2 weeks!!

Happy 2 week Birthday Jack and Maggie!!

Kangaroo Care

This week I've been able to start something awesome with the babies! It's called Kangaroo Care, also known as skin to skin contact. Very simply enough, I open my shirt to expose my chest and hold the baby against my skin for about an hour. I love it! I can smell them, feel them breath and it is just awesome. Today I got to start working on latching with Maggie and she did great! She is definitely my petite, strong lady. I'll continue that for another week or so, and hopefully after that she can start latching on for real and taking in milk. Jack isn't far behind and perhaps in a week he can start where Maggie is now. Jack is so calm and even tempered, he'll be great too.

Jack and Maggie continue to do very well. Maggie has had some issues with her breathing and heart rate (also referred to as A's and B's...Asystole and Bradycardia) so she's been started on a caffeine supplement to help boost her up some and get her system to breath better. Both have been able to have their oxygen levels lowered, are gaining weight and are still as cute as ever. I'm not biased or anything though. :)

As for me, I'm doing good. I'm still quite tired as I am trying to continue to pump every 3 hours to keep up the good supply I've been able to produce. It exhausts me though. I tried going into the hospital with Brian in the morning, but that made me completely wore out, so instead I'm going in the afternoon and then going home with Brian after work. Which just works out for everyone a bit better. I miss putting the babies to "bed", but I get to spend more quality time by being there in the afternoon/early evening.

Brian continues to be my rock. He is a great husband, and awesome daddy. I love watching him with the babies...they are already wrapped around his little finger. I'll get pictures posted soon.

Settling into the new normal

Brian starts back to work tomorrow. He took the entire week off when the babies were born, but now he has to go back to work. :( I am going to shift from early mornings to later afternoons at the hospital with the babies. On morning days, I'll go to the hospital with Brian. He will visit them before work and I'll stay until later in the afternoon. On other days, I'll drive down later in the day and stay until Brian gets off work. Then each night we'll head home for dinner and go back to tuck the babies in. Both of us know we want to at least always say goodnight. :) It'll be nice once we are settled into a routine.

Maggie and Jack continue to do well. Maggie had an increase in episodes (where she "forgets" to breath and her heart rate and oxygen levels drop) so she has been put back on a cannula feed for oxygen. It seems to have done the trick, and if she continues to have trouble they may start caffeine treatment. She has also been started on a calorie supplement along with her breast milk, just to help her get a little more growth. Jack is pretty much the same. He doesn't have as many episodes as his big sister, and he continues to do well with his oxygen levels on the cannula feed. A great thing both of them have started to do is suck away on their pacifiers and hands. Maggie has even started getting used to her feeding schedule and gets cranky if she feeds late. This is a good sign for them to eventually move to breast feeding.

Today during our visit in the morning/afternoon we were able to hold the babies. I held Maggie and she was completely awake during my visit with her. She looked all around, smiled, stuck out her tongue and sucked away on her pacifier. Jack slept in his daddy's arms most of the time.

I'm continuing to heal well. I've tried to cut back on my pain medicine a bit, which seems to be OK. I tucker out after too much activity, but I'm definitely able to be out and about. Yesterday Brian and I bought the rest of the nursery furniture. Brian got the dresser built and is almost finished with the changing table/hutch. We also ordered the glider, which I hope comes quicker then the 3-5 weeks it estimated. I'm excited to continue working on the nursery and getting it finished for the babies to come home.

I don't have any new pictures for today, but I'll get some uploaded soon. :)

My rings

So this past week I've been in and out of the NICU scrub room countless times. I have this habit of removing my rings each time I wash my hands, as I've always tried to avoid them going down the drain and I hate getting soap in all the little crevices and in between my finger and the bands. A bad habit I started, and should have stopped. Unfortunately, a few days ago I learned my lesson. It was a "normal' night. Brian and I had just gone to get dinner after seeing the babies and had returned to tuck them in for the night. As always, I removed my rings, set them on the shelf above the sink basin in the scrub room and proceeded to wash my hands. Somewhere along the way I must have been distracted and forgot to take the rings off the shelf and put them back on. We went into the NICU, visited with the babies and then I went to the back room to pump. Upon washing my hands was when I realized my rings weren't on my finger. I immediately went to the scrub room, hoping they would still be there. Nope. I then asked the front desk, thinking certainly someone would have turned them in. Nope, and I broke down in tears. I double checked I wasn't crazy and had put them on that day. We'd taken pictures with the babies earlier that day, and one picture showed me wearing them. So...they weren't at home. This is when I pretty much lost it. I am mad at myself, so saddened by it all and so hurt someone would take something so precious! Neither ring is very valuable in terms of cash, but they are so valuable to me! I love my rings and they are that simple, sentimental item that I've always treasured! Brian and I picked them out together. I can remember every detail about them, I can feel the loss on my finger. They are just rings. I can "replace" the ring part, but I can't replace them. It is sad there is someone out there with MY rings, probably holding the small amount of cash they were able to redeem at a pawn shop. I hope they enjoy that cash...as they will never be able to understand the sentiment of having those two rings on their finger. I filed a police report that night and will follow up with them. There are cameras all over the NICU entrance (where you have to be buzzed in), the scrub room and then within the NICU itself. Additionally, everyone has to sign into a log. So the police can investigate and perhaps determine who it was that took the rings. Perhaps it is someone that was visiting with parents of a NICU baby...I'd certainly hope it isn't a parent of a NICU baby. They of all people should know the importance of those type of sentimental items, especially during a time like this. Oh well. Again, they are just rings. I am still married to a wonderful man, and I'd give my rings away any day for my babies to stay healthy, strong and come home with me. It just saddens me that I can't seem to hold onto the honesty of strangers anymore. Really, just sad.

Home Sweet Home

I'm home and set free from the restraints of University Hospital. It feels great to sleep in my own bed, use my own bathroom and relax in my own setting. It's the little things you miss... :) I came home to a nice welcome from the girl across the street. She made a "Welcome Home Tina" banner above the garage. And then inside the house, balloons were on display.


Tuesday was a big day getting home, settling in and trying to nap before heading back to see the babies. Fast forward to this evening. I've been able to hold both Jack and Maggie. They are such sweet babies.

Maggie is our petite, yet wild child. Her weight is at 2lbs 10.5oz, which is .5oz more from her birth weight. She is off her oxygen and may even be able to have her PIC line removed soon. She is tiny, especially compared to her "little" brother, but she has quite the personality already. I love finding her at the edge of her isolate, already testing her boundaries. She smiles often and loves her pacifier. She doesn't like to be jostled awake, but once slowly awoken she is sweet as can be.




Jack is our calm, but strong boy. His weight is back up to 3lbs 2oz, only 1oz from his birth weight. He is successfully on just oxygen through a cannula line, and his feedings continue to increase each day. My favorite thing to watch, his when he pulls his cannula out of his nose and puts it in his mouth. Cracks me up! He is holding his own with body temperature and we hope he can come out of his isolate in the next week or so. He is bigger than his "big" sister, and we are starting to notice slight differences between the two of them. Jack always has a peaceful look on his face. He is like his daddy, calm and happy in the world.




Brian got to change Maggie's diaper- his first diaper change EVER. Then later that night while I was pumping, he held her to have her weight checked. She was naked and decided to poop all over his hand. I missed the moment, but from what I gather it was pretty hilarious!

Last evening we each got to hold the babies together.


Then this evening we held the babies again, and Brian held them together.


I love holding them and never want to put them back. :) So for now all is well in the world, and I couldn't be happier to have my little family!

Strong babies!

Today was a great day! This morning Jack's chest tube was removed, and he responded great. Then later in the day his x-ray showed no excess air in his lungs and he had his breathing tube removed this evening. He opened his eyes and started to look around a little. We can see his face now! He, like Maggie, is on just normal oxygen through his nose and his breathing is fantastic! While visiting this evening I was able to hold him up in his isolate while the nurse changed his bedding, which was so neat. He also had his umbilical cord feed removed and has a standard PIC line. He is a strong little man, and has quite the grip when he holds onto our fingers. Maggie is continuing to do well, she had her umbilical cord feed removed as well and when we saw her this evening she was awake and looking up at us. I love seeing her little eyes focus in on Brian and I. Both babies are eating great, and fortunately I've been able to give enough of a supply that they have some already in the freezer. The pumping is continuing to go well for me and I'm settling into a routine. It's weird how quickly I feel like my entire body has just changed.

We go home tomorrow. I don't want to leave the babies, but I am very excited to sleep in my own bed and just be home. I planned on going home today, but the doctor gave me the option for another day and I jumped at it. I attempted to stop my pain medicine this morning, which was pretty stupid. I ended up crashing this afternoon and was in pretty bad pain. I'm all better now though.

That's all there is for now. Here are the babies when we visited before bedtime.

Jack


Maggie

They are here!!!

The twins were born Friday, July 17! Here's the back story:

Thursday evening I went onto the monitor like normal and started feeling some of the contractions, but there wasn't anything regular enough to warrant my getting checked out. It was strange to suddenly be feeling the contractions, but they still weren't painful or overly strong. Around 5 and 8 Friday morning I was awoken by a contractions, which I thought was definitely something new. Still not painful, but definitely there. Then I went on the monitor at 8:30 and not only was I contracting on a pretty good rate, but I was feeling them. It was strange because I kept thinking that it couldn't mean anything, since I wasn't in pain. Then, the doctor came in and checked me out. I was at 6cm and 95% effaced. And that was that. They said not only was I headed to L&D, but this time I would be having the babies! I immediately called Brian at work, and he met up with me as I was headed to L&D. From there, everything went so fast!!

Very quickly I had my vitals checked, my IV started, anesthesia came in to explain the spinal tap and before I knew it I was being wheeled into the OR. I was pretty scared, nervous, excited and anxious! They kept asking if I was cold because I was shaking so much, but I just kept saying nope, that I was shaking because of my nerves. When it came time for my spinal tap, I was readied for the pain they had explained to me, but lucky me...I didn't feel it at all!! At one point I was lying there talking to the nurse and asked her if they were done and she said "Well, um, yeah. You didn't feel anything?" I laughed and said "Nope." It was pretty cool not to feel any pain. :)

Brian met up with me in the OR all dressed in his surgical digs and things got started. It was the strangest thing ever!! I was completely numb from my chest down, but I could still "feel" touches and pressure. At one point before they actually started I felt someone touching my leg and immediately said "I feel that!" because I was afraid the spinal didn't work. The nurse reassured me, and then they did the poke test and I was even more reassured I would feel no cutting or pain. And I didn't, just pressure.

Before I knew it they were telling Brian to get the camera ready and at 11:47am Maggie Lily Keller was born! They rushed her towards the awaiting NICU team, but they gave me a quick look as she went by and I got to hear her cry. It was awesome!! Then, at 11:49am Jack Brian Keller was born! Again they rushed him towards the awaiting NICU team, but I got to see him too. Once the babies were settled with NICU, Brian was able to go and see them while the doctors finished up on me. That was the longest wait! Brian came back in to show me pictures of the babies and eventually I was finished in the OR and moved to recovery.

The rest of the day was exciting and exhausting. I got to my room (we were so fortunate to get to stay in the same room as before...considering the amount of stuff we'd accumulated) and tried to nap after my first time of pumping. Later that night I finally got to see my babies!! It was awesome, and I was so happy that we had toured the NICU previous that week because I felt so comfortable being wheeled into the unit.

Catching up to today...

Maggie is our little feisty girl. She is smaller than her brother, but active and quite the little gal. She was able to go straight to C Pap after birth and then yesterday she was put to just oxygen through her nose. She is also already taking in breast milk through a feeding tube and although she is under the lamps to prevent jaundice, she is doing fantastic and is super strong! What has been great is that I got to hold her yesterday and again today.

Jack is our fighter. After birth he went straight to C Pap, but early Saturday morning he blew a pnuemothorax and ended up with a chest tube to get the air volume down and he had to be indubated. The doctor called me at my room early Saturday morning and let me know all that had happened, and when Brian woke up he immediately went down there to see him. Since Saturday, Jack has completely turned around! He is currently being transitioned to hopefully have his chest tube taken out tomorrow morning and if that goes well, he should have his indubating tube removed and he can be put back on the C Pap. He is also taking in breast milk through a feeding tube and we just know he is going to continue to do great!

As for myself, I'm healing well. I will be going home some time tomorrow, but I'll be back here quite often! I started pumping from day 1 and although I got a bit discouraged from lack of production yesterday, today has been better and I think my milk will be coming in any time now. I'm trying to stick to every 3 hours...and still get plenty of rest and see the babies! It will be nice to finally go home and sleep in my bed. I've been here over 3 weeks!

OK...so I've put a lot into this blog and should stop now. I will keep this updated as much as I can. Thanks to everyone for all their thoughts and support!!

Some pictures:

Just before heading to the OR


Maggie 2lbs 10oz 15"


Jack 3lbs 3oz 15"

Buying time

Not as eventful as the weekend, but eventful enough. During my morning monitoring the babies were great, but I had contractions again. Fortunately they weren't close enough together for the doctor to be concerned about checking my cervix. I've been started on procardia, which is a strong muscle relaxant. The hope is that it will calm my uterus down and stop the contractions. I'm still not feeling the contractions, which I guess is good. So the same plan stands, I'll continue the procardia and be monitored for contractions twice a day. Hopefully we can at least get a few more weeks, August would be so much better than July.

Last night Brian and I toured University's NICU. It was a bit upsetting seeing the tiny baby and all the tubes, but it was also good to be prepared for what we will most likely face. The unit is huge and we met a couple of the nurses. They answered all of our questions, were very helpful and kind. It made me feel confident about the babies being there. I'm still scared, but I feel more prepared now than I was when I first got here.

My hospital stay continues to go as well as can be expected. The nurses are fantastic and I feel like I've made friends with some of them, which has been nice. We can talk about other stuff than the daily medical routine and it's been nice having that social interaction. My day to day routine has pretty much been established as well, which is good for me. Brian continues to be awesome!! I don't know how I would be able to handle this without him here by my side.

So for now, all is stable and good and we just hope it stays that way for many more weeks.

29 Weeks in L&D

Happy 29 weeks Babies! To celebrate their un-Birthday, the babies, Brian and I spent a sleepless night in Labor & Delivery. Saturday night around 10pm, like every normal night, I was put on the "toco" to monitor contractions. An hour later, the doctor came in because I was contracting every 7-10 minutes. Again, like last time, I didn't feel anything. The doctor did an internal exam and I had dilated to 5cm and my membranes appeared to be possibly bulging. So...I was transported to L&D. When we arrived and got somewhat settled into L&D, it was midnight and we congratulated ourselves for making it to 29 weeks. I got an IV for fluids, a catheter because I wasn't allowed out of bed with risk of my water breaking and hooked up to the monitors. The doctor decided to put me on Indocin, which is a strong Ibuprofen type drug. Then we waited. Brian was able to get some sleep, not good sleep, but some. I finally passed out sometime around 3:30am and slept somewhat on and off. Around 6:30 the nurse woke me to take my next dose of Indocin and then the doctor came in around 8. My contractions had stopped to only one in almost 3 hours and upon another internal she found that I hadn't progressed any further. So...I was released to go back to Antepartum. A big sigh of relief!

I'm very happy to be back "home"and still have the babies swimming around where they need to be. The plan for now is a straight 48 hours of the Indocin (they don't do it longer because of potential effects to the babies) and then we'll just return to the same routine. Hopefully I can still make it another few weeks, but we are preparing that the babies are probably coming sooner than later. Tomorrow we're going to tour the NICU. Right now I'd really like to make it until the end of week 30 so I can get one more steroid shot.

We're both staying positive and appreciate every one's support!

28 week ultrasound

This past Thursday we had a growth ultrasound. It was good to see the babies, although they were both pretty quiet during the ultrasound from all of the activity that morning.

Both babies are now head down, and right smack next to one another.


Here is Maggie's profile, Jack is facing my back so we couldn't get a shot of his profile or face.


Maggie is curled up with her bottom sticking up and often poking me. Jack is sprawled out in a diagonal, with his feet at Maggie's bottom.

The new Keller Home

Hello world. Everything is still good with the babies and I here at the hospital. We've completely settled in and almost have a normal daily routine going. Here is a glimpse of the hospital room we've turned into our temporary home.

This is the view when you first walk in the door. This is at night, when we are settling in for bed.


The couch and Brian's shelving set-up.


In the upper left you can see Brian's coffee station. :)


Brian's bed, the couch above extends into this.


Brian relaxing in the room recliner, pretty comfy.


This is for the peeps back at work... look at how the nurse spelled my last name! ha-ha...I've kept it that way just for fun. :)



This past Sunday we had a little un-Birthday party for the babies 28 week milestone.

Happy Mommy and Daddy


Mmmm, cake!


And finally, here is my 28 week belly


And, beware, here's the bare belly...


The babies are growing and active, which is awesome. Active babies are healthy babies. Unfortunately active babies are also hard on nurses when they are supposed to be monitored for an hour each day. Maggie is a fighter when it comes to being monitored. Each morning the nurse comes in and straps me up, then has to chase Maggie around. I think while Maggie swims away in there she sometimes kicks Jack off as well. Some days are good, like yesterday they both behaved for about 45 minutes. Today, I ended up in bed, strapped up for 2.5 hours! If this is any indication, Mommy might end up with her hands full... :)

I just finished watching the Jackson Memorial Service on CNN. Very interesting "memorial service". Brian should be "home" in about 30 minutes and we'll just settle in for the night after some dinner and perhaps watch a movie.

28 Weeks!!!!

Happy 28 Weeks Babies! This milestone is huge, and we are so excited. All has been good here at University Hospital. Each day my nurses and doctors say "So, still behaving?" and I say "Yep!". When they do my status report each morning I'm still "boring" and that is great! The babies are growing big and strong, and I've grown big, not sure on strong though I'm getting plenty of rest.

This was 27 Weeks:


The day all the trouble started was supposed to be Brian's work party, and this past week Brian brought in all the presents and I got to open them from my hospital bed. We got tons of goodies and are quite lucky!




Tonight there will be a mini-party in room 3233 to celebrate Week 28. Along with a 28 week belly shot, I'll post some pictures of the "crib" in a day or two. For now we've had breakfast and I think I'll get strapped up to monitor the babies and then watch a movie. Nice relaxing weekend. :)