The Big Day.

Well.... A day late, but we've been kinda busy.  Ultrasound yesterday didn't go as planned.  Baby A was measuring a healthy 4lb 15oz.  Baby B, however, had fallen into the 9th percentile, measuring at 4lb 9oz.  This is below the 10% percentile that is considered healthy.  She was also showing an elevated SD (systolic/diolic) ratio in the umbilical cord, basically its blood pressure.

Neither of those two conditions were significant enough to suggest that the babies were under any duress, but it was enough to suggest that the placenta is running out of resources to continue the pregnancy much longer.  At this stage of the game the risk of stillborn begins to go up so considering the early signs we were seeing it was time to go. 

The decision was made to move the c-section up to 10/29, today.

To say that Teri and I were a mess last night was an understatement.  Both of us pretty much just walked around like zombies trying to rush our lives into order.  We thought we were prepared, we thought wrong.  We did manage to get some sleep, but were up at 4 this morning and at the hospital at 5:30.  The whole prep experience was pretty routine.  The OR was a mad house.

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the whole procedure, amazing.  Did plenty of bs-ing with the surgeons, they had just as much of a sense of humor as I did.  I'm sure it probably wasnt a good idea to be making sex jokes when two people have their hands in your wife's uturus, but that's how I deal with stress, so whatever. 

Baby A was born first.  She came out with her lungs blazing, screaming something fierce.   I gave Teri a nod, she smiled.  She was cleaned up and put onto a table where a team of nurses stood around and observed. 

Baby B came next.  She did plenty of moving around, but the scream I was waiting for wasn't there.  She was taken to her own table where finally that beautiful scream echoed out.  It was probably only a few seconds, but it seemed like hours.  Teri got a second nod... our girls are here.

It was another 5 or so minutes before both babies were wrapped up and brought over to formally meet their parents.  Unfortunately it wasn't any more that a quick swing in to say 'hi' then 'bye'.  From there they were loaded into incubators a swept away to the NICU.

Next half hour, or however long it was, was spent stitching her up.  Then onto the recovery room.  Where we waited.....and waited.... and waited.   Over 2 hours of waiting.  2 hours of absolute Hell.  One nurse was kind enough to give us the babies weights, so we assumed everything was okay, but we had nothing to go by.  To make matters worse, they eventually wheeled two other moms into the recovery rooms, both had their babies with them.  Not to take their joy away from them, but it was torture for us to be in their hearing them talk to their babies while our were in some far off distant world. 

Our parents had been in the waiting room for over three hours, they were told 'an hour and a half or two'.  Friends and family whom I promised a call were left hanging.  I typed up several text messages and deleted them because no matter how I worded it, it left the answer everyone wanted to know, unanswered.  'How are the babies?'. We just didn't know. 

Finally, at about 11:00am a doctor came in.  The last time we saw our girls was 8:30.  The news we had been waiting for:   Baby A was doing great.  Lungs, heart, body heat.....everything was great, strong little girl.  Baby B, was doing very well.  The lungs weren't functioning as well as they could be so they had her on a breathing mask, but its completely normal and nothing to be worried about.  At that point, I was finally able to go up to the NICU and see them.

Beautiful little girls, button nose, the 'Beatty Toe', and the question everyone has been asking....what appears to be red hair (could be blonde, don't know for sure... For now we are going with red).

Eventually, Teri regained enough feeling in her feet from the spinal that she was able to be wheeled in her bed to meet them.  Its not worth it to describe the joy she had on her face.  Mom, dads, you already know what I'm talking about... X2.... those of you who have never experienced it, you just won't get it.  Didn't get to be a long stay but the nurses all pretty much reaffirmed what we already knew about how they were doing.

Since then its been back in the room.  Family has been in and out.  Ryley finally got to meet his baby sisters and he was beyond excited.  He couldn't contain himself, literally running from incubator to incubator, eyes bugged out of his head, smile ear to ear.  I was beside myself.  I knew he understood what was going on, but I never would have belived that he would have genuinely understood how wonderful of a thing just happened, and he certainly did.

Unfortunately for Teri, she wasn't permitted to see her daughters until she was able to get up and into a wheel chair.  And that just happened about two hours ago, around 8:00pm....nearly 12 hours after they were born.  I'd imagine that was torture for her, but she took it like a boss.

The two of us finally got a chance to see them.  At this visit, we got some great news.  Baby A has been doing phenoninal and will probably be going home fairly soon.  Baby B has been upgraded in her condition.  The decision was made to remove the breathing mask, they did so while we were there, and she is now all on her own.  They will also start feeding her.

When I say, 'fairly soon', I don't really know how long that will be.  When we talked to our specialst when the decision was made yesterday to deliver, he said probably 1-2 weeks.  The nurse in the NICU said they usually wait until full term, which for us would be 5 weeks.  When I told her what our doc said, she that it is absolutely possible especially considering how strong they are.  We were hopeful that they could go hone with us, it doesn't look like that will happen.  But we are certainlt grateful for how well they are doing.

So here we are, Teri is comfortable in her bed watching some TV, and tapping away on her phone.  I'm sprawled out on this reasonably comfortable fold our love seat.  After 8 months of anxiety, we are both finally feeling really good about how things are.  Looks like both of may actually get a couple hours of sleep.

Born at 35 weeks:
Zoey Lynn 3lbs 13oz, 16 1/2" at 8:09am
Nikki Irene 3lbs 15oz, 17 1/2" at 8:10am

I have plenty of pictures to share, but I made Teri a promise I wouldnt post any until we go a good picture of them together.  Hopefully, that won't be long.