Leave me your digits.

Takin' it private, people. Leave me your email and I'll send you an invite.

(Now, now blog stalkers, don't be shy. I always hate it when I read some one's blog and then they go private and I'm too embarrassed to admit I've been reading all along. I promise I won't judge.)

Newborn Pictures

The hospital where I delivered (Wesely Medical Center-the same one Jeff works for) the babies offers a professional photography session in lieu of the traditional "hospital mug shot." It was really fun to get some good pictures of the boys as little ones. Three weeks later they already look different.

The Aftermath

Ben during his EEG.

Unfortunately our stay in the hospital was not without some difficulty. Although both boys scored 9 out of 9 on their Apgar scores they had some difficulty the day after their birth. I noticed that both boys were shaking on and off through the first morning. It looked like they were shivering from being cold. I asked the nurse about it and she assured me it was probably just newborn jitters. I accepted that and sent the twins to the nursery for the night.

My night nurse woke me for what I thought was the first feeding to inform me that they had been observing the boys and they found that when they would shake their oxygen levels would dip and their lips would turn purple/blue. This indicated some sort of problem and they had sent orders for Ben and Sam to be moved to the Special Care floor for more observations and tests.

We went with the boys to their new room and the tests started immediately. They took blood, put in IVs (no more breast-feeding for now), hooked the boys up to monitors, started them on anitbiotics in case of an infection and ordered more tests. The cardiologist came in next and did an ecocardiogram and EKG. Thankfully, their hearts were perfect and we were able to rule out any sort of heart malfunction. The nuerologist was next with an EEG. The results showed that there had been abnormal discharges in the brains of both boys indicating seizure activity. It was a scary moment when we recieved the news. We were not able to talk to the nuerologist right away and we did not know if their had been any damage to the boys' brains or what might be causing the problem.

In the mean time Ben and Sam were moved to the NICU and given spinal taps. The next morning they each had an MRI. They were troopers and slept through both tests. The spinal tap showed no infection and normal blood counts. We were pretty terrified to get the results back from the MRIs. We had been told that there could be blood on the brain, brain swelling, or any other number of reasons causing the seizures. And although the doctors were optimistic that there was probably not much damage done to their brains, we were mentally preparing for the worst.

Thankfully the MRI came back normal. Perfect brains. I can not tell you what a relief and blessing it was to hear this good news. Even though we didn't have an answer as to why Ben and Sam had problems, everything looked great physically. 

So the boys were taken back to Special Care and started a regiment of anti-seizure medicine. They were monitored for a few days and then moved with me to a mother/baby room to transition. We spent a day there and were finally discharged.

Sam and Ben will take their medication for 6 weeks when we will visit the neurologist again for follow up EEGs. If the test are normal and show no indication of seizure activity in the brain, we will wean the boys off the medicine. They were also sent home with monitors to track their breathing and heart-rates which will be kept on for 4 weeks.

So far, neither Ben or Sam has had any episodes or indication of trouble. They have both gained back their birth weight plus some and are nursing almost exclusively again. We were blessed with many family and friends who were praying and fasting for the boys and our family. I have no doubt they were blessed by the faith of those prayers. They also received special blessings from Jeff and our bishop.

Feeding the boys in Special Care

Cute Ben.

Cute Sam.

Birth Story

Quick version:

January 6th:


12:40am Lay down for bed and my water breaks, contractions start at 3min apart

1:15am Drop Anna and Isaac off at a friends house and head for the hospital

1:30am Admitted to the hospital, contractions still 2-3 minutes apart, moderate in strength

2:15am Resident Doctor checks me, a foot is presenting and I'm fully dilated. Whaaat?! Resident calls my doctor and tells her to drive faster.

2:30am Head to the OR, get epidural, freak out a little (not a fan of the c-section method)

2:45am My doctor arrives, starts the surgery.

2:59am Benjamin arrives with a high pitched scream

3:00am Samuel arrives with another no-quite-so-high pitched scream

Extended version:

After staying up way too late watching TV I waddled up to bed. As I tried to lay down my water broke. I woke Jeff up and then started to panic. We hadn't really figured out what to do if I went into labor in the middle of the night. We don't know that many people here and I just hadn't felt comfortable asking anyone to take our kids in the middle of the night. So we called our bishop (poor man) and he found someone to take our kids. We had to wake up Anna and Isaac. Anna was really excited and really nervous about me being the hospital and meeting her new brothers. Isaac was completely oblivious and pretty confused as to why we were getting in the cold car in the middle of the night.

When we arrived at the hospital we got checked in, put in a room, I changed into my hospital robe, all the normal stuff. My contractions had started right after my water broke and were only moderately painful so I was shocked when the resident doctor check me and found that I was fully dilated and baby A's (soon to be Ben) foot was presenting. Everyone stepped into high gear to get the OR ready, get the anesthesiologist present, and the resident literally called my doctor in the room and told her she need to drive fast.

By the time we enter the OR my contractions were pretty much right on top of one another so I was happy to get my spinal block. As soon as it took effect my doctor started the c-section. I did not particularly enjoy this version of birthing. An operating room is not quite the soothing atmosphere you would hope for in child birth.

After about ten minutes of some seriously weird sensations (pulling, tugging, pushing) in my mid-section, baby A was born, baby B quickly followed suit and was born a minute later. It was crazy to hear two cries. I, of course, couldn't see a thing and felt strangely disconnected from the whole process. It wasn't until Jeff brought the babies around the curtain for me to see and hold that the expected motherly reaction occurred. Tears and kisses and loves ensued for some clearly fraternal brothers.

After getting stitched (or stapled if you have a strong stomach) up, it was back to recovery. I was grateful that the babies went with us and I was able to spend the next two hours loving on the boys.

It wasn't until after we were sent to the mother/baby floor that we decided on names. Benjamin Larry Sollis (baby A) and Samuel David Sollis (baby B) were named about 5 hours after birth. Their middle names are their grandfathers' first names.

New Arrivals!

Benjamin Larry Sollis    Samuel David Sollis

5lbs 10oz                                          7lbs0oz

   19 inches                                    18 1/2 inches

1/6/11 2:59am                              1/6/11 3:00am

We are so blessed to welcome these two little guys to our family.

More details to come...

Almost There

Feeling very happy that my swollen body will soon be relieved of it's duties.

Christmas

Christmas this year was...pretty good. Of course, the season was wonderful and I loved celebrating Christ's birth. (Especially with the impending birth of the twins. I was particularly sensitive to the Spirit.) But the festivities? They were a bit lack-luster. Between moving (read: no friends), pregnancy, new job and new house, there was little energy for the Christmas details.

We did manage to fit in our annual Christmas Eve-Eve hotel stay. Anna was beside herself with anticipation and excitement. Poor Isaac got SO sick the day of the stay. We decided to brave it and go anyway. He made it through swimming and then spent the rest of the night throwing up and crying. Poor, poor boy.

 Since we were up the whole night, we decided to go straight home at 6:00am. We stopped at a gas station for hot chocolate and donuts for breakfast. The rest of the day was spent sleeping off the previous night and cooking treats for the evening.

Isaac was still super sick and missed most of the festivities. Anna made up the traditional plate for Santa and the reindeer, we read a few Christmas stories and then it was off to bed.

This picture pretty much sums up how I was feeling: slow and swollen. (That shirt is an XL maternity shirt...not big enough for these boys!)

Santa brought Anna and Isaac scooters, slippers, puppy dogs, and some DVDs.

 Anna got right to playing.

 Oh, Isaac. So sick.

 Playing with toys.

The new Christmas pjs, slippers, and robe.