They're here!

Short version - Lucas Robert Anderson was born September 12th at 12:44 am via c/section. He weighed 5lbs even and was 18" long. Avery Renee was born September 12th at 12:45 am. She was 5lbs 7oz and was 18.5" long. Both came out screaming with full heads of hair!

Long version - Friday afternoon I had a dr.'s appt to check on my bp. I also had an u/s to make sure the babies had enough fluid. All of that came back normal. Doc also sent me to the lab for blood work. He said he would have the results on Sat morning so I shouldn't eat a big breakfast in case things didn't come back ideal, he would want to go ahead and deliver. Once again, we were taking everything day by day. DH and I decided we better go out for a nice dinner Friday night because it may be our last night out just the 2 of us for awhile. So the plan was to go home, take a little nap, then go out to dinner.

We get home and I go to the bathroom. I notice there's red blood in my undies and my heart starts racing. I call the on call doc and she says to "wait it out". I should only let her know if it gets heavier or if I start having cramping or contrax along with it. Ok, no big deal. DH and I go out for a nice fancy dinner as we had planned. My bleeding didn't stop but it didn't get any worse either so I let it go. I started having some cramping towards the end of dinner. Then when we got home I laid in bed and it only got worse. I debated about calling the doc then finally just gave in and called her again. She said I had 2 options. come in to get checked out, or don't. I told her I thought I could deal with the cramps but it was the blood I was concerned about. So she had me come in.

DH and I packed up what we needed and hit the road. The cramps started getting worse and worse. By the time we finally made it to the hossy(we had to stop for gas and a train!) I was in a lot of pain. They hooked me up to all the monitors, asked me lots of questions, then the nurse decided she wanted to check my cervix. The contrax monitor wasn't showing huge contrax but I sure was in some pain and making it known. Well it was a good thing she checked me and no, I'm not crazy. I was 7, almost 8 cm. dilated!!! Holy Cats! It's go time! DH jumped into "baby daddy" mode super fast. He called the fam and told them all it's go time. Everyone was shocked. In 2 hours I had went from a nice dinner with my husband to major pain and 8cm dilation.

They prepped me very quickly and moved me into the OR for delivery. I must say, I love me an epidural! Goodbye pain! They got me all situated and the staff was just incredible. They brought Mike in as soon as I was all set up and they got to work. The anesthesiologist and Mike did a great job of keeping my mind off of things. It was really quite relaxing. Then at 12:44am I saw the most beautiful thing in the world. They briefly showed me each baby and then swept them right away to get checked out. The pediatrician had talked to me previously about complications we could be facing with 35w twins so I knew I wouldn't get to see them much. They pulled Mike over to cut the cords and take lots of pics. He was on cloud 9. I was also on cloud 9 but mine was a little more drug induced. lol. He then left with the babies to head to the nursery to get weighed and checked out. They sewed me up and sent me to a recovery room with my amazing nurse Lorelei. There she had to hook up my iv to m.agne.sium sul.fa.te. It was because of my pre E. This stuff is death. I had to be on it for 24hrs straight and I have never felt worse in my life. It makes you so loopy and not in a good way.

Mike then came into my recovery room and showed me TONS of pics. Both babies were breathing fine on their own and both scored 8/9 on their ap.gar tests. How sweet is that? Not too bad for being born at 35w3d if you ask me! The rest of that night is pretty much a blur to me. I don't really remember seeing my babies or holding them. Drugs are bad. I know DH stayed up the entire night with the little ones. I was so out of it. My nurses were heaven sent! I didn't leave my bed for close to 36 hours. That was the worst part because I couldn't do much with my babies. Mike was amazing! He jumped right in with feedings and diaper changes. I felt so helpless and he assumed the role of mommy and daddy without skipping a beat.

The hospital stay was quite overwhelming. There was always someone knocking on the door needing my vitals, or the babies vitals, or needing to clean up, or a visitor, or something! I wasn't woke up once by my babies because there was always something going on. Now we're all home and it feels so good to be home. My milk hasn't come in yet so I'm nursing with colostrum and supplementing with formula, plus pumping. It's really not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I put Avery down last night at 1:30am and I didn't have to get up until Luke started crying at 5:10am. So all and all that's not too bad of a first night. And for now I really love feeding and holding them. It's such an amazing bonding experience. And they're so damn cute I just don't want to put them down! Mike is in love with these babies too. He rocks them and coo's them to sleep. He gets to help with the feedings and does it skin to skin with them. So he gets to bond as well.

Do contractions hurt? Hell yes! I don't know how women do it without drugs. You're amazing if you can stand it. They're like the worst possible menstrual cramps you could ever have. How's the pain after a c/s? Miserable!!! Mine was also worse because of the drugs I had to be on for my PreE made it harder for me to move around. I also lost quite a bit of blood and had to have a transfusion. I felt so much better after I had it though. The pain is slowly going away and it's not the actual incision that hurts, it's all the muscles underneath of it. It gets better everyday though.

Mike and I are truly blessed. Luke and Avery couldn't be more perfect. All of the hospital staff was so impressed with how healthy they were for 35w. That made me so proud. And now our journey really begins...