The girls in 2009!

Mairin above and below

Deightyn above and below

9 Months...Oh Dear!!

Wow time really flies!! Mairin is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. She has just begun to cruise so it probably won't be much longer until she's taking her first steps *sniff*. Poor thing still has no teeth. Deightyn on the other hand is so incredibly lazy. LOL! She is content to sit and play. The poor dear has 4 teeth already though and is about to pop two more!!! I think that's where all her energy is going these days. Here are some recent pics!!

Deightyn

Mairin

We had their 9 month ped appointment on 9/02 and Mairin is now 18lbs 10oz abd 28 inches and Deightyn is 18lbs 14oz and 29 inches. Light years away from the teeny tiny beans we brought home!!!

Girls Scrapblog

Our first Christmas!!!

Nana and Papa with the girls Christmas Eve.

Mairin Christmas morning with her stocking and christmas bear from Babs. I tried to explain to Mairin that crying is not allowed on Christmas but she didn't listen. LOL!

Deightyn Christmas morning with her stocking and bear from Babs.

The whole family at Uncle Dom's and Aunt Barb's house Christmas Eve. Leah is such a proud big sister. Joe and his girls!!!

Aren't we too cute in our holiday outfits!!!

Deightyn Christmas Eve with the quilt Aunt Ann made.

Mairin Christmas Eve with her quilt from Aunt Ann.

2 - 4 Week Pics

3 weeks

4 weeks


3 weeks

Deightyn 3 Weeks

Deightyn 3 Weeks

Mairin 3 weeks

Mairin 3 Weeks

My Mom's last day with us *sniff*. I so did not want her flying back home yet!

Here we are loaded up and ready for our 2 week doctors appointment. We did so good!!! Mairin weighed 5 lbs, 9 ozs and 18 3/4 inches and Deightyn weighed 5lbs and 19 inches. Quite an improvement over their bring home weight of 4 lbs 8 ozs and 3 lbs 14 ozs. Go girls Go!!!

Our Story!!

All in all I had a wonderful pregnancy. No morning sickness, no headaches, no insomnia early on, no heartburn or indigestion. It was pretty smooth sailing until the last 6 weeks and that was just because I was so huge and Baby A was parked right on my cervix and it made it very difficult to walk! The only problem I had was at about week 20 I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. It proved to be no biggy as I was able to keep it under control with a proper diet. No insulin shots for me!! The girls on the other hand enjoyed giving me and their perintologist scares. It started early with Baby A. The doctor was concerned about the length of the long bones in her legs and she had a couple of other early markers for possible Downs Syndrome. At week 18 we had an amniocentesis done to discover if she had any birth defects. The results were negative!!! Yippee!!! At our week 24 sonogram the doctor noticed that Baby B had a good amount of extra amnio fluid. Now, extra fluid can be a symptom of Gestational Diabetes but since both girls weren't suffering from this the doctor said it wasn't the cause. He closely monitored us having me come in every week for the rest of the pregnancy to watch her levels. Little by little her fluid kept rising so once I hit the 36 week mark (considered full term for twins) he called my OB/GYN and told her to go ahead and induce me to get Baby B out. He was concerned that she might have an obstruction in her digestive track that was preventing her from swallowing the amnio fluid like normal and keeping the level down. An obstruction would not be visable on the sonogram and they only thing he couldn't rule out as causing the problem. If she did have an obstruction they would have to operate on her as soon as she was born. :-( So, my induction date was set for November 20th at 8:00 am. I would be 37 weeks and 3 days into my pregnancy.

On Monday morning, November 20th, Joe, my Mom and myself got up bright and early to start the most wonderful day of my entire life. It was finally D-Day and time to meet my girls!!! We arrived at the hospital at around 8:00 am and they showed us right into a room. Here is the last pic of me pregnant that I had mom take as soon as we got settled in our room.

We were there maybe 30 minutes and the doctor came in to do a sonogram to make sure the girls were still both head down. (I had a sonogram a week earlier and they were) Guess what? Baby B had flipped transverse!!! This daughter of mine was proving to be my problem child and she wasn't even born yet!! So, I had to have a C-section. Bah!!! and Bah again!!! The doctor had an opening at 10 am to get me in but guess what? Since I had a cup (1 CUP) of coffee that morning I had to wait 5 hours for it to get out of my system. Gee, this would have been useful information to tell me YESTERDAY to not eat or drink anything. I really hate doctors sometimes. So we get to sit around and stare at each other all day in the hospital. Joe about drove mom and I crazy with his Courtroom shows. You know like Judge Judy, Judge Brown, etc. Boy the people on that show are stupid. I did get him to play phase 10 with me a few times. He beat me to a pulp. Doesn't he know that "I'm" supposed to always win??? Especially today??? Darn husbands. Anyway, at 5:00 PM they finally come in and start getting me ready. BTW, I had enough fluids pumped into me to sink a ship. Seriously. Joe decides to let Mom be in the delivery room with me since they only allow one other person to go. How sweet!!!! She and Joe walk off to carry all our belongings into our new room (recovery) while they take me off to the operating room. Ummmm, scary. I've never had to stay in a hospital before (well as a baby but I don't count that since I don't remember it), never had any serious work done so I'm beginning to panic a bit now, especially since I'm alone with all these strangers. They won't allow anyone in the room while they are giving me my spinal. *cries* Apparently it is discovered that I have a curvature of the spine right at the spot they have to put the spinal block (GREAT!) and it takes several very painful attempts before the anesthesiologist is finally able to get the spinal block in. I'm hanging on for dear life to this poor nurse in front of me, I'm trying not to move but dangit, he hurts!!! The deadening agent did not kick in for all the spots he poked me. Don't move my butt. Let me shove this needle into your spine and see if you can stay still Doc, mmkay? He finally gets it in and gets the medicine pumping and whoa........instant numbness to my lower body. All the aches and pains of the months past disappear and it's all I can do to stay awake I'm so relaxed. I can't sleep though I've got babies I have to see!!!! Mom finally gets to come in once they have me strapped down like a patient in a psyche ward and she takes these fine gems.

Ugh. I look like death and drunker than Paula Abdul. I keep them for posterity though. The doc wasted no time getting in to get the girls out though. Bing bang boom....."Congratulations its a girl!!!" and there's my first born (up till now referred to as Baby B) peering over the curtain at me screaming her head off. The tears immediatly started pouring.

Mairin Ann Elizabeth, 5:45 PM, 4lbs 14 ozs, 18 inches

Not even a good breath later I hear "Congratulations! Another Girl!!" and there is my second born (previously referred to as Baby A) peeping over the curtain.

Deightyn Ellen, 5:46 PM, 4lbs 6 oz, 18 inches

Thankfully all the worry over Mairin's fluid levels were for nothing. Both babies had no breathing problems, very little jaundice, no glucose issues due to the diabetes, held their temperature on their own like little champs and none of the other issues usually involved with preemie/twin births. Go girls!!!! They had zero NICU time which is pretty unheard of these days for these circumstances. I on the other hand had a terrible time. They had to give me pitocin in my drip because my uterus was not contracting like it should. The doctor said this was normal for a twin birth since the uterus was so severely stretched. My body did not, I repeat DID NOT like the pitocin. As soon as it hit my system I was a vomitting machine. This lasted for 24 hours. I was only able to see my girls for a short time that night because I was so sick. I made up for it the next day and every day since though!!! So welcome to the world my loves!!

"Hi Daddy!!!"

I get the feeling my girls didn't like being weighed. :P

Pics Finally!!!

Here we are at the hospital. Deightyn is on the left and Mairin on the right. Aren't my girls gorgeous. Yes, I'm a very proud Mom. :P

They finally let us go home on Saturday, Nov. 24th. The girls are in their going home outfits here. These are preemie sleepers and they still swallow them whole. Mairin is on the left and is the spitting image of her Dad and Deightyn is on the left with the big peepers (she gets those from me).

Here are the girls at home finally. Deightyn is on the left giving the peace sign and Mairin is on the right just chillin.

Babs with Deightyn. I call her the tiny pickle.

Babs with Mairin. She is going to be quite the Diva.

I know it's taken too long to get these pics up but I've been busy as you can imagine. This is a quick post to get some pictures up but I will eventually get our experience posted from start to finish. At birth Mairin weighed 4 lbs 14 ozs and was 18 inches long and Deightyn weighed 4 lbs 6 ozs and was also 18 inches long. By the time we left the hospital on Saturday Mairin had lost down to 4 lbs 8 ozs and little Deightyn down to 3 lbs 14 ozs. Everything looked so well with them that that they let us take her home anyway. We went back to the pediatrician yesterday and she's back up to 4 lbs 2 1/2 ozs. Mom and I have been feeding her like champs and she's responding very well.



-Brandice