Update on the twins....and other stuff.

Wow, has it been a month already? It seems like a lifetime yet like no time has passed at all since I've had these two little babies. So much has happened, yet they are still in the hospital so it seems like we've been stuck at the same stage forever. Jane and Kate are both healthy and gaining weight like crazy. Jane weighs 6lbs. 13 oz. and Kate weighs 6lbs. 11 oz. That's 2 lbs these guys have gained. You would think that with that awesome weight gain they could come home. Well, the hold up is their eating. Since they were premature, they hadn't developed the skill of sucking, swallowing, and breathing at the same time. It is also very exhausting for them to eat, so they fall asleep easily and sleep for hours after each feeding. So I had to start feeding them twice a day is all. I would drive down to Provo twice a day and feed them. We weighed them before and after each feeding so we would know how much they had eaten. With a bottle it's easy to see how much they eat but not with nursing. So that's how they do it. The first time I nursed them, the scale said they burned more calories than they ate. It was pretty depressing but only left room for improvement.

It's been a long process. We did 2 feedings a day for about 1 1/2 weeks. We moved on to 3 feedings and stayed there for about 2 weeks. Thursday we started adding a 4th feeding. They did pretty well but got really exhausted, so we were figuring we would be there a while too. Today they are doing 4 feedings and have two times where I nurse them back to back. Usually we would do a feeding in between where they are fed through a tube in their nose to get a break. Now we are seeing if they have enough stamina to get 2 feedings from me in a row.
Anyway, it has been a very long and exhausting process for all of us. I get up to pump every 3 hours...or so I'm supposed to. I'm at the hospital early in the morning and late at night and try to be there for Jules and Libby at home during the day. It's been a busy month but hopefully this will all end soon and we can enjoy them more at home. It was a little nice at first, to recover from a c-section and all, but I am more than ready to bring them home. Now for a bunch of pictures.

This is Brett holding the babies for the first time. He thought he didn't really "need" to hold them like I needed to but once he held them, he was hooked.

Aren't they so cute? Not sure now which baby is which but I think Kate is on the left and Jane is on the right.

Brett holding both of the babies. Kate on the left and Jane on the right.

This was the day the babies got put together in the same bed. Since they were so used to being close together in the womb, they tend to do better when they are together in the bed also. They had to be in separate beds for a week because of tubing and cords they had in them. If those cords came out then it would have been bad, so they were separated. We had our moms come to watch the joining and they got to hold the babies. It was nice having 2 babies, one for each grandma to hold. My mom has Kate and Tammy had Jane.

Jane

My dad holding the babies for the first time. She was kind enough to wake up for him. They are usually awake when I go see them, since they have to eat. I get to see their eyes and their smiles. I have never seen such small babies smile as much as these girls do. It's so sweet.

When we first put them together. They leaned in to each other and it was so cute. They are almost holding hands.


Again, blogger uploaded pictures all messed up. This was the first time I held both of them at once...well, except for the 7 1/2 months they were in my belly.

Jules holding Jane. The girls can see the babies on weekends so we have taken advantage of that. They love going in to see them and love holding them.

Our first family picture. I love it. Libby's hair could use some help but it is what it is.

Even Libby gets to hold them. Here she is holding Kate.

Kate on left, Jane on right.


We all needed a good trim to our hair; especially Libby. She has a really cute curl in her hair but it's also messy and hair is always in her face. The way her hair grows, it just grows in her face. Here is the before shot.

During the hair cut

After. It's a really cute bob with some shorter bangs but they can also go to the side. It's cute when it's done, she looks so grown up.

Jane went on oxygen for little bit. She still needs a little help while she eats. Kate went off it all together for a bit but is back on it. She will most likely come home with it for a while.

Daddy, Jane, and Libby

Not the best angle on Jane but if you notice, she doesn't have any tubing on her face for the first time since she was born. It was only because I accidentally stepped on her feeding tube and it came out. They put another one in right away but for a brief moment she didn't have anything on her face. I long for that day. I'm so tired of all of these wires connected to them.

The cutest outfits. I was waiting to bring them home in these outfits but they were gaining weight so quickly that we put them on them in the hospital. Thanks Keri!

Identical? Nope, they look a little bit alike. I think they will look more alike as they get older. We can tell them apart because Jane is bigger. They actually have different blood types too, so they are not identical. Jane on the left and Kate on the right.

Their heads are so soft that the nurses have to rotate them throughout the day to keep them nice and round. They love being on their sides so the back of their head is very round. This is how we keep them on the back of their heads to make it a little more flat.

Just a sweet picture of Jane.


The babies bedroom. I made all of the bedding the curtains, and the flag banner. I can't wait to bring them home.

Jules and Libby holding the babies again. Libby has Kate and Jules has Jane.

Kate on left and Jane on the right. This was taken last night. Again, Libby has Kate and Jules has Jane. It's really funny to watch Jules and Libby. Libby especially knows which baby is which and she doesn't get to see them very much at all. They are super excited to bring the babies home. I think they will be shocked and probably want to send them back once they come home.

Our first family picture

There you have it. We were able to bring the girls in to the hospital tonight and snap a picture with everyone.....all 6 of us. Whoa, are there really 6 of us? The twins are progressing nicely. Each feeding, they figure things out a little quicker than the one before. Tonight, they took a huge jump in how much they ate, er drank. Life is good.

The Delivery Story

Blogger uploaded these pictures in a really funny order and I can't change them right now. So I will try to explain each picture and try to remember which baby is which. First, is the story of how we got here so fast and early:

Saturday we didn't have anything planned other than getting the house more set up from moving in 2 weeks ago. Pictures of the house will come one of these days. I promise. Anyway, I woke up and started having pain and pressure. To me they felt more like contractions than what I have had before. I have had some cramping but it was a constant pain and these were definite off and on pains. On Saturday I was 33 weeks and 3 days; too early to be going into labor. My other babies were full term and I just figured these would come full term too. I tried to not let it get to me. We went to Lowe's and shopped around, but the pain kept coming back on and off. Brett was starting to worry but I didn't let myself get freaked out over it. We got home and I laid on the couch most of the rest of the afternoon and watched movies with Jules. I started keeping track of the contractions and they were ranging from 3 minutes all the way up to 30 minutes with no longer than 30 second contractions. They were very inconsistent. I talked to a friend who is a week ahead of me in her twin pregnancy and had been on bed rest. I asked her what she thought was going on and she told me that I should be on strict bed rest for the next 48 hours. Another friend told me to call my doctor. I hate bugging doctors on the weekend when they are with family so it took me a while, but eventually I called him. He said it was just pre-labor and not to worry too much about it. It could be because of twins and also that it was my third pregnancy. He told me not to over do it but that I didn't need to be on best rest per se. If he wasn't going to worry about it, neither was I. He also told me not to worry about keeping track of the times because it will just drive me crazy. Luckily I asked him when I should go in if these continued. He just said to monitor the pain. If it gets really painful and they aren't going away, then I should go in. He told me to take a hot bath and make sure my belly got in the water and stay there for 20 minutes to see if that would change the pattern. So that's what I did and we went to bed.

Sunday and Monday were pretty good for the most part. The contractions had pretty much stopped. I didn't do too much on Sunday, but on Monday I was starting to get a little nervous that they were going to come sooner than planned. Not as soon as they did, but sooner than planned. So I went out shopping and stocked up on food essentials and toiletries, I finally got around to buying some new nursing bras and stuff like that. It was a very full day of shopping and walking around but no contractions. I was super tired after so much shopping but not like I was going into labor by any means.

Monday night the contractions started while I was sleeping. I was so tired that I didn't really pay much attention to them or the pain level. I just know that every time I moved, it would start up a contraction. I didn't get too much sleep that night. When I woke up they didn't really stop. I started getting the babies room a little more prepared. I put diapers in their basket on the changing table and started washing their baby clothes so I could hang them up and stuff like that. It was taking me a while to do it all because the contractions kept coming and going. I had planned on making some curtains for their room and also their car seat canopies that day too.

The pain was not going away so I talked to Brett and we tried to figure out what I should do. I told him that I was thinking about just going to the hospital just to make sure. I figured they would just give me some medicine to stop the contractions and send me home. Brett had freaked me out a bit saying that I really might be in actual labor. I did start to time the contractions a little and they were about every 1:30 to 2 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds a piece. My friend had told me that when they are lasting that long then I should go in. The contractions were getting strong enough that I felt if I were in actual labor I would be getting an epidural and that's how I judged the pain level. I was starting to get a little nervous and did pack my bag really fast. I talked to Brett's mom and had her meet me at the park-n-ride to get the kids and I was going to drive myself to the hospital. I called my mom to have her meet me at the hospital just so I wouldn't be there alone. She works pretty close and knew she could come so that was a relief. I didn't want Brett to have to leave work if it was just false labor. When Tammy saw me she decided that I shouldn't be driving myself to the hospital so she drove me and dropped me off and took the kids home with her.

I got to the hospital and got myself checked in around 1pm. The lady at the desk later told me that she thought I was going to be a false labor mom because I looked too relaxed and calm. It really was because I had no intentions of having the babies.

They put the monitors on to make sure they were okay and started tracking my contractions. They were very consistent at 2 minutes apart. She was going to have me do my culture test and stuff but when she looked, my bags were right there. If she had tried, it would have popped the bags. She checked my dilation and I was at a 6. She quickly called the on call doctor to make a decision on what to do next. They had hoped they could try to stop them for a few hours but I was progressing quickly. I asked if I should get Brett there and she said yes and that I should hurry.

Brett quickly left work a little panicked and surprised. I was really calm during the whole thing because it all just felt so surreal to me. I was not planning on any of this happening so fast. I ordered my epidural and in the past it has taken a while to come, so I figured Brett would be there to hold my hand through it. They came in right away and gave it to me as the on call doctor and my doctor discussed what they should do. So Brett missed the epidural by a few minutes. He likes to watch that kind of stuff and I just need his hand to hold. The nurses were great and I just held theirs instead. The medicine started to work right away and right after getting it, the contractions started to get a lot stronger. The doctors decided that the best way to go was a c-section because of the way the babies were sitting. With how fast everything happened it would seem like it was an emergency c-section but it wasn't an emergency at all. They prepped the operating room and got me more numb with the epidural medicine and we were on our way. I started to shake, which I usually don't do until I'm about ready to deliver. It wasn't as much shaking in my legs this time though, it was in my arms. I couldn't control them nor my chin. The operating room was cold but they put a nice warm blow up thing with warm air flowing through it that warmed me right up. They didn't waste any time and about 15 minutes of being in the O.R. I heard a baby cry. It was so crazy. Then about a minute later I heard the next baby cry.

Brett was there watching the whole thing but once they came he left and followed the babies who were taken directly to the NICU. I didn't get to see them at all since the curtain was up and everything. I could feel some tugging and pulling but it didn't take them too long to stitch me back up. I felt a lot of pressure in my chest and was having a hard time breathing, but I just kept taking deep breaths which kept me focused on that rather than other things. They brought me back to my room and I just waited. Nobody could tell me how the babies were doing or how much they weighed or anything. The nurse was in and out but didn't have much information. I wasn't nervous that they were in horrible condition, I just wanted some information. It was a little frustrating, but I was calm. I started calling my siblings and letting them know. My mom had already called them to let them know I was having the babies today but they were surprised when I was calling so quickly to let them know they were here.

Before too long they came in and gave me the babies weights and heights. Baby A was 4 lbs. 09 oz. 17 inches long. Come to find out later that she was really 4 lbs. 12 oz. Baby B was 4 lbs. 6 oz. 17 inches long. She said they both seemed to be doing okay but didn't know any details. They arrived at 2:54 and 2:55.

Brett finally came back to the room and showed me some pictures so I finally got to sort of see them. They were all strapped down and had so many cords attached to them so it was a little sad. I still haven't been so overwhelmed by any of it though because I know they are doing what is best for the babies. It took about 2 hours before they took me back to the NICU to see them. I was so tired and lying in a big bed and couldn't see them really well but I was so happy to see them when I could. It was so hard not to be able to touch them or hold them. They got me settled in my post delivery room and we just sat and got checked on a lot. I started pumping after not too long to get my milk coming and to give the babies some colostrum.

We had some visitors that night too. My brothers Sterling and Spencer came and brought their families. Brett was able to take the adults up to see the babies and they took more pictures so I could see them a little better. I didn't get to see the babies again until the next morning. I was still connected to my IV and other things, so it was very difficult. I did 2 trips like that and just waited until I was detached to see them again. They removed Baby B's oxygen at 11pm the night she was born and 2 am on Baby A. That was a huge miracle to be off of it so quickly.

I started this post first thing this morning and now it's evening time and a lot has happened. Today's updates will be another post.

Here is a picture of Brett ready to go into the O.R. I took this picture literally as they were rolling my bed away.
I believe this is Baby A...Her name is Jane. Not sure if she will have a middle name or not. I'm telling you, we had a month left to come up with this stuff that happened in 2 hours.
Baby B. As of right now, her name is Kate. I'm thinking it will stay Kate but we aren't signing any papers quite yet.
Baby B.

Like I said, the pictures downloaded all funny. This is a picture of me right before going into the O.R. I was still smiling and so confused as to what was happening. "I'm still just going to get a shot to stop the contractions right?"The kids didn't see them until the next day. We didn't think kids could even go into the NICU. If they are siblings they can see them for 5 minutes on an initial visit and on the weekends. You have to have their current immunization records though and I only had Libby's. It was after 5 when we found out so we had to wait until the next day. We could only bring one of them in at a time and I couldn't hold them to see the babies. They got to stand on some chairs. Jules was a little scared to touch them at first but did love seeing them. I think they are still a little confused as to what's going on.

Notice Brett and Libby behind the window and in the flash.

Disclaimer: daddy did the girls hair.
Libby actually did really well. She was so excited to see the babies and she wanted to give them their binkis. She handled it really well and didn't have any problems touching them.
At 4pm the next day...25 hours later. I got to hold the babies for the first time. Being so early, they don't have the sucking reflex yet so they are being tube fed. When they get fed through the tube it's nice to get them used to being held and having that skin on skin contact. Eventually they put it all together and that the milk comes from me. It felt so good to finally hold them. It didn't feel so surreal any more. I had never held a baby so small and now I have 2 of them to hold. I cherished every minute of it. Sorry for the immodesty. I had to document me holding them for the first time and that's how it had to be. It was so precious.
It's hard to see how little they are when there is nothing to compare them to. Even looking at them in their beds they seemed to be pretty big until I actually held them. Here is Kate next to my hand. They really are so much cuter in person.

Here is Jane next to my dad's hand
My mom has seen them several times but this was my dad's first time. He went to the wrong hospital the first time and it got too late to make it over to the right hospital that first night. He made it over the next day and got to see me holding Kate.
This is me holding Kate for the first time.
As for right now I am the only one other than the staff that has held them. With preemies they get over stimulated really quick and it just wears them out which doesn't help their development. So for now, it's just Brett and I that can hold them.

It looks like they will have to be here for a while. They have to eat 8 times in 24 hours before they will let them go home. With their slow progress, doing that will take weeks. They are doing well and have these mature little faces and are so cute. I know I'm biased, seeing as they are my kids, but they really are cute. The pictures really don't do justice at all.

Babies

So this is me today at 24 weeks. It's not a very good shot of my belly. It doesn't look that big in the picture but trust me, it's big...to me anyway. Not only that but I have gained at least 20 pounds but I'm trying not to keep track too much.

I have never been pregnant during the hot summer months and so far, I'm not a fan. It's hot and I can't even wear shorts or anything. Even with a summer dress I have to wear leggings because my varicose veins are so awful. I mean AWFUL! Maybe one of these days I will get up the courage to take a picture of them as proof. They are mostly on one leg and that leg tends to swell up really fast so it's no fun at all. Luckily they are not painful.


It's been a crazy couple months as you can imagine. It has been 4 weeks since we found out that we are having 2 more girls!!! (insert concerned and freaked out font here). We found out last month and are still in a bit of shock. In fact, I had another ultrasound today and Brett was really hoping they would find a turtle in there somewhere instead of the 3 lines (for those of you who don't have kids, a boy part in an ultrasound looks like a turtle. But if it's 3 lines, then you know it's a girl). No such thing happened. It's still 2 girls and we have no clue what we are going to name them. It makes us both really ornery even thinking about names because we can't agree on a single name; let alone 2.

So my 20 week ultrasound had to be with a perinatologist because we are having twins. We will have ultrasounds at least every 4 weeks with them. We were in there for a good 2 hours just measuring and making sure that everything was good and healthy with the babies. We thought we were in the clear but the actual doctor found that there was a hole between the 2 ventricles in one of the babies. She said that she wanted me to see a cardiologist and then changed it for after the next appointment. I was a little concerned but she said that it's possible it would go away on its own. I wasn't super freaked out until my regular doctor appointment 2 weeks later. He informed me that if the baby did have this condition then she would need heart surgery within the first year of her life. WHAT?!! Ya, I was a bit freaked out. I guess it's not a huge or super abnormal surgery but it's still heart surgery.

I don't know if I said it before, but we don't have insurance. I was able to find a great insurance for just me but it will only cover the babies for the first 30 days. Brett does have a great job but it's still a contract position and they are moving super slow so who knows when we will get insurance. This surgery would have to take place up at Primary Children's so that would be rough trying to be with both of my babies at the same time. We probably could have pushed to get it done in those first 30 days for insurance purposes but who wants to do heart surgery on a tiny baby? Not me!

Anyway, we just kept praying and fasting and putting them in the temple prayer list. On fast Sunday I actually called my mom and asked if she could fast for my babies since I can't fast right now. So they did a fast and so did Brett. As we were breaking the fast the babies started moving around in my womb. I don't usually feel them moving around when I'm standing so it was really cool. I counted that as a sign and felt a huge amount of comfort at that moment. I still had my concerns but felt much better. Brett actually started applying for other jobs so we could have insurance and I just knew that everything would be okay. Of course I was still concerned but everything always works out so I was just putting my faith and trust in that.

Anyway, today I had another ultrasound and the doctor found the babies' hearts looking perfect and healthy. Can I even tell you my relief? Well, maybe you can imagine on your own. There is a little extra fluid in one of the babies' kidneys but the worst case scenario on that would be that she will be prone to UTIs. We will keep an eye on that but I'm not super concerned. The babies are measuring right on schedule and weigh about 1 lb. 6 oz. each. Baby A which will always be the baby closest to my cervix is head down, which is good. If baby A is breach then they won't even hesitate and go straight to a c-section which I would rather not have. That can always change until about week 30 though so we will see. Things are looking good though and I would rather have a c-section than have to have my tiny baby go through heart surgery.

Now to enjoy some pictures and some non-drama things:

We finally took the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. This was our first time because Jules is so scared of everything that we figured it would be a waste. Well, we were right. She was scared of everything except these little cars that moved a tiny bit. She was fine at Disneyland when we went last year but she was scared of everything at Chuck-E-Cheese. Go figure right? Anyway, we still had a fun time.



I love our pink blossom tree. I forget what the tree actually is but in the spring it is beautiful. We are still trying to sell the house if you know anyone who is interested, send them our way.
This was at Easter time and this is what happens when Libby gives Mark a sweet innocent look when he is eating chocolate. Thanks again Mark.
The kids love to play on Jules' bed. We have several pictures just like this because they always want a picture taken.
Easter at my parents' house.
Easter morning after finding her Easter basket. When did she get so big?
Libby after finding her basket.
Matching girls ready for church...or after church...I don't remember.
Back to Easter at my parents. Jules got a ton of eggs but Libby still found more $.
The girls at the Wilson's Easter.


She's such a cheese head. She is either super grumpy and scowling in pictures or cheesing it big time. That's pretty much how she is in real life too.
My mom works for the person in charge of BYU Women's Conference so she can get VIP seating and such. So I took advantage for the first time this year. My sister has been coming down from Idaho the past 3 years now so I figured I should take advantage before 1) I have 4 kids and 2) while my mom is still working. My sister happens to be the YW president of her ward so when she saw Sister Dalton she was super excited. I quickly snapped this picture of them for her.
May brought Jules' and Libby's birthdays. They are 10 days apart so they get to celebrate together. Here they are at my parents' with their cupcake cones.
I bought them 5 gold fish the day before to give to them at the family party. 1 died that night and by the end of the party 3 more were dead. The last one survived about 3 weeks until we went on vacation and forgot to feed it. Oops. We now have a beta fish (which are near impossible to kill, although I still almost succeeded). That's another story for another day though.
Jules practicing to be a big sister. Luckily the girls are obsessed with babies... Maybe that's not so lucky. The poor babies might get attacked all the time.
I had zero intentions of throwing a birthday party for Jules this year. As it got closer though we decided to go ahead and do one. She's at the stage where the party is your birthday. If you don't have a party, then it's not your birthday. A friend on facebook made a Tangled cake so I tried to make one too. TRY being the key word. It didn't work out quite as planned but she was happy. That weird looking thing is supposed to be the tower.
For the party it was based around the movie Tangled. We watched bits and pieces of the movie then played a game or had an activity associated with the movie. That was a super last minute decision and it turned out great. Here the girls are coloring their bags that we put little battery operated candles in that became their lanterns.
We had a special visit from Brett's brother and his family from Arizona. They came up for a day and we all just loved it. The kids love uncle Matt and attacked him on the swing. Look at all of those kids adoring him, it was so cute.
Ya, that's from a blue pop cycle. What kind of dye do they put in pop cycles these days?
More of the Naumann birthday party.
For Memorial Day weekend we always go camping but this year there was a prediction of rain. When it rains in the valley, it POURS where we go so we changed the plan this year. We all went to Park City and stayed in Brett's parents' condo. The weather was pretty much awful the whole time and even snowed. We just stayed inside and watched movies and played games and had a relaxing weekend. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures. It was Libby's birthday though so we had some dessert and sang to her. We couldn't find anything to light the candle with though so we pretended to blow the candle out.
Hanging out at the condo.
Enjoying the free breakfast at Macey's for Orem Fest. Notice I didn't even get the kids dressed for it.
We even went to the parade and watched the fireworks. The kids did awesome and we had a great time. We met up with some ward friends and just enjoyed it. Jules is usually terrified of mascots but she was the one that asked to get her picture taken with it. Libby on the other hand was hanging onto my leg screaming as I took this picture.
For some reason blogger uploaded pictures backwards or something because this is out of place like many other pictures. Anyway, this is what Libby got for her birthday. We were able to go to a park while the weather was nice for a couple of hours so we all could ride it around.
That's all for now!