Surprise!

Well this has been an eventful few weeks to say the least.  After being in the hospital on bed rest for a little over a month, I woke up on July 6th around 2:00 am to what I thought was a contraction.  Several minutes another one came, then another and I knew this was probably the real deal.  I paged my nurse and off we went to Labor and Delivery.  I hesitated to call B until I knew for sure it was true labor.........after being monitored for about 30 minutes, it was clear that it was.  So after getting arrangements made for McKenna with our sweet neighbors, he gets to the hospital about 3:30.  After a couple hours, the monitoring and prepping was complete and it was time to meet our boys!

Since my first appointment after finding out we were pregnant, I had been a little nervous about having a c-section delivery.  Just the thought of being cut open while being awake is a little freaky.  But since it's the quickest and least stressful birth for twins, I knew it was my only option and I had no choice but to do a lot of  "It's OK, tons of women go through it" talk in my head.  

The dreaded (but at same time anticipated) words "OK, we're ready to wheel you back" came.  What a different experience it was from M's birth!  People who say that you lose all modesty when you give birth have NO idea!  There were a minimum of 12 people in the room at all times; each baby had a 3-4 person "team" assigned to them, plus my doctor, 2 anesthesiologists and a nurse or two for me.  From the time I was in the OR and prepped to go, the entire process took about 15 minutes until I was getting closed right back up.  It was unreal - the boys were just 2 minutes apart.  

After they made their arrival, they were quickly assessed and taken up to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).  Of course Brandon followed them upstairs while the doctor finished up with me.  They were born a little before 6am and I didn't get to hold Garrett until that evening.  I couldn't hold Cooper until several days later.  It's a little depressing not having any contact with your new baby when they are born.  Of course B made sure and snapped a few pictures of them to show me.  

The evening they were born, my nurse took me on a stretcher to see them.  Man, the NICU is an intimidating place.  There are bells and whistles going off constantly, then you see your tiny babies laying there helpless with tubes and wires connected to their noses, mouths, feet and everywhere else.  At first glance, it takes your breath away.  When I was first admitted to the hospital, I ordered a book titled The Preemie Parent's Guide to the NICU since I knew they would be coming quite a bit earlier than planned.  Although it was an extremely thorough and helpful book, nothing could have prepared me for actually going through those doors for the first time.  

Without going into detail about each baby, we had a total of 11 days in the NICU with varying degrees of ventilators, CPAP machines, problems and triumphs.  The boys "graduated" to the Special Care Nursery, which is an intermediate-type nursery and is the next step to coming home.  Thank God both little guys are doing extremely well and growing stronger every day.  Now they are just working on eating and growing as much as possible before we bring them home.  After they are able to take all 8 feedings through a bottle they will be released.  We still have a ways to go but hopefully by my originally scheduled c-section date, they will be home.  

After two months, I won't quite know how to react to our entire family finally being under one roof....maybe a "party at my crib", say 2 am??