The twins have arrived!!

I am so happy to announce that Brianna Skye and Nathan James arrived on March 4, 2009. Bri was born at 7:58am, weighed 6lbs 1oz and was 18 inches. Nate was born at 8:00am, weighed 6lbs 5oz, and was 19.5 inches.

Brianna was born with a very rare form of Spina Bifida (something we didn't know until birth). Normally this form of SB is devastating (honestly, most babies don't live)...glad we didn't know about it until she was already here! When they started her surgery they also discovered that she had an additional complication called "split cord malformation", but what the nuerosurgeon found was that her spinal cord was fully formed! This combination of defects is literally 1 in 1,000,000.

With all that said, the surgery went very well and Brianna's prognosis is excellent. While I was pregnant, we were told that the chances of Bri needing a wheelchair where very high...after actually seeing the defect, the nuerosurgeon has said that she WILL walk. As you know, doctors will not go out on a limb with a "best case senario" but generally give you worst case so you will be prepared...so to hear him say that she will walk is amazing! There are still many unknowns, but she is moving everything down to and including her toes and she has feeling down to her toes (that was determined through a very yucky test where they use a pin to poke her all over).

Okay, I think that's it. Nathan and the rest of us are doing great, just exhausted from all of the driving! I'll try to be better about updating! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!

The Night Before

We got the official/final go ahead for Rachelle to have a c-section in the morning!! AND - the doc said that we've been bumped up to first thing in the morning!! We have to be there between 5 and 5:30 am, and the actual surgery is at 7:30. So we are at a hotel now much closer to the hospital. We just had dinner at Outback and are totally stuffed. And excited. We're VERRRRYYYY excited and won't be sleeping much tonight. The big kids are staying home with my parents tonight and they're getting up early to drive up and should be there around 7:30.

It's been a very nice night so far, just marvelling at all we've been through leading up to this. It just seems so surreal...can this really be happening??? We're really having two babies tomorrow??!! Not just one, I mean that would be TOTALLY amazing to even have one baby, but no, we're having TWO!!! One for each of us to cuddle and play with!! And twice the diapers...but twice the kisses and smiles!! We're amazed. And scared. How big will Brianna's lesion be? Will they be able to close it easily and will she need a shunt? Will we be able to stand not holding her for 10+ days? Will both twins look alike? Or completely different? Ahhhh!!! Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

Still Waiting...Should Be March 4th.

I should have posted this last week, but on Tuesday the docs in Oakland called and said that they thought that we needed to wait for Brianna's lungs to mature more. They rescheduled the c-section for Wed. March 4th. So...we're still waiting. Rachelle is feeling more pregnant then ever...of course...but it's getting ridiculous. She's 38 weeks today. Amazing for twins!! But she's all belly and it's difficult for her to get around. Plus she's still on bedrest so she's bored out of her mind.

My parents have been here since last Tues. and it's been really nice to have my mom cooking for us. They're very excited for the babies to arrive as is everyone in our family. I'm officially off work now for 5 weeks. I'm very thankful that I'll be able to take this much time off.

So unless Rachelle goes into labor before Wed., the babies will be born Wed. morning. Wish us luck!!

Estimated Weights

I forgot to post this!! They estimate that Nathan weighs 6 lbs 7 oz and Brianna weighs 6 lbs even. We'll see on Wed!! :-)

Amnio - results are good, but the procedure itself was AWFUL!!

They had told us before that they'd only need to take fluid from one of the babies sacs to determine if their lungs were mature enough to be born and not have breathing problems. We got there today and they decided to do both of them!! Rachelle was such a trooper. They did an ultrasound to determine the best pockets of fluid to target. Nathan (twin B) was easy. He's up higher and wasn't moving around as much. He drew up the fluid and it looked perfect - a little milky and the doc said that's because he has the vernix coating that's floating off into the fluid a little. A good sign of maturity. For Brianna (twin A - closest to the cervix) it took two tries!!! They found a little pocket of fluid but the cord was floating in and out of it and so was Bri's leg!! The first time he tried he almost poked her little leg, so he took it out and looked for a better spot. This time he had to go through part of the placenta - and it was very uncomfortable for Rachelle. I looked over and the doc was trying to draw up fluid and it was not coming easily. I started to feel super queasy...and I'm not usually very squeamish. It's different somehow when it's being done to someone you love. Anyway, he finally got enough fluid and took the needle out. It took maybe 5 minutes to get both samples and we were out of there in 30 minutes total. I thought they'd have her lay there for a bit to make sure she didn't cramp, or leak, or whatever! But nope!! They sat her up on the edge of the table and said, "Oh, you can sit there for a bit if you want." Because Rachelle didn't just hop right off the table!! She was fine, but still.

Anyway, that was at 11:40 this morning and after a nice lunch with Rachelle's sister, her partner and little Carly we drove home. The doc called us with the results around 6pm and he said twin B's lungs are definitely mature and twin A's were borderline mature, but because she's under stress (being "banged up against the cervix" as the doc put it) her lungs are probably mature but it throws off the lab results.

Another exciting but not so great thing that just happened is that one of our dogs, Stone, refused to eat yesterday and was extremely lethargic and totally not himself. This dog will normally knock food out of your hand and eat like he's never seen food in his life. We took him to the vet last night and they drew blood and scanned him for cancer but found no tumors. He has an infection of some sort, was dehydrated and anemic and his liver tests were off. He spent the night and is spending the night again tonight. He did eat some today and is more hydrated and his white blood cells are now down to 19 (normal is 16 and below, and yesterday they were 31). He's an old dog, 12.5 yrs old (huskies live between 11 and 13 years) so the vet warned us that they'll do what they can but to remember how old he is. Poor guy.

Only 2 days to go until we're proud mommies of twins!!

3 Days to Go

Rachelle has been on bedrest for the last week and a few days. It's getting boring now. We're super thankful that it was only for this short amount of time. It's incredible, tomorrow she's 37 weeks!! She's done great carrying the twins for so long.

Tomorrow is the amnio to check on the babies lung development. We're both nervous about it, her more than me of course. I'll be right there with her, but the anticipation of having a big needle stuck in her belly is a bit much for both of us. After the appt. we'll go to her sister's to just hang out for a while to make sure she's not cramping too much, her water doesn't break, etc.

We've worked out the logistics for Tuesday and Wed. My parents are flying in from Michigan on Tuesday. We're staying in a hotel that night so we're closer to Oakland so my parents will stop by the hotel on their way to our house. We're having a friend take the big kids for dinner and then my parents will get there that night and stay with the kids. Wed. morning we have to be at the hospital at 7am, surgery is scheduled for 9am. My parents will drive the kids to the hospital and Rachelle's parents, sister and sister's partner will meet us there around 9.

We're totally excited, I can't think of anything else. What will the babies look like? Will they be screamers? Will the c-section go smoothly? Will Brianna's surgery go well? How long will she need to be in the NICU?

I'll post pictures as soon as possible. Wish us luck!!

9 Days 'Til Baby Day!!

We're back to plan A - having the twins at Kaiser Oakland, paying for insurance out of pocket for the first month then transferring Brianna's care to UCSF after that. If everything goes according to plan Rachelle will have an amnio next Monday to check the babies lung development. This will give the docs a chance to give Rachelle steroids if necessary to help the twins lungs develop quicker so they'll be ready to be born on Wed. We can't believe it's next week!!! We're totally excited and as ready as we'll ever be.

At Rachelle's appointment last Tues. her blood pressure was high at 159/90. They admitted her to L&D and monitored her for 4 hrs. They put the baby heartbeat monitors and contraction monitor on her also - it was fun to hear both heartbeats at the same time! As soon as she was laying down on the bed her BP went back down to normal, so they let her go home but only if she promised to come back last Thurs. for a check. At that check it was high again, so she's now on bed rest. No good when you've got as much to worry about as she does. I emailed Heather today and asked if she could bring Maggie by again so we could be re-inspired. She'll probably come visit on Wed.

I'm wrapping up work - it seems so weird. I'm taking 4.5 weeks off starting with the twins birthday. I was planning on taking advantage of California's Paid Family Leave act but with the budget crisis going on I'm too worried that checks will be held up, and I don't want to have to worry about our bills being paid while we're worrying about more important stuff.

The babies are kicking away and getting big! We can tell the difference between Brianna's and Nathan's kicks now. They're not as packed on one side now, Nathan is on the left and Bri is on the right. They're both head down, in the words of the perinatologist "It's too bad about the spina bifida...this is such a beautiful pregnancy and they're both head down, you could have them naturally." At least Rachelle won't have to go through labor - I can't imagine having to push out two babies..ugh!!