Yet Another Update

The girls are both doing fabulous! I haven't updated my blog because Kylee went back on Nasal Canula 2 nights ago, and it seems as though every time I update this damn thing, and write that she is back on Nasal Cannula she ends up back on CPAP in a matter of hours. So if she goes back on CPAP we can all blame Marcy (because she was begging for an update)! So far so good though, she is tolerating it well and doesn't seem to be working too hard to breath like she had in the past.

Kylee is now up to a Full Feeding (27ml every 3 hours), so she no longer needs any IV fluids! That is a HUGE step, and it is one of the criteria she had to meet in order to go home. Within the next couple of weeks they will start her on a bottle and practice breast feeding. We will see how that goes.

Kaylyn on the other hand is in no hurry to get to her Full feedings. She is at 7ml every 3 hours, but she is still on the continuous feeds. They gave her a suppository today, so hopefully that will clean things out. Kaylyn is down to 1lpm of oxygen now, so she is really close to breathing on her own.

We are getting there....slowly but surely. I am hopeful that things continue in this direction. Sorry Marcy, I don't have their current weights, but I do know that they are gaining weight. I will try and do better on the exact figures in the next blog update!

Monochorionic Diamniotic

Yesterday the pathology report came back from the "Products of Birth", and it found that my girls were Mono-chorionic (which means there was only 1 placenta), and Di-amniotic (which means there were 2 separate amniotic sacs). That being said, and the fact that they both have the same blood type, and because the membrane that separated them in utero was so tiny it is looking like they are probably identical. You have to have a DNA test to know for sure (which I plan on doing when they get home), but chances are they are identical. I can't wait to see when they get a little older if they look the same or not. I still have not had the chance to see them side by side, and it is really hard to tell by looking in one isolette and comparing it to the other. By looking at pictures though, I would say they look a lot alike.

The nurse had asked us to bring in some onsies for the girls to wear in preparation for the transition from the isolette into an open crib. I went to babies R us yesterday, and could not find preemie onsies anywhere! So I just brought in some of the newborn onsies I had at home. Kristi made some adorable ones with their names on them, so those were perfect! Perfect except for the fact that they are HUGE on them. Their days of eternal nakedness has come to an end. Even though they are a little big, it is nice to see them dressed. They look much more human. It was really cute.

Kaylyn now weighs 3lbs 6oz, and is on continuous feeding. That means that there is a pump feeding the milk to her 24 hours a day (It breaks down to 1ml every hour), rather than getting 3mls every 3 hours. For some reason her gut did not want to digest big amount at one time. So far the continuous feeds seem to be working, she has not had any residual and is tolerating it well. She is such a mellow baby. She opens her eyes and looks around, but she never cries. People poke and prod her and she just looks at them like "what are you doing in my little house dude?", but she doesn't really care. She's just going with the flow.

Kylee is now up to 3lbs 1oz, and is up to 12ml of milk every 3 hours, and is tolerating it well (She's getting a lot more because she was tolerating it better). Even though she is still on CPAP and struggling a little bit respiratory wise, she is kicking butt on the feedings. There was talk about possible taking her off of CPAP today, but it all depends on how she is doing at the time. She hates it so much, and it makes her a little fussy. I can't blame her though, I wouldn't want a huge plastic horn tied to my face either.

Not much else has changed in regards to their status, which is a good thing. We are making progress slowly but surely. It is hard to believe that they are already over 3 weeks old. They are both so incredible and I love them so much!

The Roller Coaster Continues

Both of the girls are doing fine, with minor set backs here and there.

Last night Kylee had to go back on CPAP (for what seems like the 100th time...) because once again she was working a little too hard to breath. In talking with her nurse the only solution to this problem (her going back and forth from CPAP to Nasal Canula) is time. She needs to get bigger and stronger. Its so hard as a parent to watch them have to take steps backwards when they are doing so well. Other than the breathing issue, Kylee is doing great. She is tolerating her feedings and she is gaining weight. Kylee weighed 2lbs 10oz at birth, and as of yesterday she was at 2lbs 15oz.

Kaylyn got her Lasix on Wednesday afternoon, and so far it seems to have helped her out quite a bit. She is not working nearly as hard to breath, and she looks a lot more comfortable. She has also started tolerating her feedings (finally!), and is gaining weight. Kaylyn weighted 3lbs 1oz at birth and she is now up to 3lbs 3oz.

The nurses in the NICU adore the girls. They even fight over who gets them . They are very animated little babies and make all kinds of faces all the time. Its really cute. They really don't cry all that much, usually only when they have to go back to bed after being held. They don't even mind getting their diaper changed. They really are good little girls.

These last couple of months feel like years, and I still have at least 2 more months to go. I know that it will all be worth it when I get to bring my beautiful girls home, it just feels infinitely far away...

Update on the Girls

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted an update! I really have no excuse besides the fact that I have not been in the mood. Really not much has changed since Saturday, which is a good thing!

Kylee was taken off of her CPAP on Tuesday and is now breathing with a Nasal Cannula. She seems to be tolerating it well for now, so we will see how she does.

Both of the girls were started back on Feedings on Monday. Kylee is doing well with her feeds, and has steadily increased the amount she is getting each day. Kaylyn was having some digestion issues, so they ran some tests to make sure everything looked OK. All the tests came back fine. Sometimes I have to remind myself that their little bodies were not designed to eat for another 3 months. Slowly but surely we will get there!

Today Kaylyn had another cardiac ultrasound, and it still showed that her PDA (the open valve in her heart) was still open. So they did a chest X-Ray and that showed that she is retaining some fluid around her lungs. The neonatologist was thinking it could be due to the PDA, so he had the cardiologist come over from children's hospital to check her out. The cardiologist said that he does not feel that she needs to have the surgery just yet. Since it is small, he still wants to try and treat it with medicine, since the surgery would be a huge step back. So for now, they are going to give her Lasix to try and remove the fluid around her lungs. So lets hope that works, and this damn PDA will close already!!

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same. They both continue to gain weight, and are doing well. They are very strong, and are doing better and better each day. I am ready to bring them home already!!!!

Two whole Weeks Old Already!

It is hard to believe but the girls are already 2 weeks old. Today I brought their NICU nurses cookies to celebrate!

The girls are both doing well. Kylee had to go back on CPAP yesterday for her breathing. She was working a little too hard, and they wanted to give her a break. They said that they are going to leave it on for 72 hours, and then they will try her on the cannula again. These up's and down's are really hard, but its all part of the territory. Other than that minor hiccup she is doing really well. We did the Kangaroo Care thing yesterday, and this time she didn't scream the whole time, so maybe she doesn't hate me...

Kaylyn is pretty much the same, but no news is good news. She just got her last dose of medicine to close the valve in her heart this morning, so tomorrow they will do another cardiac ultrasound to see if it finally closed. Hopefully, this time the medicine worked and we can be done with this whole issue. I did Kangaroo care with her today, and she loved it. She definitely was not a happy camper when she had to go back to bed.

My little girls are so amazing, and I am so lucky to be their Mommy. I just want to bring them home already so they can go on their first desert trip. Things are pretty much the same, which is good. Daddy says slow and steady wins the race!

I just took a percocet and now I fully intend on passing out!

I would have been 30 Weeks Preggo Today

The girls are now 13 days old, and have made tremendous progress in such a little time. Every day I just love them more and more, and I can't wait to bring them home.

Kylee is back on the Nasal Cannula and doing well. However, I decided that she hates me. I tried to do Kangaroo care with her yesterday for the first time and she just was not having it. She screamed the whole time (not her cute little kitten cry-but a scream). So I put her back to bed, and her nurse tried to start and IV in her foot, and she didn't even flinch. Its a great feeling knowing my daughter would rather be stuck by a needle, than have me hold her. We will try to Kangaroo today, and maybe she will like it better this time. Kylee is up to 9ml of breast milk every 3 hours. They will keep increasing it until she is at a full feeding (that could take a while because a full feeding is about 23ml's)

Kaylyn on the other hand is all about Kangaroo care. She is so cozy being cuddled up with me, she seems to love it. We got the results back from her cardiac ultrasound, and her valve is still open in her heart. It is small, and she is not having any symptoms, so they are going to try another round of medicine and hopefully this time it will do the trick. She is doing so well, that they Dr said he hates to send her to surgery because that would be a step backwards in her progress, and since it doesn't seem to be affecting her too much we are gonna sit on it a while longer and hope it closes. Unfortunately, when she is on this medicine, they have to stop her feedings because the medicine upsets her tummy. So she will not start feeding again until Sunday. I'm OK with that, I would much rather have her take this medicine and close the valve, and work on the feedings later.

My little girls are so amazing. They are incredibly strong, and I am really hoping that their progress continues without many regressions. The less bumps in the road, means the sooner they will be able to come home. Today they are both going to have a follow up ultrasound of their heads, just to make sure everything is good. So far all of their head ultrasounds have been normal, so I am hoping this one is to.

Its hard to believe that they will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. It has been the fastest longest 2 weeks of my life.

They're Starting to Grow into their Skin

When the girls were born, they looked like little old ladies-so much skin, and not enough fat to fill it! They were quite wrinkly. But in the last couple of days they have both been consistently putting on weight, and they are starting to fill it out...a little bit!

Both of the girls are continuing to do really well. Kaylyn is still on the Nasal Cannula for breathing, and Kylee had to be put back on CPAP last night. She was working a little to hard to breath, so they did it as a precautionary measure. The one thing I really don't like about the CPAP is that it makes her little eyes swell up and she can't open them. It makes me sad.

They both have all of their Belly Button lines out now. This means that we can hold both of them now!! Yesterday, Keith held Kylee and I held Kaylyn for over 2 hours. We would have switched, but its really hard and inconvenient with all of their wires and everything that is attached to them. So we will switch today.

Kylee is now being fed 5ml of breast milk every 3 hours, and Kaylyn is at 2ml every 3 hours. We are still having little problems with digestion, but yesterday they both got suppositories and they pooped so hopefully that cleaned out the plumbing to help things along.

The only things that remains to linger is Kaylyn's PDA in her heart. The valve still has not shut entirely. The Dr.'s are going to continue to monitor it. But since it is so small, and she is asymptomatic, they are choosing not to send her to childrens for the surgical ligation to close it for now. She is going to have another Cardiac Ultrasound today, so hopefully it will show it closed on its own.

I'm not gonna lie, my girls are the cutest kids in the NICU! I love them so much!! We are hoping the good progress continues.

Kangaroo Care :)

Both of the girls are doing remarkably well. I am just hoping that we continue on this forward path, and our steps backwards are kept to a minimum.

Both of the girls are now off of CPAP, and on a Nasal Cannula. They both seem to be doing really well with it. They just put Kylee on it last night so we will see how she does.

On Sunday they removed Kaylyn's arterial line in her belly button, so we are now allowed to hold her. Isn't it crazy that the first time I got to hold my daughter was when she was 8 days old! I think its been the longest 8 days of my life. Yesterday was the first time Keith and I both got to do Kangaroo Care with Kaylyn. Kangaroo care is when you put the baby under your shirt on your chest. The skin to skin contact is really good for the baby. It was awesome!!

They were talking about taking out Kylee's arterial line last night, but her latest blood gas was a little borderline, so they are going to wait until the morning and do another gas, and if its good then they will take it out. I cannot wait to be able to do Kangaroo care with her. Its really hard when you get to do some things with one baby and not the other. I know, I know I just have to be patient...

Everything else is good. They are both gaining weight and now being fed 2ml of breast milk every 3 hours. They are not digesting as well as we would like, but we are making progress. Premature babies tummies are often not mature enough to process and digest food right away. Some times it takes a few tries, and that is where we are at.

I started driving again today. Usually you are supposed to wait 2 to 4 weeks, but I talked to my Dr and she said as long as I am not on pain medicine I can drive. It was really nice to get my freedom back, even if my freedom consists of driving back and forth from the hospital. It is just nice to not have to depend on someone else to get me there, I hate being a burden.

Everyday I am one day closer to bringing my babies home!! I cannot wait...

One Week Down

Well, as of yesterday the girls are officially one week old. They are doing well, and we are seeing progress in the right direction, but we still have a very long road ahead of us.

Yesterday was a big day for both Kylee and Kaylyn. They both had Cardiac Ultrasounds done to check on their PDA's (the valve that had not closed in their heart at birth). Kylee's is completely closed, and the ultrasound tech said if Kaylyn's was any smaller it would be closed. So for now, they are just going to watch Kaylyn but she does not have to go to children's for surgery as of yet so that is good news. I am guessing they will do a repeat ultrasound in a couple of days.

The results from the Brain Scan that they did on Friday came back, and they are both Normal. I am so thankful for that!!

They both got PICC lines (permanent IV's) placed in their arms today, and this time the PA was successful. This allowed them to take out their UVC (Venus Line) line in both of their belly buttons. All that is left is their UAC (Arterial Line) in their belly button to be removed, and then we should be able to hold them. If everything goes well, they should remove the UAC in a couple of days, or possibly sooner.

On Friday Kaylyn decided she was going to try and give me a heart attack. Not 5 minutes after I got to the hospital, she decided she didn't want to be intubated anymore, and she pulled out her own breathing tube! Luckily the nurse was standing right there and noticed she did it and a whole team of people were at her bedside in seconds. She did turn a little blue, but only for a second until they started bagging her. They decided to go ahead and try CPAP and see how she would do. She has now been on CPAP for over a day and is doing excellent. She's definitely my child, she is already making her own medical decisions at 6 days old! Today her billiruben (sp?) were a little elevated again, so they decided to put her back under the blue lights to keep everything under control. Hopefully, she will not have to be under them for too long because she does not like them.

I just called and spoke with Kylee's nurse, and apparently tonight they had to put her back on the CPAP machine because she was having to work a little harder to breath. She was also a little anemic, so they gave her another blood transfusion. I know that the NICU road has lots of up's and down's, but it is so hard when your kid is doing so well to watch them take a step back. Other than those issues tonight, she has been doing really well and maintaining. Hopefully they will put her back on her Nasal Cannula soon, but I am not in a hurry. I want her to be able to breath comfortably.

So we already have one week down! My life has changed so much in the last week... I love my little girls so much and I can't wait to bring them home with me!! My body is already preparing itself for their homecoming, its 4:30 in the morning and Im awake. Insomnia is rad!

Would have been 29 Weeks Today

Even though I am not pregnant anymore, they still age the girls based on gestational weeks, so today I would have been 29 weeks pregnant.

So pretty much the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life was drive away from the hospital on Wednesday when I was discharged. I was a mess. I am sorry if you have called and I have not called you back. Pretty much my life consists of sleeping, pumping, or being at the girls bedside. Please do not take it personally.

The girls continue to improve, but there are a couple lingering issues. They both still have the PDA, which is the opening of the valve in their heart. Kaylyn finished her first round of medication, and the follow up cardiac ultrasound yesterday revealed that the duct was still open. So they started her on her second round of medicine yesterday. Kylee finished her first round of medicine last night, and they plan on doing her follow up cardiac ultrasound today. Keep you fingers crossed that it closed! Once she is off the this medicine, she should be able to start eating, and that would be awesome! Initially, they would be feeding her through a tube that goes directly into her stomach, but hopefully it wouldn't be long until she could start on a bottle.

Both of the girls have a follow up Brain Scan today to ensure that they do not have a head bleed. We should have the results from that test either today or tomorrow.

Kylee continues to do very well with just her nasal cannula for her breathing. When she cries it sounds like a little kitten. It is heart wrenching when she gets upset, and all I want to do it pick her up and I can't. I have to leave her in her incubator and watch her suffer. They tried to place a picc line (long-term IV) last night, and the dumb PA missed it 3 times. I'm not a big fan of her practicing her skills on my 2lb baby. So they are going to try again soon to get that line. Once they have the picc line established, they will be taking out her arterial belly button line, and then we should be able to hold her. She has taken to a pacifier really well, and it seems to sooth her quite nicely.

Kaylyn is still intubated, and they probably won't extubate until her PDA is closer to being closed. She is doing well though. Her PDA is also causing some metabolic problems, and they have to correct some of it with medicine. Hopefully, once the duct closes things will improve greatly. Despite not being able to eat, somehow she managed to gain 2oz. yesterday, which is really good. She is going to be our little porker. We still have not have the opportunity to hold her, and I cannot wait for that moment.

All things considered, we are holding up OK. I'm not gonna lie, its the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I am just so thankful they are both doing OK, and hopefully we continue to move in a forward direction. The girls are already 6 days old, so we are almost a week into this. Soon it will all be a memory. Well, I'm off to the hospital now. Keith's grandma is giving me a ride since I still cannot drive. I will update as soon as I get a chance.

Update on our Little Miracles

It is hard to believe that it has been about 3 1/2 days since I gave girth to the girls. They both are already making steps towards coming home. It is really important to keep in mind that a stay in the NICU is equivalent to a roller coaster ride. There are many ups and downs. When there is a regression the baby will have to return to a previously achieved status, and work their way back once again. Kind of the 2 steps forward and 1 day back thought process.

The nurses have made it very clear to get used to the idea that one twin will be going home sooner than the other. They are 2 different people and are going to progress at different rates. With that in mind, we will discuss the girls progress thus far...

Kylee, who was born the smaller twin is doing extremely well. They say that the smaller twin often times does better, because it is already used to fighting for survival in the womb. When fighting for position and size, it causes the baby to release natural steroids and endorfins that allow the baby to be very strong at birth. Kylee was extubated on Sunday, and then yesterday they removed her CPAP breathing machine and she is now breathing on her own with the assistance of a Nasal Canula oxygen mask. She has tolerated the nasal canula very well, and her oxygen saturation remains good. Keith got to hold her Monday for the first time, and we both got a chance to hold her yesterday. She had to remain on all of her monitors, but it was so amazing to have her next to us. She also practiced sucking on a pacifier. Sucking, amazingly enough is a very advanced skill that most full-term babies dont learn until around 35 weeks. She did very well though.

Kaylyn has had a little more difficulty in the airway area. She remains on a ventilator. They tried to extubate her on Monday because she was fighting her tube very hard. She was able to maintain on the CPAP machine, but did not excel. She was working very hard to continue to breath, and had a lot of chest retraction with every breath. To avoid her working too hard and going in to full respiratory depression, they replaced the breathing tube early Tuesday morning. They are possibly going to try to extubate her again today. It is hard to keep in mind that even though she is progressing a little more slowly, that she is right where she should be for a 28 week old preemie infant.

Both of the girls had a ultrasound on their brain done on Monday. The radiologist read the results as negative for any head bleeds. The girls' neonatologist had a more "inconclusive" results, and did not like the quality of the study and felt he could not come to any certain conclusions. He did say that neither one of them have a bleed in the normal spot they find head bleeds in preemies. They are going to repeat the test in 5 days, so we will have more answers then, but right now we don't have reason to worry. That too could change.

On Tuesday, they did a cardiac echo on each of the girls (ultrasound of the heart). There is a valve in the heart that is supposed to close at birth, but often times with premature babies this valve does not close on its own and medicine has to be administered. Kylee's valve seems to have closed nearly all the way on its own, which is probably why she is having a more successful time being off the ventilator. Kaylyn's valve remains open most of the way, so they started her on the medicine to help it close. They are going to repeat this test in a couple of days, and see if any progress was made. This valve is extremely important to be able to move forward with any airway progress. Also they cannot start feeding until the Dr.'s ensure this issue has been taken care of.

I never thought I would be so elated to change a diaper! One of the hardest things about the whole NICU environment has been the inability to do all of the maternal things most mothers of newborns get to encounter. Right now, I can take their temperature, change their diapers, and pump milk for them for when they are allowed to start feedings. I have not even been able to kiss them as of yet, and that kills me. I am just taking things one step at a time, and reminding myself how lucky I am to have these precious girls.

At this point, every little victory is such a miracle. I cannot wait until I get to hold both of them in my arms (We have yet to have the opportunity to hold Kaylyn). Most of the nurses are reluctant to let you hold until their aterial line in their belly button is removed. If for some reason this line got yanked out, it would be very detrimental.

They are so perfect to me, and I am so lucky to have 2 beautiful little girls. I am confident that though its going to be a long road, we are going to prevail victoriously. One day, this whole NICU stay will all be a memory. I will try to keep this updated, but its going to be really hard. They are releasing me from the hospital later on today, so I am going to have to come up with a schedule to see and feed the girls, so I will be coming and going back and forth quite a bit.

Please keep us in your thoughts. Our hope is that this NICU stay is as short as possible, but realistically they probably won't be home until around their due date which is December 28th. Thanks so much for everything. Everyone's support has been amazing, there are not even words to describe it. Well, I must go down to the NICU now to see the girls!

Daddy changing his first Diaper on Kaylyn

Kylee

Kylee

Kaylyn

Newest Additions to the Naylor Family

Here is the story of how it all went down....

As most of you know I was admitted to the hospital for Bedrest at 25weeks 1 day for Pre-Term labor, funneled membranes, and cervical dilation. While in the hospital they had me on Mag, Niphedipine, Terbutaline, and Endocin to stop the contractions and try and prevent the girls from coming too early.

Well my girls are determined, and yesterday morning my contractions came on really strong despite all the medications they had given me. My dr. did a cervical exam around 1300 and determined I was 4cm dilated and she could feel Baby A's (Kylee) Head. At that point they were going to still try and control the labor but it wasn't looking good. Kylee also had some questionable hear decelerations, and they were watching that very closely. Any signs of fetal distress and they were going to take the girls out immediately.

At 1330 I called Keith at work and told him he should probably get down to the hospital. Luckily, he had just finished a call and was offloading a patient at a nearby hospital, so he was able to come over right away. By the time he got here they were shipping me directly down to the OR. My contractions hadn't let up, Kylee was still having decel's, and they did not want to chance the labor progressing any more on its own. Keith had to scrub up in his work uniform.

At 1442 on October 6, 2007 Kylee Anne was born. She weighed 2lbs 10oz and was 15 inches long. Her sister Kaylyn Marie followed at 1443, and she weighed in at 3lbs 1 oz. also 15 inches long. Since they were still very much so premature, Keith didn't get the opportunity to cut the cord. Neither one of them was breathing or crying. They quickly and swiftly sent them off to get resuscitated and stabilized, and then to the NICU.

Keith got to go with the girls during this journey, so it was nice to know that their daddy was with them. It was however, what seemed like FOREVER until I got an update that they were doing well. They recovered me in PACU for about 2 hours before taking me up to my room. On my way to the room we stopped by the NICU and I got to see my little Twincess' for the first time myself. Keith just could not stop repeating how perfect they were and how beautiful they are.

They were both doing considerably well for their gestation upon arrival in the NICU. Thankfully, I had gotten Steroid shots when I was originally admitted into the hospital, and they gave me a booster about 2 hours before I delivered, so that helped tremendously with their lung development. Within just a couple hours, they had started weaning both girls off the ventilator. Kylee had to have a blood transfusion last night due to a low hematocrit level. And they have both had to have some supplementation of electrolytes (i.e. calcium, potassium etc...) to keep their levels at a normal rate, which apparently is very common with Preemies.

Yesterday they had already extubated Kylee, and she is doing quite well. They say Kaylyn is still pretty dependent on her ventilator and it could be a couple of days before she is extubated, but they are slowly weaning her off of it. They both are stable at this point, and look great.

I am doing good as well. I was up and walking around within hours of the c-section. It is amazing how motivated you are to get out of bed when, A-you have been on strict hospital bedrest for 3 weeks, and B-you have 2 beautiful girls in the NICU to go see.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and support. We have a long road ahead of us, but I am very optimistic!!

Kylee

Kaylyn

28 Weeks!!

Yay!! We made it to our first big Milestone of 28 weeks!! Another Non-Birthday has arrived!! This is huge because it is the time when a lot of the significant risks and complications associated with preemies disappear. My Dr says they have close to 100% viability and over 80% GOOD viability at this point, so that is tremendously better odds than what we were looking at when we started this Pre-Term labor adventure at 25 weeks. Hosital Bedrest is paying off!!!

Last night was much better. I was actually able to get some sleep. It is amazing what a difference a little sleep makes! However, this morning my contractions started up again, and this time they were more painful than ever. I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but seriously these contractions made me want to curl up into a ball and disappear. They had to give me my Contraction Shot of Turbutaline (that's the one I hate because it makes me feel like a crack head), and even that didn't take the edge off. Luckily, they just started to die down on their own for now.

So much for being first on the list to be scanned this morning. My Dr. came in and immediately she had to do an emergency C-Section. She just came back and told me it would probably be sometime this afternoon because she has 2 procedures scheduled for this morning. I am sooo ready to just get it over with!!

I know, I know, this whole experience is a lesson on Patience. Everyone knows that I am the princess of instant gratification. I truly believe that this whole experience is to teach me the critical parenting skill of Patience. And you know, it just might be working.

That's all for now. I will update with the results from the scan!

Sleep Is Over-rated Anyway!

Last night was a really long night, I think I managed to get a total of 30 min of sleep the whole night. Maybe its practice for when I bring my newborn twins home! Regardless, it sucked and now I am going to be tired all day.

My contractions started getting really bad yesterday around 4pm or so. So they did they usual dose of Niphedipine, which did nothing. The contractions continued to increase in quantity so they called the Dr and they increased my magnesium, which did nothing. So I am still contracting at about 12 an hour and I am only allowed 6 an hour. I miss the contractions that I could not feel! I can definitely feel these contractions, and it is not fun!! So I guess I will have to wait until the Dr. makes rounds today to figure out what the heck they are going to do.

All of this contraction action was not helped by the fact that I really did not care for my nurse tonight. She kept coming in and wanting to put the babies on the heart monitor. I told her that I don't want to irritate my uterus any more than it already was, and I wanted to wait until my contractions were under control. I can feel the babies move, I am sure they are fine. She got a little huffy with me and explained her "Clinical Perspective" again...and again. And I explained my "Motherly Perspective"-that I don't want 2 plastic dopplers being pressed and angled against my uterus when I am contracting the way that I am! If my girls were good at going on the monitor, and they could set the doppler down and that was that, it would be a different story. No, my girls HATE this game and fight it tooth and nail. Yesterday afternoon it took over 3 hours to get them on the monitor, and I am not about to have by uterus bothered and probed for 3 hours when its contacting the way it is on its own.

So...Ugh! Just a long, long night. I am going to try and get a little sleep before I get bombarded by the day crew nurses. Sorry if this blog has a grumpy tone, I am not in the best of moods, as if you couldn't tell!

Disapointed...

I'm so frustrated!! First my Dr said that she was going to scan the babies and re-measure my cervix on Monday, then it was pushed back to today, and now she just canceled for today at 7:00pm! To top it off, she is not rescheduling until Friday or Sunday. I just wish she hadn't told me she was going to do it today, and then I wouldn't be so disappointed. When you lay in bed all day, there is little else to think about, and worry about for that matter. I am just a little ticked about the whole thing.

They ended my dose of Endocin last night, because you can only be on it for a 48 hour period and ever since my contractions have been out of control. I am really starting to feel them, and they are becoming painful. I'm hoping they will calm down soon!

Overall today has been a long day. Much of the day was spent in anticipation for the scan, of course followed by disappointment. I really just want to go to sleep and they aren't even putting the babies on the heart monitor until 9:30 and they have to stay on for an hour…

Oh yeah, my cell phone is on the brink of death. It officially is pretty much out of commission. I did order a new phone, but it won't be here for a couple days so if you need to get a hold of me call me at the hospital. I hope my new phone gets here soon!

Hopefully tomorrow will be better! I'm over this day!

Another Day

We made it through another day! Nothing really exciting to report. Dr. G didn't have time to scan the girls yesterday, so she scheduled me for the growth scan tomorrow afternoon. I believe that is when she will also re-measure my cervix, so we should be able to see if anything has changed in that regard.

The girls really feel like they are getting bigger to me. I can feel body parts now when they move around. As of yesterday Kylee was vertex (head down) at my cervix, and Kaylyn was transverse (sideways) across my ribs. Surprisingly, they still have quite a bit of room left in there. Their kicks are also getting a lot stronger, and they are mastering the "rolling" motion, which is totally weird to me. It trips me out to see this baby rolling across my belly, it is the oddest sensation. It is very reassuring that they are so active through. They say that fetal activity is the best indicator of fetal well-being.

My phone charger is on the fritz, and my phone has been dead or not cooperating, so I apologize if I have not answered or returned your calls. The only way I can get it to charge is if I manually sit there and hold it in a particular spot and even then it doesn't even always work. I am going to have to get a new one, but I am due for an upgraded phone so maybe I should just do that. I don't know, I will get it figured out. But I am sorry in the meantime.

Our friends Howard and Arlene had mentioned the girls at their prayer group when I got admitted here, and their church decided to do a prayer quilt for the girls. Apparently how it works is that every time someone says a prayer for the girls, they tie a knot on the quilt. I thought this was such a cool idea! I guess it was finished over the weekend and Silvia picked it up yesterday, but I have not gotten to see it yet. I can't wait, I think its going to be great!

Everything else has been fine. My contractions have seemed to have mellowed out for the time being, I am not even feeling the allowed 6 an hour that I had been in the past. So that is really good. Keith has had the last 2 days off, so it has been really nice to spend some time with him. He had been working so much I really hadn't seen him much at all.

We are getting closer and closer to the HUGE 28 week Milestone!! Only 3 more days!! I will let you know how the growth scan goes tomorrow. I am a tid-bit anxious about it, but I suppose it goes with the territory. I will be worrying for the rest of these girls lives!

We're Still Pregnant

The last couple of days have been very hard on me emotionally, so I haven't really been in the mood to blog. It is getting harder and harder to lay in this bed 24 hours a day. It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. Of course, I know it is what my girls need right now and that is why I am doing it, but I am still human...

Yesterday morning they had to give me 3 contraction medications because they were so out of control. They had me on Magnesium (the one I have been on since I got here), then they decided to start Endocin (its a 48 dose of contraction meds), and I had still had more than the allowed amount of contractions in an hour (6 an hour). I think I had like 12 one hour or something so they had to give me the Niphedipine. Since they have started the Endocin, I don't feel as many of them but I am not sure if that is good or bad, but hopefully good.

Then yesterday afternoon when they were doing the babies heart monitoring, Kylee's arrhythmia came back, and you could totally hear it. So again, I started to get extremely worried. The nurses paged the Dr., and the Dr. on call for the day said that he wasn't going to take care of it, he was going to leave it for Dr. Gerstenfeld (the Dr. that admitted me), but he was going to recommend a fetal echo test. Well this pissed me off because who knows when the next day that Dr. G is on, it could be several days, and what if something was wrong with my baby. So then I proceeded to get more anxious and get myself worked up. It wasn't good, but I eventually calmed down. It didn't help that Keith was gone and I was here by myself, and with everything else-I was just was mess.

Last time she had this arrhythmia it corrected itself by the next monitoring session Well, I think the girls just wanted me to worry some more because when they came in later that evening to do the baby monitoring, her arrhythmia was definitely still present. And of course I freaked out again, but the nurses wouldn't do anything this time because the on-call Dr. had already been made aware. They told me I had to wait for Dr. G.

Thankfully, Dr. G came in to see me first thing this morning. She reassured me that they see these arrhythmia's all the time and 99.9% are benign and will resolve themselves by birth or shortly thereafter. She also talked of re-measuring the babies and my cervix today, since today is the 2 week mark of my admission into this hospital. I think I would rather have these measurements taken care of today because Keith is here today, and I seem to do a lot better when he is around.

So the girls gave me quite a weekend, but thankfully we are still pregnant and that is what matters, and that is the whole reason that we are here (even as hard as it is) I feel so out of control of my own life, and all of you that know me-know that doesn't fly with me. But I am learning to adjust, and I am learning to be patient.