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!