SB first- she latched on immediately and nursed like a champ. I then began to nurse BW - she struggled a bit with latching and wasn't sucking effectively - we found out later, after she spit up tremendous amounts, that she had swallowed a lot of amniotic fluid prior to delivery, plus she had extensive bruising from delivery so she probably had a whopper of a headache. 

While I was nursing BW, the nurse suddenly came and said I had to stop nursing and lay down, as my blood pressure was quite low (80 over 50? I can't remember) and my pulse was quite high - near 200. I was also running a fever and shivering uncontrollably. 

We ended up spending four nights in the hospital, and I ended up with a blood transfusion. I have no recollection of large portions of the hospital stay. I basically remained lying down in bed unless i had to nurse. As I had never had a baby before, I had no idea that my fatigue was very abnormal and stemmed from the blood loss. 

It took four days for my milk to come in. The girls both lost a lot of weight in the meantime and developed jaundice. On day three I finally had an assertive nurse who got me started on a nursing and pumping schedule and use of a supplemental nursing tool. The lactation consultant for the hospital did not even visit me until the day before we were discharged. I think they expected that I would give up on breastfeeding, but they underestimated how stubborn I can be.