Week 2 (and a half) Update

Looking back at the pictures from the beginning of this week to the end I'm amazed at how much the girls have grown in just one week. They have met some awesome milestones. I'm so glad I looked at the pictures though. The NICU is starting to get old! But seeing how much they have grown in just one week makes me excited for what is to come.

Ella: This little peanut has caught up with her sister fast. She now weighs in at a whooping 3lbs 13oz! Go Ella. She was having a lot of brady alarms (low heart rate) at the beginning of the week so they added rice cereal to her feeds and that has seemed to help a bunch. She still has them but the nurses have reassured me that it is a preemie thing and they just have to grow out of it. She is regulating her temperature well in is now in cute little girly outfits all day long. No more nakey girl. We are inching our way to the big girl (open to air) crib. We started breast feeding and bottle feeding once a day. She is a champ (when she is awake enough.) I swear she looks more like my side of the family, mostly I see her Uncle T but I seem to be the only one. Our biggest concern with this little nugget is they found a grade 1 bleed in her brain. The docs and nurses have all said IF (and it's a big if, about 11%) she has any issues with it it will be learning disabilities later in life. Fortunately she will be followed by infant and toddlers early intervention program regularly to pick up on things like physical or speech issues. She'll do this through her first 3 years. She is showing no neurological signs of issues though. YAY Ella girl.

Hailey: She is the same weight as her sister at 3lbs 13 oz. She is just tooo funny. She has my little spunk in her. She just won't do what she doesn't want to do. I love it! She is also breast feeding/bottle feeding once a day and doing well (when she is awake enough.) She's wearing cute little outfits just like sissy. Basically they are doing their twin thing and mirroring each other. She is having more brady's now so they are doing the same preventative measures to help her out. It is all related to reflux at this point. She is definitely a Bunker....well actually I think she is more a Crowe (G's mom's side.) She looks just like her cousin Zach which I'm sure he'll love! She also has a grade 1 brain bleed (these girls seem to want to do everything together.) I just can't wait to see what little girls they turn into.

They are both definitely Daddy's girls. When they hear his voice they search for him. The other morning he would go see Ella and Hailey would cry. He'd then go see Hailey and Ella would cry. They're kinda obsessed. He started back to work this week and it sucks not having him there. Especially because I can only feed one at a time at this point. So I always feel I'm giving one more attention then the other. Oh the life of twins. 

The girls definitely love their time spent together too. They will reach out and touch each others hands. Today they reached out and held on to each other. My heart almost exploded. I just love these little girls!

To find more pictures of the girls go to: http://bunkertwins.shutterfly.com/pictures

Week 1 update

The girls are doing fantastic in the NICU! Over the last week we had a few hiccups but over all they are proving to be fighters. Ella this week has given us the biggest scares. About 2 days after her birth she still hadn’t gone poopy. They did scans on her belly looking for infection and held her feeds. Fortunately everything came back normal and the next day…..well she cleaned herself out. After going of the CPAP on day 2 had to go back on because she was having way too many apenic events. The started her on caffeine and once that peaked she was able to go back to the nasal canula. They have weaned her down from 4 liters to 2 liters and her alarms are virtually silent now. She has had her feeds increased to half and ounce every 3 hours. After her poop we haven’t hear a peep from her. She is our teeny one. She just looks so much more fragile then her sister. She loves to sleep with her arms above her head like super man. Her hair is getting blonder and blonder. She looks an awful lot like her Uncle TJ. She is definitely Mottinger. Today we found out that she has a teeny tiny bleed on her brain, most likely from all the pressure of plugging up the cervix. The doctors don’t seem concerned as her blood levels are normal and neurological exam is negative. They will re-scan in a week. We are trying not to worry until then.

Hailey girl is a little more vocal then her sister. Who we kiddin… she is loud! Girlfriend can bring down the house when she wants. She also had the same GI issues as her sister but that has resolved and her feeds are up to half an ounce every 3 hours. She is a little more difficult to tell who she looks like. She definitely has my lips but George says she has a Bunker dome. She loves to move. She will be totally knocked out but her legs are going. She looks like she’s ridding a bike. She did this in my belly too! Her brain scan was clean but they will re-scan her again just to be safe.

            Each day both girls are more and more alert. They will open their eyes when they hear our voices. OK well maybe just when they hear daddy’s voice but I’m not jealous. I’m glad they have that bond with him. I got to hold them together today for the first time. I was in 7^th heaven. At first they were holding pinkies, like “We pinky promise not to tell mom what you did.” I hope they are best friends. I can’t believe just a week ago they were in my belly! We love them more then we ever thought possible. I can’t wait to see them grow up, but I’m already a little sad that they will never be 1 week old again. Hopefully they keep going the speed they are going and they’ll be home where we can snuggle them any time we want soon!

Ella and Hailey's Birth Story

As most of you know, I had been having complications since about 16 weeks. Monday the 18th I went to my high risk doctor as I had been doing every 2 weeks since 16 weeks. At that point my cervix was extremely short and baby A's head was very much engaged. He said to me, "Well if you're still pregnant in 2 weeks we will see you then." I was pretty confident that if I took it super easy I could make it. My body was telling me something different. Since the Thursday prior my nausea had kicked back up, I was starting to swell something fierce, I had gained 10 lbs in just over a week, and I was having some serious pressure. All of these were signs of pre-term labor. In fact I was in labor and delivery that Sunday with what I thought were contractions. By the time I had gotten there nothing was showing on the monitor. I think the nurses thought I was crazy.

Well Tuesday I just didn't feel good after dinner. I can't really explain it other then saying I had that icky feeling you get when you are coming down with something. I went to bed and woke up the first time around 11 with what I thought was the babies "balling up." My belly was incredibly hard but the nurses said if there wasn't pain then it wasn't a real contraction. I woke up again around 130am. My belly was again rock hard. I woke Geo up and told him that I just didn't feel good. I was having some sharp pain, which I thought was Round ligament pain. On Sunday when I took a shower things started to slow down so I thought I'd give that a try. When I got out I was still having the "balling up" feeling with the sharp pain. I thought I might throw up too. I was sitting in the girl’s room, petting bobo, eating a poptart and I just thought if this isn't something real I'll feel like a real idiot...again. But if I wait and George goes to work and it is something then I'll be up the creek. So I called. I tried to explain to the doctor that it felt similar to Sunday but now I was having a little pain, thinking he'd tell me it's nothing just go back to bed. But he had me come in.

So after I had a mini panic attack, crying like a fool (mostly because I was worried and less about the pain) wet hair, no makeup, lookin r-o-u-g-h, into the hospital we went. When we got there the girls who came to get me said weren't you just here! I said yeah, it's probably just me being a crazy pants again. I was so worried that they were starting to think I was making it up. The nurse I had was so sweet though. She put me on the toco monitor first to make sure I was contracting. When the first one showed up I was celebrating....YAY I'm not crazy! But when the next one came 2 minutes apart and then the next one and the next one, we knew it was something more real. She found the babies, who were doing great, started fluids to help slow the contractions, and called the doctor. He ordered a medicine to help stop the contractions but asked to check my cervix first. The nurse checked me and at first said...1.5 cm....I thought well that's more then I though but that's not so bad. Before I could finish the thought she said wait no no you're 4 cm. Oh crap! She called another nurse to confirm. By the time she came I was 5cm with a bulging bag. No meds for me. They made me lay flat, which increased the contraction "pain." It was nothing like I thought it would be. I thought I'd be screaming for an epidural at 5 cm but it was more pressure then pain. The doctor came in and joked..."Why'd you wake me up!" He checked me again (have I mentioned that isn't pleasant in the least.) Sure enough still 5 cm. He did an ultrasound to check the position of the babies. Baby A was head down, Baby B was transverse. He said it was time to start talking delivery options. I still at that point hadn't really acknowledged this was it. I told him I'd like to try vaginal, thinking he'd say no way in hell. But to my surprise...and every nurse in L&D he was willing to try and agreed to a breech extraction. I had to sign consent that I might need an emergency C-section for B.

 Things moved very fast from there. I hadn't planned on calling any family until later in the morning but once delivery was confirmed I thought it better to at least call my mom and dad. They whisked me away from triage to my labor room. Shortly there after I got my epidural. Had this not been a twin pregnancy with the potential of a c-section, I don't think I would have asked for one just yet. I was surprised at my tolerance for the pain. Mostly I just wanted to pee! The epidural hurt was worse then the contractions. After about an hour on the epidural I got checked again. I hadn't changed and my contractions had started to slow a bit. Since we were committed to delivery and I had no prior plan of taking the al'natural route, the doctor broke A's water an hour later I was 7cm. He started me on pitocin to get my contractions a little closer and about an hour after that I was 9cm. They switched me to a room that could accommodate the twins and the team it would take to deliver them. The neonatologist came to visit and gave us the low down of what would happen. Then it was time to push.

 I was super surprised that the only 2 people at first were the nurse and a surgical tech. Once I crowned the whole slew of people showed up. I pushed for 20 minutes with baby A. I giggled the whole way through. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like my head was going to pop off. I giggle in the most awkward times. The nurse finally told me to shape up. I couldn't even look at George or I'd start to giggle. Baby A plopped out without me even knowing, one of the only upsides to delivering premature babies. A GIRL! The whisked her away to the other side of the room. It didn't even feel real until I hear her little cry. I looked and George and started crying. We waited so long for that moment in time. Words just can't even express. While all this was going on the doctor was working on getting baby b out. The anesthesiologist gave me an extra dose of meds so I wouldn't be feeling them try and turn her. They pushed so hard on my abdomen I still have bruises, but I was distracted. You could definitely feel the tension in the room though. This kind of delivery is very rare. The nurse even told me they don't do them at this hospital. But the doctor agreed, I trusted him (even though I'm pretty sure I was his guinny pig) and I preferred a vaginal delivery. They were unable to turn the baby to head down so feet first was how she was going to come.  The doctor said every time he went to grab her she would slap him away. The whole time the nurse had the sono on my belly trying to keep track of where the baby was moving. They had a very short amount of time to get her out before my cervix would start to close. Finally he grabbed her feet and started to pull her out. George said he pulled her straight out and her arm got stuck so the doctor had to reach back up and pull her arm out. Then her head got stuck. I swear you could hear a pin drop. The doctor lifted her legs straight up and all I saw was purple feet. I was never so scared. I could tell she was a girl though and got to announce that to everyone (Even though that shouldn’t have been my priority.) Then the doctor looked at me straight in the eye and said you need to push hard, in the sternest way possible. Then everyone started yelling at me to push as hard as I can. Seeing her purple feet and hearing the seriousness in everyone’s tone was all I needed. I’ve never been more motivated to do what someone told me to do. Finally she came out! It felt like at least a half our but they announced they were only 6 minutes apart. The stabilized her and both the girls went off to NICU. We didn’t even get a picture of baby A before she was whisked.

George was amazing. Everything I could have ever asked for. He was just so calm, even though I know he was freaking out on the inside. We only had to wait an hour to go see the girls. We didn’t want to pick their names until we saw them. Ella was pretty much a given but we were torn about baby B. We had fully anticipated her being a him, of which we would have named him Jackson. But she threw us a curve ball. I was pretty set on Delaney and so was George until she was born. We talked about Hailey…. Well actually we typed on my phone since my mom was in the room and we wanted it to be a surprise. Now that she is a Hailey I just can’t see her as anything else. We were so sure she was a he George kept calling her a he! But now it’s all about his baby girls. Ella was on the CPAP, but she did have to get intubated quickly for some surfactant. Hailey was intubated (my worst fear) but she did so well that they extubated her that night.

After such a horrible way to get pregnant, a not so easy pregnancy, and the fact that they were in the NICU, I couldn’t have asked for a better birth experience. I had minimal pain, I had fantastic nurses, while it was dodgy there for a few minutes with Hailey, it was darn right perfect. I am so grateful I had the only doctor in the hospital that would attempt a breech extraction and allowed us to deliver in a normal room so my mom could be there. The girls are doing remarkably well for their gestational age. I feel fantastic. My muscles are really sore but that has to do with being on bed rest for so long. George is more then I could have ever hoped for as a daddy. He is so gentle and loving. I have had several nurses tell me how great he it. The girls respond to him far more then me. They know his voice, they’ll open his eyes for him, and he’s the only one who can get the smiles. I didn’t think it was possible to love him more, until I saw him through my daughter’s eyes. They are very lucky girls. Now we just wait for them to continue to mature. They will probably be in the NICU for about 5-6 weeks. Then they will be home where we can spoil them rotten!!!!   

26-30 Week catch-up

You'd think by sitting on my butt all day I would find time to keep the blog updated. Clearly I found watching tv a more productive use of my time. So I'll catch ya'll up in one post.

26 weeks: We go to the high risk doctor every 2 weeks. Each time we see the babies via abdominal ultra sound, I get a cervical check (I'll let you figure out how that happens) and the do a test called the Fetal Fibronectin. I think I explained it earlier, but basically it's a test to show high risk for pre-term labor in the following 2 weeks. At 26 weeks I got a positive. Because of this they sent me to the hospital to get 2 shots of steroids to help mature the babies lung in the event that they do come. Obviously I'm still pregnant so it was a false positive... but I'll get to that later. At that time my cervix was measuring 1.5. Yikes! I was starting to get nervous.

28 Weeks: Ironically after I got the positive I felt the best I had in weeks. George set up a pool in the back yard big enough for me to float in. Heaven on earth! This weeks check showed the babies weighing in at 3 lbs even! For some reason this felt like a milestone for us. My cervix was wacky this week. It measured every where from .9 to 2.4. The doctor I saw said "I think you might make it kid." I was so excited about hearing that I think I floated out of the office. For the first time since 16 weeks I thought I might actually make it to 36-38 weeks and avoid NICU time. And then.......

30 weeks: ......Today we went in and babies are growing rock starts at 3.7 and 3.9 lbs. The look fantastic and are even a little ahead on the growth charts for singletons. I say it's because all the cheeseburgers I feed them lol. However that's where the good news stopped. Baby A is so low they couldn't even see his/her head on the u/s. My cervix is 0.7 and funneling pretty big (dilating on the inside) I asked if they could tell if I was dilated at the end or outside part of the cervix. He'd have to do an internal to see that and he didn't want to do it. But he said if he did he would be able to scratch A's head. He said I am at a very high risk of delivering pre-maturely. He even said we'll see if you make it to your next appointment in 2 weeks. I think I can do it! Regardless bags are packed and family is on alert. This all explains why I've been feeling intense pressure. No more trips to the pool or for car rides for me. I've been having lots of braxton hicks contractions too. They don't hurt but they are uncomfortable. My belly is just enormous and sleep is eluding me. Thank God for tivo.

BUT-- given all of this I'm just so thankful we have made it this far! When I was 16 weeks and all this cervix stuff started I did not think we'd get this far. Everyday cookin is a blessing. The doc said even if they are born today, they'll do very well in the NICU. If we make it to 32 weeks we're "in the clear" as far as bad complications in the NICU. In the words of the doctor "Growing a litter ain't easy"

And now for the ugly, stretch marked up belly shot that everyone has but never shows. Vanity is out the window....basically because the thought of getting off the couch to take a redo sounds like running a marathon. So if you've been pregnant you'll have mercy on my soul, if you haven't no judgy judgy, I'm earning my tiger stripes.

Update on Geo: You can just see in his face how worried he has been during the last couple of weeks. He gets home from work and cleans, cooks, does the laundry, does the lawn. He's just non-stop. I've had to force him to slow down and take days off to just sit and watch espn. Anyone who knows him knows this is just as much torture as being too busy. He has always been a light sleeper too but my goodness he has been sleeping hard. Like smack him in the head to wake him up hard. It's so funny to see him swallowed up by all my pillows. He is getting less worried with each passing week. He seems more at peace with the fact that the babies will most likely be spending some time in the NICU. He is just too excited though. Every day week do a holy cow no more then 8 weeks, no more then 7 weeks etc. It's starting to become really real. He's working hard on a bookcase he made the babies for their nursery. He just going to be such a cool dad. Go G!

Whelp that's all I have for you today. Hopefully I'll still be preganated in 2 weeks. All the prayers you can spare for our little nuggets will be greatly appreciated!

Let the Bed Rest Begin

The time has come for me to park my butt on the couch for the remainder of my pregnancy :( We went to our High Risk doctor appointment yesterday. The babies look fantastic as usual. We even got a cute little 3D on baby A. Baby A is weighing in at a whopping 1lb 10oz. His/her head is measuring a week ahead. (G says that's the Mottinger) Baby B is weighing in at 1lb 8oz. Baby B also had his/her hand between his legs so I'm even more convinced that is a little boy! My body on the other hand... is being a pain. My cervix is now down to 1.5 (should be at least above 2.5 but ideally above 3) with some funneling (dilation from the inside.) When that happens they start doing a test every 2 weeks called Fetal Fibronectin. It's a relatively newer test. Basically if it's negative it's something like 80% chance of not going into labor in the next 2 weeks. If it is positive then they will admit me for steroids. The thing with positives is they aren't as reliable as the negatives. There can be a lot of false positives for various reasons. So negatives are really good; positives are whatever. The doctors goal for me at this point is 28 weeks, which is super scary because that's only 3 weeks away. It's looking like the babies will most likely have NICU time. But at 28 weeks their survival rate is 90%. The nurse at the hospital said 28 weekers do really well. And I can stay at Frederick Memorial here in town if they come at 28 weeks instead of going to Baltimore or DC. I'm on modified bed rest, which means I can get up to make myself lunch as I'm coming back from a bathroom trip and I can do some sitting up instead of lying flat. I may even be able to go out to dinner one night a week YIPPIE! Fortunately G's Mom is here until June and has been a huge help. My mom is going to come next weekend and I think Em is coming from Jersey for a couple days to watch movies with me. I'm so happy I was able to make it to my shower and get most of everything unpacked and put away. It's crazy to think I had planned on working until this week. I truly believe had we not been insistent on stopping work and changing doctors I would have lost these babies. The new doctors have just been fantastic. They have never once made me feel bad about calling them. They have been super proactive. One of them even worked on the study for the fetal fibronectin test when she was going through med school! They are taking such good care of us. G is handling everything so well. He is definitely my rock. So any prayers you can spare for our nuggets would be greatly appreciated!

Baby Shower and V-day!

Two huge milestones for the nuggets happened this past weekend. They reached viability day on the same day as my shower. It was the most beautiful shower I could have asked for. My mom and best bud Misa spent so much time on it and it showed. We had it at the restaurant where my baby brother is a chef, The Columbus Inn, in Wilmington. It was so special to have him make some of the food for us too. My mom made little centerpieces with mine and G's baby pictures on it. We got so many gifts we were almost unable to get everything back home. Our family and friends were so beyond generous. My in laws made the 10 hour trip from Maine to come. I hope they know how much that meant to us both. We got to hang with them for a couple days which was awesome since we probably won't see them for a while. G's mom came home with us and is staying for about a month to help out. THANK GOD!! It was just the best day. I know it sounds cheesy but we felt so loved. Everyone was genuinely happy for us. Our nieces and nephews and my little cousins were very attentive in helping us open the presents. SO cute! Ugh I just can't say enough about how perfect it was. I had a whole speech planned to say thank you to everyone and all I could get out was thank you before I started crying. So if you were there, or sent gifts, we thank you so much! You all are so important to us and we appreciate everything you do!

Here are some of the highlights. My cankles made an appearance but I will not be sharing those pictures!

22 weeks (almost)

FINALLY! An uneventful week. I feel great, the babies are moving around all the time, and G got a week he didn't have to work crazy over time. We also got awesome news that my disability claim got approved until 6 weeks after the babies are here. Phew what a relieve. We've only got 2 more weeks until the shower which should go fast. My buddy Em came down last weekend and kept me company, which was awesome! This weekend we have a wedding to go to. Then the following weekend a birthday party. Then the shower! I'm so excited. I can get my full on nesting on. G has been so good making me sit and drink. He's too cute. We have been trying to take walks in the evening since it's so nice. I usually don't get to far (maybe only to the ice cream shop and back...) but I still have lots of contractions when I do too much. But it does feel to get out of the house for a little. The puppies are loving it too. We are inching our way to the 24 week- Viability mark. It will take a small sigh of relieve when we get there. My new doctors are so amazing, helpful, and supportive. I couldn't be happier with my decision to switch. So here's to another uneventful week!!

Baby A was the contortionist this week (Sorry for the crappy picture dang phone)

Baby B is cute as ever (so is a for that matter! I'm that mom!)

And what would a walk in the park be without daddy taking a picture of me being the dork that I am. Believe me this is the least dorky one but you can see my beastly belly.