Welcome to the World Miles & Bennett

We are very excited to share the news that Miles and Bennett were born on Tuesday, December 13th.  It is quite a story, which I'll start with the Monday before.  Andrew had offered to take the kids to school, but I thought I would rather be doing something instead of just sitting around, feeling bad.  So we got the kids to school and Lincoln and I hit up Wal-Mart and Aldis, made some deposits for the office at the bank and dropped off our tax payments.  I am so glad now that I got those things done.  I also was able to finish up teacher gifts and some little gifts to hand out to family friends.  Ellie and I made some cupcakes to freeze for her class party next week.  We didn't even have to ice them because the kids get to do that at school.  And I tried to make some fudge for some gifts but it didn't set up well.  It still tasted good, you just had to scoop it out with a spoon :-).  And Ellie also spent some time finishing up coloring her "sisters".  She was so excited to finish them.

And this whole time I wasn't feeling that well.  I thought if I stayed busy then I wouldn't notice it as much.  I had just been feeling kind of achy and nauseous since I had left the hospital on Friday.  I called my doctor to see if it was the medicine I had been taking and if maybe he felt like it would be fine if I quit taking it.  But he said that is most likely wasn't the medicine.  So we just kept going.  Jackson had a little party for his football team Monday night at the church.  They had pizza and cupcakes and the kids just all got to play around.  Then from there we headed to Ellie's Christmas program at church.  Andrew was asked last-minute if he could be the narrator.  He got one practice with them Monday morning.  They both did a great job. 

WARNING-A birth story is coming and Andrew thought I should include the details because they kind of make the story...

So I went to bed Monday night not feeling that great.  I even took half a Unisom hoping I would get some sleep because I hadn't had the best sleep at night in quite a while.  Of course I got up several times at night to go to the bathroom and didn't really notice any contractions.  I had had some throughout the days since I had left the hospital but nothing ever too frequent or consistent.  But I woke up around 6 Monday morning and noticed that I was having a little bit more intense contraction.  Andrew had his hand on my belly and noticed it too.  Then a few minutes later he and I both noticed another one.  So I decided to get up and take my medicine (that was supposed to slow the contractions down) and Andrew got in the shower.  I thought if I laid down a little longer that maybe things would slow down but I soon realized that was not the case.  These contractions were definitely stronger.  So I let Andrew know that I thought we would be heading to the hospital.  I usually have all these things I think I can get done before heading to the hospital (like emptying the dishwasher, finish up some laundry etc) and I still thought I would be able to this time.  I did get the bed made and got a shower.  As I was brushing my teeth I noticed the contractions were stronger with more pressure.  Andrew had gotten the kids up and ready and Jackson and Lincoln had joined me in the bathroom when all of a sudden I noticed something had slipped between my legs and it felt like a head!  I yelled for Andrew and told him that I thought I felt a head and he looked and thought he saw one too.  So we tried calling my dad, but he wasn't answering (we later found out he was in the shower because he already was receiving calls and was meeting my cousin at his office who was having bad headaches).  So Andrew called the hospital and let them know that we were coming in and we thought a head was coming out.  Andrew really thought we were going to have the babies right there in the bathroom.  Even though I would get upset with him when he would compare me and my pregnancies to cattle having calves, I think his experience with delivering calves gave him some sort of confidence with the possibility of delivering a baby.  But he wasn't sure what to do about delivering two babies.  He remained very calm throughout the whole thing though.  He helped me get dressed and out to the car.  I was scared that any sort of movement could possibly push the head out further.  We were heading out to the car, he closed the door and the kids were still in the house.  I guess Andrew had told me a couple times that we would just leave the kids at home and someone would be there in a few minutes to watch them.  He had even talked to Jackson about it.  I totally missed all that and was adamant that they could not stay alone and that they needed to get in the car.  So everyone got in and not a single person was buckled in.  We rush to the hospital  (thank goodness it is so close) and as we get there we notice all sorts of emergency vehicles.  There were a couple fire trucks and police cars and an ambulance.  I guess a car had caught on fire in the parking lot.  Streets were blocked so we ended up going down a street the wrong way, up over a curb and backed up into the ER entrance.  Out comes Bubba (he used to be one of the cooks in the cafeteria and now he does security) with a wheel chair and they get me to the elevator where we are met by Dr. Lockwood and my dad.  Dr. Lockwood had been waiting in the ER because they thought we may have to deliver there.  We got up to 5th floor and to the room and after a quick look they determine that it is my bag of water hanging out.  One of the nurses exclaimed that I should take a picture of it and I quickly turned her down :-).  Andrew really thinks he saw a head in there too when he looked and it was most likely since I was standing up at the time.  So then there is this flourish of activity all around me.  Bringing in machines and supplies, setting everything up, getting me all prepped (it took them 3 tries to get an IV going).  I asked one of the nurses if there was any possibility of me getting an epidural and they said once they ruptured my membrane and saw how far along I was, then they would have a better idea, but most likely I would not be able to.  Well once everything was ready to go, Dr. Lockwood ruptured my membrane, determined I was complete and it was time to start pushing.  With my next contraction, I did one push and Mr. Miles was born at 7:44am.  My dad took over his care and he was doing great.    He weighed 5lbs 9oz and was 18.5" long.  The kids were there too and one of the nurses took Miles out to see them and they all got his footprint on their arms.

Granny and Papa showed up too!

Next up was Bennett.  They did a quick ultrasound to determine that he was head down and in good position.  They gave me some Pitocin to keep my contractions coming but it took a little while and some pushing to get Bennett out.  He was born at 8:22am weighing in at 5lbs 6oz and 18.5" long.  I guess I lost quite a bit of blood so they decided to use something called a Bakri balloon to stem the bleeding.  It is a catheter-type device they put in the uterus and blow it up like a balloon with some saline to push against the uterus and stop the bleeding.  The problem was that it wasn't staying in place like it was supposed to.  It took them several attempts and it was pretty painful.  It felt like a lot of tugging and pulling was going on in there. They thought they were going to have to take me to surgery to get it placed, but it finally worked and then they were able to put some other packing in to keep it in place.  And after checking the placenta out, Dr. Lockwood decided it was one placenta and that there was a very good chance they are identical. So it took a little while, but I finally got to see my boys and they were precious.   Being that I was only at 35 weeks, I was amazed at how well they were doing.  They didn't need any kind of assistance.  We stayed at the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday night and I guess we were the talk of the floor for a little while.  We were able to rush out of there Thursday morning.  Andrew had to be at court at 10 for some things that were hard to reschedule, so the nurses were nice enough to get things moving for us so we could head out.  Lincoln was our only one there when we came home along with my mom, Lissy and Caroline.  They had the house all cleaned up and the Christmas music playing.  Lincoln was so excited to have his mom home and he just wanted to sit on my lap. 

Now we are just adjusting to life with five kids.  The twins are doing great.  We have had some awesome help.  My parents and Lissy helped take care of the kids while I was in the hospital and have been there for us to help out and provide some meals.  Lissy helped watch the kids while I was in the hospital and she has stayed up with the twins a couple of nights so I could get some rest and hopefully start the recovery process.  Caroline stayed with her one night too.  I am so thankful for everyones' help and support!  I would tire very easily and was in some pain for the first few days home but am starting to feel better.  The three oldest spent all day out at Tom & Mary's on Saturday and got to make gingerbread cookies and Jackson and Ellie even made some photo albums. 

I started this post last night while we were waiting for the boys to wake up to eat and then again while I was waiting to feed them again at midnight.  While we were doing the 9pm feeding, Jackson kept complaining about his stomach hurting and he came down to sit with us.  At one point, he quickly ran to the bathroom and started vomiting-wonderful.  I was feeding Miles and then Andrew gave me Bennett too.  I sat him on the chair beside me and tried to feed them both and was kind of successful.  Andrew took care of Jackson and cleaned things ups.  I guess we are adjusting :-).  My plan to just stay up until the midnight feeding didn't turn out that well because Miles ended up having trouble getting settled down and he didn't fall asleep until close to three after that feeding.  Andrew took the next feeding but I kept waking up because I knew he was going to the office in the morning and I was afraid I wouldn't know when he left and wouldn't hear the babies.  So there wasn't much sleep going on because I think Bennett took a while to settle down with Andrew too.  But I guess it ended up working out because I think they were exhausted for their photo shoot today.  We did some of their pictures on Saturday and then we did some prop ones at the office today and they were rock stars.  They slept through almost all of it and we were there for less than 2 1/2 hours and that included a feeding.  Lissy is working on editing some pictures and I'm so excited to see them.  She is hoping to get a post up tonight.