Wednesday morning update from my mom

Sarah has an appt with the lactation consultant and will find out when she can begin nursing the babies. She may also inquire about the kangaroo bonding thing.

She is having no problem with 10pm or 1pm pumping - can go right back to sleep. But she is having trouble with the 4AM one so she got up this morning and wrote emails, thank you notes, etc.

She is happy and getting ready to go at 8am to see the babies. She is in love with Carter.

She will call or update us via email when something else is reportable...

Olivia:

Carter:

Tuesday Update from my mom:

Well, Sarah is not having a good day.  The nurse noticed it this morning and asked her about it and asked if she overdid yesterday.  Sarah thinks she did.  She is very sore, very tired, pumped every 3 hours all night, got up in time to go to 9AM feeding but almost didn't go as she was feeling bad.  She crashed last night and could feel it coming.

Nurse told her to come 1 hour before the feeding times which are every 3 hours beginning at 9AM.  She told her not to come if she needed to rest because the most important thing she was doing was making milk and she would not make enough if she didn't sleep.  So she is to skip coming if she feels drowsy and just send Forrest.  We are to take note of that as well - if and when we come to see babies, she will be going at 8, 11, 2, etc and we should plan on arriving then.  Of course, if there are new babies arriving in NICU, we will have to wait.  I told Sarah that Liah and I might come Thursday during the day sometime.

She and Forrest got to really cuddle the babies for several minutes each.  Both were on their tummies and Sarah had her hands wrapped around and under their tummies with nose and cheeks on hair, kissing them.  She really liked that and she said Carter seemed to like it too.  This was her best day with Carter.  They brought her a tall barstool height chair to sit on so she would not have to stand so long.  They missed feeding due to a new delivery.

Today they will try to wean Carter of the breathing apparatus but the nurse does not think he will tolerate it well so be prepared for it not to work.  He had been put on his tummy but had rolled a little to his side which indicates he is strong enough to move himself.

Olivia is up from 6cc to 9cc of milk now and Sarah is hopeful she will be able to hold her at 2 feeding. 

Sarah has slept about an hour this am and has a friend coming over at noon to visit - she is expecting shortly and Sarah wanted her to come while everything was fresh.  She is going to try to sleep more - maybe skip going at 1 if she does not feel up to it.  Also she is going to call the doctor about some of the soreness.

Carter:

Olivia:

Day after the delivery

Monday was such a blur for me.  I was well medicated so I didn't feel much pain at all that day, which prompted me to be WAY too active for my own good (which I paid for on Monday night and Tuesday morning).

I started pumping at 7:00am Monday and I've been doing that every 3 hours since.  It doesn't really bother me to have to do it in the middle of the night.  I have been taking a nap every day which really helps me stay rested. The rest of Monday I spent hanging out with Forrest, Ellen, Christine, and Aunt Sue in my hospital room.  We went to the NICU a couple of times to see the babies, which was nice.  I also had all sorts of hospital type duties that I had to attend to.  Lots of hospital personnel to see and paperwork to fill out. 

My folks came by in the afternoon when it was time for me to check out (I didn't have to stay the requisite two nights since the babies weren't coming home with me).  We all went to the NICU for one last visit then went home to meet Liah for dinner (Church's chicken).  Also, Liah helped me use the breast pump that she had loaned me (Thanks so much!!).  The plan then was to take Liah to the NICU to see the babies.  I was exhausted but she had driven all the way out here just to see them, so out we went.  I of course was rewarded with more precious time with Carter and Olivia.

After I got home that night I crashed and began my first night of feedings every three hours.  I guess I have at least 3 months of this ahead of me, but for now I'm not complaining (stay tuned in a week or two, ha!).

Carter:

Olivia:

Carter:

Olivia:

Carter:

Baby Day

October 8:

Baby Day(s) started out like every other Saturday in the fall - with college football!  My folks and Ellen came over to watch the TX-OU game, which sadly resulted in a home team loss.  My mom brought chicken salad sandwiches from Market Street, my dad made clam dip, and I had made some banana cakes, so we had quite a feast.  They left after the game and Forrest and I settled in for the rest of the day.

We ended our night watching Texas A&M beat Texas Tech in Lubbock, which made Forrest very happy.

After the game, we got in bed.  Before I go into the start of the "labor", I must mention that it was a stormy night in north Texas.  This elated us and the rest of the region because we are in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the last 100 years.  Texans have endured record breaking heat and multiple wild fires across the state.  We need rain so badly.  Our church (and many others) hosted a "Pray for Rain" service at one point this summer.  Although this night wasn't the first relief we have gotten from the drought, it was one of the few nights we can remember in which we got any  measureable rain.

Once in bed, I immediately noticed once we were in bed that I had some increased, uh....moisture....coming out of you know where.  I rolled over and I felt a little water coming out.  Then, every time I felt a baby kick I would feel a little bit more water.  I wasn't sure that it was my water breaking because it wasn't a big gush like they say it is.  I laid there for an hour (while Forrest slept unknowingly) and finally I asked God to give me a clear sign.  Within a minute, I felt three strong kicks and each one was accompanied by the water, so I took that to mean it might be time.

I told Forrest that I thought (wasn't totally sure) that my water was breaking.  We both got up and got ready.  We made it to the hospital at about midnight and they confirmed that my membranes had indeed ruptured and that the births were imminent.  It was a very frightening moment for me when they told me I was indeed in labor.

Our L&D nurse mentioned that they had a lot of preterm labors that night because of the storm.  She said that when the barometric pressure drops, often it will break the waters for pregnant women.  My doctor scoffed at that theory, but I wonder if it "holds water" (hardee har har) in my case.  We will never know.

October 9:

By 2:00am I was in a L&D room and got an epidural, then they started me on pitocin so that my contractions would get more productive.  At admission I was 3 cm dilated and pretty much fully effaced. 

My labor was so uneventful and easy.  I was pain free because of hte epidural.  Forrest called my family right away once we got to the L&D room and they all had arrived at my room by 4:00.  Once they realized that the big event wasn't going to be within the hour, they all left to eat Waffle House and Forrest and I got a couple hours of sleep.  Mom and Dad came back at about 6:00am and Liah and Ellen came back later that morning (they slept at my house for a few minutes).

Sometime in the early morning I had dilated to 5-6 cm, so we were hoping that labor would progress quickly.  Unfortunately it didn't.  I seemed to stay at 5-6cm forever, until about 3:00pm when I finally got to 8-9 cm.  They gave me another hour to rest, then I was fully dilated.

Baby Time!

Because I had twins, I had to deliver in the O.R. (as opposed to the L&D room) as my risk for having a c-section were high. I had planned a vaginal delivery, but still you never know what might change to necessitate a c-section.  My L&D nurse's name was Linda.  Forrest, Linda and I did one round of practice pushing and they declared that I was ready to go.

The O.R. was packed full of doctor's and nurses.  I probably had 2-3 nurses helping my doctor, there was my anesthesiologist, and two teams of NICU nurses, each of about 5 people.  So, it was a full room.  We got into the O.R. at 4:49pm on Sunday October 9, I started pushing a few minutes later, and delivered Olivia at 5:10pm.  Forrest is the one who told me her gender.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to see her before they whisked her off to be treated by her NICU team (sort of behind me and to my right).  A few minutes later (at 5:21pm), out came Carter, who I also didn't see because they took him away just as fast. 

Olivia came out pink and didn't cry until the NICU team worked out her.  Carter came out kinda bluish gray.  I didn't get to hold either of them, which was sad, but I knew they needed to be worked on by the NICU.

After about 15 minutes, they wheeled both incubators up so I could see them, gave me about 20 seconds to view them, and then they left.

I couldn't see Carter very well, but I'll never forget how Olivia looked.  She zeroed in on Forrest and me with her big blue eyes and just stared at us.  It made me cry because it was the first eye contact I made with her.

One of the nurses notified my family that they should line up in the hallway outside of the O.R. so that they could see the babies as they were wheeled off, which they did.  They took the following pics:

The rest of the delivery was pretty painful for me, as my epidural was wearing off and the doctor still had some "repair" work to do.  That night I recovered in my room for a couple hours, then Forrest, Christine, and I went down to NICU to see our babies.  I don't remember much about that night except for that I couldn't walk because I was in so much pain, so I was wheeled down in a wheelchair.  I hated being confined to the wheel chair because I wasn't high up enough to see the babies.  I got so frustrated that I decided to try to stand, which was so painful that it made me cry.  Although I did get to see the babies, I don't remember anything about how they looked because I was just wrecked.  We stayed only a few minutes then we went back to the room.

We hadn't yet named them because I was just in no state to have a serious discussion about it.

I crashed there for the night and Forrest went home to shower then came back and stayed the night on the couch by my bed.

That's how October 9 ended.  I would say that it was the best day of my life, but it wasn't.  I'll get to that day in a later blog posting.  It was a nice and restful day spent with my family, up until the delivery.  The delivery was joyful but also kind of sad since I couldn't reallly see the babies (definitely couldn't touch them).  The rest of the day was pretty terrible since I was in so much pain.

Welcome Brittny and Theresa!

This weekend I expanded my blog readership by 100%, adding Brittny and Theresa to the list of authorized readers.  I hope this site can handle the increased traffic.  :-)

I met these two on The Knot shortly after I got married SIX YEARS AGO.  They were both bloggers and so was I, and eventually we started following each others blogs and became friends through that forum.  We evolved into emailing which is our primary means of communication now.  However, it feels like so much more than just email.  First of all, we email multiple times a week, so it's a pretty active email frequency.  Plus, we text and occasionally talk on the phone.  Most importantly, we put time into our friendship.  Although we only see each other about once a year, we invest a lot of time and emotions into staying friends. 

I have long since abandoned the blog I kept as a newlywed, but now I'm out of retirement and am blogging about the new stage of my life.  I'm not sure how much they will follow this blog, as they already get frequent emails from me.  But since this is how we met, it seems fitting for them to be followers.

So, welcome Brittny and Theresa.  I love you two!

Below are some pics of us.  They are in chronological order.  I believe the first time the three of us got together was in January of 2007.  We have gotten together every year since.  Once for Theresa's wedding in Rochester New York and most recently for my baby shower.