We were so excited for the day (January 16th) to finally be here that they babies were coming! We were so anxious that we ended up getting ready about 2 hours to early and then we had to just sit at the house and wait. So finally it was time to go to the hospital! It was a very surreal moment to drive through the area where we were driving when we found out that we were pregnant 9 months earlier. We got to the hospital and they started getting me all prepared for the c section. Luckily the wait to be taken back to the operating room flew by because we had a lot of our family there with us waiting on the babies to come.
Then reality hit...I noticed that Eli was making grunting noises and at first everyone thought I was just being paranoid. And then the noises got louder and my cousin, who is a respiratory therapist, decided she better check him out to make sure everything was ok. When she checked him he was pulling really hard trying to breathe. She rushed him back to the nursery for them to check his oxygen. So Zack went back with her to make sure he was ok and his oxygen was in the low 80's. At that point I didn't really understand the severity of the situation but as the day went on he just kept getting worse. They ended up having to put him on the C pap to force his lungs to stay open to get the oxygen. But once they put him on the C pap at SOMC they were only allowed to keep him there on it for an hour without having to send him off. So that night Dr. Cook from SOMC pediatrics came in and told me that they were going to have to fly Eli out to Childrens hospital. I have never had as much respect for a doctor as I do for her now because of how genuinly concerned she was for Eli having to been sent out. But that was when I knew it was serious and it was so hard because I had not been able to see him for hours since they had taken him to the nursery. I wasn't allowed to get up from my bed because I still had to have the catheter in from the c section. Thankfully since the helicopter was going to be a couple of hours they were willing to remover my catheter early so I could see him before they sent him off. They took pictures of him first and gave them to me to prepare me for what he looked like. And once we got in there they wanted to take a family picture of us before we all had to be separated. I'm not going to lie though at this point I was on some IV pain medication so I was a little out of it when they were sending him out so I was a little delirious. But on a side note I at least was providing my family with some humor and I randomly woke up while waiting on the helicopter and told both my parents and Zacks how nifty my disposable underwear was lol Once the helicopter loaded him up, Zack took off to Children's with his parents and my dad to go be with Eli but me and Aly had to stay at the hospital because I couldn't be released yet. This really was one of my biggest fears come true with having twins.
I really was not nervous at all until they came back and told me it was time to go to the operating room and Zack had to wait to come back until everything was ready. So they took me back and did my spinal which I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't hurt at all. And within no time Zack was back there with me and it was time for them to start.
I have to say that a c section is a very different feeling from any procedure I have ever had done because of all the tugging and pulling you can feel when there trying to get the babies out. But first out was Eli and he came out no problem weighing 7lbs 2 ounces! It was the best feeling in the world to hear him coming out screaming! Next was Aly to come out weighing 6lbs 11 ounces and they had a hard time getting her out because of the way she was laying. When she came out we really didn't hear anything and it took her a few seconds to start crying. And even once she started crying she was very "floppy", as they called her, which they said meant she was very slow responsively they said probably because how hard it was on her getting her out. But she finally came around and started responding well. They let us hold them both for a few minutes which is a moment we never will forget! Then they sent Zack out with them both to the nursery to get cleaned up while they put me back together. And then for about 2 hours we got to live out our dream of holding both of our babies and celebrating with our family the excitement of our two little miracles!
I really handled being stuck at the hospital the next day pretty well until that evening when Zack called me and said that the Cpap had caused a partial pneumothorax. He told me they were going to have to stick a needle into his chest to release the air. After they got the air out his oxygen stats all started improving for a few hours so I thought everything was finally getting better but that night he had the pneumothorax again and they were going to have to stick a needle into his chest again. They also decided that they were going to have to put him on the vent to give his body a rest. This was when I finally reached a breaking point and within an hour Zack had it worked out to where me, my mom, and Aly could come stay at the Ronald McDonald house across the street from Children's and I had it set up with the nurses for me to leave early the following morning. But before I go on with the story I want to mention how great SOMC's nurses were that night. They were all so supportive and encouraging and one of the nurses even prayed with all of us after I found out the news.
So less than 48 hours after my c section me, mom, and Aly left the hospital and went home to pack our stuff to go to Columbus. Leaving the hospital was such an emotional experience because I never imagined leaving the hospital without Zack and Eli. When we got to Ronald McDonald house I unloaded my stuff and then went straight over to the hospital. Nothing could have prepared me for seeing my 3 day old son on a vent. Even now as I sit here holding him while writing this the image is so burned into my mind that it makes me cry thinking about how helpless he looked. But something I never really shared with anyone was how much of a failure I felt like as a mother because I couldn't even get myself to talk to him. Even when we was alone I would try and I would just start sobbing. So I would just sit there and stare at his oxygen stats for hours and listen to the alarms going off because his numbers would drop to low. I think I literally was starting to have a mental breakdown during that first week of him being in the NICU. I felt so pulled between Aly being at the Ronald MacDonald house(she was the hit of the place with mom showing her off all week. She even got her picture with Ronald McDonald) since she wasn't allowed at the hospital and Eli in the NICU. I even started to feel sorry for Zack because not only was he also having to go back and forth between kids but he also was having to deal with me crying every time I saw him. We both realized that it was to much for me at this point so my doctor decided to prescribe me anxiety medication. I normally wouldn't take something like this but I knew when I had pretty much stopped eating, started having panic attacks, was breaking out in a stress rash, and I was disconnecting from the babies that it was more than just the typical baby blues women get after having kids.
Once they had determined that Eli had Respiratory distress they decided to give him surfactant because his lungs were just not fully mature since they were born at 37 weeks. They waited to late to give it to him so he didn't respond as fast as they had hoped he would. But after a few days of being on the vent they were able to take him back to the C pap and then down to just the cannula for oxygen. Then began our next problem of getting him to eat by mouth and not by the feeding tube. We spent about 5 days in the NICU with just trying to get him to take enough of the bottle. We would get him to drink an ounce or so and if we would get him to take more most of the time he would vomit it back up. So after talking to the doctors they decided to transfer him back to our local hospital where we could work on feeds.
As soon as we got back to SOMC it was like something clicked and Eli decided to finally start eating. He still would occasionally vomit but we figured out if we would have him take breaks while drinking then it wouldn't happen. So due to him being in the nursery and not having a room for the first time in 11 days we had decided we would take Aly home and come back the next morning. But within about 2 hours the nursery called and said that his oxygen was staying in the high 80's so they were going to have to put him back on oxygen. I couldn't handle knowing that we were not with him so I went back down to the hospital and slept in a rocking chair all night in the nursery. Thankfully the next morning they were able to get him right back off of the oxygen. So at this point we thought we had finally turned a corner and he was going to be released in the next few days. For the first time since they were both born we were able to spend time together as a family and Aly and Eli were able to actually be in the same room together.
Then began the heart problem. We were sitting in the little room they had off the side of the nursery that they were letting us sit in during the day and all the sudden his heart monitors started going off. This happened quite often in the NICU but normally it was because his leads had come off or were not reading right. But for the first time it was actually reading right and his heart rate was in the 230's for about 3 minutes. After that multiple times for just a few second spurts his heart rate would shoot back up. The hospital knew that was not normal and for the 2nd time in 2 weeks they decided that he would have to be sent back to Children's hospital where they could figure out his issue faster and get him the medicine he would need. Thankfully this time he was stable so he was able to ride in the ambulance back to Children's. The next morning based on the readings SOMC had on his heart they already knew he had SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). They decided that he would need to take propanolol every 6 hours. He only had 1 more episode after he started the medicine but they made him wait an additional 24 hours after that episode before he could be released. Before they could for sure release him he did have to pass the car seat test which is where they put them in there car seat for the length of your drive home and make sure their oxygen stays good. Thankfully he passed it the first time and after 15 days in the hospital he was finally being released! Here is each of them in their coming home outfit!
I really thought that after the whole experience we would be a nervous wreck taking him home. But it was like after they found the heart issue we both knew that everything was all right.
Since being home life has been great! We couldn't imagine life without them and they already have us wrapped! Thank you to all of you that have prayed for us and donated money to make our dream of having a family possible! We appreciate all of your support and encouragement that you have given us over the past year! This has been one of the longest struggles we have dealt with and at the time through each set back we can see that God had his hand on every situation. We know now looking back that each time it looked like we were alone in the situation God was working it out in a special way for us! We're thankful for the previous 5 years of unanswered prayers or we would not have the even better blessing that God has given us with Eli and Aly! It was hard to understand at the time when God said no but now we can truly see that everything was for a reason and we couldn't be more blessed!
