Newborn Photos

A good friend of mine, Heidi Davenport (from Blink Photography) did a newborn photography session of the boys. 

She did an incredible job! She is so SO talented and captures the most precious pictures. 

She was living in Wyoming, but luckily moved back to idaho just in time to do this session.

Here are some of the incredible pics she took.

Another friend also did a photo session, which includes some family pics. I should have those by this weekend, so I will post them soon.

Tender Mercies

Life right now is full of adjustments, smiles, laughs, and tears.

I am adjusting to having 3 kids. I am adjusting to having twins. 

At times it is difficult and overwhelming, and I cry and wonder how I will make it through the day.

Other times, I just sit and laugh at my silly 2 year old, and smile at my adorable babies and feel so incredibly happy. 

I feel such an indescribable amount of love for my kids. I know it is a feeling only a mom can ever know. 

I feel so blessed to have them. Even when it is hard, I simply would never ever trade it for anything else. 

The last 2 weeks has been the hardest...Devry's first two weeks away. My first two weeks as a single mom of 3 kids. But we made it! In large part to the wonderful, kind, generous friends and family who have helped us out in so many ways! 

I also have felt incredibly blessed lately. I have had such amazing feelings that we are doing what is best for our family. I need to be home with these kiddos, and right now the only way that is possible is with Devry working away. So we do what we have to! I know we are being looked after. 

I have come to realize I have amazing babies!! Payton was such a good newborn. Slept through the night from day one, content, happy, and sweet. I knew I was spoiled getting such a wonderful baby. I also knew that chances of it happening again were slim. When I found out I was having twins, I just knew that even if one was like Payton, there was no way they both would be. I prepared myself to be up multiple times a night for months and months..especially after they came early, and I figured feeding them would be much more work then it actually was!

The first few weeks, they woke up every 3 hours to eat. They were on the same schedule, and woke up at the same time...and if they didn't, I woke up the other one to keep them on the same schedule. I was grateful it was only every 3 hours, and that they ate pretty quickly so I was only up with them for 40 minutes or so. I also was grateful that from working nights, I have become VERY good at functioning well on very little sleep, or broken up sleep. So I did great! I would be tired in the mornings, but once I got up and going I was fine. I never really napped, and still felt great!

Then the last 2 weeks, their feedings have gotten a little bit farther apart each night. I have done all of the things I did with Payton that seemed to work helping him sleep great at night...I really try to separate day and night. At night I swaddle them, lay them down in the pack n play, and keep the lights out. During the day I don't do any of these things. They sleep in bouncers during the day, and I don't ever try to keep things silent or dark. They have a bit of a "fussy" time between 7-10 pm....They take a little more work during this time, but boy do they sleep great after fussing a bit for 3 hours. At first they had one 4 hour stretch between feedings...then gradually it has increased. The last 3 nights they have gone 6-7 hours between one feeding, then around 4 between the next. Typically I have fed them at 10, they wake up between 4 and 5, then sleep again till 8 or 9. We have gotten faster during feeding time. They eat in 15 minutes, then I burp and change them, and we are usually back to bed within 30 minutes.  I really can't believe that at 5 weeks old they are both sleeping the same 6-7 hour stretch!!

During the day, they eat every 3 hours, and are so content. Both of them are happy, sweet, GOOD babies.  It has been such an incredible tender mercy to have such amazing babies!! I knew having twins would be hard, especially with Devry gone. I am so grateful they have been so good. It has made everything so much easier.  Like I said, I know we are being looked after, and blessed with these two sweet, content, adorable little boys!!

A Challenging 2 year old

I am writing this post in hopes to get some advice and suggestions from other moms out there!

Payton has really done very well adjusting to having 2 new brothers. 

He is so loving and kind to them, and loves to help out in any way he can. 

The first 3 weeks was especially good, since Devry was home to devote a pretty much unlimited amount of time to Payton. They played and played, and Payton was in Heaven having his dad around 24/7. I really was able to focus on Cohen and Kayson, and establish a good routine and become comfortable breastfeeding them both. It was such a great transition for us all to have Devry home. 

The couple days after Devry left were actually very smooth. Our neighbor (and Devry's cousin) has 4 kids (ages 5-15) that Payton LOVES to play with. They were out of school on spring break last monday-wednesday. They came and took Payton for hours at a time and he had a blast with them..plus I got a bit of a break. Then My SIL Rachelle took him for a morning for me, and grandma came and played with Payton  too. Even with all the fun things Payton was doing, he started become much more defiant then normal when he was home with me. 

Then this week it has gotten worse...much worse. I am sure he is reacting to having new brothers, and to Devry leaving...but it is a very very difficult thing for me to deal with. 

He will not listen to me. At all. I tell him to stop something, he looks at me and continues doing it. I ask him to do something, he refuses. I make him do something and he throws a HUGE tantrum.

I have tried so many things and nothing is working. Counting to 3, time outs, taking away things he loves, rewarding him for good behavior, praising him for everything he does good. etc

I make sure to spend as much time as I can with him, playing, reading, singing, etc. I make sure he gets my undivided attention every single day doing something fun.

I only let him watch TV when I am nursing, since that is the most challenging time. At first this worked great, but lately he has discovered he can go do whatever he wants during that time, and I can't go get him. 2 days ago he smeared handfuls of conditioner on the walls and windows. Yesterday he was putting all his bath toys in the toilet. He just finds things he knows he is not allowed to do, and does them while I'm nursing. I try giving him snacks, tv, puzzles, books to get him to sit and be good, but it doesn't work for long.
All he wants to do is go play outside. He asks over and over and over again. The weather just hasn't been warm enough to take the twins out, and I can't leave them inside to take him. He gets so upset when I say no. Grandma comes and takes him out some, but he doesn't understand why I can't.

So to all those moms who have had a challenging 2 year old, especially with the adjustment of a new baby..what worked for you?? Any suggestions? 

Life with twins

The last 3 weeks have flown by! I can't believe the boys are 3 1/2 weeks already! It's even crazier that I am still a week and a half away from my due date.

Things have been going really well.

We've had to make lots of adjustments and changes, but luckily everything has been smooth.

Devry was home until this past Sunday. It was wonderful to have him here for so long. He was of course extremely helpful, especially with helping Payton to adjust. It was so hard to say goodbye to him after having him here for so long.

I have been so spoiled with tons of help since he left. Carissa is still living here until this weekend (that will be a sad thing too..to see her move out!) She of course has been a lifesaver and helps me a ton!

Devry's mom has helped me, My SIL Rachelle, and the kids who live down the street have been off for spring break and come and take Payton for several hours at a time. It is so wonderful to have such kind and willing friends and family.

Twins is definitely more work then one...but not as much as I expected. I have been so blessed to have such great eaters. Because they were so good, I learned very quickly to tandem feed them (feed them at the same time). It makes it so much faster..especially becau

se they both eat in 15 minutes or less. Cohen eats in like 8 minutes! Kayson takes about 15...but then I burp them both, change them and I'm good for 3 hours. The biggest challenge has been that they both have acid reflux, and seem to take turns fussing, gagging and choking between feedings. It has made it more difficult to get sleep at night. I am really hoping their Dr. will give me medication for them at their next appointment. They actually have been going longer stretches at night. Last night they went from 12:30..to 4:45. Cohen woke up at 4:15, but took his pacifier for another 30 minutes until Kayson woke up. I wish it was 4 hours of sleep straight for me..but they woke up a few times each, gagging and so I did too. Hopefully the reflux gets better, because they are doing good about having a 4-5 hour stretch between feedings at night.

I have really been able to tell the little personality differences between them. They really are so different!

Cohen is a lot more active then Kayson. He lets me know as soon as he needs anything! He is still a great baby, just likes to be comfy and tells me when something isn't right. He is so sweet, and absolutely loves being next to me. When I hold him, he just cuddles into me and is the most content baby ever.

Kayson is SO calm and quiet. He eats then sleeps soundly anywhere till its time to eat again. Even when he gags and chokes he doesn't fuss or cry. He will be awake for a while before letting me know he wants to eat. I will randomly look over at him close to feeding time and he is wide awake trying to find something to latch on to...but is completely silent.

I adore them both so much. I LOVE having newborns. So many people ask if I am surviving, and I think they usually expect me to say I'm not, or barely, or something about how hard it is. Sure it has been challenging, but I would not trade it for anything in the world. Some nights I don't get much sleep, but I love every single moment I have to hold them, feed them, and love them. They are the sweetest boys, and I am so incredibly happy to have them!

Payton has been doing great! He is so soft and gentle with the babies. Th

e biggest problem is that he forgets he also has to be careful whenever he is close to them. No major incidents yet...I think Kayson took a little toy car to the head one time, but it barely hit him..and thats about it. He loves his brothers, and tells everyone all about them. He constantly tells them he loves them, and gives them kisses. If they are in their bouncer and start fussing, Payton will very gently rock them. It is so cute to watch. I love just sitting and listening to him talk to them when he doesn't know I'm listening. It is the sweetest thing to hear him tell him "you my baby brothers and I LOVE you!!"

I'm doing fantastic! I feel a million times better then I did a couple weeks ago. My bp is slowly coming down. My swelling is completely gone (I lost 30 lbs of water w

eight in a week!) I feel almost back to normal! It took probably 8-10 weeks after having Payton before I felt this great. At my 3 week post partum mark I fit back into my preprego clothes, and I'm only 5-6 lbs away from my pre pre go weight. That took me 2.5 or 3 months after Payton! Losing all the water helped so much...plus I've lost even more so quickly. I burn so many calories nursing twins! I go for another echocardiogram in a couple weeks, and hopefully everything will be normal!

And here are some pictures of the past few weeks. Mostly of Payton wit

h his brothers!

Here is Payton holding Cohen with "his" pillow. I have a twin nursing pillow (I totally recommend it as a must have for twins!! It is huge and straps around me and makes it so much easier to feed them...Devry jokes and says it looks like I'm wearing a floaty to go into a pool) Since I use that to nurse, my boppy is mostly for propping babies, but has been taken over by Payton. He holds babies in it...then lays down on it to watch tv. Silly guy.

Here he is with Kayson. Such a good big brother!

This next picture makes me laugh. We swaddle the babies a lot. After swaddling them one day, Payton brings his blanket and says "me too!" So here he is swaddled like the babies.

The next 3 pics are some AMAZING ones my friend Heidi took. She is so incredibly talented and I am so glad we snuck in a photo shoot on monday before they were out of the "newborn" stage.

Kayson

Cohen

We did a couple different sets of pictures. My friend Whitney, who also does photography took some newborn ones when they were only a week old, then did some family ones for us last week. Then Heidi got into town on the weekend, so she did some monday. I love both of their work and I am so excited to have so many amazing pictures of the boys and our family. I will post more when I get them!

Postpartum Problems

I thought I'd post about the dramatic and scary week we've had!

After the twins were born, my blood pressure came down. Then over the next couple of days, it slowly creeped back up, to even higher then before I delivered. I also swelled up extremely bad post delivery. My legs were double in size, and I had swelling my my arms, hands and face worse then it ever was in pregnancy. Because of all of this, my Dr. sent me home on a medication called labatelol to help control my bp. He told me to take it for a couple weeks, and come into the office every few days to follow up and check to see how my bp is doing.

Throughout the next couple days, my swelling got worse. I kept telling Devry that my entire legs looked like they belonged to someone on the biggest loser! The skin was so tight, I thought it was going to split open. And they ached terribly! I just assumed it was from being on my feet so much walking back and forth to the NICU, and hoped it would improve once I got the twins home.

Well Thursday was busy bringing the twins home, and I finally felt like I could relax thursday night. But then I started having difficulty breathing when I was laying flat. I thought I was maybe just getting the cold back that I had before I delivered, so I brushed it off.

Friday morning I went into the office to check my bp and see Dr. Meredith. When I first went in, my bp was 173/100. Really not good considering I had taken the bp medication an hour earlier. Dr. Meredith told me to sit for 15 or 20 minutes and then they would recheck it. A nurse came in 20 minutes later and took it manually. She said it was 140/90, which was ok. Looking back, I really doubt that was what it was, but I had no way of knowing because she did it manually. I talked to Dr. Meredith about my shortness of breath. It had worsened since the day before. He listened to my lungs and said that he didn't think it was an infectious thing, but that my body was holding on to way too much fluid, so it was starting to accumulate in my lungs. He sent me home on a medication called lasix, that would help get rid of the extra fluid. He told me to take it for 2 days and call him if it didn't improve.

So I came home and took the lasix right away. It is supposed to make you pee a TON. I never noticed a difference at all throughout the day. I never peed more, my swelling never improved, and my breathing got worse. Friday evening I talked to my brother about it, who is a medical student. He was pretty concerned and kept talking about this rare condition that can occur from pregnancy that I was having most of the symptoms of. He said he was probably being over cautious and looking for the worst, but recommended I go in to the ER. I put it off for a while, thinking that I could wait it out until the morning and go see my Dr again. Then by midnight, I could hardly breathe unless I was sitting up perfectly straight and not doing anything. If I even reclined, I could not breathe at all. If I took a drink, it took me 2 minutes to catch my breath.

Devry kept trying to get me to go in, but I hated the idea of having to call and bother someone in the middle of the night. Plus I didn't want to leave the babies! Finally I agreed to go in right after their 1 am feeding, hoping it would be nothing and I could be back by their 4am feeding. Devry's parents came down so quickly when we called them, and we headed in.

When I arrived to the ER, the first thing they did was weigh me. I was only 4 lbs less then my weight before I delivered. That was concerning, since I had delivered 11.5 lbs of baby, plus 2 placentas and all the amniotic fluid. My weight should have been much less. Then they come and took my vitals. My blood pressure was 180/125. Not good. At all. Especially because I was taking labatelol. My heart rate was normal, actually on the low side. The Dr. came in right away and listened to my heart and lungs. He said he could hear lots of fluid in my lungs. They immediately ordered nitroglycerin (as a pill), to try to get my bp to come down. They did blood work, a chest X-ray and an EKG. The blood work came back and was looking like I might have a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lungs). So they took me for a CT scan. In the meantime, I had 2 more doses of nitroglycerin, but my bp wouldn't budge. The CT scan came back negative for a Pulmonary embolism, but showed that my lungs were full of fluid.

At that point, the ER Dr. decided I needed to be started on Nitroglycerin through my IV. He also ordered some lasix to be given in my IV to get rid of fluid. It was 4x the dose I was taking at home, so it worked well, and very fast. I have never peed so much in my life! I seriously would go every 15 minutes and pee a full liter! He came in and told me they were really concerned with what was going on, and it was time for me to be admitted to the ICU. My OB and an internal medicine Dr. would be taking over on my care and working together to figure out what was going on. This was really hard for me, but not for the reasons I would have thought. Of course I was concerned with what was going on with me, but more then anything, the thought of being away from my 5 day old babies was the most difficult thing. I worked so hard to nurse them...and now they would have to be given bottles for who knows how long. And I couldn't even pump and send it home to them because the nitroglycerin wasn't safe. I sat and bawled about being away from them. It truly is amazing to me how much love you can have for your child, even after only 5 days. The role of being their mother becomes the most important thing in the entire world. Of course I knew I needed to stay in the hospital, so they could figure out what was going on and treat it, but it was so hard!

My OB wasn't the one on call for the weekend. Actually a new guy was! His name is Dr. Codd, and luckily I had worked a very busy weekend with him a few weeks earlier, and knew how wonderful he was. He came in right away, and we were so impressed with him. He came and talked to me about how most of my symptoms were suggesting I had a condition called pregnancy induced cardiomyopathy. This was exactly what my brother had been concerned about. It is a pretty rare but serious condition, that is mostly compared to congestive heart failure, but resulting from pregnancy (it can happen in pregnancy, or up to 5 months after). Dr. Codd said that the way to confirm it was with an echocardiogram (ultra sound of the heart). He really impressed us when he told us that he didn't have enough experience with this condition to feel comfortable treating it alone. He spent hours on the phone with Dr. Meredith, plus other specialists to figure out the best plan of action. Being at a small hospital, there wasn't a tech on the weekends to to an echocardiogram. At first they talked about sending us to Idaho Falls to have it done, but thankfully Dr Codd simply said it was unacceptable to not have it done there, and they needed to find someone to come in. So I had the echo done at 9 am Saturday morning. Then we waited. A cardiologist in Idaho Falls had to read the echo and send the results, and being saturday, it took almost all day. Although it was a day of waiting, lots of other things were going on. They were concerned with my blood counts, and talked about doing a blood transfusion. They decided to wait and let the lasix work, thinking that the counts were falsely low because of my blood being more diluted from excess fluid. The CBC was repeated later that day, and luckily I didn't need a transfusion. Throughout the day I was given lasix again, plus I stayed on the nitroglycerin drip. It was the worst because it gave me the most horrible headache imaginable. I get extremely bad migraines, and none of them even compare to this pain. I laid there for hours with my eyes closed, trying not to move so it wouldn't hurt worse. I got 800mg of motrin and 2 Lortab several times throughout the day to try to help, but it never did. I was so glad at noon when they decided to try to wean down the nitroglycerin, and start me on oral blood pressure medication. Slowly, my headache went away as the medication was turned down then off.

I started taking a bp pill and a heart medication, plus a potassium pill. The bp medication got my bp down to around 150/95, bit it never got much lower then that.

Around 4pm, Dr Bates (the internist) came in and said the cardiologist had sent the report of the echo. The really good news was that something called the ejection fraction was normal. This was the main thing they were looking at, and a abnormal result would have meant I had the cardiomyopathy. So a normal result was FANTASTIC news! He was concerned however with "leaking valves" and some enlargement of my heart.

So the outcome....basically was that I had "severe, unresolved preeclampsia." Normally it resolves with the delivery of the baby, but in my case it didn't, and got worse. He said several times how surprising it was that I didn't have a seizure from it. Thankfully!

So although the outcome was still problematic, and something to watch very closely, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The cardiomyopathy would have meant my heart was having major problems that was causing all of the other problems. But instead, in my case it was my blood pressure and preeclampsia that was the #1 problem, and was causing the other problems, including swelling, fluid accumulation, leaking valves and enlargement of my heart. So since I was started on blood pressure medication and heart medication, they decided to watch it for a few more hours and as long as it was controlling things ok, I could be discharged home. They also had me keep taking lasix at home.

So the plan is to keep me on these medications for a month. I am supposed to monitor my bp very closely and return to the hospital if it gets and stays 160/110 or higher (right now it is staying around 150/95..still not great but much better then before). I am following up with my Dr.every few days, where they will monitor everything very closely. Then after a month, I will have a repeat of the echocardiogram. By that point my bp should be lower and things should be back to normal, or close to it. If the echo isn't normal by that point, I will have to see a cardiologist and determine if there is in fact a problem with my heart itself.

Hopefully everything goes back to normal. Dr. Cod told me that if it was the cardiomyopathy, my "reproductive career would be over." As it is, with the severe preeclampsia he said I would have to consult with a perinatologist before deciding to have anymore kids, but at least I potentially have the option in the future, and wasn't told straight up that I couldn't. That would have been very hard for me to deal with.

I was so happy to come home Saturday night. It was a very very long and stressful day, and I can't even explain how wonderful it was to sit and hold my precious babies. I still couldn't nurse them for another 24 hours so all the nitroglycerin was out of my system, but it was amazing to cuddle with them!

We have had such an incredible amount of love and support from family and friends. Devry's parents were here from 2am until 9pm the next night, with hardly any sleep. Devry's Brothers were extremely concerned and supportive, and helped us in anyway they could. Rachelle left her own kids for the day and was here all day saturday and saturday night to help with mine, and of course Carissa was here being as helpful as she always is. I never worried for a second that the kids weren't being well cared for. Even after we came home saturday evening, Rachelle and Carissa insisted we go sleep for the night and they would take care of the babies. It was so kind of them, and we both really appreciated getting some sleep after such a long day. My family showed us so much love and concern. I know they all struggled not being able to do more from far away. My brother was incredibly helpful with his medical knowledge and really was the main reason I went to the ER. Devry's brother Joe is doing a cardiology fellowship right now, so of course it was wonderful to tell him what was going on and get his input. We have had people from our ward bring us meals several days, and have had so many kind and concerning phone calls and visits. It has been so amazing to have such support through everything.

I have been feeling so much better. Getting rid of so much extra fluid made such a difference. I can breathe again, and the swelling all over my body has gone down so much. I stepped on the scale on sunday morning, and had lost 20 lbs since the day before! And another 5 since then! It's amazing how much fluid I was holding on to, and its not all gone yet! It has been so nice to be home, enjoying my sweet babies, and of course Payton and Devry as well.

It is wonderful having Devry home for such a long time. He gets another week and a half, which will make a total of 4 weeks straight that he is home! He has been so helpful and loving. He was the perfect labor support person, has helped in every way possible with the twins, and of course has spent a ton of time playing with Payton. Plus he has let me relax and recover while he has taken care of everything around the house. He never left my side when I was in the hospital. I was grateful my nurse ordered him a guest meal tray for every meal, because it would have been a fight to get him to go get something to eat. I could tell how worried and scared he was, but was so strong for both of us. I just love him so much! He is amazing!

I am so incredibly happy right now, being home with my 4 boys! Enjoying all of the changes and adjustments that have come from adding two babies. I hope nothing takes any of us back to the hospital for a very long time!

Here are a few pictures of our growing family!

Cohen and Kayson's Birth Story

Well, the last week has been very eventful. It is so wonderful with these two little guys here!

It was a surprise for all of us that they came early.

I posted about how I went to the Dr. on tuesday the 13th. My bp was up and I was dilated to a 2, so I got put on "semi" bed rest. I went back in thursday, mostly because of a horrible cold I had. My bp was even higher, so he told me to really take it easy and come in or go to the hospital with any signs of labor or problems from bp.

Then Friday I contracted most of the day. Nothing too strong or too regular, unless I got off the couch. Saturday they got much more intense. From like 1-4 I contracted every 2-4 minutes and they got pretty intense. They died down though, so I decided to wait it out a bit more. Then Saturday night, I was up most of the night contracting. From 3am on I didn't sleep, and was breathing through them. I decided that since Devry was supposed to leave to go back to Rock Springs that day, It would be a smart idea to go get checked before he left. We went to the hospital at 7am. I got put on the monitor, and immediately me and the other nurses were concerned with Cohen's heart rate. The baseline was 170 (normal is 110-150), and he really didn't look great. Then Kendra checked me, and I was 3 and 90% effaced. Then she checked my bp several times. It was really high...160/100, 156/97...etc. So she called Dr. Lovell (who was on call for the office I go to). He wanted some labs run and said he would be right in. The blood work came back ok, but I had 2+ protein in my urine. This is a sign that the elevated bp's are causing problems with other organs in my body...which of course is concerning for the babies. When bp are up and there is proteinuria, it is officially considered pre-eclampsia (before the protein, it is just pregnancy induced hypertension)...so it becomes much more concerning and the risks are much higher. He wanted me admitted, and watched for the morning. He started me on a medication called magnesium sulfate, which helps with the bp's and decreases the chances of major problems like seizures. The downside is that the medication makes you feel like CRAP. It made me hot, flushed, have a horrible headache, and just feel lousy. So all morning, he kind of just wanted to me to hang out, keep an eye on my bp's and the babies, and then decide what to do. Also, I didn't ever get tested for Group B strep, so they wanted to treat me with antibiotics for that (it takes 4 hours). Barb was my nurse, which was awesome! She was incredible! Through the morning, I contracted, but they really weren't as intense as they needed to be (which also could be from the mag sulfate..since it acts as a muscle relaxer too).

Here is a picture of me hanging out in the morning. I realized after I was there that I never took a 35 week belly picture. So as much as you can't really tell how big I am, here is my 35 week and final belly pic!

So a bit after noon, I was rechecked. I was 4cm and completely effaced...so nothing too active with my contractions. Luckily Cohen's heart rate had come down some and was looking much better. But with everything going on He decided it was time to get things going. I requested my epidural before breaking my water and of course he agreed. I got my epidural, and Dr. Lovell came in at 3pm and broke my water. Over the next 2 ish hours they let me just contract on my own. They weren't as close together as we wanted, so around 4:45 they started a tiny bit of pitocin. It really didn't have time to take effect when I started having some breakthrough pain with my epidural. I felt some pressure and pains through my hips. Barb checked me at 5:20 and I was 7cm. Apparently my spaced out contractions still were working pretty good. I had to deliver back in the OR for multiple reason. First of all, there is a window directly to the NICU for the babies, and second of all if there was an emergency and I needed a c-section they want me back there and ready to go. They decided to move me back to the OR and get ready. Dr Lovell came in and got ready for delivery. I was a bit surprised since I was only 7cm..but then he checked me and I was complete. I pushed for 3 contractions, and Cohen was born at 5:36. They put him up on my chest, cut the cord and took him to the NICU. He came out crying and pinked up right away!

Then...I faced the part of delivery I was most nervous about. Things can go wrong between the delivery of the 2 babies. My worst fear was delivering the first, then having something go wrong and needing a c-section for the second. So I got a bit nervous, but then Dr. Lovell checked me and says "here's another head." He broke Kayson's water, then I pushed one time and out he came. As smooth as it possibly could have gone. They put him up on me and immediately we saw a little blond head boy who looked so different then his brother! He was taken to the NICU as well.

Dr. Lovell spent about 30 seconds stitching me. Then delivered the placenta's, and before I knew it I was headed back to L&D to recover.

Recovery was long, since I was just anxious to get to the NICU. Devry was able to go in and see the boys and get a few pictures. Of course I was very well cared for by Nancy!

Here is Cohen William. He was born at 5:36 and weighed 5 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.

And here is Kayson Wayne. He was born at 5:41, weighed 5 bs, 6 oz and was also 19 inches long.

Both boys did great after delivery! They gave them a medication into their lungs called surfactant. It helps mature their lungs and has such a good outcome. Initially they were on a bit of oxygen but were weaned from it very quickly.

After a couple of hours I got to go in and see the boys! It is still amazing how small they are!

As far as I go...The rest of my hospital stay was great! I had wonderful nurses, and just spent most of the time in the NICU. The first night, they weren't feeding the boys at all, so I got to sleep for several hours. It was really nice. What a world of difference it is to not have tons of stitches!! I really only needed pain medication for cramping. It's nice to be able to walk, sit, stand and not have pain! I had some pretty serious complications after I was discharged....resulting in being re admitted to the hospital..but in the ICU this time. Things are much better now. I will post more about it all later.

Now on to the boys!

They were admitted into the NICU, given surfactant, oxygen and started on IV's for antibiotics, fluids and a bit of nutrition. Very routine for 35 week twins. They did so well the first night, they were weaned off the oxygen quickly. Monday morning a different pediatrician came on, and made a bit of a game plan with us. One of the bad things about the boys being in the NICU is that we don't get to choose their Dr. It's just whichever pediatrician is on call. We normally use a family practice Dr, but that would have to wait until they were discharged. The pediatrician who came on is good, but is extra cautious with any problems, and tends to keep babies in the NICU longer then anyone else. He wanted to start them feeding, but fully expected them to have feeding tubes by the end of the day. Then we would work with them over the next days and weeks to get them to full feeds. I was very determined to get them eating well as soon as possible. I wanted them home with us! So I went in for every feeding and worked at nursing them. They did amazing! They latched on easily, and ate so well! They usually did 15 minutes wide awake and vigorous, then I would tickle them and bug them to stay awake for another 5-10 to make sure they had really good feedings. Every feeding went great, so the Dr. agreed to hold off on feeding tubes. So many people kept telling us not to get to excited about them eating so well. I guess normally, 35-37 week babies may have a day or so that go great, then get worn out and lazy. All the nurses and Dr's kept saying they were just waiting for that to happen and put feeding tubes in. But it didn't! They kept nursing great, and taking full feedings. They never needed feeding tubes. I did every feeding monday, tuesday and wednesday and they always did so good!

Then on wednesday, a neonatologist came for weekly rounds and to consult on the boys. He was given some background information, then info on how they were doing. He immediately said "Ok so what is their weaning schedule for the IV's?? If they are eating, get those IV's out and as long as they keep eating well with no IV's they can get home!" So they were started on a weaning schedule for the IV's. I finally went home wednesday night and missed 2 feedings so I could get some rest. By thursday morning their IV's were out and they were still eating just as well. My milk had come in, so they were actually eating much more. The pediatrician came in, and surprised us all by saying they could come home that afternoon! We were thrilled! He kept saying over and over how surprised he was with them. He told me that when he decided to let them start feeding, he never ever expected them to actually do it, and that they need to give other babies lessons.

35 week twins that are boys, and only in the NICU for 4 days!! I'm so glad my babies are such good eaters! It was so nice to get them home.

Here are some pictures of the boys in the hospital!

Cohen all hooked up to monitors, sleeping peacefully.

Kayson enjoying the heat from the warmer.

Here is the door to the room I had on MBU, all decorated. My coworkers are amazing. They took such great care of us all, and went above and beyond in every way!

Here are the twins on tuesday, when they were finally put in the same crib. It was amazing how much calmer they were next to each other. You could just tell they are so used to being so close. So sweet!

And here they are on thursday, all dressed and ready to go home!

Here is the boys, loaded up in their carseats with their proud Daddy! I'm so lucky to have Devry! He is so helpful, and never hesitates to change, burp, or hold a baby.

And a picture of each of them loaded up in their carseats.

It is so wonderful having them home. They are the sweetest boys, and such great babies!

I adore them so much! It is so great to have them here safe and sound.