The girls are 12 days old and are doing so well! Again, if anyone wants more info about the girls or to see pictures I will be happy to send you an invitation to our Care Pages. Just send me an email with your email.
My emotional state has been all over the place. Post-pregnancy hormones topped with the stress of having two children in the NICU have caused me to become weepy a few times a day since leaving the hospital. For example I've been in 6 stores since having the girls and I cried in 3 of them. What, you never had a breakdown in the produce aisle of Publix?? Well, welcome to my world. It seems that if I even think about the girls and that I am not able to be with them 24-7 I want to cry. It is hard to spend time away from them and not feel guilty about it. I know they are well taken care of and even when I am with them, I am only allowed a certain amount of physical contact with them but I just feel so bad that we haven't had the chance to be a family together in our home yet.
It has almost been 2 weeks since they have been in the NICU and they will probably be there another 3 weeks. J and I have settled into a routine of visiting them at certain times of the day. The NICU is closed from 6-8pm which just happens to be the best time for us to see the girls when J gets of work. So, usually we cannot go until 8 and when we are there time just goes so fast. After we change, feed and hold them it is 9 and time to get home. It makes for a later night than we would have otherwise. Obviously, we will be getting up with them in the middle of the night when they are home, but that is totally different.
My recovery from the C-section has gone pretty well. I took the pain meds for about a week and when I stopped I realized that the pain had probably gone away before that point, but I was just so sore from returning to normal activities that I couldn't tell the difference. I started driving this Monday! Wow, it was weird after not being able to be independent for 2 months. Although I would give anything for the girls to be home, this time has allowed me to rest when I need to and recover from being on bed rest for 2 months and work up my strength to do every day, normal tasks. I'm 5 lbs higher than my pre-pregnancy weight and I cannot complain about how my body has returned to almost normal. I still have the linea nigra and my stomach is doughy but for the most part I don't look like I just had twins. My body apparently rejects every aspect of getting pregnant and staying pregnant! The pumping and night sweats have helped get back to normal. PS why didn't anyone warn me about crazy night sweats after giving birth?? OMG I wake up and my sheets are soaked along with everything I am wearing. It's an awful cycle because you are hot and sweating first, then freezing because the sheets are wet and you feel disgusting. Between pumping and sweating I am not getting great sleep, but I guess I should just get used to that!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Our Miracles have arrived
After numerous fertility treatments and 2 months of bed rest our girls made a surprise entry into the world saturday morning the 29th at 30w2d. The night before I had been experiencing bad back pain that would not let up and pressure down low. I could not tell if the pressure was more than usual or not but I thought I would try to get some sleep and if my symptoms remained, I would call labor and delivery in the morning. I got a few hours of sleep and when I woke up at 4am the pressure and back pain was beginning to get worse. I was having some back labor contractions but there was no pattern so I waited for J to get up around 630am. Right away I told him to start packing bags, I was going to call L & D and they would most likely tell me to come in.
As soon as I got out of bed to pack our bags the back labor became worse and I started having contractions around every 7-10 minutes. Luckily, I had made our hospital bag list the night before and we were able to get everything ready quickly. We jumped in the car and within the 20 minute car ride my contractions became closer and closer together- every 1.5-2 minutes. We were taken straight to triage where they told me they could feel baby A's head (wow!), I was 100% effaced and 1 cm dilated. They took me to a labor and delivery room that was connected to an operating room and began the magnesium drip. Our MFM had told me we would not try to stop labor once it started, but I guess this doctor didn't get the memo and I was too out of it to say anything. The doctor said the mag drip would help slow contractions and buy us anywhere from a few hours to a few days if I was in false labor. We kind of relaxed at this point because we thought maybe I would just have to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks until the babies arrived. Then the doctor performed another check and realized that now I was 3 cm dilated and the mag drip was not helping at all! To our surprise he said, "OK lets get the OR room prepped and get a team together. We are going to have these babies"
My gosh, we were in so much shock! We had arrived at the hospital at 730am and by this time it was only 930. To say things moved fast is an understatement. We signed all the papers and the nurses moved me into the OR room. A C-section was necessary because while baby A was head down....and verrrry ready to come out vaginally, Baby B was double footling breach and it would be risky to do a vaginal delivery and try to flip baby B. I would have risked having to give birth both ways! Um, no thanks. By 1015am I got a spinal and some morphine. The spinal did not hurt at all, but the morphine made me scratch my face through the whole delivery and the entire day. After the spinal J was allowed to come into the OR. I could not see anything going on down below, so J helped to talk me through everything and keep me calm. At 1040 our Baby girl A was born. She was 3.2lb and 17 inches long. So long!! They brought her to my face so that I could see her, but I was not allowed to move my arms so unfortunately I couldn't hold her. Baby B had a more difficult delivery because she was double footling breech. Both of her legs were very bruised through delivery but everything else was fine. Baby was 3.2 lb and 15.5 inches long. Again they brought her to my face and I was able to kiss her beautiful little face.
Both girls were taken to the NICU immediately, but the doctors reassured us that they were a great weight and healthy little girls! J got to go to the NICU with them and I stayed on the table getting myself put back together. Because of the way B was in the womb they had to make an up-down incision on my uterus to get her out when usually they make an incision the other way. I was very fortunate because the physicians assistant that was helping out had interned for four years at a plastic surgery facility so he spent extra time and care putting me back together with internal stitches and glue on the outside. My incision looked good immediately after when I was able to see it.
In the NICU the girls were put into their incubators but were able to breath room-air oxygen! Everything else checked out great with them and the doctors told us they would probably spend 4-6 weeks in the NICU so that they could be continuously monitored, gain weight and learn how to feed. The doctors have let us know that it is not unusual to have some "set backs" while in the NICU, but that if those were their babies they would be very happy with how healthy they are considering they were born at 30 weeks. I probably won't be updating this blog too much with personal information about the girls, but if you would like to be updated through their carepages please send me your email address and I will send you a link.
It has already been emotionally draining to have two children in the NICU but we are just thanking God that despite being small they are healthy and so beautiful. We cherish every second we are able to spend with them and celebrate every single milestone.
As soon as I got out of bed to pack our bags the back labor became worse and I started having contractions around every 7-10 minutes. Luckily, I had made our hospital bag list the night before and we were able to get everything ready quickly. We jumped in the car and within the 20 minute car ride my contractions became closer and closer together- every 1.5-2 minutes. We were taken straight to triage where they told me they could feel baby A's head (wow!), I was 100% effaced and 1 cm dilated. They took me to a labor and delivery room that was connected to an operating room and began the magnesium drip. Our MFM had told me we would not try to stop labor once it started, but I guess this doctor didn't get the memo and I was too out of it to say anything. The doctor said the mag drip would help slow contractions and buy us anywhere from a few hours to a few days if I was in false labor. We kind of relaxed at this point because we thought maybe I would just have to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks until the babies arrived. Then the doctor performed another check and realized that now I was 3 cm dilated and the mag drip was not helping at all! To our surprise he said, "OK lets get the OR room prepped and get a team together. We are going to have these babies"
My gosh, we were in so much shock! We had arrived at the hospital at 730am and by this time it was only 930. To say things moved fast is an understatement. We signed all the papers and the nurses moved me into the OR room. A C-section was necessary because while baby A was head down....and verrrry ready to come out vaginally, Baby B was double footling breach and it would be risky to do a vaginal delivery and try to flip baby B. I would have risked having to give birth both ways! Um, no thanks. By 1015am I got a spinal and some morphine. The spinal did not hurt at all, but the morphine made me scratch my face through the whole delivery and the entire day. After the spinal J was allowed to come into the OR. I could not see anything going on down below, so J helped to talk me through everything and keep me calm. At 1040 our Baby girl A was born. She was 3.2lb and 17 inches long. So long!! They brought her to my face so that I could see her, but I was not allowed to move my arms so unfortunately I couldn't hold her. Baby B had a more difficult delivery because she was double footling breech. Both of her legs were very bruised through delivery but everything else was fine. Baby was 3.2 lb and 15.5 inches long. Again they brought her to my face and I was able to kiss her beautiful little face.
Both girls were taken to the NICU immediately, but the doctors reassured us that they were a great weight and healthy little girls! J got to go to the NICU with them and I stayed on the table getting myself put back together. Because of the way B was in the womb they had to make an up-down incision on my uterus to get her out when usually they make an incision the other way. I was very fortunate because the physicians assistant that was helping out had interned for four years at a plastic surgery facility so he spent extra time and care putting me back together with internal stitches and glue on the outside. My incision looked good immediately after when I was able to see it.
In the NICU the girls were put into their incubators but were able to breath room-air oxygen! Everything else checked out great with them and the doctors told us they would probably spend 4-6 weeks in the NICU so that they could be continuously monitored, gain weight and learn how to feed. The doctors have let us know that it is not unusual to have some "set backs" while in the NICU, but that if those were their babies they would be very happy with how healthy they are considering they were born at 30 weeks. I probably won't be updating this blog too much with personal information about the girls, but if you would like to be updated through their carepages please send me your email address and I will send you a link.
It has already been emotionally draining to have two children in the NICU but we are just thanking God that despite being small they are healthy and so beautiful. We cherish every second we are able to spend with them and celebrate every single milestone.
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