We're Home!! (aka longest post ever)

First things first, I know you are all wanting to know what we named these little guys...so let me introduce you to:

Jonathan Alan (baby A) and Julian Lloyd (baby B)

I don't know who is interested in the birth story, but since this is my journal I must write it. I started writing it earlier on the laptop at the hospital, and never finished it! It was getting pretty lengthy, so let's see if I can cut it down at all. lol It's all about the details! :)

Friday afternoon my mom came down and took the girls home with her for the weekend so I could get some good rest and we were hoping I would just go ahead and have the babies! That evening Josh's parents came over with pizza and we hung out and ate. I went to bed around 11. Josh fell asleep on the couch and when he got in bed around 12 I woke up. Boo. I was having a really hard time falling asleep...I was having contractions, but that didn't mean much to me because I had been having them for the last 6+ weeks. I laid there hoping that if I was really in labor I would just know so I could make it to the hospital in time. I had prayed more specifically that my water would break. Never had that happen before, so I wasn't counting on it. Anyways, I laid there until 3:30 am when I finally fell asleep. I woke up at 4 am due to a contraction. I decided maybe it was time to go, I told myself that if they were strong enough to wake me up then it might be time. I woke Josh up and I packed some stuff. He got the video camera and we started watching old home videos while looking for a tape we could record on. I was sitting on the couch and after a bit thought I hadn't really had many contractions since I had been up. I thought for a minute maybe we should just go back to bed and then I had another one. At 4:50 am I said "ok, let's just go, they'll probably send us home" and as soon as I stood up I felt a pop and then a huge GUSH! I told Josh I think my water broke. He didn't seem too convinced until he looked at me and I was soaked. I hurried and changed my pants and got a towel to protect myself and the seat in the car. I'm so glad that the girls were at my moms so we didn't have to worry about them!

We made pretty good time to the hospital (considering Josh was going 100mph on the freeway...typical "my wife is in labor, we gotta get there fast" driving)! I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. When we got there at 5:30 am they didn't hurry to get me checked or anything until the nurse came out and asked how dilated I was at my last appt. When I told her she rushed me back pretty quick! I got hooked up to everything (and when I say everything, I mean EVERY POSSIBLE THING they could strap to me, they did). They did an internal monitor on Baby A, a belly one on Baby B, one for the contractions, an IV, epidural, and catheter.

I was checked and was still a 4+. Contractions weren't too close together and I wasn't in any pain. They wanted me to get the epidural because we didn't know how quickly it could go. It all seemed pretty fast to me, especially after the epidural was done. That's what I was the most nervous about because I had never had one before. Let me tell you though...it was heavenly! I could feel and move my legs, they just felt very heavy. And I was completely pain free. I'm not sure what time it was, but the nurse checked me and I was a 7. Then the on call dr came in and I was an 8. 3 minutes later I told the nurse I was feeling a LOT of pressure and she said she'd check me because I could be complete. I didn't believe her because it had only been a few minutes. She checked and sure enough, I was complete. So off to the OR we went. Josh got to get all dressed with a gown, face mask, hair net, shoe covers. He looked pretty awesome! I was happy to see my own Dr when we got to the OR even though he wasn't on call. I have never had my own dr deliver my baby. And he knew my pregnancy very well. Anyways, they moved me to the OR table, VERY uncomfortable.

They got everything ready and soon it was time to push. I pushed through 2 contractions, maybe 6 times total and Baby A (Jonathan) was out. He put him up on my belly and Josh said "he's perfect" and I cried. Josh got to cut the cord. The on call dr held baby B in place so he didn't flip, since he was head down. Dr Lloyd broke baby B's water and then the other dr pushed him down into place so I could push! 1 contraction, and 2-3 pushes later and he (Julian) was out. Josh cut the cord and I cried some more. They were both with their own team of nurses while I finished up. I heard both teams yell about the boys peeing on them. It was funny. The placenta was sent off to pathology in a bucket to determine if they were identical twins.

We weren't in the OR for too long, we just had to wait for them to bring me a regular hospital bed. It finally came and they lifted me back into it, I was pretty worthless when it came to moving. Then they wheeled me back to our labor and delivery room. I was bleeding pretty bad and they had to give me a shot in my hip to help stop it. I'm glad I was still numb. We hung out while they got the bleeding under control and enjoyed holding our new babies!! The nurse checked the babies and Julian needed to go to the NICU because he was breathing too fast. They were hoping it was just going to be a quick in and out thing, but that wasn't the case.

Word got around quick and when we got up to our room Josh's mom and Alicia were already there to see us. Followed quickly by the rest of Josh's family. They all went down to the cafeteria to get some lunch and while they were gone my mom brought the girls down. I was so sad that Julian was never with us when we had visitors. So all the pictures we have are on Jonathan. The day was filled with lots of visitors. That evening Josh and I went down to visit Julian. It was so sad seeing him laying there with everything hooked up to him. And it was really hard not to get to hold him.

On Sunday Josh went home for a little bit to shower and while he was gone my brother Adam and his wife Lacey came and visited me. When they left and Josh got back that afternoon we went down to see Julian again. He had been off the oxygen that morning, but by the afternoon he had regressed a little and was back on a low flow. I got to hold him for the first time since he was born. We did a little "skin to skin". It was sweet! Here I am holding him!

And here he is after they put him back down! I was a little upset because before we went down for this visit we got a call from his nurse and she was annoyed that we hadn't been down to see him while she had been there. She told me that he had pneumonia and was going to have to be treated for a week before they would release him. Apparently what she was telling me was something that she overheard the dr and neonatalogist talking about. None of it ended up being the case. Thankfully!
Back up in our room, here is Josh and Jonathan.
On Monday morning Jonathan and I were discharged from the hospital. I was a little panicked because I didn't want to go home without Julian...and we didn't know for sure how long he was going to be there. I checked with the insurance and they would only cover 48 hours. Then the nurses told me to check and see if I could do a hotel stay. That's what we ended up doing, on a day to day basis. It was only $30/night and it seemed much easier doing that than driving back and forth between there and home, especially when they were going to let me nurse him. And I didn't know what I would do with Jonathan because I wouldn't be able to take him with me. So I took a little trip down to visit Julian by myself while Josh stayed in the room with Jonathan. I was so excited to see him completely off the oxygen and going good!! The dr told me that as long as his respirations stayed down that I could try to feed him.
When I went down he wouldn't wake up. So the nurse called me when was awake the next time and I went down. He did awesome. He latched right on and ate for 30 full minutes! Poor guys first meal, he had just been "eating" through his IV. I went back down the next time that he woke up. This time the nurse recommended I feed him with a bottle because they can't decrease his IV without knowing how much he is actually eating. So we fed him some milk I had pumped and he did great with that. Here is Jonathan in one of the outfits I brought to take him home in. I was excited to see him in real clothes!

So Tuesday morning the pediatrician came and told us that Julian was completely off the IV and he was being brought up to the regular nursery and if he did good for the next 24 hours we could go home. That was the best thing to hear ever!! I was so excited to have both my babies together. I bet they missed eachother! So by Tuesday afternoon he was up with us. That night was hard, having 2 babies together for the first time. We didn't get much sleep. Go figure. But when we woke up on wednesday morning the pediatrician came and said he was good to go. We just had to wait for him to have his car seat test since he was so little. That takes an hour and a half. So we eventually got out of there and headed home! It felt sooo nice to leave since we had been cooped up in our room for too long! Here they are, all ready to go home!

We got home a little after noon and we knew the girls would be sooo excited to see the boys. Especially since neither of them had seen Julian yet! They are great big sisters.My friend Aimee stopped by with her kids to see the babies. Here is her little one, Matthew, who has been waiting for his little friends to be born! He was born in June. I thought this picture was really cute!