day 3

i was excited for day 3.  until now, each day, they had been checking my anticoagulant levels... weaning me off of lovenox and onto coumadin.  usually, on days 3 or 4, a woman who had a c-section gets to go home.  so, as long as my levels were between 2 and 3 (thin enough for nothing to happen, but for regular people, it's usually between 1 and 2), then we'd get to go home!!!

meanwhile, the babies' pediatrician continued to visit them, and it's strange... "suddenly" the nurses thought that our babies had jaundice?!  but the NICU didn't think so?!  interesting.  turns out, no jaundice... thank God.

regardless, i could tell that my milk was going to come in... pins, needles, and marbles is what you feel like when engorged!  no fun! :(  that day, we also had visitors... an old family friend and a co-worker of mine.  it was great to see everyone!  but, later that night... something crazy happened.

i was going to take another shower, and the nurse was worried about the area around my incision... was starting to get very hard and big underneath... she said that she was worried that they might be hematomas.  in my head, i was thinking what is that?!  i guess a big blood blister could be a way to describe them.  anyway, she wanted me to take a shower, which i did.  i was careful with everything, and then...

after i lathered lotion all over my body, i felt something dripping all over my body, and i look down and BLACK BLOOD is streaming down from around my mid-section, which i thought was from elsewhere!  then i realized that it was seeping from my incision area!!!  immediately, i pulled that emergency cord in the bathroom and screamed for help (my mom was in the room, and she ran to get a nurse).  the nurse was so calm and helped me out... i was so freaked... black blood?  what is going wrong now?  why can't anything ever be simple with my medical situations? 

at this point, i knew that i wouldn't be going home anytime soon if 1- they didn't regulate my blood levels OR 2- they didn't get this bleeding under control...

day 2

it was Sunday.  when my mom got there, we went to see the girls... and, what a sight that was!

imagine you're in a wheelchair, and you round the corner to the hallway to which your babies' rooms connect, and you see YELLOW CAUTION TAPE, blocking off the other side of the hallway with many nurses, doctors wearing surgical scrubs, AND masks... IN FRONT OF YOUR BABY'S ROOM?!?! 

(note: at the same time, the "financial services department" called me on the hallway phone, and wanted me to make payments right then and there!  i was flabbergasted, quite upset, and pretty much hung up after telling them to contact my insurance!)

i freaked out in my mind, asking Gab to go check on our baby to see what was wrong.  i didn't know if our baby was okay or not.  i didn't know if they were in her room or not because they blocked off her room.  he just about sprinted there!  my mom and i waited on our side, waiting... they told Gab that he couldn't pass... turns out, they were doing surgery in somebody's room... on the baby NEXT DOOR!  apparently, it's easier to do the surgery there than anywhere else!  the major bummer part was that we couldn't go see our daughter over there, and surgery was going to take awhile.  we were disappointed because that's a possibility of NOT having your babies with you, but also separated in the NICU!

meanwhile, i was so upset with financial services calling... the audacity!  on a Sunday?!  especially when i was emotional since we couldn't see our other baby?!  so, i'm not sure who suggested this, but our sweet nurse heard us talking about our disappointment, and suddenly left... returning with our other baby!!!  we were so overwhelmed with joy because this was the first time that we were all together since birth!!!  that was the first time that we were able to see, side-by-side, how identical these girls really were! 

then, in the midst of all our happiness, the doctors come in talking about DCing (discharging) our babies from the NICU, saying that they were doing better, but nutritionally speaking, weren't eating as much as they should!  regardless, they said that they'd start the paperwork.

it happened much sooner than we thought... i mean, my mom and i had lunch, went back to my room, and the nurse comes in to tell me that i need to start packing up because they're moving me to the maternity ward... the pod that i was in was for women post-op, and no room for babies.

so, within a couple of hours, we were in a new larger room, and just as i was about to get some shut-eye, everybody came in with the NICU nurses pushing our babies in the bassinets... and, it was so funny... the nurses from both hospitals had to read off the hospital bracelets to make sure that the wrong babies weren't being released to us... sort of in a top-secret military operation!

and, then... finally!  we were together for the first time as a little family!  man, that first night... we were awoken just about EVERY hour and a half!  you should have seen Gab!  i'm sure that we looked quite awful the following day with the little sleep that we did get!

by then, i was trying to BF, but i was in-between getting colostrum and getting my milk, so we just used formula.  we were hoping that my milk would come in soon!

day 1

apparently, the day after a surgery is when the countdown to go home starts a.k.a. "day 1."  i don't know why they don't start it immediately following the actual surgery.  my nurse woke me up early in the morning, and wanted to take the catheter out and start me on solids.  i was pumped to be able to eat, however, that hospital food was quite a joke.  i'm supposed to be breastfeeding twins, and they send enough food to last me for a snack?!  i was shocked.  later, in my visit, i did convince them to give me a menu (like any decent hospital should have for specific dietary options and like the previous hospital, in which i stayed in '09, had one) and ordered so much more food for each meal!  since i was back on coumadin (my anticoagulant), i had to be careful about what i ate since i couldn't eat too much vitamin k... (go here for more information).

our plan for the day was to get ready and, obviously, visit our babies. :)  my mom was at the house, cleaning, organizing, and would come later.  i'll be honest... it was strange to wake up the following morning (Saturday).  it felt surreal that we were parents and that the babies were, in fact, here... after they were with me for so long.  a good night of rest did us some good because we had been exhausted and felt re energized!  quickly, we got ready, and went down to see them.  i was so thankful that i wasn't connected to any other machines!

the babies were in separate rooms, which i think that i've already mentioned.  even though they are twins, they had to be separated and sometimes had different nurses.  we couldn't take one out of her room to bring to the other room and be with her sister, so we had to keep going back and forth... i felt kinda bad about that... which room do we attend first?  how long do we stay since we have another baby next door?  their rooms were next door but separated by a hallway.

one nurse happened to be taking care of both babies, which was very helpful... yet, we were told that the babies weren't eating as much as they should... they had enough void/stool (wet/poopy) diapers, but, they weren't in taking enough food.  to be discharged from the NICU, a baby has to demonstrate enough diapers, eating, no jaundice, stable vitals and great response.  the great part was that they no longer had trouble breathing or bruising, yet until they met those other requirements, they'd still be patients.  i was nervous about them being in the NICU because i didn't know how long they'd be there, however, we knew they were in the best hands.

our babies were so tiny, full of life, and just oh-so-adorable!  they had the biggest skinniest feet and the biggest hands, but the skinniest extra long bodies!  it was amazing how identical they were!  we had never seen babies that small, let alone hold them!  i think that i can speak for the both of us when i say that we were completely in awe.  these are ours?!  when the doctors would come in, they'd want to address "Mom," and i kept turning to my mom!  i wasn't used to hearing that!  lol!

how much time is enough time to spend with your newborn preemies when they're elsewhere?  i don't know how much time is enough, but it didn't feel like enough... spending the day there and seeing their hearing tests conducted (they passed), going back up to our room to rest, visitors coming (my mom's cousin, her husband, and our friends) to see the babies.... the babies had to stay there, and it felt strange to leave them... almost like they were being abandoned, but not.  i don't know how twisted that sounds, but it just felt wrong to leave them... but, we had no choice.

also, we were told that they had a chance of going home if they started eating better... we were stoked!  however, it all depended on how they made it through the night... our nurse was telling us to get our rest and that they'd keep them in the NICU.. :)  sweet of her now that we know how sleepless nights are!!!

p.s. EVERYBODY kept asking us what their names were, and we hadn't officially decided.  my mom was with us, and we didn't have much time to discuss it because we were so overwhelmed with the babies' stay in the NICU and my recovery... we had some names we liked that we had tossed around for awhile, but nothing official.  no matter what names we liked, we always came back to liking the original ones... so, since we hadn't officially named them yet (i was still overwhelmed with them being there and we were exhausted from everything), they were just A and B.  but, not the A and B that were labeled in me... towards the end, the letters switched because the breech baby was presenting first, so they delivered her first.  it was confusing for the nurses and everybody else to talk about their version of A and B, and i always had to stop and picture the babies in me to know what they were discussing....