A long time coming, an end and a new beginning

So I guess it is about time it tell the final chapter in my birthing story! I apologize for the lateness of this post things have been non-stop since their birth.

Thursday September 22

The morning started off as every other morning I had while in the hospital. Wake at 6am for my morning NST, everything seemed sort of normal at first. When we found both babies Baby B was displaying a heart rate of 176 bpm! Well it lasted a second and then she was back to normal. Both babies stayed at a normal trend until almost the end of the session, where again Baby B decided to cause trouble but this time she dipped her heart rate. It wasn't anything that need immediate attention and like usual she came out of it rather quickly, so I though nothing much of it.

Eventually I was unhook and I took my time getting ready to order my breakfast, I had just picked up the phone when there was a knock at the door......it was my resident doctor.

At this point I knew something was up because he had a slightly panicked look on his face. Resident Doctor: Have you eaten anything? Me: Huh?!?! Resident Doctor: Well don't, we are talking about doing the C-section today. Me: Ooooookay. Doctor runs away leaving me sitting there alone in the dark room. Insert moment of shear terror followed by tears and then trying to gain composure to call Justin and then my mother.

The next hour was a blur I tried to calm myself, the nurse I had came in to check on me to make sure I was okay as I could be. Then the entire squad of high risk doctors came in to let me know what they had decided. It took everything not to burst into tears as they explained that they would be taking the girls today, and even though there were no immediate dangers my doctor Rijhsinghani had a gut feeling. Normally I don't trust people with such life or death decisions but having spent all this time in the hospital and really getting to know these doctors I really trust their guts. And the fact remained that Baby B was doing something weird and that most likely it was only continue to get worse. So why not take the girls while they are not under distress?

Okay so to recap they are taking the girls today and now I have to have enough composure to call Justin and my mom and explain everything. Somehow I managed that and then jumped into a shower because it would be my last one for a few days......when I got out Justin was there. He had assumed that it would happen today so he stop briefly at work and then headed to the hospital.

We spent then next hour and a half laying on the bed trying to relax and also finally decide our girl's middle names. I know we didn't need to have their complete names figured out but I wanted to at least finish that before they came into the world. So here we are Baby A- Olive Leigh Milligan and Baby B- Ada Katherine Milligan.

And just barely after that we were transferred to our Labor and Delivery room. Family members slowly made it and from then on it was a waiting game. We were scheduled for 3pm but the C-section before us had complications so by they time I entered the operating room it was 3:30pm. Now up until this point I was so unbelievably scared. But by grace of my guardians above I got my saintly nurse Kristen. By the way someone should pay her double because she was so calming through they entire thing and she talked me through everything they were doing to me in the operating room. But also the second I walked into the room I knew they was no other option so why worry, I was about to meet my girls!

It took awhile to get me prepped but soon enough Justin entered the room and he too had a calm about him, he was so reassuring. And then it began, and when they tell you that you will feel nothing but tugs and pulls and they were serious, it wasn't painful but it was weird.

By 4:04pm we had two beautiful crying screaming girls. Justin and I were both crying from happiness and you will never understand that you can love this little person that you don't even know so much that you would give anything for them and we had two. And on top of that the girls were doing amazing enough that they bundled them up and I even got to see them and put my cheek up to theirs!!

They had survived three tight knots in their chords to be born at 31 weeks and 1 day.

Olive Leigh 3lb 3oz 15 3/4 in
Ada Katherine 3lb 0.3oz 15 1/2 in

Born September 22, 2011 at 4:04pm

The Longest Day of my Life!

Tuesday September 20

The morning started off like any other morning monitoring at 6am which was uneventful the girls were well behaved so I thought it would be an okay day. Boy was I wrong.

Since it was Tuesday I had all my vitals check; Urine sample, Weight measure and Ultrasound cord pressure check. Everything was fine until the ultrasound. For the most part the girls were looking excellent hearts beating, cord pressure normal but when it came time to check the blood vessel pressure in the brain both girls had elevated amount. Baby A was in the middle of the what I am calling "Not Good" level and Baby B was beginning. Now this is when I got really concerned because as I have learned from being in the hospital there is this vagueness they like to give the patients. I know its so we are not super alarmed but at the same time I am sitting in the ultrasound chair and all I hear is that we are taking her to Labor and Delivery. Now my experience with Labor and Delivery can mean one of two things a) The girls are coming today! or b) We are monitoring you so much that Mother Baby nurses can't spare the time.

In this case it was B. And not only extended monitoring but 24hr monitoring!!!! Okay so 24hr monitoring but no one had still mentioned what the ultrasound meant. The big question was were the girls okay? Yes and no would be my answer after I asked my nurse that I had no idea what was going on.

As a side note my first nurse that evening Kristen was I swear the most amazing and caring person I have ever met. She was so calming and reassuring that everything was going to be okay, it really set the tone for the rest of my day. Oh did I mention that this all happened before 11am?

So back to the elevated brain blood pressure.....they were concerned that if let unchecked it could lead to hydrops which is a scary thing that I won't go into too much detail but entails fluids surrounding the organs.

Okay so lets recap: ultrasound sorta bad, immediately transfer to Labor Delivery room oh and no cell to tell anyone about what was going on. I finally got the nurse to fetch my cell from my room since they would not let me get it myself and was finally able to text Justin and my Mother to let them know what was going on.

My Mother, who is a saint by the way, immediately jumped into the car and drove down to come and stay with me! I know she is going to tell me to shut up about this but I hope that I am just as amazing a mother as she is! Justin was finally able to come after work and spend time with me, at this point we were trying to keep him from missing work so we can save it for when the girls are born and when they finally go home!

So my mother was able to stay the night which helped me sooooo much. Because minus 5 minute bathroom breaks I was confined to the bed for a total of 27 hours. The 10 or so hours were not that bad but at 3am and you are utterly exhausted it becomes a little much.

The next morning I had another ultrasound and thankfully the pressure had gone down! Which meant I was released!! Oh and my mom got to see the girls so double bonus!

The rest of Wednesday was spent sleeping so it was really uneventful.......Thank Goodness! But just like before I was led to believe that everything was going to go back to normal, Oh I was fooled.

But that's another blog post :)

Oh how things change........QUICKLY

SO this is going to be part 1 of how the girls came by their birth date. Last week was by far the craziest I have ever had. Although I never would have through that by the end of the week I would have two amazing girls staring back at me.

Lets start at the beginning:

Sunday September 18th
The entire day had been uneventful we had amazing sessions on the monitor all day, the girls were easy to find and really stayed on the monitor almost the entire hour which meant that mom wasn't hooked up ALL day. I should have know that my girls were planning something...

Our last monitoring session was the one that concerned my high risk doctor. It wasn't a concern that meant the girls would have to be here right now, more it just set the stage for other anomalies to be a bigger concern. "Baby B" Ada had during our last session managed to get her heart rate up to 196 bpm for a minute or two which isn't terrible but in the same session she managed to level off to her normal baseline rate and then have a decel to about 100 bpm. Again this worried the doctors but for now they were just going to wait and see!

I went to bed a little shaken but for the most part confident that this was just another fluke because that had done this sort of thing before without anything bad happening.

Monday September 19th
I'm gonna be honest for as weird as the last night session was everything on Monday was rather boring. The girls were active on the monitors, meaning they were having acels and decels like any other baby for their gestational age. I tried for the most part to sleep the day away and the constant parade of nurses and doctors through my door was really making it difficult to get any sleep. So really nothing happened on Monday, it was as any hospital stay can be "normal". In no way did it prepare me for the events that would unfold the following day!!!

Oh oh we're half way there.........

My favorite thing in the world is finally available!!! Betty Jane Caramel Apples!! My girls have finally got a taste for this special fall treat.

We have been in the hospital for over 4 weeks and a little less than 4 weeks to go! The girls are surprising everyone by doing soooo well. We have never really had any scares so far and we are going to cross our fingers that this continues to be a trend.

Since our last posting there hasn't been anything too exciting go on, we've had another Ultrasound but it wasn't to calculate growth it was a cord pressure check to make sure that they blood flow was within standards. Are girls continue to get great marks and everything was normal.  As for me I just have the normal pregnancy woos except that everything is a lot sooner then other women! Muscles I didn't know I had hurt when I try to move around......ugh. Plus finding a comfortable way to sleep has become a whole new challenge!! But other than that everything is going great. Counting down the days till I'll be free and hoping the girls will be able to come home soon after me!

We survive our 3rd week but with lack of sleep!!

Baby B

So first off I want to let everyone know that we are all here and doing very well despite the doctors attempts to drive us insane ;)

29 weeks and also 3 weeks in the hospital!!! I can't believe we have made it this far, not that I doubted that we'd be able to. But really you never know how mentally you will handle a situation like this and for the most part I feel that we are doing well. Mind you we (I find it funny that I refer to myself as we but there are 3 of us here!) have our days where almost lose it and by lose it I just mean break down and cry, which granted I am a hormonal pregnant lady so I should be cut a break........right?

This past weekend was my major test!! It seems that my girls being my girls decide that they are going to be troublesome to the degree that they have decided to be really close!  Baby A is now head-down on my left side and Baby B is sideways (transverse) with her head on my right side but to add to that she is hiding under her sister!! Which let me tell you makes it almost impossible to actually get her heart rate. Rewind to this weekend the girls decided for 3 nights in a row to be next to impossible to find. Which meant that for 3 nights in a row I did not make it to bed till after midnight!! Which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that every morning I am woken up at 6am to start the monitoring process all over again. Plus throw in a few irritating nurses who are not able to actually find the girls and not call for help but instead abandon me in the room by myself without checking in!! So yep I have a nurse who I totally hate.

The girls have since become sort of not too troublesome! For the most part now we know where they are so that helps when we are searching out their elusive heart rates!

On Tuesday we had another Ultrasound. The girls are still developmentally doing awesome which gives me a big sigh of relief. Also they are continued to grow!!! Baby A is 3lbs 1oz and Baby B is 2lbs 5oz!!! The girls are getting mega big now!!

5 more weeks to go!

Second Week and an official date is set

So we have made it to 28 weeks!! I never thought this day would come so quickly, I also can't believe that I have already been here 2 weeks!

I haven't really met any of the other mothers on the floor but I have met a LOT of the nurses and the majority of them are just sweethearts. They realize that it isn't easy being "trapped" here for so long and being far removed from the life that you had lived before. And for the most part the majority of them are great to talk to. Which helps when the girls are misbehaving and refusing to stay on the monitor and the nurses have to hold them down on my belly. Talk about your close and personal. In the hospital there is no personal bubble!

As for how the girls are doing, the doctors are glad by how the girls are doing so far. They have also set the best date for the girls to come, and to my surprise they have changed to 34 weeks. Which would mean that they would be here October 12th!! So that means an extra 2 weeks for me, but if that means that the girls will spend less time in the NICU then its worth it!!  But with anything in this pregnancy we just don't know, so as long as the girls behave we will be good!

First Week

Today marks our first week here in the hospital. We have survived this far without too much with trouble. Mostly the most frustrating thing is that doctors demand so much and the poor nurses have to carry out their orders. That is the biggest thing I have learned this week. And also every doctor has a different thing that they want to see on the monitor read out.

The girls have been super great thus far for their monitoring......heart rates that is. As for being willing to actually get on the monitor, not so much. They love to fight it soooo much, I kinda think its a game now because every time they strap on the straps they start kicking directly where the sensors and also where the nurses hands are.

One thing I have noticed is that the girls have gone crazy wild since coming to the hospital. They are always squirming and kicking all the time. Which is funny to watch! And that there are two of them in there!

Oh and I finally saw them punching each other during an ultrasound, so not only do they beat up on their poor mother but also each other.

Days 2 & 3

Visitors (2) Justin and Derrick
(3) My Mother, Hannah, Abby, Justin, and Laura

Welp I'm still here! :)

I'll start where I left off my 2pm monitoring session which was by far my easiest monitoring session ever!! The girls stayed on the monitor for the most part and were marginally easy to find. Oh how the let me believe they weren't going to continue to be trouble makers :)

They also during my 2pm monitoring session let me know when I would be getting put on the monitor during the day; 6am, 2pm and 10pm. I am not much of a fan of the 6am and the 10pm. But ultimately we are at the mercy of what the doctors think is appropriate.

After my 2pm session the rest of the the day was uneventful, although I will say this the girls are very unhappy about all these sensors being pushed upon them and they have now resorted to kicking anything that applies pressure on to them!! That includes daddy's hand :)

At our 10pm session the girls continued to look good! Still ever the trouble makers we got through it and it only lasted 1hr 45mins, this may sound like a long time but trust me last night was way worse!!  I barely got to bed at 12am and then was awoken at 6am again!! This is something that I am really going to have to get used to these short bursts of sleep!

They girls were especially terrible all day yesterday. During both the 6am and the 2pm I had to have the nurse on duty hold the sensor the entire session because baby b who they call spicy would not stay in one spot for more than a few minutes so they had to constantly be shifting it to keep her heart on the monitor.

My mom, Hannah and Abby all came during my 2pm session and were so excited to hear the little one's heart beats!! For Hannah and Abby it was their first time and it was really neat to see their faces light up!! After we were done we went exploring around the hospital and found the rooftop cafe and a couple of other locations! It was really nice just to get out and walk around, while I still can because I know in a few weeks I will just simply be too big to move around too much on my own! Then I will have to wheeled around :)

After we got back to my room Justin was already there!

The rest of the evening was uneventful until my 10pm session which thankfully the nurse that night decided to come at 9pm. It was by far my most trying time here at the hospital. I know I my sound whiny but this session lasted 2hr 30mins. Yikes. It was more than my body could not take just lying there still that long! I got super antsy and my back killed, not to mention my lovely children decided to compress my longs even more so breathing became very difficult. It seems that the girls have now decided to be right next to each other which makes it very difficult to get separate heartbeats!! So my evening ended with me being checked by ultrasound to make sure the girls were there! Which of course they were and were also doing just perfect. They just really love to make the doctors nervous!!

That's all for now! :) 

First Day

Visitors of the day:  My mom and Abby
              Justin

Well I have so far survived my first evening inpatient and oh boy what a day it was!!

So ultimately it was completely my decision as to when I was going to come into the hospital yesterday.We chose to come in at 3pm. Good thing we waited until later in the afternoon when everyone was awake and alert because somehow in Amelia fashion of weird luck the people and Mother and Baby Care had no idea I was coming!!! Ack!!

Well they were able to get into a room after a little bit of a wait and thus started the series of pokes prods and blood taking. Each being more difficult than the last. It started with my sugar test which wasn't that bad to begin with the stuff tasted like flat orange soda. Then came the hour after that they had to come and take my blood. Seems like my veins would not work the way they are supposed to. My one arm the blood was super thick and then the other one the nurse could seem to get it into my vein. She gave up for a few moments and then came back with another nurse to have her give it a try. Thank goodness this time everything worked the way it was supposed too!

Then later in the evening they decided to do my first Non-Stress Test (NST) on the babies. Well let me tell you my girls are massive trouble makers. It took the poor nurse 45mins to get both babies on the monitor!!!! So needless to say baby b would not stay still and kept being a trouble maker the entire time. So what normally would be an hour was about an hour and a half hooked up to the machines. As usual the babies are doing just fine!

I tried sleeping but mostly I could only go a few hours before I was awake but I kept falling back to sleep at least. It was a little weird and I had to keep reminding myself of where I was.

Wake up call this morning was at 6:30am to a steroid shot and another monitoring session. The babies continued to be trouble makers but we managed to make it through. Their reward was me finally being able to order my breakfast!! And also that they next session of monitoring isn't until 2pm thank goodness. SO I may just be able to get in a bit of a nap before they hook me up again!!

Although it was a rough first day we are surviving!!

Last Hurrahs

So this weekend was my last one of "freedom". It is really the last weekend without being trapped in the hospital and without two little ones. So where would I go?

 Why to Dubuque of course, we had a wedding to attend and music festival to go to! The wedding was for my friend and neighbor of 17 years. I can't believe we have been living in that house for so long. It seems like only yesterday we moved in, I even remember the exact moment that we met.  How many times in your life do you actually remember the exact moment when you meet someone? I think back on this and really there isn't many times that I exactly remember meeting someone. Don't worry I remember about when I met people but that exact moment there are only two that stick in my mind. When I met Liz for the first time (It was right after Christmas it was abnormally warm out and we had gotten roller blades they got skis, they came over because we were outside playing and saw that we had a lot of kids in our family) and my now husband Justin (I was on a "date" with a friend of his at a BINGO event and it was the day before April fools day! We were Facebook friends immediately).

Then we had a Bluegrass festival to go to on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and mostly I just sat and relaxed and enjoyed the calm. It was nice just to be with my family and do much of nothing. Mostly just being in each others presence.

This entire weekend was a great time to reflect on the many happy memories of my childhood and hope that I can do the same for our two little girls. And even though we may all be growing up everyday we are still in a way the same as we ever were.

Today I go into the hospital and even though I do not know what is going to happen I am still hopeful for the best. I am doing everything I can for these little ones, giving them the best possible chance for survival. Although I have not met them yet I know that I love them.