The Birth Story

Here is my last pregnancy photo as I'm headed in for the c-section. I made it 34 weeks and 6 days.
The Story

On Tuesday night, I began having contractions off and on at 7:00 P.M. I noticed through the night that they started getting stronger and by 4 AM I had woken Paul and said I think I might be in labor since all of the home remedies to stop contractions weren't working. We decided to wait and call my OB's office at 8 when they opened. They of course said head to labor and delivery at the hospital which we had done before to get the contractions stopped. So Paul called our neighbors Scott and Janna to watch Torin for the morning as we figured it would only be a couple of hours of iv fluids and meds to stop the contractions. We brought NOTHING with us!
When we arrived at the hospital around 9:30 I was contracting every 2 to 3 minutes. Luckily my actual OB doctor was on call and at the hospital on Wednesday. They started my IV fluids and gave me some Procardia to stop the contractions. Unfortunately neither worked and I still was contracting every 2 -3 minutes at 1:30 Wednesday afternoon. My doctor came in and said it was time for the c-section as I was in labor and there was no stopping it this time. We signed all of the paperwork and we headed back to the delivery room at 2:15.
I went in first and received my spinal (numbing medication from the chest down) and they laid me on the table. Everything went downhill from there and I only remember bits and pieces of what went on for the next few hours. My blood pressure started to drop as a result of the spinal and then one of the babies heart rates dipped significantly from the spinal as well. The doctors moved very quickly at this moment and Paul walked in just in time. The doctor cut into my uterus to get Ella out and blood went everywhere so I'm told. Paul said it was the scariest thing he had ever seen. I ended up having placental abruption (Ella's placenta had torn completely away from my uterus) and things went downhill quickly from there. They got Ella out first and within 30 seconds Logan too was out. The babies looked great but I was in a bad situation. I had lost 2 1/2 -3 Liters of blood (you only have 5 total in your body) so essentially I lost half of the blood in my body in a matter of seconds. They rushed the babies and Paul out of the delivery room and into the nursery. I spent the next few hours in ICU getting blood put back into my body. Because it was Ella's placenta that broke away, she ended up inhaling and swallowing some of the blood that I was losing at a rapid pace. We learned later that if we would have waited even minutes later to do the c-section Ella wouldn't be here with us today and I wouldn't be either since I was bleeding internally so quickly. God was looking out for us yesterday, and both Paul and I are so thankful that our miracle happened.

Recovery - I am recovering nicely now and am feeling better as each hour passes. I haven't needed any more blood transfusions to this point, but they are monitoring me carefully to make sure my blood counts continue to improve.

Logan David - He is a champ. He hasn't needed extra oxygen at all and has been breathing room air since he was born. He is eating an ounce of formula/colostrum every three hours and continues to improve hour by hour. He is a calm baby and only cries when hungry or poopy. I was able to hold him twice today and Paul was even able to feed him once. They aren't allowing either baby out of the nursery at this point so we are spending lots of time in the nursery loving on them. Logan does have an iv and is receiving some antibiotics as a precaution in case infection would come up since he is a preemie. We will get lab results done tomorrow to see if there are any signs of infection. If everything looks good they will be taking out his iv.

Ella Kathryn - She is a fighter to say the least. Because she swallowed the blood they ended up putting a tube down her mouth and into her stomach to pump the blood out. She also needed some help with breathing so that is why the pictures below show her in the oxygen hood. She is doing so well now that she hasn't been under the hood most of the day today. She still is receiving a small amount of oxygen through her nose, but her stats continue to improve. They were able to take the tube out of her mouth this evening and she too is now able to eat some formula/colostrum from a bottle. We continue to see improvements from her each hour. I was able to hold her for a very brief time today, so we are hoping to be able to snuggle her more tomorrow if she continues to improve.

Timelines for release - They have told us the standard answer that babies can stay up to their actual 40 week gestation time if needed. So that would mean they could be in the hospital for 5 weeks yet. With both babies improving at a rapid pace, I don't see them taking 5 weeks to come home, but we aren't jumping ahead of ourselves either. We want to make sure they are completely ready to be home with us before we put them in the car. I haven't been told of a time for my release either yet. We are thinking Saturday or Sunday, but they are allowing me to stay up until the babies come home if needed. We will keep everyone posted as to when the release dates will be and also how the twins are doing.

Torin - Thanks so much to Scott and Janna, Anne and Josh, and Tracey for taking care of Torin for us. My mom is here now so she is taking care of T for us while we are at the hospital. He did come and see Mommy, Logan and Ella today, but I don't think he as a clue that the babies are coming home yet. Since they are in the nursery he could only look at them through the window, so the connection isn't there yet that they will be coming to our house.

I know this is a long informational post. It is mostly so that Paul and I can go back and read everything that went on over these past few days since it has been a crazy ride to say the least. We will keep updating with photos, videos, and news while we are here. Thanks to all of you for your prayers. Please keep them coming so that our two new miracles make their way out of the hospital and home with us soon. For now, I am going to try and get some more sleep while I still can!