Update from mommy

I have a few minutes here before I head back up to the hospital so I thought I would give you all a brief update.

Here is a condensed version of events leading up to birth and the births. Monday I lost my mucus plug, went in got checked, cervix looked great. Not dilated at all. Thought it was a little weird however that I had gained 8 pounds in seven days, but my protein and blood pressure was great. So felt fine Monday evening and was relaxed. Middle of the night I was very uncomfortable, but this was nothing new. Felt like I needed to puke, but this is nothing new either! Then I'm just laying there and I feel it, no doubt about it.....I sit up and tell Kevin who is awake as well, "My water just broke." It is 4:50 am and we get April (we are so blessed to have best friends that live across the street) over here and we are out the door before 5:00. My water continues to flow out and my pants are soaked to my ankles by the time I waddle into the labor and deliver check-in. I am 2 centimeters and it was baby 'A' (they label them based on who is closest to your cervix) or Kallie's water that broke. My doctor is already there thankfully with another high risk patient who is laboring. He is very surprised and says, "Laura, you don't play fair." I said I know, but I can't help it. I love my doctor by the way, he has a calming effect on me like no other doctor I've ever had. We talk about the game plan and he and the nurses let me know that they understand that I don't want an epidural (I thought they were horrible and useless based on the one I got with Liam) but given the chance of possibley needing a c-section I may want to reconsider especially b/c the anesteciologist that was working right then was the best. So I reluctantly said okay. I'm very glad I did. Totally different experience. So around 10:00 a.m. I am dilated to a nine and feeling pressure but feeling great all things considered, they take me back to the operating room and Kevin and mom get cleaned up. I see another doctor come into the OR along with tons of nurses and two NICU teams. She says, "Don't worry, your doctor will be here. But right now he is delivering the other high risk patient and I'm here just in case. Don't push. Don't move at all. He will be here in less than five minutes." That's when I started to freak out and I wanted Kevin, but they wouldn't let him in yet. I knew it was time to push, Kallie's head was right there. But then my doctor rushed in and off we went. Kevin and my mom came in and Kallie came out beautifully. She was pink and screaming and it was all so surreal. Then my doctor went in to check on Klaire and found that she had turned transverse and he could get a hold of her foot, but he noticed that it felt like my placenta was detaching from my uterine wall. (At the time we did not know this, we just thought that he was unable to pull her out b/c of her position. When a placenta detaches from the uterin wall before the baby is born, they have about 45 seconds before the baby bleeds to death. The placenta is their life-line and they are basically one unit, when one bleeds out so does the other.) The atmosphere changed immediately and my mom and Kevin were whisked away. My doctor was calm, can't say the same for others in room. At this point I was of course very scared and emotional (But still unaware of why I was actually having a c-section. If the placenta hadn't of been an issue than he would have been able to just pull Klaire out by her feet which he had told me is not unusual at all.), but the anesteciologist became my support and she stayed right by my face and talked me through everything. After they had me cut open and were working on getting her out they let Kevin come in. Because of the location of my detaching placenta they had to do a cross-cut on my uterus. It seemed to take them a while to manouver her out. I just kept asking Kevin where is she, where is she. Then we saw her and she was blue and unresponsive. Kevin saw they nurse pick up her arm and release it, it just flopped down. They kept suctioning her and finally she let out a little cry. It was the best sound I've ever heard, I'll never forget it. She definetely had less blood than Kallie, but she never needed oxygen! What little fighters we have!

Recovery from a c-section is no fun. I have a whole new respect for women that have c-sections. Our doctor told us that b/c of the cross-cut on my uterus we shouldn't have any more kids. My uterus could never labor again and b/c we never know when I am going to go into labor, a planned c-section is not an option. But as you all know, we are done so that didn't upset us. To be extra careful, Kevin is getting the snip within the next six weeks:) I am very sore and my mood and comfort depend heavily on my pain meds right now. I got up sooner than many women that have c-sections, b/c I was incomplete until I saw our girls. I didn't walk, I was pushed in a wheel chair, but just getting into the chair was such an ordeal. Anyway, I came home last night. My doctor said we could stay last night but I promised the boys I would be home to read them a book and after they told me how much they missed me I had to come home. I cried all the way home from the hospital, ever mile we drove away from the girls felt like a hundred. I have never wanted to be in two places at the same time so badly.

But I really like the NICU nurses we have had and the neonatoligist is wonderful. She is a mom and she communicates very well with us.(there are two actually, they work one week on and one week off, so we haven't met the other one yet). I know they are in God's hands, but it also so comforting to know that they have a great staff.

All the nurses are so impressed with Kallie and Klaire. They said that they weren't expecting them to be where they are at. They are so strong. They have just the typical preemie things to deal with right now and nothing to be too concerned about. They are increasing their feedings and hope to have them off their IV's in about 3 days. They eat through their feeding tubes right now, but we may try some nipple (bottle nipple) feeds in the next couple days. They suck on their pacifiers quite well for their age. Their biggest challenges will be learning to suck, swallow, breathe with bottles/nursing, holding their blood sugars, holding their body temperatures, gaining weight, and no big apnea spells (which they have done VERY well with this...only had a couple...Landon really struggled with this). They heard a murmer on Klaire's heart today, but then they couldn't find it when the did the echo! Praise God for that. Kallie had been under the belli-ruben (sp?) light for jaundice, but she is off today and much happier! They keep telling us that Kallie is going to be the spunkier more stubborn one:) Thanks for your prayers. We will try to keep you updated.

Oh and a side note, only family is going to be visiting the girls in the NICU and we aren't sure when we will feel comfortable with other visitors after they come home. And I'm sorry that there are no windows in the NICU, you will have to live through pictures for now. Because of sick season, we just can't be too careful. Landon is not going back to preschool, we will not be at church for some time, Landon and Liam actually will not even get to see the girls til they come home. We don't plan on exposing the girls to other children for quite some time, so we are going to try to post lots of pictures and even some videos! Thanks for being understanding on this.

Pictures....

Kevin is waiting with my mom while they get me prepped in the operating room. (They deliver all multiples in the O.R. just in case they need to do a c-section.) My hero, my best friend, world's greatest dad, my full-time nurse.......I can't say enough about this man.
Me kissing Kallie.


After they got Klaire stable, they let me kiss her before they took her off to the NICU.

Silly blogger keeps turning these pics the wrong way. Kallie on left, she is pinkier b/c of the extra blood she got.