Feb. 29- NICU brag

Pictures:

Mommy and Hays Having snuggle time

Will getting a tan

The doors to the boys' rooms decorated by their amazing nurses

Today was a pretty good day. Hays is still on the c-pap, but he's doing great- no more apnea. And I got to hold him today thank goodness. It was hard not to get in my snuggle time yesterday! And Matt finally got to hold him for the first time tonight!!!! Of course we didn't have our camera, but I borrowed one from the NICU and hopefully I'll be able to post those soon. Hays and his Daddy looked awfully cute together!

Will is still on the vent (boo!!!). They decided not to try to extubate him today because he has a lot of secretions in his lungs and they didn't think he'd do well off the vent. They started him on steroids today to dry all that junk up, and they're planning to try again Sunday. I think it gave him baby 'roid rage because he was pissed tonight!!! He was pitching a fit, which I've never seen him do. And let me tell you, it's awfully hard to watch your baby cry when you can't hear him crying. Then you start worrying about what if he's crying and crying and no one knows it. Now, I know rationally that this doesn't happen because his nurses are awesome and watch him like a hawk.

And on that note, I just have to take a second to brag on the NICU. That place is AMAZING!!! The facility is awesome- each baby has their own room and my guys have a "suite" with a door that connects them. But the staff is beyond wonderful. If God puts angels on earth, they are NICU nurses. These women are the most loving, caring, gentle people I have ever encountered. They decorate all the babies doors with pictures, their names, all sorts of cute stuff. Will's name is spelled out on puppy dogs because he has a stuffed puppy that Mason gave him. Hays' name is done in polar bears because his animal is a little white bear. They take excellent care of my boys and I feel so confident knowing that I am leaving them in the most capable hands. And they truly love these babies. If I ever win the lottery, I am going to send these ladies on the most fabulous tropical vacation because there is no one who deserves it more. I hope that no one I know ever has to experience the NICU themselves, but if they do I hope it's as good as St. Marys.

Feb. 28

The boys are looking pretty good. Hays had several apnea episodes (where he forgets to breath and the nurses have to come in and remind him) and they had to up his dosage of caffiene. I would have brought him some baby Starbucks, but the nurses felt it was best to continue to give it to him through the IV. I'm not fully convinced that he wouldn't have preferred a caramel macchiato, but whatever. He also went back on c-pap for probably a couple of days, but he hasn't had any apnea since, so go Hays!!!
Will got a pick line put in today in place of his umbilical IV, and that went well and didn't really stress him out too much. He also discovered his thumb last night, and his sweet nurse took the cutest picture of him sucking his thumb. Tomorrow I think they're going to try to get him off the vent again, so lets hope it goes better than the first time and he'll be done with that old thing!!

Where we are now

Pictures from top:
Here's Hays
First time Mommy got to hold Hays
Hays getting a tan!
Here's Will!

Our boys headed straight for the neonatal intensive care unit, just like we knew they would. Hays was pretty stable from the get go. He was briefly intubated and put on the ventilator, but that didn’t last long. He was soon put on a c-pap which stands for constant positive airway pressure, and is basically a little oxygen helmet that goes in their nose and has a tube that sits on their heads. It doesn’t look very comfortable, but it beats the hell out of the vent. Will was a lot sicker. He was intubated, but he kept fighting the vent which would cause all the blood vessels in his lungs to close up so he couldn’t breathe. They had to give him a medicine to paralyze him so he couldn’t fight and use up all his oxygen. This medication also made him super-sensitive to light, sound, touch, really any kind of stimulation, so he was on morphine and kept in as much dark and quiet as possible. His eyes and ears were covered and we couldn’t touch him. It was touch and go every hour for a couple of days and it was really scary. He finally started to turn things around on the third day and they were able to lower all of his medications and get him off the paralyzing agent. He’s been getting more and more stable every day- Thank God!!!!!
Hays came off the c-pap after a couple of days and just has a nasal canula (oxygen prong thingies). He is doing incredibly well. He had to be on the bilirubin lights for a couple of days because of jaundice, but it has cleared up and he’s off the lights. He spends most of his day in his incubator sleeping and growing. Every couple of hours they change him, feed him through his nasal tube, check all his vitals, blood gasses, etc, but other than that we want him to use all of his energy for growing. Three days ago we got to start kangaroo care. That’s when I hold that tiny baby for an hour right against my chest. The skin to skin contact keeps them warm and helps them bond with their mothers. (And helps their mothers probably more than the babies!!!) It is truly the most wonderful hour of my day. He looks like a skinny, grumpy old man and I could not love a little face more!! Hopefully Will is going to be stable enough in a couple of days so he can join in on snuggle time. They tried to remove his vent tube today, but he just wasn’t quite ready. His heart rate kept going down, so they had to put the vent back in. But we’ll give it another try tomorrow or the next day. He’s going to get there soon- I have no doubts!!! And I finally got to pick him up tonight! No kangaroo care yet, but I at least got to hold him in my hands while they changed his bedding. And I got to change his diaper- funny how exciting a diaper change can be. Wonder how long it will take me to get tired of those!!!

Happy Birthday Babies

Top Picture Hays; Bottom Picture Will

The doctor sent me to the hospital Tuesday, February 19 and I did another round of steroid shots Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon the boys were delivered by c-section. Hays arrived at 1:18 p.m. weighing 2 lbs, and Will arrived at 1:19 p.m. weighing 2 lbs 14 oz. They were tiny and their cries sounded like angry kittens, but they were here!

Pregnant with twins!!!!

Will and Hays- The Pregnancy
On a sunny Friday in October our little world changed forever. We were thrilled to be expecting a new baby, but that was the day we found out we were actually expecting babies. Matt and I had gone for my first obstetrician’s visit and first ultrasound. As soon as the doctor started the ultrasound, two round, suspiciously head-looking objects popped up, and I thought “uh oh.” Sure enough, the doctor asked “now how many babies did you want?” To which I replied, “One, please.” After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (what can I say, twins were never in my plan!) we started to accept and eventually embrace the fact that we were somehow jumping from being the parents of one to the parents of three. All I could say was “there had better be at least one girl in there.”
Thwarted once again!!! At my 16 week ultrasound we found out that there was nary a girl in sight and that our house was to become the testosterone castle, inhabited by nothing but noisy little boys. This visit was also where we found out that we might have some bumps in the road to twindom. The doctor told us that one baby was smaller than the other and had less amniotic fluid and he suspected we were dealing with a condition known as twin to twin transfusion (TTTS). This led to weekly ultrasounds where we checked growth, fluid levels, blood flow, everything under the sun.
Each week we never knew what we would hear. We learned early on that the blood flow to the smaller baby was not good. He had a funky placement of his umbilical cord, but that usually doesn’t really cause a problem. There was bleeding in the placenta early on and we thought that might have something to do with his poor growth, but we were never sure. The doctor thought it was TTTS, but it never progressed like he thought it would, so he wasn’t entirely convinced that this was the correct diagnosis. Either way, from week to week my boys kept plugging along. There were times when things really didn’t look good. Our doctor said he never thought we would make it to 30 weeks and I got steroid shots to pump up the boys’ lungs at 24 weeks. Finally, at my 30 week appointment, things really started to look bad. Hays (the little guy) was barely growing anymore and the bad blood flow was finally starting to take its toll on him. Plus, Will had a lot of excess amniotic fluid and that was starting to cause problems for him. His little heart was having to work too hard and was becoming enlarged. So it was time to deliver.