Chronicles of a Twin Mom: March 2011

Thank you to everyone who has called, text, stopped by the hospital, and kept us in your prayers. Our little bits have a long journey ahead of them. They are constantly being poked with needles, x-rayed, and are hooked up to tons of monitors. All the monitors and cords look a lot scarier than they actually are; however most importantly you do not see them with oxygen. They have feeding tubes, monitors to watch their heart rates, oxygen levels, and pick line iv's.

Our first family picture

Baby Daddy Theory:

So I've decided that all babies come out looking like their dad so that your baby daddy must claim them. We already know who the mom since she carried them for 10 months or in my case 8 months; however the dad is a different story. The jury has come to a verdict that Dax is a clone of his daddy. Dax's hair matches the bulls chest hair and everything about the little guy is Richard. He sleeps like his dad, chills like his dad, and eats like his dad. There is no denying who this little guy's daddy is. Blake came out with very dark hair however her chin and mouth area looks like her daddy as well. The hair is starting to get a little lighter so I'm assuming by 40 weeks (normal birthday) she too will be a little clone.

The life of NICU:

This week has been quite the roller coaster ride to say the least. Every time we get good news and are making strides we get a set back so mommy has been extremely stressed out and crying a lot. The jaundice went up to a ten on Blake (12 being the highest for her weight) so she was put under bigger and more lights. Her feedings were going great then they started to slow down because her tiny little body was having trouble digesting so she went without food making for a hungry little girl. She worked her way up to 5cc's of food every 3 hours and then had some problems so she went to nothing for 24 hours then to 2cc's of food every 6 hours. I too would be in a bad mood. She has these episodes where she forgets to breathe so alarms start going off and this seems to happen when she is on our chests during kangaroo times. The nurses come in telling us to pat her back so we can get her to take that breath. Scares the hell out of me every time even though I'm told this is completely normal. She has been receiving caffeine to help with this little forgetfulness.

Pick lines seem to be our common subject everyday. Both Blake and Dax have them and every time we turn around the pick lines have either moved or are not in the right place. Both babies are getting stuck and it breaks my heart to know this. We are not allowed to see this procedure for obvious reasons.

I'm pumping breast milk like Bessie the cow and the goal is to be at 1000ml in a 24 hour period. I'm pumping 8 times within 24 hours, putting milk in containers to be frozen, and then hauling them up to the NICU. The milk is then thawed out and put into syringes which is put in a machine that feeds the babies through their feeding tubes.

Blake now weighs 2lb 11.8oz so she is just over birth weight because babies lose their birth weight and then have to regain. She has a ways to go before I can start dressing her up. She must have her jaundice under control and must be at least 4lb. She is in the 10th percentile for preemies. When she gets mad she sounds like a wounded animal. The nurses have narrowed it down from a wounded cat to a taradactle. I personally think it sounds like Chad's coyote caller wounded rabbit. I hope this ends soon so Mr. Dax can get some sleep in the nursery.

Dax is up to 8cc's of food and is beginning to root around (look for food). His jaundice is lowering slowly so hopefully he will be able to begin wearing clothes. He currently weighs 3lb 15.1 oz, a smidget over his birth weight. Once he hits 4lb and has no jaundice I will be able to dress him up too.

Friday 3-11-11:
We had good news today, Blake and Dax both had low enough billy ribbons to be taken off their jaundice lights. They no longer have to wear their eye protectors and are free from the lights. Tomorrow we will find out if they made it through the night without an increase in billy ribbons. They hit another mile stone in their development today; both successfully took a bottle. Only set back was that when mom and dad tried to feed they were to comfortable and went straight to sleep. The nurses were able to feed them successfully in their little temporary homes.

Overall we are so much in love with our little blessings and just can't wait to get them home. We know in our hearts that all these set backs are completely normal in the NICU world and that we have to be strong for our little ones. Again we thank you for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. Please enjoy some our favorite pictures from this week.

Shanna and Richard

Mom and her sweet itty bits...

How your baby's growing: If they were still inside me....
Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupepreterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies

Dax and Blake

When you look good you feel good and must coordinate with your binkie.

Checking out the world without goggles.

First bottle- Dax man

No bottle for me...

Daddy's girl...

32 WEEKS (leading up to the big day)

Well we made our goal of 32 weeks and the babies chance of survival went from 80% to 95%, what a relief. I began having contractions on Wednesday night. Every week I get asked have you had contractions and my response is I don't know, their response is oh you will know. To me that is so vague and I'm like okay whatever. Well I officially at 12:45AM knew I had some contractions. Those "practice contractions" woke me out of my slumber and for a minute I forgot I was prego and was thinking I need some narcotics. Then after a few they just went away like nothing had happened. It was almost like that earthquake we experienced a few months ago where we were all like what the hell just happened?

As a result of the minor earthquake I experienced, the neurotic side has come out. I'm freaking out about being packed for the hospital. Richard and I have the nickname the tornadoes given to us by my parents so you can only imagine what we have done to their bedroom. Richard keeps telling me we are not going to Libya and we will be fine. I on the other hand realize Mercy is 45 minutes away and if the water breaks prior to 3-14 it's go time, not pack time. So to say the least I'm on the verge of driving myself to Target getting an electric cart and getting my essentials since my husband seems to believe it's not a big deal.

Thursday:
Blake and Dax both scored an 8 out of 8 today. They get two points for the following: movement, breathing, circulation, and heart rate. The Warden came with me to the Dr. since the Bull had a closing. Doc was very excited that we are following his instructions and was so funny about it. I guess after seeing what I've seen in the lobby not to many people listen to his instructions. One thing I did say to the Warden prior to entering was be sure not to make eye contact, you might get beat up. Unfortunately we had no entertainment because I moved my appointments back to early morning as a result of the psycho circus I was previously in row 1 for.

When the warden is away the inmate will play:
Disclaimer: The warden left me alone and the bull never called to bring me lunch so when you gotta have some eats you leave the jail. Oh and hit CVS drive thru and the bank. So I thought to myself CVS, Sonic, and Arvest are all within 100 yards of each other and I will not get out of my car so I will be fine. Sonic...check (discovered the orange cream slush) CVS...check (script filled) Arvest...check oh wait I'm busted! The tellers tell me my father (the wardens assistant) is in the bank and I'm busted. Literally busted! I really thought they were messing with me, no they were telling me the truth. I swear what happened to my smooth skills when I would sneak out in high school. Clearly I'm a little rusty these days.

The last 48 hours:
Friday night I felt pretty good but was still harping on the bull that he really needed to have his bags packed and ready. I was pretty consumed with this and he seemed to just tune me out. Saturday he surprised me with a packed bag and I was so excited. I was starting to feel pretty bad with some light bleeding but had this massive amount of ambition that I was in no way going to be talked out of getting what I needed for my bag from Target. I was a hen on a mission and it did not matter how many people said not to do it I was doing it and was not having it any other way. So we went to Target where I drove a motorized cart, hit a few racks and beeped while in reverse embarrassing myself. Richard on the other hand would not walk beside me and I did not care, I was adamant that I was getting the things I needed.

Saturday night again not feeling to hot and pretty miserable I got off the couch and moved back to bed for a while. All night long each time I got up it was like a waddling duck and the pressure was pretty intense but again at this point I really didn't know what was going on.

Sunday morning I started having some painful earthquakes and tried to go back to bed but just could not so we began to time the contractions for an hour beginning at 8:08AM. All the contractions were between 5-7 minutes apart and they felt pretty bad. I told Richard that I strongly suggest he take a shower while I'm counting because this could be it. After an hour I took a shower and we headed up to Mercy. My husband, the same man that gets speeding tickets on a regular basis is now driving 60mph when the speed limit is 70mph as the pain began to get more and more intense. When we got to triage we were told to hang tight and that they were going to try to stop them with hydration. I on the other hand was asking for narcotics and wanted it to stop immediately. Remember the words you will know, yes that is true but for anyone who has never been through it I'm going to compare it to the worst menstrual cramp you've experienced and for a man I'm going to compare it to a charlie horse in abdomen and then add the pressure of feeling like you are going to have a major ass explosion. I think that is what the doctors need to tell us first timers in the future:)

Now keep in mind this is our third trip up to Mercy so to hear the words your dialated to 1cm was pretty surreal. Literally before we knew it we were told that we were going to be having tiny tiny babies in the next 30 minutes.

12:49 PM Blake Evelyn Foster was born weighing 2.10lb 14 and 3/4in

12:50 PM Dax Glenn Foster was born weighing 3.15lb 17in

Our beautiful tiny little blessings were finally here and rushed immediately into NICU. I did not see them till 9PM that night. Monday was a rough day, I was very sick so dad stayed with his babies while I recovered. Dad changed diapers, took temperatures, and adored his little ones. Both have been removed from oxygen and are currently being treated for jaundice. We were able to hold them for the very first time. Words can not explain how wonderful this was. Grandma and Grandpa Foster were able to experience this very special time with us. I held Blake and Richard held Dax. Both just knew who we were and became very calm once they were on our bare chests. This is called kangaroo care where they have the skin on skin contact with you. Prior to this Blake was squealing like a wounded rabbit and then she became instantly calm. Dax was the same way and once his daddy held him he became calm. Let's just hope this works at home:) Yesterday both began receiving breast milk through their feeding tubes and both were able to digest it without complications.

As always we thank each and everyone of you for all your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. These children are true miracles considering the journey we began. They are doing great and each day is a huge step towards their growth and development. The care they are receiving is unbelievable and we are 100% confident in our doctors and nurses. Our sweet little ones still have a long way to go; however considering the odds they are doing tremendous. I on the other hand cry every time I have to leave them so this is going to be a long 7 weeks.