1 Month

The girls are a month old!! How on earth did that happen so fast?? Oh, that's right, I never have two seconds to sit still so time is just flying by.

I am truly impressed at how good of babies these girls are. Seriously, Robert and I lucked out again. We thought that since Kaylee had been so wonderfully easy, at least one of these girls would give us a run for our money *Knock on wood!

They are definitely two different people. I still think that Alexis is the more patient one, but there are days when Courtney is super patient while Alexis has a needy day. They are getting bigger every day, and it's sad. They are growing like crazy and are getting stronger. I can't wait until they can do more things. I love the newborn stage but I am so excited for them to start to show their personalities and be more mobile/interactive. For now though, I will enjoy them sleeping 90% of the day and smelling like heaven Which is weird because I really hate the way other people's babies smell.

Unfortunately, I think both of them have some reflux going on. Kaylee had it pretty badly and was on meds for almost 9 months! They don't seem quite as upset as she was, but hers didn't really start bothering her until after she was a month old either. They are going to the doctor on Monday to see what she thinks. I would like to maybe get them on meds for a couple weeks and see if it makes a difference or if they are just having gas problems because of something I am eating. I am cutting out the Fenugreek I have been taking for milk production because I have heard it can make some babies gassy. It would be wonderful to not have them on reflux meds because they were SO expensive with Kaylee and this time they would be doubly expensive.

I'm planning to take pictures of them every month, and weigh them, but I haven't gotten around to weighing them yet for this month.

**Update** - The girls got weighed at the doctor's office and Alexis is officially bigger than Courtney. Alexis weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and Courtney was 7 lbs 9oz. The doctor didn't seem concerned that Courtney was gaining weight more slowly than Alexis, but I am a little un-nerved by how big of a difference there was/is in their sizes now.

All of the month-day pictures have Courtney on the left and Alexis on the right.

I love Courtney's face in this one!

I love these little feet!

They hanging out on their little tummy time mats

Can you guess who is who in these two?

I am looking forward to this next month with our little girls. They are so much fun, even when they are a ton of work. I feel like we are handling it very well. I keep waiting for it to get super hard because most of the twin moms have said that the first 3 months are the hardest. It just hasn't seemed that difficult to me yet **Knock on wood**!!

Hospital, Home, and Recovery

Wow! It has been a while since I posted! Forgive me while I try to get caught up. Things are a bit crazy at our house right now even though Courtney and Alexis are two of the sweetest babies we could ask for. 

Our stay in the hospital ended up being the full 3 days. I had permission to go home a day early, but chickened out at the last moment. Actually, what happened was, I missed one or two doses of my painkiller and ended up being in some very extreme (comparatively) pain. When I realized just how painful it could be I decided to stay one more night. By the next morning I was more than ready to go, but I am glad I stayed the extra time.

We only had family visit during our stay, oh and a couple close friends, and Kaylee got to be the first one to see the babies. She was SO excited to see them and be a big sister! I was very glad that she didn't seem freaked out by me being in the hospital bed either. She really wanted to climb up and cuddle with me, and I with her, but it would have hurt a lot so we kept her off.

I love how excited and nervous she looks! Her first picture with the babies.

I was on my own in the hospital, because Robert only had a limited number of days to take off work. So he went to work every day that I was in the hospital. It was actually not bad at all. The babies basically slept all the time and I sent them to the nursery a couple times when I needed a break to be able to sleep without worrying about them.

We kept them in the same bassinet, and the would always cuddle right next to each other. It was adorable and worrying at the same time. 

Cuddling with Alexis - I love this picture, and wish I had a similar one of Courtney

Many times in the hospital I would nurse them and then just lean back the bed so I could sleep with them on me. That way, if they did wake up I didn't have to try to get up to get them (very painful!). I would only get up to use the bathroom and walk around the recovery unit. They suggested I walk more, but it was just weird to walk around by myself (with the babies) and their bassinet squeaked like crazy!

This is how they slept on top of me.

Finally, it was time to go home!! It was scary and exciting to get them all ready to come home with us. I had these cute outfits for them to wear home, but they didn't really fit so I just put them in other clothes. They did wear cloth diapers home. We used disposables in the hospital because I didn't want to bring the entire stash of cloth and still have to wash once while I was there.

The girls in their car seats:

Alexis - Courtney

First picture at home - Courtney - Alexis

Recovery for the most part hasn't been bad. There have been bad moments, but most of those were in the hospital where I had help and lots of painkillers. One of the things I think made things so much better was the  belly band they gave me in the hospital. It is a big elastic and velcro band that went from my ribs down past my hip bones to hold everything in tight. That made it so my muscles didn't have to try to hold things in place. It lifted my belly skin up to keep the weight off the incision, and just made things feel put together. I wore that thing for almost a week and a half straight. I only took it off to shower, and by the end of the shower I was in pain and needed it back on. After I felt like I could survive without that I got the tightest supportive undies I could find.....you know, the kind that go clear up to your bra? They are wonderful for after c-sections/twins. Another tip for any moms reading this who may end up with a c-section someday (I truly hope not!), do NOT skip pain med doses!! In the hospital, specifically tell the nurses that you want them to come wake you up when you need your pain meds. Mine let me sleep through a dose, thinking I would rather sleep, and I was in pain for the entire day trying to get caught up on the meds.

I am so happy for the technology we have, and the fact that we are able to save many moms and babies by having c-sections readily available. But, I NEVER want another one!! Unless it is absolutely medically unnecessary, I wont ever have another surgical birth.

A Different Kind of Birth Story

One of the things I was sad about when I resigned myself to having a c-section was the fact that I wasn't going to have a fun birth story to tell. But, things happened the way they did, and I still have to tell about the day our twins were born.

I woke up several times the night before the surgery, so excited (and hungry) that I couldn't go back to sleep for hours. I knew that I needed to take advantage of the last full night of sleep I would have in a while, but I couldn't.....it was worse than Christmas! When the family finally got up around 6, I was so thirsty I was ready to drink out of our sprinklers when they came on. I wanted water SO badly! I was really too nervous to eat, but the no water thing was really difficult.

The last belly picture at home. I had to add in the dramatic face....because that is how I felt on the inside lol!

My mom showed up just before 8 so she could watch Kaylee for us. It was actually pretty sad to leave Kaylee home knowing that our little family of 3 was about to change dramatically. We got a final picture of our little family and the Robert and I headed to the hospital.

Our last time as a "small" family

We were told to get there 3 hours before the scheduled surgery, and we got there even earlier because traffic is unpredictable on the drive over. Some days it will only take 20 minutes, and other days it takes a full hour. I was hopefully that our being early would mean I would go into the c-section early, and that's exactly what happened.

The room where we waited for surgery and where the babies and I came during recovery

Waiting was the worst part! It seemed like it took forever before they were ready for us.

As we sat in our room waiting I became more and more nervous. I just didn't know what to expect. This was surgery. MAJOR surgery! The few people they had come in to explain things to us didn't help to calm my nerves very much. At one point, Robert had gone out of the room to get a drink and several people came in and made it sound like we were going in to surgery right then! I started to freak out that Robert wasn't there, and maybe wouldn't be there in time for the birth of the babies. Silly me. It was another hour I think before we actually went back.

Ready for the walk to the OR

Robert looking all handsome in his scrubs

The last twin belly picture

Walking to the OR was surreal and exciting all at the same time. When we got in the OR it was just like everyone described it to me. Cold, noisy, impersonal, scary, and overwhelming. As I sat there on the table getting my spinal placed I became more and more anxious, but tried my best not to show it. The spinal didn't help at all. I was hoping it would be an easy one like my epidural with Kaylee, but this one hurt......a lot. He had to poke me a few times to get the placement right, and with each painful poke my emotions bubbled more to the surface. When it was finally in and started working (instantly) I started to cry a little and that, of course, embarrassed me to death. I hate crying in front of people! I finally calmed down and then we all sat there waiting for the Dr to come in.


Trying my best to stop crying and calm down.

They checked a couple times to make sure he had in fact been paged, and finally he came in. Robert hadn't come it yet, and I was so afraid they were going to forget to bring him in! It was wonderful when he finally came to sit by me, and then I let myself get excited. I let myself celebrate the fact that we were about to have babies!

The surgery started at some point. I didn't hear anyone say when it started, but I could see just enough reflection on a light fixture to tell when things got a little bloody. Robert actually got to take some pictures of the surgical field while they were pulling babies out, and I will forever be thankful. Really I would have loved to videotape the entire thing to watch later. It was the birth of our babies, and I didn't want to miss it.

***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE BIRTH (SURGERY) PICTURES, PLEASE GO HERE OR HERE!***

Alexis (Baby B during the pregnancy) somehow got her head far enough down that they took her out first. That then made her Baby A. It was SO confusing! But at least they were able to tell us which baby they had taken out first so we would know who was who. Alexis was 6 lbs 7 oz 18" long, and born at 12:08pm.


Alexis being cleaned off


Holding our baby Alexis for the first time

One thing that differed from how I envisioned was that they didn't lift the babies up over the screen to show them to us. I hear Alexis start crying, but didn't get to see her. It was all I could do to keep from jumping off the table to go check and make sure she was ok. Then they started working to pull out Courtney (Baby A during the pregnancy). I don't remember if they had gotten Courtney out yet when they brought Alexis over to us, and I got to hold her. That was heaven!! I loved looking at her little face, and having her calm down immediately when she heard my voice. Courtney was still breech so they pulled her out by her legs, which doesn't look comfortable in the pictures. She was 6 lbs 12 oz 20.5" long and born at 12:10pm. The doctors and nurses were commenting on how big the babies were and congratulating me on growing two healthy sized twins. She ended up with excess fluid in her lungs so they took her (and Robert) to the nursery to be monitored to make sure she was ok. Before they took her away we got a couple pictures of the 4 of us, and I got to see and touch Courtney a little.


The new additions to our family - Courtney is on the left and Alexis is on the right

I continued to hold Alexis until I was wheeled into recovery. As soon as I was settled and sitting up a little in the recovery bed I was allowed to nurse Alexis while we waited for Robert to come back with Courtney. I don't remember how long they were gone, but it seemed like forever! Once they came back, I was able to tandem nurse the babies for the first time. It was amazing! Courtney was a natural and latched herself on with very little help from me. Alexis has a latch very similar to Kaylee's. Very shallow and VERY painful. It looks like I will be working with her to get her latching better. It was so odd to realize over and over that we really do have TWO babies now to take care of. They are here and now it is up to us to raise them.

It was a very interesting experience having a c-section. Not something I would be ok doing again, but at least now I know what all happens and I can encourage any family/friends who find themselves having to be cut open.

Courtney

Alexis

Together again!