July 26, 2011 - The Twins are born!

After a long morning of waiting and preparing ourselves, Chuck and I arrived at the hospital for the scheduled c-section at 11:30. The nurses hooked me up to monitors and an IV to get me ready for surgery. Then we began the wait. Our c-section was scheduled for 1:30, but my doctor had to attend to a few emergencies and was about an hour or so late. Fortunately, it gave mom a chance to get to the hospital before I went in to surgery; but it also meant that I had another hour to get nervous and anxious about the impending surgery and arrival of the babies.

When the doctor finally came in to tell us she was ready, everything seemed to move at light speed. After hours of waiting, it seemed to take no time at all to go to the operating room, get the spinal, lay down, and begin the operation.
After lots of waiting and tugging and pulling, little Mollie was born at 3:06pm. As soon as she came out, she screamed and cried so loud that I knew her lungs were working just fine. Before I could think too much about Mollie's health, Charlie was born and began his own chorus of cries at 3:07pm. Suddenly, the room was much noisier than it was just a few minutes before!

Mollie in her first moments of life.

Charlie moments after birth.My next concern was their health and weights. I sent Chuck to be with the babies as I anxiously awaited to hear how they were. Mollie was 4lbs 8oz and 16.5 in, and Charlie was 6lbs 4oz and 18in. Mollie's weight worried me, but both babies received apgar scores of 9. The doctors were concerned that Mollie wouldn't be able to hold her temperature because of her weight, so they swaddled the babies together and gave them to Chuck to snuggle up and keep warm.

Mollie isn't happy about being weighed.

Charlie is chunky compared to his sister!
Two sweet babies swaddled together.

I couldn't believe that the babies were just fine. I had prepared myself for the worst - time in the NICU away from me. But they would stay with us in the OR, then travel with us to recovery where I finally got to hold them both. The nurse recommended skin-to-skin time since they were both so small and my body heat could help keep them warm.


Nana was so happy to see and hold her newest grandbabies in the recovery room. We were so afraid she wouldn't be able to see them if they were sent to the NICU.
Here we are, happy to have our new additions.

Charles Julian Daniel Pearsall (Charlie)

Mollie Elizabeth Beatrice Pearsall (Mollie)Adorable babies. I'm so in love.
Our first visitor - Bethany with the babies.

36 weeks

Here I am at exactly 36 weeks - one day before the arrival of the babies!
Today is the big day! I am nervous, anxious, excited, scared out of my mind, plus a hundred other things all at once. I am most nervous and worried about the babies being strong and healthy. Since they are technically 4 weeks early, there are any number of problems they could have. And any of those problems may mean that they will have to stay in the NICU or regular nursery, and not with me. I hate the thought of having these two babies that I've waited so long for, then being forced to hand them over to someone else.

We only have a few more hours to wait, and they will be here! The worst part about having surgery at 1:30 is that it is only 8:00am and I am HUNGRY and THIRSTY!! This is going to be a long, and life changing, day!

35 weeks, 2 days

Our weekly appointments were today; and as usual, we wondered if we would "pass" and get to go home, or have babies. At our first appointment, the growth ultrasound and BPP, we saw some concern about the results. First of all, baby girl's fluid is low, so she scored a 6/8 on her BPP. Secondly, she measured 4lbs 8oz, and he measured 6lbs 4oz - quite a difference. Because of that difference and the low fluid, the technician seemed concerned that we may be admitted today. However, when we saw the doctor, he was fairly nonchalant about those issues and just said that we should "call it quits" by 37 weeks. Chuck and I were both surprised at his decision, but we thought he should know best and went on our way to my OB appointment.

My OB appointment was an entirely different story. She was immediately concerned with what they found this morning and said that basically it was ridiculous to wait until 37 weeks to deliver these babies based on the risks posed by low fluid and discordance. She told me to stop the Procardia, but stay on bed rest. The Procardia can cause low fluid; and if I go into labor at this point, then I'll just have the babies - no reason to stop it at this point. She is on call this Saturday and next Tuesday, so she said Tuesday would be the latest day she would wait to deliver the babies. She wanted to look at the report from the ultrasound and would call me after she decided which day would be better for me and the babies. We all hoped we could put it off until Tuesday because I will be 36 weeks, which reduced the chance of NICU time drastically. To try to hold off labor until at least Saturday, she said I could take the Procardia if I had more than 6 contractions in an hour, but if I get contractions 5 minutes apart, I need to go in no matter what.

A few hours after we left, my OB called to let me know she saw the report and decided Tuesday would be a good day to deliver the babies. Now I'm just waiting to get a call from the hospital telling me what time. This evening, however, I've had several contractions (probably from being up and about so much today), and I took a Procardia to try to get them to stop. I would really like my OB to deliver these babies, not the on call doctor. So, just 5 more days of bed rest (at most), and we'll have two new additions to the family!

34 weeks, 5 days

34 weeks, 3 days

Both babies passed their BPP today with flying colors - perfect scores all around. The doctor said they are doing great and seem happy in there. We also got a pretty cute 3D picture of Charlie. Mollie never is in a good position for pictures, she's always so low and wiggly.

However, my OB appointment didn't go as well. While I'm in good health, it seems as though the babies are putting a bit too much pressure on my cervix. Today I was 1-2 cm dilated and 70% effaced (the 80% that the nurse in Labor and Delivery said a couple of weeks ago was completely off). So, that means all these contractions I've had day after day are actually doing something. So, the doctor put me on official bed rest and a prescription of Procardia pills every 6 hours around the clock to attempt to keep these babies in another couple of weeks.

We have the c-section scheduled for 1:30pm on 8/2, but no one seems to think I'll make it that long. I'm so miserable that I think these babies are going to stay until they are evicted just to spite me. Anna says the babies are coming tomorrow. We'll see.

I do still plan to go see Harry Potter tomorrow despite the bed rest.

The nursery.

It is a bit crowded with two cribs, two dressers, and lots of baby stuff, but we made it work.




The Nursery

Baby Shower - 6/26, 32 weeks

Cute shirts everyone made for the babies! This isn't all of them, but they are all cute!
Bethany's
Gigi's
Madison's
Ella's
Nana's
Anna's (It's a dinosaur for Charlie.)
The yummy and cute cake!
Thanks everyone for the wonderful shower!

33 weeks, 3 days

Our weekly BPP and growth ultrasound was this morning. Both babies gained 10 ounces, so the girl is 3lbs 10oz, and the boy is 4lbs 14oz. While the weight gain isn't ideal for either, they gained enough to be allowed to stay in another week. The doctor said gaining about a pound in two weeks would be great, so we are hoping for that at the next growth scan. As for the BPP, they both performed wonderfully - breathing, wiggling, etc. They actually wiggled so much that it was difficult for the tech to get some of the measurements! As for the discordance, they still think it is partially due to gender differences, but also partially due to placental differences - the boy is just hogging the food.

The way these appointments work is first the tech does the ultrasound on both babies - measuring, watching, checking, etc. Then, they give a report to the doctor and the doctor usually comes in the room to give us the news. Well, this time, we were asked to go into the doctor's office. My heart jumped into my throat because I could only imagine bad news if she had to tell it to us in the office! Thankfully, I was (mostly) wrong!

The doctor also speculated about how much longer I could keep these babies baking. She seems to think I'll have them within the next few weeks. We talked about NICU time for babies born at 34 weeks (next week for me), which is anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks. Delivery anytime after 34 weeks would be fine with her because the complications decrease drastically at 34 weeks. She said if I "miraculously" make it to 37 weeks (8/1), that is when I will likely deliver. She didn't seem too optimistic that I would make it that long. So, while I'm ready to meet these little babies, I know the longer they stay in, the better. What I have realized is that the little girl may not make it to my 5lb goal for her before delivery. These babies are going to be so tiny, such a difference from 8lb Ella and 7lb Anna!

33 weeks, 1 day

Chuck and I made another midnight trip to the hospital last night. I started having contractions last night and they continued and increased for a few hours. So, we called mom and headed up to Louisville again.

After getting me all hooked up and determining that my contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart and not letting up, they wanted to give me the Terbutaline injection again. I was worried about the side effects, and after checking my heart rate (which was up a little), they decided to go with Procardia pills. The pills worked, and after prescribing an antibiotic for a possible UTI (maybe the cause of the contractions?), I was sent home.

So, while I suppose I needed to go in to get the contractions to stop, I just felt like a great big inconvenience to everyone involved. I hate not having control of my body, especially in the middle of the night when I know everyone would rather be sleeping than making arrangements to go to the hospital.

I need to keep these babies baking for at LEAST another week, four more weeks would be ideal. We have the BPP and growth ultrasound on Thursday, and I am optimistic that our little girl has grown adequately so they can stay in for another week.