On Friday, June 11th I began having contractions when I woke up at 5 am. They were not coming very regularly so I decided to just stay in bed and rest all day (even though my bedrest had been lifted since I was 35 weeks)!! At 3pm they started coming about every 10 minutes and finally at 6pm I decided to call the doctor. He, of course, said to come into Labor and Delivery to be monitored (this makes trip #6 to labor and delivery this pregnancy)!
So we finished packing the hospital bag and then off we went... Above is a picture we took together right before we left for the hospital.
When we got to the hospital I was hooked up to the monitors and was "checked" and dialated to a 3! About and hour and a half later contractions were coming every 2-5 minutes were quite painful and I was dialated to a 4! 30 minutes later the nurse came in with an IV and all the supplies needed to begin prepping me for a c-section and told me that we would be having a c-section in about an hour...
I was so excited because this meant that this pregnancy was finally going to be over. The doctor came in to tell me what was going to happen and then said he'd see me in the OR. I walked into the OR at 11:45 pm and within minutes I was completely numb from the stomach down from a spinal block and Dr. Rees and Dr. Jacob (two of my favorites from Valley OBGYN) were ready to deliver my sweet babies.
My first sight of the twins was about 10 minutes after Ashlyn was born, and I saw my husband just like the above picture holding both of my sweet new babies!
On Saturday, June 12th
Evan Michael was born at 12:09 am weighing in at 6 pounds and was 19 inches long.
Ashlyn Myers was born at 12:11 am weighing in at 5 pounds 1 ounce and was 17 1/2 inches long.
It was a little difficult for me to "love" on my babies after their birth but seeing them up close was good. At this point I had no idea they both had hair and how much of it that they did have.
Because both babies were grunting after birth they took them over to the NICU and were immediately put on a c-pap machine!
Here's Ashlyn on with her's on!
And here is Evan with his!
After about an hour they were released to go downstairs to the Mother Baby floor and were checked out to be fine! (Above picture is Ashlyn right after her bath)
Evan after his bath!
Mommy finally gets to hold her precious babies! It was 3:30am by the time they brought them to my room. I was SO tired but it was so worth it to see them and to be able to see their hair!
That morning around 10am Kaylin came to meet her brother and her sister. She really enjoyed holding her brother above and her sister below...
Saturday all afternoon we had visitors come and enjoy seeing the twins!
I absolutely LOVE this picture! Evan was always pretty alert and showed off his big eyes!
Before Kaylin left with Grammy and Poppy for the duration of my hospital stay we decided to get a quick Family picture! Since I still couldn't really move without help it was a little difficult to get one but somehow it turned out pretty good (we'll be enlisting Val to take family pictures soon)
Sunday Afternoon we only had 1 visitor and it was really nice since we were both exhausted from the day before! It gave us time to focus on feeding the twins but since they were not eating well enough...
They were going to be sent up to the NICU (newborn intensive care unit) and we really didn't know how long they would be there. Of course I being a hormonal mother cried so hard. I didn't want to have a NICU baby because that means that they were born too early!
Upstairs in the NICU they were given gavage feeding tubes so that they could get the amount of food they needed regardless of whether they drank it from a bottle or not. They were also put under photo therapy lights since they were both jaundice which meant that holding them was going to be limited. Also on that first morning in the NICU, Evan had an x-ray because he was really cranky and his stomach looked a little bigger to the nurse. I was kind of upset because NO ONE called me down in my room to tell me what was going on and I had to walk in seeing the x-ray machine leaving my sons bedside!
Leaving the hospital on Tuesday night was one of the hardest things I have had to do. Leaving behind my sweet children was really hard and I still have a hard time with it! I want what is best for them but the unknown is what is really difficult. They told us to pretty much plan on their due date to come home which is still 5 weeks away. That's a really LONG time when you have babies living at the hospital and also have a 2 year old at home to take care of!
Since leaving the hospital I have figured out that I don't have to be there all day, just at the bottle feedings and the rest are okay if we are not there! They are both making improvements every day but it is going to be a LONG time before they make it home! Evan is off the lights and Ashlyn should come off tomorrow, if we are lucky!
CONGRATULATIONS TO SHALLAN AND EMILEE FOR GUESSING THE CORRECT BIRTH DATE FOR THE TWINS!
I can't believe that these two cuties are now 2 weeks old!
Kaylin can only come into the NICU on Saturday's and Sunday's so we asked our nurse if we could show the twins to her through the window. They were more than happy to let us and Kaylin loved being able to see her brother and sister. The whole time she would say "Hi baby" and would knock on the window! It was so cute to see her interact with the babies through the window BUT...
It was more fun to see her hold and kiss them when Saturday finally came around!
