Wait- We Have Other Children???

Kiran & Sienna have been amazing throughout this whole pregnancy/hospitalization/birth/NICU experience. Its been a huge joy for me to be home with them again AND to feel better. I feel better now than I have in 8 months.

I decided it was time for Sienna's first haircut. We have a place that will do baby's first haircut for 1 cent and they give you a certificate and everything. Of course, the big sister had to go first to show the little sister that it was ok.

When it was Sienna's turn, she hopped right up into the race car.

Sienna got her baby mullet cut off.

And Kiran got a princess hair style which she proclaimed that her Daddy would think was very pretty. And he did.

One Step At A Time

It seems that every day we go to visit the boys, they have taken one step closer to coming home! They are both off the lights for jaundice so they get to wear clothes now! They are being weaned off the temperature controlled air in the isolette so that they can move to open air cribs.

They have both tolerated an increase in food every day. They are eating one ounce now and have been able to lose all nutrition through their IV. Now they just have fluid coming in. The next step is to increase the food enough so they will lose the IV completely. Rhys is still taking all his by mouth while Owen only takes about half. Owen does seem to be getting more proficient at eating so hopefully he'll transition to all bottle soon.

I got to start trying to nurse the boys when they were 3 days old. The first time neither of them had any idea what to do. Since then I've only worked with Rhys so that Owen can focus on the bottle. From the second day on, Rhys has started latching- sometimes he'll eat and sometimes he doesn't. I love being able to do something so normal with him.

Thanks for your continued prayers! The boys have been making fantastic progress. Kiran is so excited for them to come home. She always asks us how they are doing. Every day she tells us certain songs she wants us to sing to them- yesterday it was "Jesus Loves Me" and " Jesus Loves the Little Children." Sienna is no longer scared of my pump so that makes life a little less stressful.

Holding Them

Our new schedule has been Jonathan will stop by the Nicu on the way to work for an hour or so then I'll go in the afternoon while someone stays with the girls. Then after they are asleep, one of us will go back up for a little while.

The boys have moved into the same room and the best part about that is we can hold them at the same time now! Jonathan got to do it first yesterday and I was a bit jealous. But I got my turn in the afternoon.

Rhys is on the left and Owen is on the back wall. They have dropped their feeding tubes and are taking breastmilk by bottle. Owen only takes about 3/4 of his by bottle so he does have a tube back in his nose for now. But thankfully his tummy is tolerating the food so he can keep increasing the amount with his brother.

I've gotten to do some kangaroo care which is holding the baby skin-to-skin like a kangaroo does.

I got to practice some with Rhys yesterday and then today...

I got to do kangaroo care with both of them at the same time. It was probably the sweetest thing I've ever done in my whole life. The boys both slept peacefully on my chest and I could look at them and smell them and just love on them.


They are both jaundiced and sunning under the lights. Hopefully that will be resolved in a few days because when they are done with the lights, they will be moving to open air cribs.

Do you know which one is which? This is Owen.

Our Nicu's policy is no one is allowed inside but the parents during cold and flu season. So yes that means the girls haven't met them. It means the grandparents haven't met them. We wish they could but we understand its keeping the little babies safe.

And Rhys.

How long will they be in the Nicu? Its really hard to say but 3 weeks will put them at 37 weeks gestation so we'll go with that.

For more pictures:

Rhys and Owen - Feb. 12, 2010

If You Don't...

...have a friend like Brenna, you are seriously missing out on one of life's greatest blessings. I cannot even begin to recount all Brenna has done for me during this pregnancy and birth.

She has volunteered to coordinate a care calendar for us to organize help for us. Right now our main needs are food (always!) and sometimes I need someone to watch the girls in the afternoon so I can go to the Nicu. If you are curious, I put the link and log in information on the left hand column.

A New Normal

I came home today. I cried as I left. I was so heartbroken to leave the boys yet I was so happy to be going home to my girls. I missed them so much during my hospital stay.

Rhys in his isolette

I cried as I left my house tonight to go back to the NICU. Every time I get in the car, I'm leaving somebody.

Owen in his isolette

The boys are making fantastic progress. They both weaned off the cannulas today and are breathing room air. They started taking a little bit of food by bottle. The next steps are taking enough food by bottle to be able to get their feeding tubes out and taking them out of the isolettes and into open air cribs. When their feeding tubes are out, I'll be able to start nursing them. When they are in open air cribs, they will be able to share a space, thought not a crib, and we can have them close together again.

The Lord continues to send us small reminders of His goodness. Their primary night nurse is a girl we grew up with at church. She was in the discipleship group I led when I was in college and she was in high school. She helped hand out programs at my wedding. And now she's taking care of the boys at night when I can't be there. It is so comforting to have her there loving on them.

Birth Story

On the morning of my 8th day in the hospital, we headed down to Labor & Delivery at 5am. Unfortunately, somehow I wasn't on the schedule. And so the plan that we had... it was just the beginning of things not going according to plan...

Around 6am they started getting me ready, giving me fluids, etc. We decided to give me my epidural first since I have a history of going fast on Pitocin. I got my epidural at 7am and promptly bottomed out. My blood pressure went down to 60/30 and I felt pretty terrible. The boys, however, did fantastic during the whole episode which was very reassuring that they would handle labor and delivery well. The nurse anesthetist had to give me a lot of drugs to get my blood pressure back up. Because of the drugs, the boys' heart rates were high so we had to wait until their heart rates came down to start inducing. Thankfully the anesthesiologist had decided to only give me 4 of the medicine instead of the normal 10 since I'm a small person. Truly the protection of the Lord.

Sometime around 8, my OB tried to break my water but Rhys just didn't have a lot of fluid around him so that was kind of a bust. At 10am, we finally started a low dose of Pitocin. I began to have regular contractions and progress slowly. We had an uneventful few hours. at 3:15 my other OB checked me and I was 7cm. My OBs thought I would go fast at that point so they said they would be back in a few minutes to check me again. 15 minutes later, I told Jonathan to go track them down unless he wanted to deliver the baby. My other OB checked me and I was ready. Then everyone flew into motion- getting me to the OR, getting NICU down, etc. The whole time I'm trying really really hard not to have this baby before they tell me to. Finally they tell me to push and about two pushes later, Rhys was born at 3:50 pm. Jonathan walked in literally as he was born. Rhys was crying and all pink. I think his apgars were 8 and 9. Rhys was 5 pounds 1 ounce.

It was very surreal to hear one baby crying and still be in labor. Owen decided to turn transverse after Rhys came out. So my OB and my other OB worked to turn him. He turned pretty easily- to breech. So he came out feet first 6 minutes after Rhys. His apgars were also 8 and 9. Owen weighed 4 pounds 13 ounces. I got to hold each of them for just a minute before they were whisked away to the NICU.

My two OBs, Jonathan and I examined my placenta after the birth. It was pretty cool- you could see scar tissue from my surgery.

My blood pressure dropped again after birth- not nearly as low but low enough to make me nauseous. I took a while to feel better and finally after shift change we got to see and touch Rhys and Owen.

This has been by far my easiest recovery after birth. So many praises. I could not have had a better delivery and recovery. I'm so thankful for my 2 OBs- one of whom stayed 4 hours late just to help with my delivery. They were so confident that it made me believe that we could do it.

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Update on the boys: They both came off the ventilators at about 24 hours old. They are on nasal cannulas and the nurses are hoping to wean them off that soon. The NICU was closed all afternoon because of a loss today but we're hoping to be able to hold them tonight.

Welcome to the World!

Rhys Fitzgerald was born at 3:50 p.m., weighing 5 lbs. 1 oz.

Owen William was born at 3:56 p.m., weighing 4 lbs. 13 oz.

Rhys in Kelley's arms before heading to the NICU.

Now Rhys is being looked after in the NICU. He was being put on a ventilator when we left.

Owen had a shorter stay with us in the OR before heading to the NICU. We told him he looked just like his brother.

Owen decided it would be nice to hold Daddy's finger for a little bit.

We were able to see and touch the boys for a little while tonight in the NICU. We're told that we should be able to hold them tomorrow. Kelley is feeling really good - it was a very good delivery. She's so thankful that many of your prayers were answered, such as not having to have a c-section.

The boys thought it would be a good idea to come on Chief's birthday and in the middle of our biggest snow of the year!

Now it's time for rest! More tomorrow...