A Long Couple of Days

Angela and I both came down sick Thursday night and Friday morning. She was up all night and couldn't even keep down water, so she asked me to stay home from work and take her to her 7:45 am non-stress test that she had scheduled. Since I wasn't feeling well either, I wasn't super-excited, but I got up and drove her there.

The nurse hooked her up to the various sensors and came back in a little bit to tell us that she was having contractions two minutes apart and that we should go to the hospital. She had been through this before and figured that she was just dehydrated and that the hospital would give her an IV and send us home. She felt bad that I would be so bored. Little did we know...

When we got there, they had her put on a gown and one of the midwives from her practice, Deb, examined her. Much to our surprise, whe was dilated 3 to 4 centimeters! So, we weren't going home any time soon. She was admitted to the hospital at about 8:30 am. We got settled into the room and started making some phone calls. My brother was able to go to our house and pickup the items that we would need, since although they were packed, we didn't bring them along. Things were progressing slowly, but Angela was a champ, most of the time she didn't know she was even having contractions, since the pain from the stomach ache was worse.

By about 5:30 PM the pain was bad enough that she had a shot of staidol to "take the edge off". It was enough to let her sleep through the contractions at first and at least be able to bear them later on. Around 7:00 PM she asked about the epidoral and the midwife told her that she probably didn't have a lot of time to go, and she should try to make it through.

Sure enough, around 7:15PM the midwife told Angela that with her next contraction she should start pushing, and they started to get more people in the room to get ready. At 7:48 PM, we had our daughter, Ivy Elizabeth Steel. We got to hold her for a short time, but before I barely had cut the cord I had to get back by Angela's side. At 7:56 PM, we had our son, Jonathan Thomas Steel.

We later found that Ivy's weight was 4 lbs 5.3 ounces and she was 18.5 inches. Jonathan was 5 lbs 0.7 ounces and 18 inches.

They were both taken to the NICU since they were only 36 weeks old and quite small. The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity. As of this writing, Ivy is still in the NICU, but Jonathan has been released to the Nursery. While this is good news, it has actually made things a little harder, since Angela has to be in two separate parts of the hospital to feed them. She has little time for herself, which means her meals are rushed and her rest is minimal, but she is hanging in there and doing a great job.

As for me, and I tired and starting to become drained, but I am hanging in there and doing all that I can. Getting to hold Ivy and Jonathan and stare at their beautiful faces gives me all the energy I need.

Getting close

We're getting close to the big day. We had the Baby shower on Saturday, which went very well. The house is full of stuff that needs to be organized and assembled. Seeing everything really makes it sink in that there will be two more people in the house soon.

Sierra has become increasingly nervous about boxes and things around the house. I think she knows that something is happening, and is getting a little anxoius. I still think that she'll be great though, once the twins have arrived. We may have some jealousy issues to deal with, but other than that, I think she'll enjoy it.

To accentuate that things are progressing, Angela called today saying that the doctor sent her to the hospital, since the non-stress test indicated that she was having contractions. When she got there they gave her some water and told her to put her feet up for the rest of the day. Apparently they were sporadic enough that she wasn't actually in labor (phew), so they sent her home. Hopefully that does the trick, since we have a little while until we hit the 36th week on December 23rd.