Day 5 - December 3

Hi guys!

Well, it sounds like y'all like the updates from your emails so here is the latest.

We receive all of our doctor visits at 530 or 6 am each morning, which is nice b/c you don't have to wait but you do have to write everything down b/c you aren't exactly lucid at that time. Our pediatrician comes by the hopsital every morning to give us a report (he is wonderful - thanks Meg/Kelly for the rec). The boys are doing great. Its normal for them to lose a little weight but Andrew is now 5lbs 4 oz and Daniel is 4lbs 7 oz. Adnrew has lost 5 oz and Daniel only 2. Not too bad, especially b/c they were so small to start.

The boys were showing signs of jaundice, which is yellowing of their skin caused by them having a different blood type then me. (Robert's contribution :) ). So, they were getting close on the charts where they need to have photo therapy to fix this issue and since we were alreay going to be in the hospital we decided to do that yesterday for 24 hrs. I wish I had a picture, but basically each kiddo hangs out in a little baby tanning booth all day with just a diaper on. They loooked sooo happy in there. We were able to take them out for an hour every 3 hrs for feeding so we got to be with them a little bit but of course not enough for me!

Ok, I had lots of questions on the feeding from my non-baby friends. My milk has not come in; however, you still have to get the babies used to breastfeeding and the act of trying to breast feed helps stimulate the milk to come in. Since my milk is taking so long and they are so small, we have been fully supplementing them with formula in addition to breastfeeding. Some women just breast feed and while there is no milk the babies still get some nutrients from the Collostrium. However, that wouldn't be nearly enough for our guys - especially b/c there are two of them. I also have to pump to help stimulate milk production too. This is why the process takes so long right now - will be nice to either just do all breast feeding or all formula - depending on what ends up working for us. Hoping my milk does come in though b/c I really enjoy having the babies that close to me. The doctors feel that its taking longer than usual due to the major insult my body/blood took during the surgery and then the fever as well as the pcos that I have.

So this brings me to my health. I'm still waiting on my blood cultures to return but should find out today whether I truly had an infection (probably staff) or just a blood contaminate. I've been treated either way so they only difference would be that if its a staff infection I would need to continue my IV antibiotics in the hopsital for what sounds like another 3 to 5 days (ugh!). I'm still in a lot of pain and from discussions with Dr/nurses it sounds like its worse then a normal Csection with one baby. So, I'm still on pain medicine every 3 hrs and its really not enough. Looking forward to my update with Dr. Carpenter in a couple of hours to see what the next steps are.

Yesterday was a great day from 5 am till about 5 pm and then things pretty much went downhill in terms of pain and how I felt. Hoping that today I can try to expand the window of feeling good. I think the babies will be out of phototherapy today and can hang out in the room more often, which will definitely help. Hormones are an amazing thing. Just walking over to see the babies in the nursery can calm me down so quickly. Oh, I have to start walking more today as well - so far I can take about a 5 minute walk and really need to work on increasing that as well.

Funny story - My dad has a cold so I haven't been able to see him since the night the babies were born. I realized yesterday that I haven't even talked to him on the phone since Sunday morning b/c I have only talked to my mom on the phone since I got here. I heard his voice and started crying immediately - I have no idea why but I became completely hysterical and couldn't breathe and then got light headed. Of course this all happened at the exact moment the "vitals" lady walks in to take my blood pressure - it was ridiculously high - 145 over something and everyone freaks out. Luckily I convinced her to let me do a redo later in the day and I passed fine. Bradley brought me lunch yesterday and I told him the story - he breaks out a picture of my dad on his iphone and the tears started all over again! So bizarre!

Why am I up at 4:30? Since I've been writing this email - 3 nurses have walked in at different times for my IV, pain medicines and then "vitals" ... also I just pumped. What a life! In other good news - I have lost 27.5 lbs already - hahaha!! Pretty amazing!

Robert has been amazing throughout this whole ordeal by the way.Poor guy is sleeping on the MOST uncomfortable sofa next to me every night. He is a pro diaper changer, burper and bottle feeder. Though, we still need to work on his swaddle skills :) There is nothing more special then watching your husband hold and love all over your babies. I have noticed that he uses some of the same nicknames for them as he does Ellie (as do I) so we'll probably need to work on that... haha. We have loved doing this together and I know it will only get better when we are in the comforts of our home and can really figure out our routine.

Ok, hope this email helped to explain a little more as to what is going on. Robert and I are obviously antsy to get home but this is the best place for us now obviously. Its really hard for me to upload pics here so I"ve been trying to put a few cute ones on facebook and I'll attach a few here, now. More to come of course ... especially when I can get them home and put them in all of their cute outfits!!!

Miss you guys and thank you again for your continued love and support through this process! Let me know whats going on in your lives in your emails ... I miss the outside world! Alright, back to bed before the doctors start making their rounds soon.