It is LONG....just a warning! I am chatty-but you know that by now! :-)
Hey everyone,
I am sure most of you know by now, but in case you didn't, our babies are here
and they are precious!
I know there's been a lot of emails keeping everyone in the loop, but I thought
I would send one myself and let everyone know first hand about the twins big arrival-now
that I have a teeny bit of time to spare-LOL.
I went to the doctor for my regular weekly check up on December 16. Little did I
know that would be a life changing day!! My dad, Dawn, and my nephew Hunter
went with me that day because I was due for my last ultrasound. I knew my blood
pressure was up that day but just chalked it up to Dad's driving (sorry Dad!) trying to get me there because we were running late (no shocker there). I still didn't really think
anything of it when the nurses and my doctor were kind of running around trying to
monitor me and saying how I must not feel well. I just shrugged that off till they
finally told me what was going on. I had gained 7 pounds in a week, had protein in
my urine, my blood pressure was sky high.....I had pre-eclampsia. Who knew it
could set in so fast from one week to the next? I had to go to the hospital for
observation and for further tests and blood work.
I guess for some dumb reason I still thought I would get to go home after the 24 hour
observation.....boy was I wrong! My doctor had a chat with us the next night and
said the only cure for my declining health issues was delivery and just wanted to get the
babies to 35 weeks, which would be the following Monday. I still had a glimmer of hope
I'd get to go home and rest at my own house till then, but again...my head was in
the sand. I was hospital bound till delivery.....boy was that a long 5 days! And of course
the snow kept some visitors away so it was just Dustin and I trying to pass the time a few of the days.
Finally Monday the 21st came and I was very nervous to say the least. They started the induction at 7:30 Monday morning by breaking my water and starting the pitocin. Labor went really, really fast and by 11:30 we were ready to head to the Operating Room for delivery. Twins are always born in the operating room whether born natural or C-section because of the high risk involved (ours were born naturally). We finally got to the OR at 12:10 after waiting for it to become available. Our son, John Carson, was born at 12:52 pm and was born with a head full of black hair! He is a mini-Dustin and is so handsome! He weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Emilynn Joann was born a little later at 1:26 pm and she weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and was also 19 1/2 inches long. She is gorgeous too, if I must say so myself! :-) We just aren't sure who she looks like yet. The delivery was interesting because there were a LOT of people there.....nothing private about it honestly. There was Dustin and I of course, my Dr., the anesthesiologist in case we went to C-section, the neonatologist for the babies, my nurse, a scrub nurse, one nurse per baby, and it seemed like more nurses floating about. A very big birthday party, to say the least.
The labor and delivery was not bad at all though, I was very lucky!
I will say that everyone in the delivery room was just as excited as we were to find out the gender of the babies.....it was the most exciting moment of my life and worth every second of the wait to have the moment when they were born and waiting for Dustin to tell me what they were.
After delivery, both babies were kept in the nursery for a long time. We finally got Carson in our room at about 7:30 that night. Emilynn was not brought to us because of difficulty breathing. I had to be on a drug to keep me from having seizures during delivery due to my high blood pressure and it affected her breathing because she was exposed to it longer than Carson, being the second twin. It also affected my breathing because I had to be on oxygen that night, my levels were dropping as well in my sleep.
The hardest thing about Emilynn was not being able to hold or touch her. When seeing her in the nursery, they would not let us even touch her because it was too much stimulation for her. That was so hard. Carson did fine but she just wasn't doing better and Tuesday we could not touch her as well. On Wednesday, she had an apnea spell and was put in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She has a valve or vessel in her heart that did not close up, due to her prematurity, and it was causing a heart murmur. That was a really rough day, and I just cried and cried. I didn't know much about NICU and I was scared. I figured if I couldn't even touch my baby in the regular nursery, the NICU would be even worse. I was very wrong about that thankfully. I technically could have been discharged Wednesday as well, but luckily my Dr. gave me another day, I was in no shape to go home or anywhere at that point.
Shortly after she was taken to the NICU, a nurse, her nurse for the day came to see us. She explained a lot to us and was so kind. She was shocked to know we had not even held our daughter except Dustin did hold her briefly after she was born, and said that by all means we would hold her and should hold her. So, we went to the NICU and were able to hold Emilynn and it was so emotional....I can't even describe that feeling. Seeing your baby hooked to so many tubes and machines is tough and we were blessed with a fairly healthy girl, the babies are so sick in there. It is hard to see and I know I was blessed with Carson to hold when we couldn't hold her and that was a comfort. My heart goes out to the moms who's only baby is in there. Emilynn had jaundice as well as the breathing trouble, but she progressed each day, thankfully, even with the heart murmur.
She had one more apnea spell while there, I was holding her at the time and it scared us so bad. What was most scary was that we didn't even know it, the nurse just came rushing over because she had stopped breathing in my arms. They attributed most of her breathing issues to the magnesium medicine I was on during labor.
Thursday (Christmas Eve) I was discharged as well as Carson. It was upsetting knowing we would be leaving a baby there, so we were luckily able to board for the night and stay again. Everyone was so incredibly wonderful, since we were discharged that meant no more nursery to watch Carson while we visited Emilynn. We were lucky that he was allowed in the NICU, so we were able to all visit as a family. I must say the nurses, doctors, and everyone involved with the NICU was WONDERFUL! They are truly angels and I will always be grateful for the treatment they gave us. They made over Carson and just treated us so kindly. They are like family in there I guess because it is so close-knit and one-on-one and they really helped make a tough situation bearable.
They did so many nice things for us for Christmas, I never thought I'd spend Christmas in a hospital and be happy about it, but it was the best Christmas I've ever had! Our family was together and that's really all that mattered to us. We woke up on Christmas and got ready to go see Emilynn before heading home. When we arrived at the NICU, they quickly wisked Carson away and said they had a surprise for us while we scrubbed down. I was overwhelmed when I saw what they had done....they had gotten each of them a "My first Christmas" sleeper and had them dressed, had concealed Emilynn's tubes/lines, and taken their pictures, together and separate and made them into Christmas cards for us with their footprints, printed photos, gave them a "1st Christmas" ornament, another ornament they made, and homemade Christmas quilts volunteers had made. And each thing they did for Emilynn, they also did for Carson. It was overwhelming and I cried tears of joy and I'm crying now thinking about how they went above and beyond and used their own money and extra effort to make our Christmas memorable, even in the hospital. We stayed several hours with Emilynn before making the tough move home minus one baby.
That was the hardest thing I've ever done, and I've never felt so torn, leaving part of my heart there. It was a very long quiet ride home.
We were busy with Carson and then he began having issues of his own, so those few days were very trying. He developed jaundice really badly and had to be on a "bili-blanket" 24 hours a day. He also stopped eating and would just scream when we tried to feed him. He didn't eat for 12 hours, so we ended up at Chippenham emergency room early Sunday morning after Christmas for IV fluids for him and to make sure nothing else was going on with him. My greatest fear was them wanting to keep him and having two babies at two hospitals but luckily we did not have that happen. He ended up being allergic to his formula supposedly, but I just don't think that was it. He had bathroom issues too, which was what I think the problem was combined with being away from his twin.
But anyway, we got a wonderful call Monday the 28th that we could pick Emilynn up if we wanted to, or she could stay an extra day if we needed to get Carson straight because they had heard about his issues from the pediatrician. If we wanted to pick her up? Of course we wanted to pick her up! You've never seen two people kick it in high gear like we did....but we had to take Carson for an appointment first. We were so excited to bring Emilynn home and get to know her-we had not been able to spend much time with her at all, except about an hour or two a day visiting at the hospital. And it was so hard running back and forth to Richmond with Carson in tow.....we were all so worn out. It was the biggest relief on earth when we pulled out of Johnston-Willis with BOTH our babies in the car. I can't even describe the feeling, just a huge weight off my shoulders.
And to top it off-Carson's issues stopped right then! He has not had a problem eating or going to the bathroom since! He missed his sister-I truly believe that! They are both doing well and gaining weight-Emilynn's breathing has been fine and her pediatrician does not hear the murmur anymore. We will still take her on the 25th to the pediatric cardiologist for a follow up, but for now they are both growing and doing well.
They are still considered preemies and are at risk for lots of things, so we are not taking them anywhere except Dr.'s visits and we are limiting visitors per Dr.'s orders until flu and RSV season is over. We are working towards getting them approved for RSV shots to help keep them well.
The hidden blessing with the whole NICU experience other than meeting some wonderful people was that Emilynn came home on a very strict schedule that we are following at all costs! Carson fell right into the schedule and it's worked great for us so far. It has kept my sanity and made everything go very smoothly so far. I am home alone during the day with the babies and we are doing fine. I am loving every moment of being their mom-from every dirty diaper, lots of wardrobe changes each day, every late night feeding, their screaming, their smiles, their little faces they make.....it's better than I could have ever imagined and has been truly a joy. I look at them and am just amazed at the blessings we have received! We are so very blessed and have been blessed by the whole experience, even the difficult parts and rough beginnings.
If you are still reading this-God bless you-I am impressed! You must really love us to read this novel I've written- haha! But I just wanted to share their birth story and let everyone know what was going on during the first two weeks when we probably didn't answer your phone calls or texts because we were just too emotionally drained and upset. It wasn't because we didn't care or appreciate your thoughtfulness, we just needed our space to deal with what we were facing and it wasn't easy. It was a rollercoaster but thankfully things are more normal these days.
We really do appreciate all of your cards, calls, and everything everyone has done to make our transition smooth. I am humbled by everything everyone has done-we have not had to cook, do laundry, shop, feed our pets, or do anything other than love on our babies and that is the best gift you could have given us! We appreciate everything and it has made us feel so special!
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