Home Sweet Home

(Wrote this back in December :-))

So much for trying to write a couple of blogs a couple of days apart to
update you all :-( oh well let's see what I can do now.  Typing this on
my iTouch on our way back from the in laws' place in ocean shores
while the babes are sleeping :-)

The babies have arrived!

I left off last time with our hospital stay. When we got home we ate
some pizza and watched a movie. I think it was after dinner that
Walter realized my feet had ballooned up and were about 3-4 times
their normal size. We put them up and they started their way back
to normal. My mom was so wonderful and was willing to stay the night,
I wasn't quite ready to be without all the help I had been used to in
the hospital. They slept in their pack'n'play at the foot of our bed.
That was a crazy night. I got maybe about 30 min to an hour of sleep
at a time.

There after mom spent the nights helping me and Walter out. And
helping me most nights so Walter could get rest for work. Usually
I would feed one while the other was getting diapered and then we
would switch or we would diaper and I would nurse one and the
other would get a little bit of formula and then we would switch.

Man, life is busy! I am now getting back to this a week later.

Mom wanted to go see Brandon after the babes were born. So
they had booked tickets before I delivered and we called my
dad's mom, Gigi, to come help me while mom was back east. Gigi
ended up coming for 5 weeks instead of the 6 days like she was
planning. It was so nice to have her here and get to know my
grandma on a different level and learn family history. Mom came
back and they helped take care of me and my twins. With the
c-section I ended up staying on the couch once I finally made it
downstairs and didn't go back up until It was time to go to bed.

Gigi (named by my cousin's little one who couldn't say great
grandma) and my mom are God sends. I couldn't have taken care of
the twins and myself after the major surgery.

GiGi & Oma playing with the babies

Gigi and Mom: Thank you sooooooooooo much! Your love and
generosity is so greatly appreciated and I don't think there's enough
words to express how wonderful you both are.

God truly blessed me with you two!

<3

Hospital Stay

Because I had a C-section, we were able to stay in the hospital for 5 days....Monday (day of induction) to Friday. It was really nice to be there and get all the help I did....and stay in bed after major surgery. We had a lot of visitors....Walter's parents and grandparents, my parents, Crystal, Kristal, the Kvardas, Julie and Cindy, David, Lauren and her mom, Bri and Jeff, JJ and Susie, Kathy and Alexandra.....I think I got everyone, if not I am sorry....I truely am grateful and appreciative that you came and saw us. My mom was there everyday and Dad showed up in the evenings. Walter spent every night in the hospital with me on the little chair by my bed.

Some highlights from our hospital stay:

• Both babes lost a lot of weight....Chloe lost 13oz and Corvin lost 11oz...this concerned the doc, so after we left we went and saw our pediatrician the next day and three more times in a month to make sure they were gaining properly and they were.
• Corvin wasn't getting enough from my colostrum and ended up losing his voice within 2 days. We ended up supplementing with formula for both babes by day 2.
• Had a ton of flowers and balloons in our room, the nurses kept telling how loved I was :-) boy did we know :-D
• Chloe had a hard time latching and didn't end up eating for the first 24 hours-ish and when she did latch she had a hard time getting on and ended up making my nipple bleed. Good thing I was still at the hospital and had access to a wonderful nurse and lactation nurse.
• FINALLY got to eat Monday morning! and finally got to take a shower on Tuesday! (had to wait because of surgery)
• By the end of Monday, I had all of the tubes and hoses out....it was soooo nice to be free.
• Ended up with an allergic reaction to the morphine like pain killer and had to switch to Vicadin. Got really really itchy!
• Walter helped out sooo much at night with the babes. Would go for walks with them at night to help soothe them and to let me sleep.
• The nurses helped him out and took the babes a couple of times to let us sleep....was hard at first....felt like I was being a bad mom not having my babes with me.
• Dr Rogers said I was healing nicely and that the scar looked good.
• Corvin got his circumcision.
• Walter and I had a celebration lunch of steak and cheesecake and other delicious treats.
• Got to go home on Friday!

Walter taking a nap in the comfy chair next to my bed

Proud Grandparents (my parents)

This is lovingly known as the Yin-Yang picture :-)

Me and my beautiful twins!

Arriving at home at last!

Labor & Delivery Cont....

After we were wheeled back into the room, Walter and I got some alone time with the babies. We were sooo overjoyed. They were both so healthy and beautiful. It's something I will never forget, holding those two brand new babies and they were happy and so awake. Corvin stayed awake for about 3 hours if not more after he was born.

Corvin Ryder Phillips...6lbs 14oz 19in...born at 1:17am

Chloe Rebekah Phillips....7lbs 1oz 19.5in....born at 1:19am

After a bit, Mom came in and we handed her a baby. She was so funny....at first she was kinda like "No....they are so tiny....nothing like you and your brother!" (B was 9lbs13oz and I was 10lbs1.5oz) Eventually we had to give Chloe to the nurse, she was a little on the cold side and needed to be under the heat lamp in our room. Walter went and got the rest of the family....when he did Corvin heard him leave and started to cry until he heard Walter's voice coming back into the room. Crazy how he already felt comfort with his daddy's voice.

Visitors after babes were born

Chloe under the warming lights....sunbathing beauty already!

After like 4am everyone had gone and it was just Walter, me, the babes and nurses. The twins got their first baths and were sleeping. I, on the other hand, was put on a morphine like drip to help with the pain as the epi was wearing off and as they manipulated my tummy....they were worried about some clotting issues with me. Eventually I got to go to sleep....ahhhhhhh....

It was the most difficult and most rewarding day ever! I can see why my dad says what he does about mothers.....God makes women stupid....we forget all the pain and suffering and get pregnant again.....why not....we get the best gift ever afterwards......new life!

Labor & Delivery

WARNING: THIS IS A REALLY LONG BLOG :-D

Ok let's start with labor....So August 17th was the inducing date. At this point I was about 80% effaced and about 2cm dilated.

Dad dropped Mom off at our house around 6:30am to french braid my hair (wanted to make sure it wasn't going to get in the way). We left the house around 7:15am and got to the hospital and checked in around 7:45am. They showed me back to room 713 (the biggest on the floor), had me change into my hospital gown and stated finishing checking me in in the room while they were hooking up the monitors (two for babes and one for contractions) and IV. They hooked me up to Pitocin to get the labor started. Labor really didn't start until Dr. Rogers broke Corvin's water around 12:30, I was still only at about 2-3cm. Man was that the weirdest feeling. Felt like I was peeing in bed, especially with each contraction as it would get a little gush. At this time they also upped my Pitocin trying to get labor going. I had family visitors off and on that day checking in.

(Me just after check-in....and no that's not my belly button poking out(it just stretched)...it's the other monitor)

Later in the afternoon, after going to the bathroom a bunch and having the hassle of all the monitor adjusting afterwards and picking up one baby's heartbeat in both monitors, they doctor had a scalpel monitor put in for Corvin's heartbeat and then a internal contraction monitor was put in to get a better read on the strength of my contractions....totally uncomfortable! I am not sure when, but after different nurses all day, I finally got my labor and delivery nurse, Mindy. She was super nice. Around dinner time my parents, Walter's parents and grandparents had stopped by and were trying to keep me company as they kept upping my Pitocin. Shortly there after the contractions really started to come and everyone left but Walter, my mom and Walter's mom. I really couldn't have done this part without Walter and my mom. Walter was great at coaching me along and mom was the best at helping keeping me breathing...something I forget to do when I get in pain or have to concentrate. Walter's mom was really nice to offer to hold the puke bucket for me....I got really close but nothing ever came.

At about 9pm Dr Rogers came back and checked me, I was finally at 5cm.....13 hours and I had only gotten 3 cm bigger. Since I was at 5cm, Dr Rogers said I could have my epidural. I said yes mainly as a precaution in case there was going to be any problems with Chloe after Corvin was delivered. They had to put a catheter in (thank goodness....I was tired of getting up to go to the bathroom with all the cords and paraphernalia) but Mindy missed and Dr Rogers came in and put it in for her....I felt that for weeks after every time I moved my right leg....after I received the epi, I took a 2 hour nap.

Around 12am, Dr Rogers came back for another check....I was still at 5cm and pretty much fully effaced. No change. So now we had to discuss other options since there wasn't any additional progress and it had be about 12 hours since Corvin's water was broken and the risk of infection was going up with every minute now and he had to be delivered within the next 12 hours (once your water is broken they like to deliver the baby within 24 hours). Dr Rogers spoke the hard truth that I had only dilated about 3 cm since I came in around 8am...and she didn't want to wait longer for any additional slow progress. Time was of an essence now. The conclusion was that my uterus was soo distended that it was being able to contract like it needed to get progression (yes I was getting contractions). So the next hour was spend prepaing me a C-Section.

(Walter in his scrubs to come with me into the OR.)

(Last prego picture of me just before being wheeled into the OR.)

Once in the OR things happened so fast. They rolled me onto the operating table, put up this bar and draped my gown and another drape over it so I couldn't see below, put really warm towels on my upper body and legs (I was shaking so bad from all of the hormones and lack of sleep and food), and the anesthesiologist started talking to me to get me to relax and be comfortable. He was great letting me know when I would feel pressure and giving me the heads up in case I need something.

There were 2 nurses for each baby, my labor and delivery nurse, Dr Rogers and another assisting doctor, the anesthesiologist, Walter and Me....that's 9 people with 2 more on the way....crazy! When Dr Rogers cut in she made 2 comments: "Wow, there's like no fat, you are all baby!" and "Oh my God! They are each the size of ONE 38 week baby!" With each baby she would bring them out and show me over the drapes and then bring them off to my right to show me them. Then Walter went over to help dry them off and then they brought them to him while he sat by my head and showed me my two new wonderful goregous babies. I kinda forgot what was going on and was just in love with them. We made the most beautiful babies!

They finished cleaning me up and sewing me back together and then wheeled me back to my room with each baby in my arms. Walter and I spent some time by ourselves before we had everyone else join us.

(The new family....Corvin is on the left and Chloe is on the right)

I will share the rest of the night and my hospital experience in my next blog :-) Gotta go feed babies!

I AM BACK!!!

Hey All!!! I know you all have been patiently awaiting the return of my blogging!! :-D

I am going to slowly and surely put up bits of the last almost 7 weeks!! (Yeah, really it's been that long!) I will add little stories starting from the last blog to the most recent activities!

Loves!

When are they coming????

So tomorrow I am going to be induced (unless by some miracle they come on their own tonite :-)). We have to be at the hospital tomorrow at 7:30am to start the "festivities" :-D. So please pray for us and send us happy thoughts! You never know, by this time tomorrow the twins could be here!

Updates

So dear blog readers, I guess I owe you a posting...or more...ooops....it's not like i have been terribly busy, just that the computer is upstairs (i know poor excuse) and I am supposed to be sitting with my feet up......

So just after my appointment on the 30th, I went in the afternoon for probably what will be my last growth ultrasound....sad :-(....but we got great news....the babies are growing fantastically and they were (at that time) almost 6lbs each. Corvin was 6lbs 2oz and Chloe was 5lbs 15oz.....big but very healthy babies. Walter couldn't come with me, so mom did. She had a fantastic time. We got some pictures, but as they are getting bigger it's hard to get many good shots. We did get to see Corvin practicing breathing (which we were told they don't do unless they feel absolutely content) which then turned into hiccups :-) and Chloe had her ear to Corvin's heart and we could see the hair on her head. Dr. Rogers is very happy with their progress.

The following Sunday I went in for my first of three Non Stress Tests.....basically they stick 3 monitors on my tummy....one for each baby's heart beat and one to monitor my contractions. The just of the test is to make sure they are moving and that they have regular movements and corresponding increases and decreases with contractions and to movements. The doctor and nurses are very pleased with the twins and say they are doing beautifully. (this last Sunday I had my second NST and again everything looks wonderful!!)

Also, at the last NST (yesterday) the on call doctor wanted to check my cervix....I am dialated up to 2cm now.....YAY!!!

Today has been interesting....I have been having more regular contractions, yet still irregular enough not to go in....the doctor and nurse yesterday think I won't make it to my induction date (next Monday the 17th) I am praying for that :-) I want to be able to hold my little ones. Walter and I just can't wait to be parents. The anticipation is starting to get to us :-D Pray for us tonite and the next few days...I have a feeling they are coming soon!!!!!!!