| March 2005 | |
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Little Piglets
posted 03.28.2005 by Kristen We've had two pediatrician visits now, and they are gaining weight like champs! On March 18 (1 week, 2 days), Miss Natalie was up to 5 lbs. even, and miss Rita was 4 lbs., 12 oz. Today, at 2 weeks, 5 days, Rita was 5 lbs., 11 oz., and Natalie was a whopping 6 lbs., 3 oz. Oink oink!
Go Granny Go
posted 03.26.2005 by Kristen
Since I was recovering from the c-section, we really needed the extra pair of hands, and she totally came through for us. She did it all -- changed diapers, got up for middle-of-the-night feedings, gave breastfeeding advice, did the dishes, fed the cats, cleaned the dust off the ceiling fan. And the list goes on! In short, she was awesome. I'm not really sure how soon it will be until we have clean dishes again. Mostly her calm demeanor just helped us stay calm as first-time parents. She even assured me -- and Jim! -- that my numerous crying jags were prefectly normal!
Life in the NICU
posted 03.17.2005 by Kristen Both babies had to spend about a week in the "special care nursery," a.k.a. the NICU. Nothing too dramatic; they were both eating on their own and breathing room air and all that good stuff.
They also each had a couple of apnea/bradycardia episodes, so they were put on 3-day "event studies." Basically this means that they were hooked up to a monitor that tracked their breathing, heartrates, and oxygen saturation. Unfortunately the doctors felt that Rita's breathing patterns were a bit premature, so she is being sent home on an apnea monitor (this is why you see wires protruding from her clothing in many pictures). We are sooo looking forward to that. Note the sarcasm. Honestly, we'd rather be safe than sorry, and we're happy that the technology exists that will help with that, but from everything we observed in the NICU, the apnea monitor seems like overkill for the type of apneas/bradys she had. She only had two incidents, and both were self corrected. We feel like the neonatologists are being over-cautious in sending her home on the monitor, and it's just going to be so stressful and, frankly, a pain in the butt to have her on the monitor. But hopefully she won't have to be on it for long, maybe just a month.
The funny thing is that I kept thinking that they didn't look as small as I thought they would for their size. But then when they got put in the car seats, they looked so teeny! It's all about perspective, I guess. Natalie came home on Tuesday, March 15, and Rita came home on Thursday, March 17. Yay for having babies at home. More NICU photos available here.
They're He-ere!
posted 03.09.2005 by Kristen Yes, that’s right: the girls have arrived, safe and sound! It was definitely a whirlwind couple of days leading up to their arrival, though. You might have already guessed that this is going to be a long tale, so buckle up and hang on for the ride! Or just go ahead and skip to the pictures if that's what you're here for! I had been taking oral terbutaline since about 32 weeks in order to stop the constant Braxton-Hicks contractions I was having so they wouldn’t turn into true pre-term labor. Since I was going to be induced on Wednesday morning, I was told to stop taking the terb on Monday evening. I took my final dose around 10 p.m., and like clockwork, I started having contractions about 6 minutes apart starting around 2:00 a.m. These were more intense than the BH contractions I’d been having before though; I wasn’t able to sleep through them. So I thought this might be the very beginning of actual labor. In any case I was hoping that the contractions would make me start dilating so I’d be more favorable for induction. Since I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, I figured I’d just ride the contractions out until then and see what the docs said. When we got there I was still having contractions every six minutes, but they said I was only 1-2 cm dilated, although I was 80% effaced and she could feel Baby A’s head engaged in the birth canal. They said since I was contracting that I should go to the mall and walk around for a couple of hours to see if that would move things along. So after a couple of hours walking around the nearest mall -- and believe me, walking around a mall is really tough after you’ve been on some form of restricted activity and/or bedrest for the last seven months! -- we trooped back over to the doctor’s office. No change. Sigh. At this point they weren’t even sure if they wanted to attempt the induction the next day or not. The sent me upstairs to the perinatologist’s office to have a non-stress test. Baby B was having some “variable decels” during the test, which basically means that her heart rate was going really low a few times, which can be an indication of fetal distress -- possibly a cord issue -- and would potentially be a reason to go ahead and deliver immediately. The peri reported this to my OB, who was up in Labor & Delivery and told me to come over there for monitoring. When I was in L&D both babies looked great on the monitors, so my OB decided to go ahead and send me home. At 5:00 p.m. After having been shuffled about various doctors all day. And did I mention that I was still having contractions every 6 minutes? Joy. But luckily they said that they would go ahead and try the induction the following morning rather than waiting a week. Jim also took the nurse aside and got her to send me home with some Ambien so I could get some rest that night. We arrived back the next morning around 6:30 a.m. and got settled in an L&D room, got my IV all attached and everything. My doc had been planning to break my water and see if that would start the contractions in earnest, but when he came in to do my exam, he said I wasn’t even fingertip dilated and only 50% effaced. Zuh? Just yesterday I was supposedly 1-2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. He didn’t understand it, either, but said that there was no way he’d be able to break my water. So he told the nurse to start me on pitocin, and then he disappeared. The nurse got me started on the pitocin drip, only to come back five minutes later to tell me the doctor said to stop the pitocin and he’d be in to talk with me in about an hour. And that he might be sending me home. I of course started in with the waterworks immediately. You just don’t bring in a woman who’s 37 weeks pregnant with twins and then send her home. You just don’t! Long story short, the doctors came and told me that because I wasn’t dilated at all, there was no way the induction would be successful, and that although I was having pretty intense contractions they weren’t doing anything to change my cervix, so I wasn’t considered in active labor. My two options were 1) to go home and either come back when I was in active labor (how exactly I was supposed to know when that I was, I'm not sure) or the following week when they would induce me, or 2) I could have a c-section that day. How funny that the “cervix of steel” I’d been so proud of when trying to ward off pre-term labor was now called an “unfavorable cervix” that refused to change no matter how many freaking contractions I had! After talking it over with Jim, we decided to go ahead and have the c-section. Although in theory it’s better to keep them cooking as long as possible, with the growth issues, the possible cord issues, and me having constant contractions, waiting up to another week just really didn’t seem like a good idea. So we decided that we’d go for the section. There were a few other people ahead of us in the OR, so although we made our decision around 11:00 a.m., things didn’t actually get rolling until around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. During the surgery as my doctor pulled out Baby A I heard "Cord around the neck!" and then he said the same thing as he pulled out Baby B. Yes, it turns out they both had their umbilical cords wrapped around their necks and that I would have ended up with an emergency c-section if I'd gone through with a vaginal delivery. My doc's theory is that Baby A probably was engaged the day before, but that as she was trying to descend it was tightening the cord, so she moved back up. Anyway, without further ado, I give you: Baby A -- Natalie Sophia -- born at 5:37 p.m., 4 lbs., 15 oz., 18¼”
As you can see from their weights, their growth had really slowed in the final month of my pregnancy, which possibly could have been due to the cord restriction, or of course any combination of a million other things. We’re just so glad to have them out where they can thrive. Mom and babies are both doing well, though babies will probably have to spend some time in the special care nursery due to their weights. Birth pics available here.
March 9 It Is!
posted 03.01.2005 by Kristen We had our regular OB appointment today and are scheduled for induction next Wednesday, March 9. I'll be 36 weeks, 6 days, and since 37 weeks is considered full term for twins, that's pretty darn good! We'll go in for a check on Tuesday, March 8, and there is a slight chance they'll bump the induction up to the following week, March 16, but I'm feeling confident about March 9. If I don't go spontaneously before then, that is! |
