Friday, December 17, 2010

We have babies!

Juliette Kim and Tucker Christian were born on 12/15/10 at 33 weeks gestation.  Jules was 4lbs15oz and Tuck was 4lbs5oz.  They are stable and in the NICU but not where we want them to be just yet.  Their lungs were very immature, so they have a breathing tube in and it doesn't look like it's coming out anytime soon for either of them.  Please pray for our babies.  I will do my long version of my birth (c section) story when I'm not so pooped.
                                          
         Tucker Christian (Tuck)

Juliette Kim (Jules)

Monday, December 6, 2010

A trip to Labor and Delivery

First off, just let me say this.  This pregnancy has been "fairly" uneventful and I'm very thankful for that. You have to understand though, that even the smallest things set me off because we tried so hard and went to such great lengths for these babies.
  I've had two bleeding scares at the beginning and went in for an u/s each time feeling doomed.  Thursday was my second trip to Labor and Delivery.  Last time was at about 26 weeks for contractions that were 5 minutes apart for an hour to an hour and a half.  By the time I got to L&D they were few and far between.
  This time I was having panic attacks or "anxiety attacks" as the nurse was calling them, along with contractions.  My blood pressure is borderline high and has been for the past month so they are looking at the possibility of pre-eclampsia, but my urine samples have been clean so that's great.  My baseline blood pressure is 120/70-80 and it's been running mid 130's/mid 80's.  I had trace protein in my urine, but it was most probably from being dehydrated.  My cervix was high, but dilated a fingertip which the OB said was fine, but still makes me worried that these contractions are doing something.
  It's too early for babies to make an entrance.  They need at least 4-5 more weeks for no NICU time.  I do, admittedly stress out way too much, but I can't help myself.  It's mostly about the babies and the logistics, some about other things.  I've always been quite a worrier.  The nurses and OB told me to "just relax" which is easy for them to say.
  I put my feet up as much as I can with Ella running around, I hardly ever go to the store anymore (only when we are in desperate need of milk and bread) and Adam has been taking care of a good deal of the housework.  Sleep is very hard lately, but I think that's too be expected this late in pregnancy.  I do believe though, a lot of my sleep deprivation is not being able to shut my mind down at night.  It's when I do the majority of my thinking.  So I have started trying to practice "good sleep hygiene" as my OB likes to call it.  No tv, word games, or reading in bed.  Bed is for sleeping and that's it.  It's not working, but I'll keep trying for a while.
  Contractions still come about every 5-10 minutes at night and are fairly painful, but my threshold is about 2 hours of that, then I will go back to L&D.  The nurses are sooooo nice, so I don't feel uncomfortable going in.  Here's to hoping that there are no more trips to the hospital for a while!