Welcome to the world, Elise Susannah and Helena Marie!

I went back to the hospital Wednesday afternoon and was reviewed in triage again. After doing a clean catch urine and then a straight catheter, they transferred me to antepartum and had my liquid/food intake restricted after midnight, in case of a possible c-section in the morning. The attending came in at around 6:00 am and we discussed my symptoms and they explained my blood work and urine were still showing no signs of pre-eclampsia, they worried about how quickly my symptoms were worsening over the past week. At around 9:30 am, my nurse came in and told me if I wanted a shower, now was the time because transport would be to my room in an hour to take me up to the OR for delivery. My boyfriend and I were in complete and utter shock, torn between being excited to see our daughters and scared because I wasn't even 35 weeks yet.

The c-section went perfectly and I'm glad I read the post here in "Expecting", about c-sections because whomever it was that said the OR can be intimidating was so right; I was terrified when they wheeled me in but by the time I had my spinal, I was warm and tingly all over. It was much less scary and painful than I expected and by the time I was ready to ask if they had began the surgery, my nurse anesthesiologist was asking if I wanted to see the girls come out. My boyfriend looked over the blue drape and the nurse held up a mirror so that I could watch; it was beautiful, amazing and something I'm very glad I agreed to look at.

Elise Susannah and Helena Marie were born at 34w6d via c-section on April 30th. Elise came first, at 12:41 pm, weighing 5 pounds 10 ounces and 19" long, and Helena was tugged out shortly after, at 12:43 pm, weighing 5 pounds at 18" long.

The both scored a 9 on their one minute APGAR and were taken to the NICU, to get all checked out. They've been in the NICU since their birth, although the only problems they've had so far are with jaundice. I didn't realize that the medication I took during my pregnancy, for my hyperthyroid, would require a week long NICU stay for the girls when they were born, to monitor and test their thyroids until the medication left their system. If everything keeps going on this path (they're both starting to gain back the initial weight they lost already!), Elise should be home Thursday and Helena on Friday.

Once again, thank you all so much for your advice and words of wisdom. What I thought would be a three week stay in antepartum turned into barely a nap before my girls were born. I owe you all and look forward to future advice from you wonderful mommys, when I get to bring my girls home and love every crazy, hectic moment of it.



Elise at 2 hours old
http://pics.livejournal.com/barerobot/pic/00033014.jpg

Elise at 5 days old
http://pics.livejournal.com/barerobot/pic/00037f79.jpg


Helena at 2 hours old
http://pics.livejournal.com/barerobot/pic/00034x99.jpg

Helena at 5 days old
http://pics.livejournal.com/barerobot/pic/000389h7.jpg



For more photos of them, here is my Facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.ph...mp;id=509157095

 

If those aren't THE cutest little girls!!!! Great weights, too! And BTW, Elise was my first choice for a girl's name should I have been given one. LOVE it!!! So glad you are all healthy and had a pretty smooth delivery w/ not much NICU time in your future. And I'm SO relieved you decided to go back in to be checked out...PHEW!!!

:bow2: :yahoo: Congrats to you!!!!!!
Eve

 

[SIZE=14pt]Congrats on your baby girls!!! [/SIZE]

I am so glad everything turned out for you, I was a bit taken back when I saw that you had been taken for an emerency c-section! Your girls are beautiful and were born at great weights for 34wks.

Take care and enjoy!

Thank you for the wonderful pictures too, they are so adorable.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! They are seriously toooooo darling :wub: :wub:
Welcome to the 'First Year' :yahoo:!!

 

They are beautiful congrats

 

Hooray!!! :clapping: Welcome to the First Year! Feel free to visit the NICU forum too!

 

Love the names. My name is Susannah and Helena was one of our maybes for little DD.

 

Beautiful, beautiful, their faces, as well as their names. Congratulations!

 

:clapping: Congrats on your girls!! Welcome to the First Year.

 

Holly, they are absolutely beautiful! Congratulations!

 

Congrats on the girls!

 

They are soooo cute! Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girls!!

 

CONGRATULATION!!! and they are beautifull gilrs and GREAT weight too.

 

[SIZE=12pt]Congratulations on your two gorgeous girls!!!! :clapping: :clapping: [/SIZE]

 

Great weights and adorable little girls! These pictures take me back.

:welcome: to the first year!

 

Congratulations!! Glad everything turned out ok! Great weights btw! Precious photos!

 

Congrats! That's so exciting!

I did have a question for you... You said the meds you were on my hypothyroid made them keep them in the NICU. What are you taking? I have hypothyroidism and am taking Levotheroxyn (a generic of synthroid) and they never did anything with my 1st born and I was on it all the way through her pregnancy...also I breastfed for 13 months while taking the meds. I was just wondering if it was the particular med you were on or something.

 

Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! I can't wait to get the first year started - I'm unable to get to the NICU during the day today (we'll be going later tonight, after 9PM) so I've spent all day doing the girls laundry and stocking their dresser. It's so nice to nest!


QUOTE(fromthecabbagepatch @ May 5 2009, 05:08 PM) [snapback]1301645[/snapback]
I did have a question for you... You said the meds you were on my hypothyroid made them keep them in the NICU. What are you taking?


I have hyperthyroidism - Grave's disease. I take a medication called PTU. Since it slowed down my thyroid during the pregnancy (I was on a relatively high dose, at that), it made their little thyroids work double-time to keep up. There was even a good chance they could've been born with goiters; neither was, fortunately. It was a risk vs. reward situation with the medication; I had a threatened miscarriage when I was 14 weeks and that is when my hyperthyroidism was diagnosed. The Graves disease was putting such a stress on my body, it was literally trying to abort the added weight of a pregnancy.

While I breast feed, they will both be monitored via blood tests monthly to make sure their thyroids are maintaining, as the PTU is also passed through breast milk. I've known quite a few women with hypothyroidism (both my mother and my SIL, for instance) who had no problems with their medication during their pregnancies/breast feeding. From what I hear, medications to treat hypothyroidism are all safer for fetuses than those for hyperthyroidism, unfortunately for my daughters who are basically only in the NICU at this point to have their THS levels checked at 7 days of life. They tested initially at 2 days of life and Elise's THS levels were perfect, with Helena's being ever-so-slightly elevated. It should be completely out of their system by Thursday, though!

 

Oh my gosh, the are adorable! Congrats!

Your post brought tears to my eyes because I am 34 weeks tomm and just to think that if my little ones were born in just 6 more days they'd be the same size as yours. It's so hard to fathom just how much baby you have in there. Ok, if we had the same wieght in babies that is....

Oh my gosh, they are beautiful! The little 'glasses' they put on them too are too funny. Perhaps it's nice to have something to make you chuckle a little seeing them in there?


Thank you so much for sharing! And reassuring that the CSection wasn't too scary! I think it's something on all of our minds!

 

QUOTE(shlbifish @ May 5 2009, 05:47 PM) [snapback]1301675[/snapback]
Thank you so much for sharing! And reassuring that the CSection wasn't too scary! I think it's something on all of our minds!


I'm glad I helped to calm some of your fears! At nearly 35 weeks, I was amazed at how perfectly developed they looked. Just like 40 week babies, only miniaturized, I guess. :blush:

Something that should be mentioned, and I don't think it was in the "c-section" thread (maybe it depends on the hospital?), is that if you develop pre-eclampsia (which, hopefully, you won't!), you're put on magnesium sulfate after the surgery. For me, since I didn't have full blown pre-e, I was only on it for 12 hours but 24 is the standard. If the babies are in the NICU, you won't be able to see them until you're off of the mag sulfate. Once you've taken your dose (be it 12, 16, or 24 hours), you're also observed for another two hours or so, to make sure your blood pressure doesn't go back up. I delivered at 1:00PM on Thursday and other than immediately after their birth, I was unable to see my daughters until nearly 7:00AM Friday morning. It was very, very hard and it made me horribly jealous that my family could go and look at them, hold them even, while I was stuck to an IV in my hospital bed.

On a personal note, maybe it was because I had an unexpected c-section, with no dilation or any sort of 'natural' child birth, but not seeing the girls for so long created a very odd feeling inside me, something I was afraid at the time might have been the beginnings of post-partum depression. I felt disconnected from the girls, detached even, and when I was finally allowed to have my boyfriend wheel me up to the NICU, I was trying to talk him out of it, saying I was too tired and that I needed more sleep, needed to pee, needed to stay hydrated and had better drink a whole pitcher of water before we went. It was like that feeling you had on the first day of school as a child: anxiety, nerves, pure dread.

It lasted for about three hours, that horrible butterflies in my stomach feeling, until I told him I was ready to see the girls. I walked into the NICU and broke down crying at how perfect they were. Thank God, all those feelings have disappeared, that same day I finally got to hold them, but I even wondered at the time if it was something other mothers, those of us with unexpected and unplanned c-sections followed by magnesium drips, have gone through.

 

Congratulations! They are absolutely precious :wub: :wub:

I hope they come home soon for you to enjoy!

 

Congratulations on your beautiful babies! I don't think they could be more perfect!

Also, thank you thank you for your detailed anecdotes about your hospital stay and c-section experience! Every little piece of information is so helpful.

 

holly they are SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad you went back to the hospital and welcomed such big healthy babies into this world! Congratulations!!! They are amazing!

 

:wub: Congratulations!! :wub: Welcome little angels!

 

QUOTE(Holly Orlando @ May 5 2009, 04:43 PM) [snapback]1301672[/snapback]
Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! I can't wait to get the first year started - I'm unable to get to the NICU during the day today (we'll be going later tonight, after 9PM) so I've spent all day doing the girls laundry and stocking their dresser. It's so nice to nest!
I have hyperthyroidism - Grave's disease. I take a medication called PTU. Since it slowed down my thyroid during the pregnancy (I was on a relatively high dose, at that), it made their little thyroids work double-time to keep up. There was even a good chance they could've been born with goiters; neither was, fortunately. It was a risk vs. reward situation with the medication; I had a threatened miscarriage when I was 14 weeks and that is when my hyperthyroidism was diagnosed. The Graves disease was putting such a stress on my body, it was literally trying to abort the added weight of a pregnancy.

While I breast feed, they will both be monitored via blood tests monthly to make sure their thyroids are maintaining, as the PTU is also passed through breast milk. I've known quite a few women with hypothyroidism (both my mother and my SIL, for instance) who had no problems with their medication during their pregnancies/breast feeding. From what I hear, medications to treat hypothyroidism are all safer for fetuses than those for hyperthyroidism, unfortunately for my daughters who are basically only in the NICU at this point to have their THS levels checked at 7 days of life. They tested initially at 2 days of life and Elise's THS levels were perfect, with Helena's being ever-so-slightly elevated. It should be completely out of their system by Thursday, though!


Okay. Thank you for the info... I was starting to worry.
I'm sorry they have to stay there!! But so glad they get to come home soon.

 

Yay!!! They are beautiful momma!!
I am so glad that they are doing so well and you decided to go ahead and head back to the hospital. Can't wait to see you in first year!

 

They are so sweet, I love the hair.

Jen

 

Too cute. Thanks for sharing your story and congratulations!

 

They are beautiful :wub:. Congratulations!

 

Congratulations on your babies. :Clap:

 

Now I'm not just saying this because they have my birhtday... THOSE GIRLS ARE BEAUTIFUL!! I love how she had her hand up neir they eye mask.. Like 'get this off of me!' PERFECT!

Congrats It is normal to feel that way when you've been separated from them for a few hours right away. I'm glad the feeling melted. PPD is real though, so keep an eye on your feelings.. if you are still feeling this way in maybe 3 or 4 weeks talk to your doctor.