The Eve...

...of their birthday is upon us! I am literally in denial that it is infact their birthday already...Sniff Sniff...Real tear will be coming all night! I even cried for real at Toys R Us today when the Cashier asked me if I wanted to donate to the Starlight fund which helps kids in the hospital...Last year were received lots of gifts from the Starlight Fund...The poor cashier didn't know what to say when I started crying...bahhh here I go again!

Anyways here is the post about my labour and delivery from exactly 1 year ago tonight...

Hello all! I'll give it one more try at blogging. Alyssa's blog fell apart when she was about 1.5 years old, she was too busy for me to update regularily...Now as our twins have arrived I thought I would give it another try, especially since it will be the only way to have a peak into their lives until they are able to come home with us.

Let's back up a little and give a brief recount of Tuesday night and how we got to today. I had been having crazy nesting urges that I needed to get stuff done and sooner than later. I had been shopping like crazy and getting last minute things that one usually wouldn't pick up until closer to their due dates. I had pretty much finished their room on Sunday, hanging, hemming and ironing curtains, decorating etc. until midnight. Kirk thought I was a bit nuts to be in such a panic. Monday night I commented that we didn't have a digital camera if the babies were born because Alyssa had broke ours. Off I went to the store at 8pm to get one just incase!!

Tuesday I was feeling a bit off, not sure with what but given that the flu and made its way through our house, Kris and Janes and Mom and dad's I though perhaps I had a touch of the flu...I laid pretty low that day, and when Kirk got home I retired to my bed...I had been lying there for about 3 hours not doing a thing when all of a sudden at about 10pm my water broke!! There was no mistaking it, it was A LOT and I knew for sure thats what it was...I got up and called for Kirk and also called my mom to come over to stay with Alyssa. Being that I was only 30 weeks and 2 days it was a little scary to not know what was going to happen. I figured I'd probably be in the hospital until they were born and that they'd give me drugs to prevent labour from starting...

We got to the hospital around 10:45 ish and I waited in Triage for maybe 1/2 an hour, I hadn't had any contractions so I wasn't too panicked. Once I got into a bed for assessment my contractions started and they started off 2 minutes apart and fairly strong...They gave me some drugs to try and stop the contractions and to stop labour from progressing. They also gave me a steroid shot to help matures babies lungs if they were to be born early. They need to have 12 hours to be effective and they were hoping for another round or 2 after that...Which means they were hoping for a least 24-48 more hours more...

My contractions didn't slow down and infact were getting worse, much worse! They checked me over and said labour is progressing and rather quickly, they gave me another round of drugs to try and stop the contractions but it didn't work at all...By now its about 1:30am and my contractions were about 1 minute apart and super intense, I can't believe I forgot how aweful they can be. I believe there was even a little swearing involved...A little while later they checked me again and said babies are coming and soon!! My contractions were on top of each other and VERY painful with no real break in between. The nurse discovered that Baby A (Leah) wasn't doing that well with the contractions and her heart reate was dropping and having a little harder of a time recovering. We kept and eye on that for short time when the Dr came in and announced we were going to have a c-section and we were having it RIGHT NOW!!

They wheeled me into the OR and I got a spinal and all washed up and draped, Kirk got into his scrubs. I didn't even realize they had started cutting me until they said Ok you'll feel some pressure baby will be born now...The whole thing from the time they said we are going for a c-section until she was born was about 10-15 minutes...At 2:29 Baby A was born, it was our little girl Leah..She immediatley started crying which was music to my ears seeing how early she was. 1 minute later Baby B our little boy Blake was born, he didn't cry. I didn't even get to see them, they whisked them away for the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Kirk went with them. I got stitched up which only took about 20 mintues and I actually fell asleep. Official stats on the babies: Leah Marianne Slone born at 2:28am weighing 2 pounds 10 oz, 15.25" long. Blake Ross Slone born at 2:29am weighing 2 pounds 12 oz, 15" long.

I spent about 2 hours in recovery not knowing how they were, Kirk came down and said they were doing good and showed me some pictures he had taken. After recovery they wheeled me in my bed to the NICU so I could have a peek at them, and that is literally all it was, a peek. There were still lots of people with them and they had all kinds of tubes and such I couldn't really get a good look at them, plus I was pretty loopy...but everyone was very positive saying they were doing very well!!

I was stuck in my room until about 3pm the next afternoon before I could go see them. Again I didn't stay long, I was tired and still feeling drugged...Again positive comments from the Dr's and nurses that they were doing well.. Here are some pictures from the OR and the early hours. I will post the pictures on seperate posts so there is some kind of order to them.

Truth be told I don't know who is who in these pictures..