Black Friday Babies

Too long without writing, and I'm bound to miss details now.  But it's been an exciting week.

Thanksgiving evening, after chowing down on Jim's Thanksgiving meal that was hand delivered to me in the hospital by Jim, Jen, Li Mei, and my Dad, I started with the contractions again.  They went all night, but were not in any real regular pattern.  Finally, around 5:30 or 6:00AM, they were painful and coming every 5-6 minutes.  Time to call the nurse.

At this point, I wasn't too phased because I'd been there before.  But I was worried about the babies and wanted to be hooked up to the monitors.  Alex, one of the night nurses who had been through this before with me at least a couple times, hooked me up and we waited.  The contractions were regular, and the doctor was ready to just put me back on an IV (which had slowed them down in the past).  But Alex put her foot down--Adrian was having decels when I was having a contraction.  This was different from the past when he'd reacted just fine to the contractions.  So they sent me down to the labor floor.

By the time I made it down, Dr. Roan was just off his shift and Dr. Pettyjohn was coming on.  While neither of these doctors is my "official" doctor, I'd gotten to know them quite well over the course of the 6 weeks I was on bed rest.  Dr. Pettyjohn is wonderful and about my age...sort of weird and nice at the same time to have someone who could be your friend or classmate delivering you.

Dr. Pettyjohn finally decided, based on the decels, that it was time to check my cervix, and holy sh#$! I was already 7cm dilated when she looked!  You only need to be 10cm for labor!!!  The nurses and doctor exchanged looks.  Go time.  They offered me an epidural, and I readily accepted.  It's anyone's guess when I dilated that much.  Over the previous 2 weeks gradually?  The previous few nights?  Thanksgiving night?  The point was, it happened.  In another hour, I was 9 cm.  There was just a tiny bit to go....they put me on pitocin. By about 3pm I was pushing.  The doctor could see the head--and hair.  We asked what color....she said black!  Carlos and I laughed--would the rest of him look like Carlos?!  By 3:30 I was pushing more...by 4pm I was in the operating room (where they deliver all twins) still pushing.  And at 4:08pm, little Adrian Jonathan was born.  He was 4lbs 5 oz. He cried when he came out and breathed on his own for a few minutes before they had to put a breathing tube in.  Both Carlos and I sobbed like babies when he came out.  It was a miracle for us.

Then, we waited for Sebastian to get into position.  He was high up in my uterus and not coming down.  After many uncomfortable minutes of the doctor's arm up me trying to put him into position, I could see it was inevitable--a c-section.  And so at 5:17pm Sebastian Diego was born via c-section.  He was 3lbs 11oz. He also cried when taken out, and didn't need a breathing tube until a few minutes had gone by.

We got to see the boys briefly when they were born, but they were surrounded by NICU nurses and doctors and then whisked off to the NICU.  They sewed me up and took me to recover from surgery.  Unfortunately, I had to be sewed up from both births, and my worst birthing nightmares had come true. But truth be told, all in all, none of it was very bad.  Labor itself seemed easy after 2 weeks of nearly constant contractions--especially after they checked my cervix and gave me an epidural right away.

Later on, they wheeled me in my stretcher to the NICU to get another look at the boys. They were doing quite well.  They were afraid Adrian had an infection and he was on antibiotics just in case.  But other than that, they were stable and looked quite good.  I was shocked at how big and long they looked.

Over the next few days, the boys were in good hands in the NICU.  The nurses are amazing.  It turns out Adrian's first test for infection were positive the day he was born.  But Saturday, his second day out of the womb, the tests were negative.  Both boys received blood transfusions for lowish red blood cell counts.  But the transfusions seemed to work and raised the counts in both boys.  Two days ago, they did a spinal tap on Adrian to check for infection there.  That also came back negative.  The doctor actually said to us that someone has been looking out for Adrian--he is so blessed to have avoided infection and complications this far.

Every day we go visit the boys and take them out of the incubators to hold them.  They continue to amaze all of us.  The nurse compared them to two pears that were picked a bit early.  They are just in their "paper bags" maturing now.  Hopefully, at this point, it's a matter of them learning to feed and fatten up at this point.  Sebastian looks like he might even be ready to try to breast feed.  Last night Carlos and I did kangaroo care or skin-to-skin.  I had Adrian and he had Sebastian.  They were both so adorable snuggled up against our chests.  It was like meditation or yoga but 1 million times better.

We are so grateful and blessed we don't know how to even express our thanks for the incredible gifts we've been given.

Adrian

Adrian 

Adrian 

Sebastian 

Sebastian 

Sebastian 

Sebastian 

Sebastian's feet 

Adrian--those are his "sunglasses" that he's moved from his eyes around his mouth! 

Sebastian with his sunglasses 

Adrian with his sunglasses.  Look at those chins!!

Sebastian--always expressive with his hands 

Sebastian with Amy and Adrian with Carlos 

Mugie with Sebastian 

With Mugie, waking up 

Lexi sniffing Sebastian's blankets... 

Kangaroo care with Adrian 

Adrian 

Adrian 

Adrian 

Sebastian.  Note the hand below his chin... 

Sebastian