While Mom was busy

I had set the girls in their bed for a little while in between feedings and asked Paul to keep an eye on them so I could shower. It was close to another feeding...You have to look at them sequentially.

Is every night going to be like this?

So at the beginning of this blog, we have to thank Eunice Jenkins. She sent us a package about a week ago with six burp cloths. They were cute, with some crocheted places that she did herself, and very functional. By about 7:00am this morning all of them were dirty, plus two others that we got from other people. So thanks! Molly and I are gradually getting used to sleeping in 2 hour blocks. The twins eat every three hours, but it takes about 1/2 hour each to feed them (we haven't quite gotten good enough to do two at a time, but hopefully will soon), so that leaves us a couple of hours to use to maximum advantage between feedings. This picture is of Molly early last night. The next picture is of me early this morning. I think Molly went to take a shower, and left a baby on my chest. I was a little surprised when I woke up. It is a good thing those kids are so cute.





Aislee is on the left, Olivia on the right. Aislee was almost a pound bigger and an inch longer than Olivia, and so it isn't too hard to tell them apart right now. When they get closer to the same size...



I couldn't help adding these last two close-up shots of Olivia. She is so cute with her big blue eyes open. Aislee is just as cute, but she doesn't open her eyes as often for us.

Its a twin thing...

Olivia and Aislee are wicked cute. Olivia had a high bilirubin count this morning, so they have kept her and Aislee under the blue lights (not sure what frequencies they use) all day. Hopefully they will be able to come home with us tomorrow if everything clears up, we will just have to wait and see. We got a couple of shots of them in their glowing-blue bassinet this afternoon. They seem to be connecting. One of the nurses that is taking care of them is also an identical twin, so she says it takes her back looking at them together. Anyways, here are the pictures:

Double Feature!

Well, we've decided that we should probably update the blog with some pretty exciting news. We'll start from the beginning. We went in for our 36 week appointment with Dr. England. I had been having some contractions, but nothing really painful. We decided to take the bag and pillow with us just in case. Really, we thought it was just wishful thinking. Dr. England found that I was 2 centimeters and 50% effaced. We told him that I was still having contractions so he put me on the monitors for a non-stress test. We sat there for about a half hour when my contractions were getting more intense and closer together. Dr. England kept us on the monitors for a little while longer and then he checked again. I was almost a 3 and 80% effaced. So, he decided to do an ultrasound to find out how the babies were positioned. They were both head down so he said it was a good day to get this thing started. We canceled the appointment we had for the next week and headed to the hospital. The next couple hours we spent waiting and talking about how much things were going to change in the next day or so. Around 5pm they came in gave me an epidural and broke my water. They started me on pitocin so they could control my labor's progression. It went kind of slow, but they didn't want to stress the babies out with the contractions or cause any heart problems for me. We were able to take cat naps for the rest of the night. Around 4am Dr. England came in again to check and I was fully dilated and 100% effaced. We got ready to head into the OR and pushed for about an hour and forty-five minutes before I figured out what they really wanted me to do. About 15 minutes later, the first baby was born. About another 45 minutes later, the second baby was born. We are now the proud parents of two baby girls; Olivia (4lbs, 3 oz) and Aislee (5lbs, 2oz)! We are so grateful to Dr. England and the staff at Alta View for being so thoughtful and careful while we have been here. Our nurses have been wonderful and the doctors have been very attentive to our needs. They're small, but doing very well. They eat and sleep and have dirty diapers. Paul's pretty good at changing diapers and burping babies. They may have to stay a few extra days to make sure they're gaining weight, but as of right now they're doing very well. We look forward to taking them home and showing them off! Here are some pictures.

Aislee and Olivia

Olivia

Aislee

36 weeks...!

Since it's been almost a month since our last post, we've decided it's time for a little update. We haven't had anything too exciting happen. We've set up the babies bed in our room with some shelves for their clothes. We have a bag ready at a moments notice. Paul put the bases for the car seats in the car. Really, we're just waiting! We had another preterm scare a few weeks ago. The doctors and specialists said that after 34 weeks they wouldn't stop my labor (LIARS!). We were watching the Olympics at about 4am. I know, I know. That's pretty early, but I don't sleep at night anymore, so I was just kinda hanging out on the couch. Paul came out to try and get me to come to bed. I was having contractions pretty consistently and they were beginning to hurt. We waited for a little while longer. We called the on-call doctor who told us not to mess around with twins and to come in. We took a little big longer so I could take a shower. We're delivering at Alta View Hospital in Sandy which is about a 30-45 minute drive from our apartment in Provo. As we're cruising along, Paul feels something funny with the car. I thought he was just really tired and that's why he was swerving a little. We pull over while I'm breathing through contractions and we have a flat tire! Paul changes the tire and we're back on the road. We get there and they hook me up to everything. The babies were doing very well. They took blood and did some other tests and find out that I have a bladder infection. As a result of the bladder and uterus being so close together, when one is irritated the other gets irritated (kind of the chicken or the egg thing). So, they don't know if my bladder got infected as a result of the past couple weeks of uterine contractions and that triggered my uterus to start contracting more aggressively...but, they gave me 6 bags of fluids (equivalent of a gallon and a half), antibiotics, morphine, and some other stuff to stop my labor. They had us wait there for a few more hours because I was still having contractions every two-three minutes. So, Dr. England had me rest for the next couple days and take medicine to stop any labor. We made it to 35 weeks, and if nothing happens in the next two days, we'll make it to 36. Then, they promised not to stop my labor. I'm pretty uncomfortable and I have contractions pretty often, just not painful enough to go to the hospital. We'll just keep waiting...