Day Two

Today is my last day in the hospital. I will finally be released after a long road of 15 weeks of bed rest, 6 of those weeks were spent in the beautiful antepartum women's center. I am glad I won't be sleeping in a hospital bed away from my husband and home, but I am a little sad to leave my little girls there. Although I was completely prepared for a NICU stay, I am still sad to know we can't take our girls with us. At least we do have time to prepare the rest of the nursery and get the last few items we need.

I went up to the NICU early for the girls morning care. Riley was taken off of her CPAP yesterday night and Addison is expected to get hers off tomorrow. Riley is doing really well at sucking on her paci while Addison really has no interest in the sucking reflex quite yet. Riley lost 2 ounces and Addison gained 2 ounces. Today will be their first feeding on my colostrum and some supplemental formula. We tried to get a little formula in Riley's mouth while she sucked on her paci. She did well so we tried a little formula in a bottle top and she was able to suck out 2ml but got tired. I am proud of her for trying a little and it was so cute to see her little mouth trying to eat.

We are working on the Kangaroo care where the babies lay on our bare chests with just their diaper on and they get the needed "skin to skin" action of being in the womb. Riley laid on Jesse's chest and Addison spent almost 2 hours with me. It is so nice to have them so close after not having them in my belly anymore. That is such a weird feeling to not be pregnant and not feel their movements all the time. Sometimes I forget they aren't there.

We took my sister Sara up to see the girls. She was out of town when the girls were born and we had no idea I would go into labor so soon. My parents came with and the girls got to meet their aunt and grandparents for the first time.

Day One

The girls are 1 day old today. Last night after I went to see them in the NICU after delivery, I had to go back to my postpartum room to recover as I was so exhausted that I couldn't even concentrate on what the nurses were telling me about the status of our girls. I went back to my room to learn how to start pumping my breast milk to be sent to the NICU for the girls to eat. I slept some of the night and woke up to pump what little amount of colostrum I could. I woke up early on Day 1, showered, ate a little breakfast and then walked myself up to the NICU. I was a little sore but nothing was keeping me from seeing my babies.

I got up to the NICU and met our day nurse Laurie. She explained that both girls were on CPAP which is pressurized air that inflates the girls lungs to keep them from working too hard. The CPAPs used forced room air to keep the lungs inflated. They both had IV's to get sugar water and electrolytes into the girls and they would begin feeding in a day or so. Once they were ready to feed, they would get my breast milk and formula through a feeding tube until they are able to nipple off of a bottle. Traditionally, babies don't have the suck, breathe, and swallow reflex until around 34 weeks gestation or so. It would be at least a week or so before the girls start trying to eat without the use of the feeding tubes.

I went to each issolette and I got to touch my babies and talk to each one of them. Just as I was getting ready to hold them I started feeling light headed and I had to sit down. At this point the nurse thought it would be safer to have me wait to hold them. I waited for Jesse to get to the hospital and he was able to hold Addison for the first time. We came back later in the day and I was able to hold Riley.

We learned that the girls would be on a care schedule of every three hours and they would get their temp taken, diaper changed, face cleaned and the nurse would listen to their hearts, lungs, and bellies. The parents are shown how to change the diapers and take their temps and eventually how to help in their feedings. So although the girls are so small, we learned how to move them and touch them in order to help in their care.

My emotions were of pure joy that girls were finally here and they seem to be stable even though they were born 7 weeks early. We were given a 2-3 week time frame before the girls would come home with us.

Birth Story

On Saturday April 25th I woke up not feeling like myself. I was a little sick to my stomach and I was very tired. I went back to sleep after my morning monitoring which I normally didn't do. I slept until noon when lunch came. I then spent 3 hours trying to work on my homework and I was feeling contractions throughout the day but they didn't seem to have a rhythm to them at all. In the afternoon I took another nap until dinner came. I didn't eat much of my dinner and I still felt a little sick.

The night nurse came in to check on my and I told her I had been feeling crampy all day and the contractions were becoming more painful. She put me on the contraction monitor and during the hour I had 8 contractions and I was starting to feel the pain as they came. At that point the nurse wasn't too concerned but I told her about the cramps and the pain and she decided to call the doctor on call to see what they wanted to do since I could not take any more terb shots and I had denied anymore Magnesium.

The doctor said to have the nurse check me to see if I was starting to dilate. They checked me and I was still really closed but about 95% effaced. At this point they told me to drink a bunch of water to help slow down the contractions. After an hour, I got up to go pee from all the water. I finished in the bathroom and went to climb into bed. At that point, my water broke in a small gush. At first I didn't think it was my water so I got up to go pee again and a second burst came at that point.

I called the nurses in and they quickly got me back into bed and tested my fluid to make sure the fluid was amniotic fluid. I called Jesse and the family to let them know what had happened. The test came back positive so it was off to Labor and Delivery. I got settled in L&D and I could feel the contractions coming but they were not bad in the beginning. The nurse said I could take some pain medication at any time. I labored for about 2 hours and then requested the pain medication.

A few hours later the nurse checked me and told me I was 6cm dilated and they needed to call anesthesia right away to get my epidural. Since I was having twins, I had to have the epidural in case an emergency c-section was needed. After I got the epidural I felt much better. I did get sick from the pain meds/epidural and threw up 2-3 times through out the night. I was able to sleep off and on.

The nurse came back to check me and this time she had a weird look on her face. She called in another nurse to check me. Well come to find out, I was only 2-3 cm dilated. The 1st nurse didn’t know what she was doing. The doctor came in shortly after and stretched my cervix to about 5cm. I then went back to sleep and a few hours later I was at 8-9cm. They thought it would be another couple of hours before I got to 10cm, but 30 minutes later they checked me again and there was only a small part of my cervix left. She had me push and I became complete.

Although my doctor was off for the weekend she did say she wanted to deliver me and came in right away. I was set up in the OR with the neonatal team ready to help the girls. I started pushing and in 4-5 rounds of pushing, I delivered Addison. They put her on my chest and Jesse cut her cord. They took her away to start cleaning her off. Quickly they did an ultrasound and Riley was head down but she also had her feet by her head. My doctor had me push and she tried to move her feet. She then had me push again and Riley came out head first with her feet by her face like a pancake. She was crying and they put her on my chest and Jesse cut her cord as well. In 10 minutes and a few short pushes, I brought my girls into the world.

The girls are here!!!

My water broke on Saturday night and my plans to stay pregnant for a few more weeks quickly changed. I was sent to Labor and Delivery at 9pm and I was complete and ready to push at 11:30 am the next morning.

Addison arrived at 12:33 pm after 5 quick pushes. She came out crying and had a head full of dark brown hair. She weighed 4 pounds 6 ounces, and 18 inches long

Riley came out at 12:41 pm after 2 pushes with her head and feet together like a pancake. She had a lot less hair and her hair is lighter than her sisters. She weighed 3 pounds 12 ounces, and 17 inches long.

Both were taken to the NICU where they will stay for another 2-3 weeks. They are breathing room oxygen with a little help of CPAP to keep their lungs open.

I will post a full birth story in the next few days and I will add pictures.

Thanks for sharing in this journey with us and we are so happy to finally have our girls here.

It has been too long since I updated the blog

I have now been back in the hospital for over a week and I am just getting settled into a routine...if you want to call it that. I had to order my own internet service for the hospital since they don't have WIFI or allow you to connect their network. I didn't get up and running until Thursday and I had so much homework to catch up on. I think I am finally getting back to normal with my studies.

I have had more visitors this last week than I had when I was here before and I end up being really tired after they leave. I'm not sleeping well at night which is a given if you are in a hospital. Part of the problem is the noise and he nurses coming in to give me my medication, the other part is the constant need to use the restroom. Ah...the joys of pregnancy.

I am just shy of 32 weeks now so I only have 2 more weeks left in my jail sentence and then I hope to get two more weeks out of the pregnancy at home. My OB is pretty sure that if I make it to 36 weeks, the girls won't need to spend much if any time in the NICU. I would be so happy to know we could take them home and they would be happy healthy babies. We also discussed a vaginal delivery if both girls are head down. I would be so happy to give birth to my girls and go through the labor process rather than knowing I was going straight to a c-section and a long recovery. So wish me luck that these girls will cooperate with my plan. :)

Back to my home away from home...

Yep....I am back in the hospital. This is my third admission and they are telling me I need to stay here until I reach 34 weeks. Bleh!

Yesterday I went in for the FFN test and more monitoring like they asked me to. The bleeding had stopped and I just had some brown discharge. Well I went in and they weren't going to do the FFN test at first because any blood on the swab can give a false positive. So they just started with an NST on the girls and during that time I had a bunch of contractions. Well of course I contract a bunch when they lay me on my back on the hard triage beds with several straps around my belly.

Well the contractions were a "concern" so they called me OB on her day off and she told them to have another cervical length done. They take me to ultrasound and the bad news is that my cervix went from a 1.0 to a .84. So this really got them scared so I got my one way ticked back to the antepartum department. I haven't actually seen my OB about the situation but her partner is the one that said I would be here for a while and they want to get me to 34 weeks before they think about releasing me "again".

I was so mad yesterday that they let me go after the bleeding and then they admit me for contractions the next day. Oh and the FFN test came back negative by the way. I guess my pregnancy hormones are not having anymore of this bed rest, hospital stay, back to bed rest, back to hospital stay. I want my girls as healthy as possible but I can't stand being here.

So there is my update for now. Maybe I will know more on Monday when my OB is back.

Bleeding

Just wanted to give you a quick update. I woke up at 6am on Thursday to pee as normal but I was bleeding. I describe it as the bleeding when you're period is starting. I was really worried about the pregnancy and thought I might be going into some kind of labor or one of the placentas was coming lose so I woke up Jesse and Sara and we headed to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital and I was put on the heart rate monitors and the girls were fine but I was contracting quite a bit and they didn't know what was causing the bleeding. They called my OB and she ordered an ultrasound to check on the bleeding and an NST to check on the girls. The ultrasound didn't reveal any reason for the bleeding and the girls were looking perfect. Addison is estimated to weigh 3 pounds 6 ounces and Riley was 3 pounds 3 ounces. During the NST I had several contractions so they gave me a terb shot which stopped the contractions. At this point they sent me to and told me to come back the next day for another FFN test since they couldn't do that test if I was bleeding because it would lead to a false positive.

We left and I went home to rest.

Nothing new

I haven't had much to say lately so I haven't made an update. All is going well. The girls are moving around all the time in my belly. I often wonder when they sleep because at least one is kicking or punching around the clock. Maybe they are sleeping when I sleep because they aren't waking me up at night. I'm so glad I don't have to wonder if they are moving enough because any time I stop to make sure they are moving...they give me a big kick to let me know all is well.

I finished my first week of the accounting class so I only have 5 weeks left and I hope the girls let me finish before making their arrival. Jesse started a 4 week class today and he is convinced that he won't make it through the class before I have the girls. I just hope he is wrong.

The weather in Phoenix is beautiful and I am spending more time outside reading and lounging by the pool. I feel a little more normal when I can do things like that rather than having to stay in the house. I'm getting my vitamin D from the sun along with a little tan.

I'm looking forward to Friday where we go back to PPA and have a growth scan. Friday is half day at work for Jesse to celebrate Good Friday and he is able to make it to the appointment. It has been a while since he has seen an ultrasound and I'm sure he will be amazed at how big the girls are getting. I am hoping they are just over 3 pounds each. I read that from week 30 on, babies put on a 1/2 pound a week until delivery. I hope I am eating enough and taking good care of the girls so they can put on as much weight as possible.

Next week, Brea is coming over to help me finish the nursery. Most of the room is done but we need to put up the art work and arrange a few things. This weekend, Jesse needs to install the car seat bases and take the car to the fire station to make sure they are installed correctly. I don't want to be scrambling around to get that task done later on.

So all is well at with me and the girls at the moment. I see light at the end of the tunnel. I talked to my boss yesterday and my job is secure so that is a relief that I will be able to go back to work when it is time.

Another Class

I decided to change my major from a traditional MBA to an MBA with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration. I think that concentrating on the healthcare field will be a better route than just concentrating on business. I started an accounting class on Tuesday and I had a little talk with the girls asking them to wait out the six weeks before they make their arrival. That would put me right before my OB's goal of getting to 36 weeks.

The time seems to by flying by right now. I am in shock that this pregnancy could be over in the next 6 to 8 weeks. Some days I feel like time is standing still because I don't get to do much, but other times I wake up and I am in shock that I will have 2 baby girls in my arms very soon.

Sara has been a big help around the house. She does an excellent job cooking meals for us and taking care of things around the house for me. This allows me to stay lying on the couch instead of getting up for every little thing. We both decided to lay out on the lounge chairs by the pool on Monday and we stayed out a little too long. I burned the tops of my feet and my chest where I missed the sun block and she was burned really bad on her chest. We enjoyed our day out in the sun but we need a few days to recover before we try that again. This time we will be covered from head to toe in sun block thanks to the Arizona heat. The pool is still cold at 60 degrees but I hope at some point I can just float on a raft and read a book in the pool before these girls come.