The birth story...how Kyle & Kody came to be at 35 1/2 wks

Sorry this is so long...but I am also using this as a journal so here we go!!!!

I was going into the hospital 2 times a week for non-stress testing per doc orders. On 9/30/08 my parents came back into town & said they would take me to the non-stress testing at the hospital. So yeah I didn't have to drive or sit & wait by myself! That morning Kevin left at 5am and I couldn't get back to sleep so I was up for a few hours. I finally went back to bed & woke up 20 mins before my 11am appointment at the hospital. Literally 1 minute before my parents got to my house. I figured oh well I will get dressed & get there when I get there. No time for a shower...will have to do that when I get home...little did I know...

I got to the hospital & no other patients were there yet so I figured I would be in and out of testing within 20 mins. Well when I came in another lady came in & it was more of an emergency...so they took care of her first...no problem...then another emergency case...and another...and another...so 40 mins later I was finally hooked up. I was fine and relaxed because I didn't have anything else going on that day. I was at home on bed rest after all!

Well I had high blood pressure so they let me sit for a while & tested it again. They propped me up on my left side to help...but it was still high... 150/101...so they did some blood work on me to see...the previous week I had protein in my urine so they were watching that anyway. My test always came back saying I was fine & I could go home so I was not concerned at all...then I had a doctor come talk to me about my results...never a good sign!

Dr. Brar told me that I had extremely high blood pressure and they were concerned for myself along with the babies...they wanted to give me some magnesium and do a c-section at 3pm today....WAIT WHAT??????? Kevin had just left this morning...by now it was 1:30pm and there was no way he could get back by 3pm! There was no way I could go through this without him!!! Kevin is my rock & no one can calm me, take care of me or relax me like he can and I did not want him to miss the birth of our boys...and I knew he wouldn't want to miss it either! IO told the doctor the situation and asked if we could wait till the next day for the c-section as long as it was safe...she said they would monitor me but with the magnesium she felt I could wait till the next day. I had mild pre-eclampsia...

I called Kevin & told him to get home...he was thankfully able to get on a 2:30pm flight with no problems...luckily my parents were with me through all of this otherwise I could have been such a wreck! They kept me hooked up for the rest of the day and watched me closely. Kevin finally got to the hospital around 6pm after stopping at the house to get stuff together (my bag wasn't even packed yet as I NEVER expected this!!!)

They set me up in a birthing suite for the night (it was incredible!), I had the nicest nurses...and then I got the magnesium!!! Oh my gosh! They said I would get hot, but I didn't expect to get that hot! The mag is supposed to relax you and lower your blood pressure. I felt like it was 120 degrees and I was sitting in the direct sunlight! It was miserable! I was sweating so badly! I asked my nurse if she knew what time my c-section was scheduled for and she told me that there was 1 c-section scheduled for 8am and then there were 2 "emergency" c-sections which were another lady and myself. She said it all depended on who needed to have it done first.

Well they ran some tests on me in the middle of the night & the nurse was concerned. So they ran more blood work on me. Apparently the results were ok because we didn't do the c-section then! Around 7:15am I asked my nurse what time my c-section was planned for and she told me that it was at 8am...I was first up...apparently I needed it the most...

So here are a few pics showing how big I actually got...swelling and all...

And here we are as I was on 10/1/08 my way to my c-section at 7:56am...

Then Kyle was born at 8:22am at 6lbs 5 ozs. 18 inches long, and Kody was born at 8:23am at 4 lbs 15 ozs 17 inches long. Kody had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck 2 times. So I was even more thankful that I went early and they were taken by c-section!

The first time I got to see the boys...they were so much cuter than I expected!!!

...at 8:36am here was the proud daddy...

After this picture was when all the scariness began...

They found out the boys could not fully breathe on their own.

Kyle was first put on blow by oxygen, and then he was put in the hood on 40 % oxygen.

Kody was also first put on blow by oxygen, and then he was put in the hood on 30 % oxygen.

I saw the boys when they were born next to my head in the picture above...and then I didn't get to see them for another 9 hours when they were wheeling me upstairs on a gernie. Kevin was in the nursery with them and sending me pictures and texts to keep me updated.

The next day, 10/2/08, Kody came off the oxygen completely! And Kyle went down to 30 % oxygen. Then through out the day he went up to 42% oxygen and had 2 x-rays. The doctors and nurses said they could keep a baby there in the nursery up to 55% oxygen. So we still thought we were safe.

Then around 11pm...we received the worst new ever!!! Kyle was up to 50% oxygen and getting worse. They informed us he would have to be Air-Evaced to another hospital that could handle his condition. We called our good friend Ryan Kiedrowski to come help Kevin give him a blessing. We didn't know what it meant for our little Kyle. We were so scared and total wrecks! Ryan came right over. After the specialists did a procedure on Kyle's umbilical cord so that they could draw blood and use it as an IV, and he received his 3rd x-ray...they felt it was due to under developed lungs and not pneumonia. The neonatalogists decided that he would send Kyle to Thunderbird hospital. He had a hard time deciding to send Kyle away because he hates to split up twins. Some twins will actually do worse when they are split up. So we were in the nursery as they packed up our little man & took him away.

That was literally the worst night of my life!!! We cried so hard! We didn't know what to expect. Kevin was getting ready to head over there when they told us to allow 1 1/s hrs before we called to check on him. So at 1:45am on 10/3/08 we called the hosital and found out that they put him on the CPAP machine, he was at 48% oxygen and .6 pressure. He was doing well and was stable, and they put an IV in his head. They said they would run blood work at 5 am and would let us know if anything changed. The blood work that morning came back better than expected so they were just keeping him stable on the CPAP.

Kody was doing well off of oxygen & now just needing to gain weight.

I will post the events from 10/4/08-10/8/08 in my next post as this one is gettting pretty long!