Part 3- The day after the twins were born

The day after the twins were born is kind of a blur to me.  I was still on pain medication from my surgery and I had little to no sleep the night before.  I went down to the NICU to see the boys that morning and then went back up to my room to rest for a little bit.  Tom had gone home for a little while to shower and get a change of clothes.  Since this all happened so suddenly and early, we did not have a hospital bag packed yet and we had nothing but my purse with us.  While he was gone, one of the neonatal nurse practitioners came up to my room and told me that they needed to transfer Lucas to LeBonheur for emergency surgery.  They had done some x-rays on him and he had so much air in his body that they could hardly see his organs.  The reason he had so much air in his body was because he had a hole in his intestines and this needed to be repaired asap.

I don't know if I've ever been so scared in my life.  My little boy was less than 24 hours old and 11 weeks premature and he was about to have surgery.  We already knew that Luke was a fighter (more on that in a different post, but all throughout my pregnancy we were told he had a lot of complications), but I was so worried.

Lucas was transferred to LeBonheur in an ambulance by a team called Pedi-Flite.  These guys were awesome.  While they got him stable and ready to move to the ambulance, one of the girls sat with me on the couch and hugged me while I cried.  She asked for my cell phone number and promised me she would call me as soon as they got him to LeBonheur.  I was not yet released from the hospital following my c-section, so I couldn't go with them.  They let Tom ride in the ambulance with them to LeBonheur though.  As soon as they arrived there and got Luke stable, that sweet girl did as she promised and called me to let me know that he was ok.  The Pedi-Flite team also bought Luke a t-shirt.

That night Lucas had surgery to repair the hole in his intestines and he did great.  He is still recovering, but our little guy is tough.  He will stay in the NICU at LeBonheur and soon Miller will be transferred there to be with his brother.

The twins debut- part 2

The c-section was so quick and before I knew it, both babies were out and had a team of doctors working on them.  We were very pleased with their birth weights, especially to be 11 weeks early.  Miller was a bit bigger and was crying a little bit, so they let me see him.  Lucas needed a little extra TLC so I wasn't able to see him until later that night.  I knew they would immediately take the babies to the NICU but I was so sad not to be able to hold my two new sons.  I stayed in the labor and delivery room for an hour so they could monitor my immediate recovery.  I was thankful that Tom was allowed to be in there with me.  The rest of my family wasn't allowed back there at this time though.

After the first hour, I was taken to a postpartum room for the rest of my recovery.  I had to stay there for another 4 hours before they would let me go down to the NICU to see the boys.  Those 4 hours felt like eternity.  All I wanted to do was see my sweet boys.  Finally, around 10:30 that night, they let me go to the NICU to see Miller and Lucas.  I was not at all prepared for what I saw.  They were so tiny and had all kinds of cords and IVs and monitors hooked up to them.  I got pretty choked up and emotional seeing my babies like that.


                                                            Lucas                                               

                                                                                              
                                                        Miller

After visiting with the boys for a little while, Tom and I went back up to my room and got probably the worst nights sleep ever.  I couldn't stop thinking about Miller and Lucas.  And I was in a lot of pain from my c-section.  In fact, much of the day they were born and the day after seem like a blur to me.  I was running on basically no sleep, had a ton of pain meds from surgery, and was super stressed out.  The day after the boys were born would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of our lives.  More on that with Part 3 soon.

The twins' debut- Part 1

On Monday, April 22, 2013 I was scheduled to have my glucose test at my doctor's office to check for gestational diabetes.  I was 29 weeks pregnant and not expecting to have these sweet babies anytime soon.  Tom and I went to my appointment and I got my blood drawn and passed the test.  I went to an exam room to see my doctor and I started feeling really funny and having painful contractions.  Nothing like the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been having for a while.  My doctor decided to do an exam and sent me over to labor and delivery to be monitored.

I get over to the hospital and was admitted pretty quickly and taken back to a room.  Since I had done my GD test, I had fasted the night before and didn't have much food or water.  I was dehydrated and it took them forever to get an IV in.  They had to call the anesthesia department to get an IV started on me.  I thought I was just being observed so I told Tom he could go get food and take our son Declan to the park to pass some time.  Next thing I know, they examined me and I was dilating even more and they were scrambling to get me started on a magnesium drip and steroid shots.  I was officially in preterm labor.  I called Tom and told him to get here ASAP and call my parents.  After a huge dose of magnesium (which makes you feel terrible, by the way!), I was over 6 cm dilated and having painful contractions.  To make things worse, they wouldn't give me any pain meds for labor since they had to monitor the magnesium drip to see if it was working.

After a call to my doctor and several hours of labor without meds, I was told it was time for an emergency c-section.  I immediately started crying.  My babies would be 11 weeks early.  I was so worried about the boys and the thought of a c-section scared me.  I was wheeled back to the OR and prepped for surgery.  Tom wasn't allowed back there while I got prepped.  It took them 5 tries to get my spinal block done and by the time they got it, I was shaking really bad and just wanted Tom there with me.  Finally, he was allowed back and we started talking.  The next thing I know, they were delivering the babies.  Miller James was the first baby born at 4:52 p.m., weighing 3 lbs 6 oz.  Lucas Rolland came next, just a few seconds later (still 4:52 p.m.), weighing 2 lbs 8 oz.  Our baby boys were here!

Welcome to our Blog

We started our wonderful journey as a family with an 8 lb 0 oz boy on May 29, 2012. Since then we have enjoyed being new parents and learning all sorts of new things about babies. October 27th we had found out that we were having another bundle to love on and raise. At our first ultrasound we found out that we were having twins instead of just a singleton. This blog is the story of our twins life from birth and on.