First off let me say that I am really terrible at keeping up with my blog...sorry to those who read it (if anyone still does!) Be prepared...this is a LONG post!
This year Christmas seemed to come so fast!! I was not prepared in any way for the events of this Christmas. Thanksgiving came and went and I was very excited for several reasons: 1) I love food and love to eat it, especially Thanksgiving dinner (YUM!), and being that I was pregnant it was a good excuse to eat more and no one would judge me! ;) 2) November 23 marked my official last day of work before I started maternity leave (YAY!) 3) Black Friday shopping!!
After the Thanksgiving holiday I was starting to mostly prepare for the arrival of our twin boys. Since I was now off work I could take care of the nesting problems I was starting to have and get down to business in our apartment and finish the nursery for the boys. During the first week I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets, cleaned out the hall closet, cleaned out my closet and donated tons of clothes and shoes to D.I., deep cleaned as much as I could with help from my little sis cause I could no longer get down on my knees and clean the floors (that is the best way to do it!), and started piecing the nursery together. Dryw would come home every day and I was excited to show him what I had accomplished each day. To my surprise he was not as excited as I was, in fact he would get mad at me and tell me I was doing too much and that I needed to rest. Who was he kidding?? If I didnt do it then who would?? Certainly not him...right ladies? ;) During this week of nesting I had my usually doctors appointments. It was during one of those appointments that I mentioned to my DR that I had been very itchy all over, not to mention the swelling that I had been dealing with since what felt like the 2nd month, was getting a lot worse. My legs literally looked like tree stumps! She sent me for blood work and recommended a lotion I could use for the itching.
During my second week of maternity leave I decided I needed to wash all of the baby clothes in dreft so I could put them away in my OCD manner in their nursery. I also decided that it was a great time to wash all of our laundry as well. So I packed up all of our laundry including all of the clothes for the boys and headed to my In-Laws. (We dont have a washer and dryer in our apartment and it is much cheaper to do laundry at my In-Laws instead of a laundry mat). On my way there I received a phone call from my DR telling me that my blood test results came in and that the enzyme levels in my liver were elevated, she was prescribing a medication that would help with this problem, but also wanted me to go get fetal monitoring done. I didnt think much of it, I mean I was carrying twins, I expected something to be elevated! I put off calling to make an appointment to get monitored for a couple hours while I did laundry, but something (or someone) kept telling me I needed to call. So I did and it was a good thing I did. They only did monitoring on Tuesdays and Fridays and being that it was a Tuesday they could get me in that day. I asked for the latest appointment I could because the OCD in me had to finish laundry before I went. As usual, I was running late so I threw all of the clean clothes in my car, ran home to change really quick (the plan was to shower but I didnt have time), and went over to the hospital for monitoring. (sorry this is so long, but we are getting to the good part!)
While laying on the very comfy (NOT) bed and being monitored, the nurse noticed how swollen my feet were. I told her that was nothing and she should look at my non-existent knee caps. When she pulled up the leg to my sweatpants she was shocked by how swollen I was. She decided to take my blood pressure and once the reading came up she looked at me like she was looking at a ghost. She asked me how long I had had high blood pressure and I said I havent. It hasnt been high ever and it has been fine this whole time. She checked the machine, did it on herself, used another machine, but the reading was still very high. If I remember correctly it was 163 over 110. (I am not very good with what this means, but apparently that is REALLY high for someone who has never had problems. So she decided I needed to go to labor and delivery to see them and it just so happened my doctor was there when I go over there. She decided I should get monitored there, get some blood taken and see what happens. Well folks, that was the beginning to an end! I called Dryw but he was on his way to the Temple with the youth so i told him I would keep him posted if something was going to happen because I was not sure if they were keeping me, so I called my mom.
The day then went from an average laundry day and turned in to a huge blur. My blood tests came back and the enzyme levels were elevated even higher, I had pregnancy induced hypertension (AKA Preclampsia), and a thing called cholestasis. The best medicine for all of these is early delivery. Now at this time I was a few days shy of being 34 weeks pregnant. As soon as I heard they were going to have to take the babies I freaked! I was not done cooking them yet! Being that I was only 33 weeks they decided to give me a steroid shot to mature the lungs of the babies and told me if I did not have them within the next 24 hours that they would give me the second round of steroids for the babies. Our prayer was that I would at least make it another 24 hours. Every hour seemed to go by so slowly, but yet so fast at the same time. I made it the 24 hour period and received the second dose. Each time the nurse came in we anxiously awaited any news from the DR on when the babies would be delivered. What went from possible having an emergency C-Section that Tuesday night went to an up in the air, it depends on A,B, & C game. (Thank you to everyone who played the waiting game with us!).
Finally word came and the C-Section was going to happen Friday December 9. That morning seemed pretty slow and I thought I had prepared myself pretty well considering I was about to have major surgery (my first form of surgery ever!) As soon as the clock struck 11 it was like the world was ending! The nurse came in and threw a pack of "special" clothes at Dryw and told him to get dressed, handed my my "party hat" and had me put it on, she hooked my IV back up, and said "Ok, you ready?" WHAT....NOW???? Oh man, I so was NOT ready! It happened so fast! They wheeled me in to the OR and because I was receiving a spinal and not an epidural and it was being done in the OR, Dryw could not be in there with me. I was FREAKING out! I am so lucky that the staff at St. Jude are so wonderful, they totally made me feel comfortable and I think by the time we left the hospital every one of the nurses had waited on us at some point and knew us by name. The spinal felt nothing at all like what I thought it would feel like, in fact it did not hurt one bit. The IV is WAY worse! Once I was on the table and ready to go Dryw was able to come in, and the show was about to start!
It seemed like FOREVER but it was not very long at all, maybe 45 minutes (since there were two of them), but at 12:18 and 12:19 p.m. Maverick Grant and Gavin Cole Waite were born. Once I was all sewn and stapled back up they took me back to my room to recover. Because the boys were born premature, they had to go to the NICU, something I was prepared for but did not want to happen. Maverick was 4lbs 15 oz and Gavin was 3lbs 14 oz. They were little guys, but they were doing very well. Maverick had to be on the CPAP machined for about 18 hours to help him with his breathing, but Gavin was a little fighter. He did not need any help breathing. They both were off of the IV fluids within a couple days of being born and they were maintaining their temps and eating well fairly quickly. I attribute it to the steroid shots I received and the answer to prayers pouring out from everywhere and everyone (thank you to to those who had us in their prayers!)
Sadly because I was on medication fro the high blood pressure I could not go in and see the boys in the NICU until I was off the medication. They were born Friday afternoon and I was not able to see them or hold them in person until Saturday evening...I was dying. That by far was the hardest part of this whole thing. St Jude has a really wonderful thing called the NIC View. They have cameras set up so you can watch your babies in the NICU 24/7 (minus the times when the DR is doing his check ups on them), so I was able to watch them from my room and we were able to give the log in to our friends and families so they could watch them as well. It was a really great tool, especially once I was discharged from the hospital I could watch them from home when I wasnt there with them (which was hardly ever! I was there so much I could have been a nurse!! JK.) The NICU staff was AMAZING!!! They knew us by name and we have pictures with each crew. It even got to the point that they wondered where we were if we werent in there because they were so used to seeing us all day every day!! They really became like a family for us and out little guys. It was their goal to have the boys home by Christmas if they were doing well enough to be released. Again, an answer to prayers because Thursday December 22 as I stopped by to drop off some breastmilk before visiting hours, they told me that we would be able to take the boys home that night! I almost fell over!! I could not believe it. They were doing so well and the DR was impressed with them and said they could come home. We were so excited!!
Needless to say it was a very Merry Christmas to us this year. I cant imagine a better gift or in our case, gifts!!
Here are some pictures...not many though...I dont like the ones we have of them with their IV's in and in their incubators--it makes me feel so bad for them and so sad and helpless. So here are some better ones. No joke we have like 1300 pictures of them so far...but I am only going to share a few. More will come--I promise--(eventually!) ;)
This year Christmas seemed to come so fast!! I was not prepared in any way for the events of this Christmas. Thanksgiving came and went and I was very excited for several reasons: 1) I love food and love to eat it, especially Thanksgiving dinner (YUM!), and being that I was pregnant it was a good excuse to eat more and no one would judge me! ;) 2) November 23 marked my official last day of work before I started maternity leave (YAY!) 3) Black Friday shopping!!
After the Thanksgiving holiday I was starting to mostly prepare for the arrival of our twin boys. Since I was now off work I could take care of the nesting problems I was starting to have and get down to business in our apartment and finish the nursery for the boys. During the first week I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets, cleaned out the hall closet, cleaned out my closet and donated tons of clothes and shoes to D.I., deep cleaned as much as I could with help from my little sis cause I could no longer get down on my knees and clean the floors (that is the best way to do it!), and started piecing the nursery together. Dryw would come home every day and I was excited to show him what I had accomplished each day. To my surprise he was not as excited as I was, in fact he would get mad at me and tell me I was doing too much and that I needed to rest. Who was he kidding?? If I didnt do it then who would?? Certainly not him...right ladies? ;) During this week of nesting I had my usually doctors appointments. It was during one of those appointments that I mentioned to my DR that I had been very itchy all over, not to mention the swelling that I had been dealing with since what felt like the 2nd month, was getting a lot worse. My legs literally looked like tree stumps! She sent me for blood work and recommended a lotion I could use for the itching.
During my second week of maternity leave I decided I needed to wash all of the baby clothes in dreft so I could put them away in my OCD manner in their nursery. I also decided that it was a great time to wash all of our laundry as well. So I packed up all of our laundry including all of the clothes for the boys and headed to my In-Laws. (We dont have a washer and dryer in our apartment and it is much cheaper to do laundry at my In-Laws instead of a laundry mat). On my way there I received a phone call from my DR telling me that my blood test results came in and that the enzyme levels in my liver were elevated, she was prescribing a medication that would help with this problem, but also wanted me to go get fetal monitoring done. I didnt think much of it, I mean I was carrying twins, I expected something to be elevated! I put off calling to make an appointment to get monitored for a couple hours while I did laundry, but something (or someone) kept telling me I needed to call. So I did and it was a good thing I did. They only did monitoring on Tuesdays and Fridays and being that it was a Tuesday they could get me in that day. I asked for the latest appointment I could because the OCD in me had to finish laundry before I went. As usual, I was running late so I threw all of the clean clothes in my car, ran home to change really quick (the plan was to shower but I didnt have time), and went over to the hospital for monitoring. (sorry this is so long, but we are getting to the good part!)
While laying on the very comfy (NOT) bed and being monitored, the nurse noticed how swollen my feet were. I told her that was nothing and she should look at my non-existent knee caps. When she pulled up the leg to my sweatpants she was shocked by how swollen I was. She decided to take my blood pressure and once the reading came up she looked at me like she was looking at a ghost. She asked me how long I had had high blood pressure and I said I havent. It hasnt been high ever and it has been fine this whole time. She checked the machine, did it on herself, used another machine, but the reading was still very high. If I remember correctly it was 163 over 110. (I am not very good with what this means, but apparently that is REALLY high for someone who has never had problems. So she decided I needed to go to labor and delivery to see them and it just so happened my doctor was there when I go over there. She decided I should get monitored there, get some blood taken and see what happens. Well folks, that was the beginning to an end! I called Dryw but he was on his way to the Temple with the youth so i told him I would keep him posted if something was going to happen because I was not sure if they were keeping me, so I called my mom.
The day then went from an average laundry day and turned in to a huge blur. My blood tests came back and the enzyme levels were elevated even higher, I had pregnancy induced hypertension (AKA Preclampsia), and a thing called cholestasis. The best medicine for all of these is early delivery. Now at this time I was a few days shy of being 34 weeks pregnant. As soon as I heard they were going to have to take the babies I freaked! I was not done cooking them yet! Being that I was only 33 weeks they decided to give me a steroid shot to mature the lungs of the babies and told me if I did not have them within the next 24 hours that they would give me the second round of steroids for the babies. Our prayer was that I would at least make it another 24 hours. Every hour seemed to go by so slowly, but yet so fast at the same time. I made it the 24 hour period and received the second dose. Each time the nurse came in we anxiously awaited any news from the DR on when the babies would be delivered. What went from possible having an emergency C-Section that Tuesday night went to an up in the air, it depends on A,B, & C game. (Thank you to everyone who played the waiting game with us!).
Finally word came and the C-Section was going to happen Friday December 9. That morning seemed pretty slow and I thought I had prepared myself pretty well considering I was about to have major surgery (my first form of surgery ever!) As soon as the clock struck 11 it was like the world was ending! The nurse came in and threw a pack of "special" clothes at Dryw and told him to get dressed, handed my my "party hat" and had me put it on, she hooked my IV back up, and said "Ok, you ready?" WHAT....NOW???? Oh man, I so was NOT ready! It happened so fast! They wheeled me in to the OR and because I was receiving a spinal and not an epidural and it was being done in the OR, Dryw could not be in there with me. I was FREAKING out! I am so lucky that the staff at St. Jude are so wonderful, they totally made me feel comfortable and I think by the time we left the hospital every one of the nurses had waited on us at some point and knew us by name. The spinal felt nothing at all like what I thought it would feel like, in fact it did not hurt one bit. The IV is WAY worse! Once I was on the table and ready to go Dryw was able to come in, and the show was about to start!
It seemed like FOREVER but it was not very long at all, maybe 45 minutes (since there were two of them), but at 12:18 and 12:19 p.m. Maverick Grant and Gavin Cole Waite were born. Once I was all sewn and stapled back up they took me back to my room to recover. Because the boys were born premature, they had to go to the NICU, something I was prepared for but did not want to happen. Maverick was 4lbs 15 oz and Gavin was 3lbs 14 oz. They were little guys, but they were doing very well. Maverick had to be on the CPAP machined for about 18 hours to help him with his breathing, but Gavin was a little fighter. He did not need any help breathing. They both were off of the IV fluids within a couple days of being born and they were maintaining their temps and eating well fairly quickly. I attribute it to the steroid shots I received and the answer to prayers pouring out from everywhere and everyone (thank you to to those who had us in their prayers!)
Sadly because I was on medication fro the high blood pressure I could not go in and see the boys in the NICU until I was off the medication. They were born Friday afternoon and I was not able to see them or hold them in person until Saturday evening...I was dying. That by far was the hardest part of this whole thing. St Jude has a really wonderful thing called the NIC View. They have cameras set up so you can watch your babies in the NICU 24/7 (minus the times when the DR is doing his check ups on them), so I was able to watch them from my room and we were able to give the log in to our friends and families so they could watch them as well. It was a really great tool, especially once I was discharged from the hospital I could watch them from home when I wasnt there with them (which was hardly ever! I was there so much I could have been a nurse!! JK.) The NICU staff was AMAZING!!! They knew us by name and we have pictures with each crew. It even got to the point that they wondered where we were if we werent in there because they were so used to seeing us all day every day!! They really became like a family for us and out little guys. It was their goal to have the boys home by Christmas if they were doing well enough to be released. Again, an answer to prayers because Thursday December 22 as I stopped by to drop off some breastmilk before visiting hours, they told me that we would be able to take the boys home that night! I almost fell over!! I could not believe it. They were doing so well and the DR was impressed with them and said they could come home. We were so excited!!
Needless to say it was a very Merry Christmas to us this year. I cant imagine a better gift or in our case, gifts!!
Here are some pictures...not many though...I dont like the ones we have of them with their IV's in and in their incubators--it makes me feel so bad for them and so sad and helpless. So here are some better ones. No joke we have like 1300 pictures of them so far...but I am only going to share a few. More will come--I promise--(eventually!) ;)
Gavin
Maverick
Look how little Maverick was
Gavin holding daddy's finger...makes him look so tiny!! (I guess it is beacause he was!)
Mommy and her boys!!!
First family photo! Gavin has a question!! :)
2 comments:
Oh my gosh! They are so cute!! What a crazy story but I'm glad everything went ok. I can't wait to meet the little guys! :)
SO glad yo updated I've been WAITING and WAITING to see your precious little boys! Crazy story but glad it all turned out the way it did!
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