Ian and Ryan are born!

  Two tiny little miracles were born on Friday August 23, 2013
                                     We are so in love! 

                               Ian Thomas 2lbs 11oz (8:28pm) 
                                                                 ~aka Repete~
                                                And
                           Ryan Christopher 4lbs 6oz (8:31pm)
                                                                   ~aka Pete~


                                  Ok, so we'll start with Ian first just cuz he's older ;-)

Daddy holding Ian for the first time :-)

Ian is sooo tiny! This picture is little Ian by Auntie Nicole's hand (and she has small hands...)

-Was on CPAP machine till Saturday morning. (CPAP was to keep their lungs inflated because they were a little too sticky)
-Is in an incubator bed to keep his body at a normal temperature.
-Needs an IV for fluids, and for some fat and vitamins. The IV is inserted in his umbilical cord because his hand are much to tiny (awww! He so little!)
-Had a tube in his mouth going to his stomach for taking air out of his stomach (Some of the air from the CPAP machine ended up in his stomach) He now has a tube in his nose instead, and they use that for feeding.
-Is on breast milk (mostly mine... had a few feedings from the 'milk bank' (modern wet nurse? lol but all the milk from the 'bank' is tested and pasteurized, so not quite as good as my milk, but better than formula - formula is hard for the babies to digest). I had been pumping some colostrum, and they were swabbing the boys mouths with it, or if there was enough they put a little in a syringe and slowly put in the boy's mouths, the antibodies from my milk protects the boys from getting sick, even if they aren't getting full feeds of my milk. Now my milk is coming in, they are almost exclusively on my milk :-)


                                                     Now on to our youngest ;-) Ryan

Mommy holding Ryan for the first time :-)

Little Ryan by Mommy's hand :-) 

                                           
-Was on CPAP machine till Saturday morning. (Same as Ian)
-Was in an incubator bed to keep his body at a normal temperature. On Sunday afternoon he graduated to an open air bed. He is doing quite well, although he does need an extra blanket. :-)
-Needs an IV just for fluids. His IV is inserted into his hand :-)
-Had a tube in his mouth going to his stomach (same reason as Ian) But Ryan pulled his out haha! Then they put it in his nose... and he pulled it out again. The nurse put it back in again, but with extra tape... he'll have a hard time getting that one out haha!
-Is on breast milk, Same as Ian... The only thing is that Ryan is a bit heavier than Ian, so he normally wouldn't qualify to get milk from the 'milk bank' because of his weight. Buuut because Ian qualifies, than so does Ryan because he is a twin. :-D (don't know why that matters, but I'm glad Ryan doesn't have to go on formula... cuz that could potentially have increased his time at the NICU just because formula is harder for their little bodies to digest. They feed both boys through the tube in their nose, and every so often the nurses increase the amount of milk per feed, the more milk added the less fluids etc. they receive from the IV :-) So hopefully soon Ryan can go off his IV. Ian has to fatten up a little so it'll be a little bit before he's off :-) I haven't tried nursing or even bottle feeding either of them yet, but hopefully soon.

For those of you interested in how I've been doing with my milk supply/pumps etc. - I was hand expressing, then I used the hospital pumps (they are great) and right now I'm using my hand pump at home... the hand pump takes a while though. Thankfully the social worker from the NICU explained to us that if we get a prescription from the dr. for a breast pump,(because our babies are in the NICU) then it will most likely be covered by Matthew's work benefits plan (which it is) - A prescription for a breast pump? Yup Mommy's milk is that important especially to preemies!  Matthew went out and bought me a Medela double electric pump today :-) YAY! I feel so spoiled! We would never have been able to afford such a nice one! I haven't been able to try it out yet cuz it has to charge for 24hrs before using. :-) But apparently it's very similar to the hospital pumps, and has lots of fun little options :-D  My milk came in on Sunday afternoon, and has been increasing ever since :-D Yay!


Next post I'll write a little about my last few days at the hospital and how the C-section went :-) Recovery so far has been much better than I expected, although I have a bunch of bruising - probably because I was walking a bunch, and going back and forth from my room to the NICU and back, getting pumping gear, walking to the sink to wash the pumping gear etc. I feel good though :-) And even though I had my C-Section on Friday at 8pm my dr. discharged me on Sunday afternoon (thankfully! I missed my kids at home, being at home, making my own schedule, my own bed, my own shower... I probably can go on forever haha!)