Life

Wow, it has taken me forever to update the blog!  I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last post.  Ethan and David are 3 1/2 months old now, and Emma is quickly approaching 2 1/2 years old.  The days are long, but how time has flown by since they were born!

All I really have time for right now is getting pictures up.  Here are some random pictures from the last 2 months.  More coming hopefully in the next few days.  We decided to play it low-key and took Emma treat or treating in our neighborhood this year.  We bundled up the boys in the double stoller and had a great time walking around to see our neighbors.  She loved getting all the candy, and just about walked into everyone's house that we went to.  She was a kitty in a tutu :)  



Emma kissing Ethan :)



Ethan snoozing



My happy girl!



Precious David



Sweet girl

Ethan smiling at mama

Emma eating chocolate peanut butter balls that she made with mommy!  She loved them :)

They're home!

Ok, so they have been home for 3 weeks and I am just getting around to updating the blog.  Life has been busy with 3 little ones, but so sweet!  I love having everyone at home.  Ethan and David have been really easy babies so far.  Which is so wonderful since I am learning to juggle caring for them and Emma.  They only cry when they are hungry, sleep well in their cribs, and seem to be very content most of the time.  God has blessed us so greatly.  I prayed throughout my pregnancy that the twins would be easy to care for, sleep well at night, and that they would have tender hearts toward God.  What an answered prayer!  Poor Emma was very colicky and fussy when she was a baby, but thankfully we haven't experienced that this time.

We went for their 6-8 week checkup (they were 7 weeks last Monday) on Thursday and they are doing great.  Here are some things going on with the boys now:

• Ethan weighs 6 lbs 9 oz, and is 19 1/2 cm long.  David is 6 lbs 8 oz and 20 1/2 cm long.  They have been doing such a great job growing!  Gaining more than an ounce a day, which is exactly what we want.  They are off the charts for their weight and height since they are premies, but that is ok.
• They are nursing about 4-5 times during the day, and take 3 (70-100 ml) bottles of pumped breastmilk during the night/ early morning.  They will usually go 5 hours between feeds during the night (yea!), and about 2-3 hours during the day.  I take the middle of the night feed, and Jared does the early morning feed.  It is working out really well!
• They are getting a little bit of head control, lifting and turning their heads.  They haven't really developed a "social smile" yet, but I do see sweet smiles when they are sleepy.
• Ethan loves to be swaddled, while David likes to stretch out.
• They still look a lot alike, but I can tell them apart pretty easily by now.  I thought they might be identical a few weeks ago, because apparently the egg can split before implantation, resulting in 2 sacs and placentas.  Their features are very similar.  They even have the same little dimple in their chin like their daddy.  And the same blood type- O negative.  But their faces are shaped a little differently.  Ethan has a longer, narrower face, while David has a rounder, fuller face.  I think Ethan head is still mis-shapened from delivery, but hopefully it will round out soon.  So that is how I can tell them apart!  Ethan also has a scar on his arm from a botched IV, and David has a little birthmark on one of his knees.
• They are still sleeping together in one crib.  They love being close to each other.  Sometimes they will start fussing and I'll come in to find one of them sucking on the other one's head or arm!  While they were in the hospital the nurse told me that one time David was sucking on Ethan's knee.  Needless to say, Ethan did not appreciate that!

 Ethan (left) and David (right)



Pictures of David- 7 weeks



Pictures of Ethan- 7 weeks



snuggling

David and Ethan are getting 2- 33 ml bottles of breastmilk a day now, and breastfeeding once a day.  The rest of their feedings are still given through the NG tube.  They are doing really good!  They will take the first 20 ml easily with the bottle, and then the nurse usually has to force down the remaining 10.  They were both 3 lbs 15 oz today!  Almost to 4 lbs!!!  They are both off their O2 sat monitor, and doing a great job regulating their body temp too.  So the main thing we are waiting on is getting them to eat on their own!  David pulled out his NG tube twice today.  I hate that they had to put it in again, but it least we know he is getting stronger and has a little fight in him!  I love these boys so much!

Week #3 in NICU

Ethan and David are doing great!  On Monday they started learning to breastfeed and take a bottle of breastmilk once a day.  It was a slow start, but today Ethan took 16 ml and David took 12 ml when they nursed!  Ethan is 3 lbs 14 oz today, and David is 3 lbs 12 oz.  They are growing great!  Here are some pictures from this week.

They were snuggling together today!  Precious brothers!  They love to be close to each other.

Pictures from the rest of the first week and Update

Ok, I am finally going to catch up!  I may just have to post pictures later, because that can be time-consuming.  Nothing else really changed much the rest of the first week.  The babies both came off of the phototherapy by the end of the week because their bilirubin levels were down.  They were both able to come off oxygen from the nasal cannulas and have been breathing completely on their own ever since!  I've been able to hold them every day, which is pure bliss :)  Here are a few more pictures from the end of last week:

David

Ethan

Ethan when he had the nasal cannula

On Monday they turned 1 week old!  Yea!  They did head ultrasounds on both boys to check for any bleeding in the brain, which is fairly common with premature babies.  Everything came back completely normal- praise God!!!  That was such a relief.  They are going up with their feedings (pumped breastmilk through their feeding tubes) every day, and they are tolerating it wonderfully.  It is so cute to watch them being fed.  Their little eyes get heavy toward the end, and sometimes they will even suck on their thumb or fingers.  They are happy boys with a full belly.  On Tuesday they moved them into the same isolette so they could be together!  It is so precious to see them right next to each other!  Makes me happy that even though I can't be there all the time with them, they have each other!  Also they were able to increase their feedings enough so that they could stop their IV fluids.  Now that they no longer have IVs they can begin to wear premiee clothes :)  Finally, I got to hold both of them together at the same time on Tuesday.  It was incredible to be able to hold both of my precious babies!  Ethan kept stretching his little arms and head, pushing David over.  And David was content as could be, slept the whole time.  Today (Wednesday) their bilirubin levels had gone up again, so they had to separate them again to start the phototherapy again.  But hopefully they will get it out of their system in a couple of days, and then they can be together again.  They have almost come back to their birth weight- Ethan was 3 lbs 7 oz, and David was 3 lbs 5 oz today.  They are adding a human milk fortifier to my breastmilk to add some calories and help them bulk up.  I think that about covers the last few days!  They are doing amazingly well, and we are so thankful to God for all He has done and is going to do!

Ethan and David (Days 2 and 3)

Day 2 was a great day for the boys!  Ethan was taken off of the ventiltor and put on the CPAP because he was doing better.  Then later that day he came off of the CPAP because his lungs looked great and he was doing a good job breathing on his own.  They gave him a little oxygen through a nasal cannula to help him out a little bit.  David came off of the CPAP also that day!  The highlight of the day was holding them both for the very first time.  They were precious moments and they really responded to me talking to them.  David opened his eyes and looked at me when I held him for the first time.  In the morning I held David since he was doing so well, and then when we came back in the evening I was able to do "kangaroo care" with both of them.  They also started phototherapy that day because both babies' bilirubin levels were high.  Here are some photos from Day 2:

The first time we saw David open his eyes

Holding David for the first time!

Ethan under the bili-lites

David under the bili-lites

This sweet girl stopped by that evening to see her baby brothers!  She was so precious!  When she saw me holding David, she said "aww, baby", and reached out her hand toward him.  She was so interested in them!

Day 3 went really well also.  They were still under the lights, and I got to hold them both.  They were both so alert; opening their eyes and looking up at me!  It just melts my heart.  Both of them had nasal cannulas that day to help their breathing just a little bit.

David looking up at Mommy!

David

Ethan looking up at Mommy

Ethan

Ethan

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.  The things you have planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak of them, they would be to many to declare! Psalm 40:5

Ethan and David are here! (Day 1)

Our boys were born last Monday, August 23rd at 6:06 and 6:11 am!  They made it to 30 weeks and 1 day.  I believe it is truly a miracle that they stayed inside me for 4 weeks after my water broke (we found out after delivery that both sacs were ruptured).  I'm going to try to recap the last week before I forget everything!  I think it will take me several days, though.

Last Saturday night the contractions I had been having for a couple of weeks got much stronger.  They still weren't frequent or regular, but they were definitely painful.  I also began bleeding a lot more.  The nurse checked me that night since all of this was happening.  It was the first time they had checked my cervix, because they did not want to risk introducing any infection.  I was only 1 cm dilated, so she gave me a shot of brethine to help stop the contractions.  They got better for a couple of hours, but then they were back.  So, I was awake just about all night.  Sunday morning Dr. Huggins, the doctor on call, came to check me and I was still just 1 cm.  He wanted me to take brethine and procardia for the contractions.  Contractions continued all day and that night they started coming closer together.  Jared stayed with me overnight since we didn't know what was going to happen.  By the time it was 2:00am it felt like the contractions were almost back to back.  The monitor was not picking up all the contractions, though because I was lying on my side.  I told the nurse that they were extremely painful and asked if I could have more brethine.  Since the monitor hadn't picked up all of them she wanted to wait and watch them for the next 30 min or so before calling the doctor.  Finally she checked me when it was almost 4am and I was 5-6 cm dilated.  She started an IV and said that they were getting a room ready downstairs in labor and delivery.  Once I got downstairs I asked for an epidural, but they told me I would have to wait until the doctor arrived to approve it.  A few minutes later a nurse checked me again, and I was 10 cm- fully dilated.  Really not what I had planned on!  They gave me an epidural right before I started pushing.  I could still feel a lot, but I think it was better than having nothing at all.  I was able to deliver vaginally because both babies were head down.  Ethan (baby A) came out first, followed by David about 5 minutes later.  David did a flip at the last minute, though, and came out feet first.  We heard both of the boys cry and they said that they were both breathing on their own!  I got a glance at them before they took them to the NICU.

A few hours later they wheeled me down to the NICU to see the babies.  Ethan was on a ventilator because he was having trouble breathing.  David was on CPAP.  He was doing better than Ethan, but still needed a little help breathing.  We didn't get to hold them the first day, but we could touch them and hold their hands.  We talked to them and it was amazing to see that they responded to my voice.  They didn't open their eyes, but you could tell they were moving their eyes around and they held on to our fingers.  Once we finally saw them we gave them their names:  Ethan Calvin Wunderlich (A), and David Alan Wunderlich (B).  The day before we pretty much narrowed it down to those two, but we wanted to see them to decide who would get which name.  I'll have to do another post on why we chose the names we did :)  Here are some pictures from that first day.
 

Ethan on the ventilator

Jared with David.  The babies are in isolettes, which helps to regulate their body temperatures.

Jared holding Ethan's tiny hand

Ethan's tiny foot!

David on the CPAP

Seeing Ethan for the first time!

Hopefully I will post more from this week tomorrow!  I'm still trying to recover and catch up on sleep.  I am waking up every few hours to pump breastmilk for the babies.  But just to let everyone know- both babies are doing great now!  They are both breathing without any help, and handling the feedings really well.  I really don't think it could be going much better!  We are hoping that they will be home in 3-5 weeks from now.  All glory and honor goes to God for his hand in all of this!  He has been there every step of the way and is protecting these boys and making them stronger each day!  We are so grateful for all that He has done!

29 Weeks!

Today I am 29 weeks and still pregnant!  Yea!!!  It is such a relief to have made it one more week here.

It seems like things are starting to get better!  The fluid I have been leaking has been very bright red for the last 2 weeks.  My doctor told me that the bleeding probably meant that I was having some cervical changes.  In other words- dilating and getting ready for labor.  Plus it has been a LOT of fluid leaking out.  Well, over the last 3 days the fluid has turned from red to pink, and there has been significantly less leaking!  And the contractions have been much less frequent and less intense.  Amazing!  All glory and honor goes to God for that!  He has his hand in these babies' lives.  Thank you for all your prayers!  I know he is hearing and answering them!

Now for a bit of randomness.  I thought I would give you a peek at my hospital room!  Nothing very exciting, since it is a hospital room :)  But we had some sweet friends come visit about a week ago and decorate the room- with Dr. Seuss decorations, no less!  I decided  about a month ago to give the boys' nursery a fun, whimsical Dr. Seuss-inspired theme.  Nothing is done in the nursery, but I did get the bedding delivered right before I was admitted to the hospital.  Luckily I've been able to order everything else online from here.  Plus it really is not a big deal if the nursery is not done by the time they come home.  Anyways, our friends put some Dr. Seuss characters on the wall, and made a poster that has the babies' ultrasound picture and a sweet poem in the middle of it, with plenty of room for visitors to write little notes to us or the babies.  How thoughtful is that?!  They also put some characters on our room door (Thing 1 and Thing 2, of course!).  I added a calendar to the wall the other day so that I could put a big "X" through every day that the babies have stayed inside.  It is the highlight of my day!

My goofy husband is the one who wrote the huge "I love you", and then scribbled his name :)  I love him so much!