NICU Part 2

Life has gotten a little busy since we brought the kiddos home so this post is a month late, but better late than never... right? Besides these picture are so cute I couldn't help but share them. The second part of our NICU stay seemed to last forever. When the girls were 5 days old they were doing well enough to get transfered to NICU 2. They stayed in NICU 2 for 25 days. I didn't think it was ever going to end and Andrew didn't think the hospital was ever going to let us take our babies home, but they eventually did. Once the girls learned how to eat on their own they were cleared for discharge. Eating on your own seems like such a simple task especially when the only thing you eat is milk, but it's quite the task when your only 34 weeks gestation. The girls hadn't learned the skill eat suck swallow before they were born so they had to learn it outside the womb in the NICU. This simple task took us 4 weeks to master. 4 weeks of going to the hospital 25 min away from home every day at least once. I got very familiar with the drive from home to the hospital. All I have to say is I am glad this part of our lives is over and we finally have our beautiful girls home!
Enjoy the pictures!

Family Picture - The girls were 1 week old

Adelyn 1 week old - Notice the hair color? I think I got my red head!

Emmalyn 1 week old

Twins, but definitely not identical 

Grandma came to visit!

After a few weeks I got tired of the boring hospital atire and I decided to spice it up a little with a bow for the girls' hats.
Adelyn 2 weeks old

Emma 2 weeks old with her bow

This smile fills my heart with joy!

Adelyns first bath

Andrew giving Adelyn her first bath

The girls got tired of lying on their backs in their cribs looking up at the boring hospital ceiling after a few weeks. They really enjoyed their bouncers! 
P.S. I love Adelyns face in this picture!

Andrew being a good dad holding Emma. He's such an amazing dad.

The girls sure are daddy's girls
Andrew and Adelyn

After 2 weeks the girls made it out of their incubators and into open air cribs
Adelyn in her crib

Andrew filing Adelyns nails

Grandma came to visit again!
Grandma and Emma

This time Grandma brought Aunt Kristine to visit as well.
Aunt Kristine and Adelyn

Peek-a-boo... guess who!
This is how I found this little girl one day. Emma loves her face covered

Both of Adelyn's ears are like this...  not sure what happened. I think she ran out of room inside me when her ears were developing so they are both smashed down.

Cute little Adelyn - 3 weeks old. I just love her!

Sweet Emmalyn - 3 weeks old. Look at those big blue eyes!

The nurse said they were crying and she didn't have time to hold both of them and give them the attention they wanted so she faced them towards each other and let them entertain each other. It must have worked because when I got there they were as happy as could be.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit

Grandpa and Adelyn

Grandma and Emma

Emmalyn
I gor anxious to dress up these cute little girls

Adelyn

Emma
Thanks Izzy for the bouncer, it was a life saver! The girls spent  hours every day hanging out in these when we weren't able to be there to hold them.

It's time to go home!!!! Car seat test to make sure they continue to breath while in their car seats. They sat in there hooked up to their monitors for 90 min. They actually enjoyed it.

Waiting to be discharged. No more monitors and wires hooked up to the girls!

Emma - All ready to go home!

Adelyn - Ready to go! Andrew made their shirts (He bought tiny white onsies and ironed on the ctrl c, ctrl v) and I made their skirts. Finding cute clothes small enough to fit them was a challenge so we took the task upon ourselves. 

Headed home all buckled in. Now the real adventure begins!
We had no clue what was in store for us at this point. Had we know we may not have left the hospital.

The Newborn ICU Part 1

Emma and Adelyn have been in the NICU for 26 days. Adelyn got some fluid in her lungs during delivery, nothing too serious but she had to be on oxygen for about a week to help her breath. Other than that they are healthy, they are just preemies and they have to learn how to eat. The first few days they weren't eating anything (doctors orders - they were very grumpy during this time but I can't blame them) but on day 3 the doctor put feeding tubes in their mouth down to their stomaches. They slowly started increasing the amount of food they ate (it started at 5ml's and slowly increased form there). Once they were able to handle having food in their system we started bottle feeding once a day then twice a day, then 4 times a day, etc. until they reach their goal of eating 2oz every 3 hours. It has been a long long long frustrating road, but they are doing great and today they got the feeding tubes taken out and they are eating all on their own. SO here are some pictures of our journey through the NICU. Be prepared for a picture overload :)

Adelyn 2 days old. She was on a nasal canula to help her breath

Small little Emma compared to my hand. 2 days old

On day three I went to check on Adelyn and I found her like this. I broke down crying. The doctor had told me that Adelyn was struggling to breath with the nasal canula and she needed more help so he put her on a different oxygen tube. It was really hard to see her like this and to see her working so hard to breath, but she is a little fighter and after a few days on this she was able to switch back to the nasal canula.

Her crazy looking oxygen mask and feeding tube in her mouth.

Since she was on the oxygen the nurses didn't let us hold her more than once a day for only a few min so we just got to watch her lay in her incubator. 

Adelyn under the lights with bean bags around her head and legs to comfort her and make her feel like she was being held since we couldn't hold her. 

Emma under the lights. 

Both girls had IV's in their arms to give them supplements to help them grow. Emma's veins were so frail the IV kept blowing out and her arms and legs didn't have anymore good viens they could use so they put the IV in her head. This is the second time I broke down in the NICU when I walked in and saw her like this.

IV in the head and cool mask for the jaundice lights. 

Once the girls' bilirubin count went down we got to take the lights away and we were able to hold them a lot more. Here is when Andrew held Adelyn for the first time. At this point she was still under the lights, but the nurses let us hold her for a few minutes.

He is such a great dad! She loves him.

Andrew holding Emma. 

Andrew's mom flew down to meet the girls. Notice their arms? Andrew broke his hand and didn't get his wrap off until the girls were a week old, and Grandma Stagg hurt her arm the week before. The funny this is that Emma also had a think on her right arm that looked similar but hers was to help keep her IV in. 3 generations of wrapped up arms :)

Thanks Grandma Stagg for coming down to meet the girls!

Here are some pictures of Emma when she was a few days old. We didn't have as many pictures of Adelyn since we weren't allowed to hold her much.

Emma has been alert from the get go. She is always looking around wide eyed.

This is one of my favorites. A lot of people ask why we gave her such a huge binky, but we didn't. Her head is so little  it makes the binky look big.

Adelyn looking up at her dad who is holding her

She was so happy when she was finally able to be bundled up. While she was under the light she couldn't be bundled up and she got very fussy. She likes to be bundled tight, go figure right? I'm sure its from being so smashed inside me for so many months.

Well that covers the first week in the NICU. I'll do another post later with the rest of the pictures we have from the NICU.

June 5, 2012 - And then there were 4

On June 4th I had a doctors appointment, just one of my weekly appointments to make sure the babies were still doing good and the pregnancy was going well. Everything looked great, and it looked like I wasn't ever going to go into labor despite the contractions I'd been having for 11 weeks. So afterwards Andrew and I went and ran some errands. I finally picked out a diaper bad and then we went to a friends house for dinner, business as usual. When I got home I played around with my new diaper bag and I packed it all up, but then the zipper broke on it, I was pretty disappointed but Andrew and I decided we would just go trade it in the next day. I went to bed and everything was great. Being pregnant I woke up several times during the night to pee. I woke up at 4:25am and I was having a slow trickle and I thought I was peeing my pants. I was really tired so I tried to get it to stop but my bladder muscles just wouldn't stop it so I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. That slow trickle was not me peeing my pants, but somehow in the middle of the night, dead asleep, while laying still my water broke. When I realized what happened I sat in the bathroom for a minute trying to decide what to do. I was so shocked! I sat in the bathroom thinking it was too early. I was only 34 weeks, 6 weeks early and I wasn't scheduled to have my c-section for another 2 1/2 weeks. I told myself this couldn't be happening because I just wasn't ready and my diaper bag was broken so if I went to the hospital and delivered that day then I wouldn't be able to go and exchange my diaper bag like I'd planned. haha crazy right? I was having some really funny irrational thoughts as to why this couldn't be happening, but once I realized it was happening and there was nothing I could do to change it  I went back to the bed and told Andrew my water broke. He jumped right out of bed and got everything and he was ready to walk out the door in about 45 seconds from the time I woke him up. I on the other hand was still shocked and I thought that if I didn't leave my house I wouldn't go into labor and none of this would be happening. I did not want to leave. I got in the shower but Andrew was antsy to leave so I only got to clean up a little and not wash my hair like I wanted to. After trying to procrastinate as long as I could, about 5 minutes, Andrew was pushing me out the door so we went to the hospital. We got there a little after 5am. They confirmed that my water had broken and the nurse said "It looks like your going to be having some babies today". I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life. Well soon after that around 6:00am the pain really started to kick in. Labor is some serious pain! HOLY COW!! I thought I was going to pass out. Since baby A (the baby closest to my cervix and the one to be delivered first) was breech and her water had been low for a few weeks she couldn't be delivered normally and I had to have a c-section. Luckily I knew all of this beforehand and I was somewhat prepared for it. The contractions were getting closer together and it was killing me, but they couldn't give me any pain medicine until I went into the O.R. Luckily my labor was considered a high priority (higher risk) so I bumped everyone who was in line for the O.R. and I went to the top of the list and I was scheduled for the first slot of the day at 7:30am. I was super glad about this because I was in some serious pain. At 6:30am the nurse came in and said that another baby was in distress and she was probably going to bump me in line for the O.R. so I probably wouldn't go into the O.R. until 8:30am. At that point I didn't think I could make it that long without some pain medicine because it was getting worse with every contraction. Well I don't know what happened but I didn't ask questions when I got bumped back up to the 7:30am slot! My OBGYN (who is awesome!) had given me his cell number to call when I went into labor so he could come in and deliver my babies even if he wasn't on call. The on call doctor was the doctor who did my cerclage so I knew him, but I was super happy to see my doctor walk into the O.R. By this point I was a mess. I was scared that it was too early, I was nervous for the c-section, I was in a lot of pain, and to top it off my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. My doctor walked over to me and he put his hands on my shoulder and told me to stop worrying about everything. He said it was his job to make sure everything went okay and it was my job to simply focus on the fact the I was about to meet my two daughters. He told me he didn't want me to think about anything other than meeting my babies. I think that is when it all became real, and I realized I was about to meet my babies! The c-section went great. I got to see both girls for a few seconds after they cleaned them up, but then they quickly took them away to the NICU. 

Andrew holding Baby B after she was all cleaned up.

Andrew holding Baby A after she was all cleaned up.

Andrew went with the babies while I got stitched up. I was worried that Andrew was going to pass out during the surgery because he doesn't do well with blood or anything medical really, but he did great. He was really nervous before the babies were born but once the first one came out crying he walked right past the blood and guts to check out our daughters. 

Baby A: Emmalyn Joeen Stagg
Born June 5, 2012 @ 8:18 am
4.10 lbs 17 in long

Baby B: Adelyn Ann Stagg
Born June 5, 2012 @ 8:19 am
5.10 lbs 17 in long

Since I had a c-section I wasn't allowed to get out of bed until later that afternoon, and since the babies were in the NICU they couldn't come to my room so I had to wait until 4pm to go to the NICU to check out my daughters. It was a very long day, but it was so worth it! Here are some pictures of when I got to meet them.

Andrew holding Emmalyn. Isn't she just perfect!

My hand next to Emmalyn. She's tiny, but she's doing great.

We weren't allowed to hold Adelyn because she was on oxygen. She swollowed some fluid during delivery so she needed some help breathing.

This is kind of a scary pic, but here I am with Emmalyn all bundled up

I am so thankful everyting went so great. The girls are doing great and I am thankful for their health. It has been a long 25 days, but they are getting stronger everyday and we are hopeful to take them home in the next week or two. I can't believe how much I love my little girls, it's crazy. I am so grateful to be so blessed. 


Well this post as gotten lengthy so I'll have to do another one with updates about the NICU so far. I also have some cute pictures I'll post with it.