Hospital Adventures

On Sunday morning, a few hours after the twins were born, we had a special visitor!

We've been hyping the arrival of the babies for months, so it's nice that Will is (for the moment at least) loving it.

And which hospital visit isn't complete without one of these?

I'm feeling like twins is harder, so far, than having only Will. It's especially hard on Alexa, who's been able to tandem nurse. Still, I've missed an hour or two of sleep, and I'm fairly sure I was sleeping (in one form or another) when Alexa snapped this.

They are so sweet, though!

Soon enough, our hospital time came to an end and it was time to pack up and ship out. We got into car seats.

But Mom wasn't finished. We needed... bows...

First, take the "Girlie Glue" (yes, that's a thing)...

...and then add the bows. Cake. Instant "awwww!"

Then it was into the car, which now has a full back seat.

Grandma and Will had prepared a fun homecoming for us!

We're told that the door originally looked like this...

...but the wind caught the balloons and both bottles rolled down the stairs.

Miraculously, they survived, and we were able bring them out for a quick picture.

Will was more than happy to help carry in the car seats.

He'd drawn a poster for us (with Grandma's help, of course.)

We're so excited for the new babies!

They're Here!

After a bit of a slow start, come 2:30am Sunday morning we were ready to get started.

Because a twin pregnancy is naturally "high risk," we would be delivering in an actual OR. Most everyone (including Alexa) got to wear a cap.

As a "civilian," I got the whole get-up.

And then we were off to the OR in the wee hours of the morning.

It was good we had all that room, too! Each baby has their own team, and so there were quite a few of us hanging out in there by the time we got started.

First came Kate, who was born just a little after 3am. She weighed 6 lbs 15 ounces, and came right out.

She was excited to meet Mom.

Emily took a little bit longer. Luckily, she was head down. Had she been breach, we likely would have needed a c-section to get her out. Unfortunately, she was facing the wrong direction (O.P., which stands for something I can't remember) and was face up, and Alexa had to push till almost 4am. Emily was a dainty 8 lbs 6 ounces (that's 8 ounces short of Will as a baby!).

We got our fantastic doctor, Dr. Vold, to pose by the little ladies he helped welcome into the world.

Once more, here's Emily Jane...

And Kate Elise...

And Mom (soooo tired after one hour of sleep all night)...

Slow and Steady?

Things are just humming along here. Unfortunately, we didn't get as early a start as we'd hoped - they broke Alexa's water around 2pm, and started Pitocin around 3pm, and since then, I don't know that we've seen a great deal of progress (speaking, of course, as the labor-and-delivery expert that I am). Contractions seem to be coming every two and a half minutes or so, though, so... any time now?

At least they gave Alexa her epidural before anything else, anticipating that things might move quickly, so it's been a relatively pain-free couple of hours, all things considered.

Around 6pm, I ran out to grab dinner for both of us at Red Rock Subs in downtown Everett.

They are famous for their pot roast subs, which, yes, are as amazing as they sound. I picked up two mushroom and swiss pot roast subs and headed back to the hospital.

Alexa, of course, can't really eat anything, so I guess I pretty much got dinner just for me - her sandwich is sitting in the nurses refrigerator, behind a locked door, our name and room number clearly written on the wrapper (take that, any would-be food thieves). Being the gentleman that I am, I ate outside at a picnic table, enjoying what will probably be the last moments of calm and solitude I'll have for a while.

Alexa's keeping positive by powering through some TV.

At this point, I'm pretty sure we're going to be awake all night keeping these kids happy, but it's still so exciting!

I do think it's a little unfair that we're going straight from one kid to three kids, but I'm sure both of our girls will be the sweetest little angels you've ever seen...

Alexa's still not sure how we'll assign names. We have the names - Kate and Emily - but how do you pick which girl gets which name? I used to joke that we really liked the name Kate better, so we'd give that to the more homely looking baby to even things out.

Nobody really ever laughed at that, so I've stopped saying it (I mean, really, how can you say that any baby looks "homely"? They all look like little aliens...).

I think "baby A" will be Kate and "baby B" will be Emily, and that's a fine enough methodology for me. Hopefully we'll get to employ it before it gets too late, but on the other hand, 10/12/14 is a pretty rocking birth date.

Successfully Admitted!

We made it to the hospital! When we called, they said, "Oh, you're the one with twins, right?"

"Yep."

"How does 10:30 work?"

We gathered our things, took some last pictures as a family of three, and off we went, leaving Will with Grandma.

Everything is going great right now. Both babies are head down, and given that Alexa only pushed with Will for 10 - 15 minutes (and he was a bigger kid), they're telling us things may go quickly today!

I think Alexa is happy about that.

We did have one tiny scare, though. On the ride up to our floor, the elevator totally stopped, and the lights went out. Then they turned back on. Then they went back off. Then they turned back on, and the elevator took a moment to start moving, and when it did, it stopped at the closest floor, one shy of where we were headed.

"Wanna take the stairs?"

"Yep."

We quickly found out, though, that there aren't public stairs, and we had to venture back on to the offending elevator.

It kept its lights on, just daring us to try again...

Luckily, we didn't have any more hiccups. I'm not keen on Alexa going into labor inside a darkened, stalled elevator.

And now we wait!

I'll apologize beforehand for all of today's delivery updates coming from me. Alexa is occupied with other things. :)

Twin D-Day, “o” 800 Hours

If things had gone according to plan, today would have been an early day!

We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 6:15am, and to be induced only a short time later. With such an early morning appointment, we thought that we might even have the babies by dinner! Piece of cake.

Well, we’re still hoping for a piece of cake, but we’ve been delayed a bit. Around 9pm last night, the hospital called and said that they were full. We were invited to call back at 9am this morning to see if they’ve made room.

Yuk.

On the good side, we all got to sleep in. I’m normally out the door for work by 5:45am, and Will usually wakes the rest of the house up between 6am and 6:30am. Today, he decided to let us enjoy our last opportunity to sleep in and waited until 7:15am to wake up. I’m calling that a win.

(He woke up asking for Grandma. Alexa and I made it to his room first, and he still asked for Grandma, angry that we were not, in fact, Grandma. We’ve been replaced.)

We’re a little bit bummed. Alexa could have been delivered as early as 38 weeks, and we planned for around that time to preempt some of the difficulties that come with delivering twins. Today is 38 weeks and 4 days, and we picked it because our fantastic doctor is on-call today. If we get bumped, then… we might as well have had the babies four days ago!

At the last ultrasound where they took measurements, both babies were around 8 lbs, +/- 1 lb. Those are chunky kids for (at the time) about 37 weeks (Will himself was almost 9 lbs). Given that, it feels like it may be good to get this whole delivery thing started.

I’m still hoping for a quick delivery, but no matter what, it’ll work out. Alexa is one hardcore gal.

About a year before Will was born, I was in a car accident that broke my wrist and thumb. I got to wear a thumb spica cast for months (one that went all the way up to the tip of my knuckles). It was a major bummer.

We went on a scheduled cruise about a month later, and as luck would have it, we got a flat tire on the freeway on our way to southern California.

With my hand like it was, I was effectively useless.

But remember how Alexa is hardccore? She totally changed that flat tire solo. All by herself. Single-handedly.

Because she’s awesome.

So I have no doubt that this twin delivery will be a piece of cake. When it actually happens. Hopefully today.

1.5 Weeks to Go!

We have our induction date set! October 11th will be the birthday of our little twins (most likely). My doctors agreed that I could be induced at 38 weeks. However, if I wanted my own doctor to deliver them, I had to wait until he was on-call at the hospital. So, we will wait until October 11th (which is 38 weeks and 4 days). Four extra days seems like a long time, because we can't wait to meet them!

Until then, I am trying to sleep (though it has proved much more difficult this pregnancy) and keep Will entertained. We have been trying to have lots of play dates and outings (because those will not happen again for a VERY long time).

More "big brother practice" with Baby Jack

We still love swim lessons! 

We eat a lot of treats these days - like cannoli and gelato. Yum...

I also spend an extraordinary amount of time at doctors' appointments, ultrasounds, and non-stress tests. I would guess that  I have probably spent around 40 hours at the hospital over these past 6 weeks. I also have a weekly massage appointment (which insurance covers!), but those appointments are significantly more enjoyable.

Will is becoming more and more self-sufficient - whether I like it or not. He helps himself to whatever he wants these days. He is very good at dragging chairs or his potty to whatever he wants to reach. Sadly, there are not many places out of his reach anymore.

goldfish and toys from the off-limits diaper bag... 

apple chips for breakfast... 

delicious peaches...

The babies and I continue to grow. Here we are at almost 37 weeks. At an ultrasound this week, Baby A is estimated to be 7.5 lbs and Baby B is estimated to be 8.5 lbs. Oh my! The weights can be off by up to a pound in either direction, so I am just really hoping they are not any bigger than that! Surely not...

We are also getting excited for our visits from Grandma Tracy (the Harthun grandma) and Mimi (the Larsen grandma). Our visitors/HELPERS begin arriving this Saturday, so there probably won't be any more blogging until these cute babies are born.