sleepy babies

In the NICU both babies slept pretty well in their little plastic cots. Since they have been home, Alex especially has not been a good sleeper. We are trying a new experiment, after giving up on the cribs, the pack and play and the bouncy chairs. Laundry baskets! So far both babies seem to like them. And they only cost $4 each...

The first month

On Saturday the babies will be 1 month old. Wow! It seems like yesterday that I was waiting for them to be born.

Alex’s first month:

Alex has had quite a month.

On Friday July 3rd I had an ultrasound to check on the babies and it was discovered that Alex had basically no fluid left. They strapped monitors on me and we were booked in for a C section later that day.

The C section happened after midnight, so ended up being July 4th. Alex arrived 1st at 1:31. He came out silent and took close to 30 seconds before he started to cry. That doesn’t sound like a long time, but when you are waiting to hear it, those seconds drag by. Alex was a tiny baby. He weighed 1717g or 3 lbs 12 oz. He had lost weight the last while inside, so it was a really good thing he came out when he did.

Alex was taken to the NICU from the operating room (after I got to quickly say hello and give him a kiss). He was placed in an incubator (for warmth) and was hooked up to monitors to keep track of his respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen etc. He was able to breathe on his own, and had good oxygen levels, so he didn’t need any help there.

He had a tube placed in one of his nostrils to his stomach, in order to give him food without him having to use any energy. He didn’t have much of a suck reflex either, so eating himself would have been impossible at first. At first the tube feedings seemed to be working, but after a few hours he started puking everything back up. He hadn’t pooped, so they thought he might have a blockage of some kind. He Dr came to talk to us and said that due to his size he possibly could have a section of his intestines that was narrow. They did an x ray to check what was happening, but everything looked fine. He started pucking up greenish goop though, so they were getting worried. They decided to give him a couple of treatments with glycerin to see if that would get him pooping. Finally on day 3 he passed a tiny little black ball. It took another day for him to pass any more, and when he finally managed to poop it was a celebration!

Because he wasn’t keeping food down,they had to put him on an IV. They tried his hands first, but eventually they failed. They decided to put the IV in his scalp. This meant they had to shave his beautiful blond hair. It was a sad day. I kept his little blond curls in a jar. He now has an “old man haircut” which makes him look like he has a receding hairline. The IV on his head had to be replaced at least 5 different times over his stay in the NICU, so the poor little guy had lots of pokes in his head.

Alex was slow to learn to “nipple” he enjoyed learning to suck whether it was a soother, a boob or a bottle, but would quickly run out of energy. It wasn’t until a day or 2 before he was released from the NICU , that his eating took off. Before that he was fed by IV, feeding tube and nipple.

Alex was able from the start to breathe on his own, but on day 2 he had an apnea, where he stopped breathing. He stopped breathing a few minutes after he threw up, so that might have been the cause, but it was still scary to know he had stopped.

Alex scared us all again one day, by suddenly coming down with a fever. They discovered he had a infection (staff) and he was put on 10 days of antibiotics. They take infections very seriously in the NICU, because they can be so serious when the babies are so small. They did cultures of his blood and did a lumbar puncture and ran all kinds of tests to verify that they knew what the infection was and that he was on the appropriate antibiotics. He ended up having a blood infection which was probably caused when he was having an IV put in. The infection and the antibiotics really made him run down and tired, which didn’t help at all with him learning to eat for himself.

Finally after 2 ½ weeks in the NICU, they decided he was strong enough to come home with us. Such a happy day! He has continued to be a tricky eater, but has also continued to gain weight. At his last appointment 2 days ago he had hit the 5 pound mark.

Alex is a charming little guy. He loves to cuddle and hates when he is left alone. It can be difficult to get him to settle unless he has someone touching him, which is fine during the day but is a pain in the middle of the night. He is on demand feeding right now to try to get him eating a bit more. He likes to eat every 2 to 3 hours and sometimes takes close to an hour to eat, which is great for gaining weight, but not good for his parents getting much sleep. He loves his soother, but freaks out when he drops it, so it is a double edged sword. It is great to calm him down when he is hungry and his food is taking a little while to arrive, not so great when he wants it at 3 in the morning and keeps losing it and screaming to have you put it back in. I will be so happy when he can put it back in his mouth himself.

Alex is not the best at breast feeding, but likes to try. He usually gets tired out and ends up falling asleep within a few minutes, or freaks out because the milk is harder work to get than with a bottle, and he is hungry NOW. He is getting pumped breast milk and formula mixed at most feedings.


Anna’s first month:

Anna was baby B. She had the comfy penthouse apartment in the womb and spent the 35 weeks squishing down on her brother.

Anna was born at 1:32 am on July 4th, about 20 seconds after her brother. She came out of my stomach already screaming. She weighed in at 4 lbs 1 oz.

Anna was put in an incubator in the NICU, to keep her warm. She quickly progressed to a cot. She had no issues breathing from the start. She did have 2 cases of apneas on day 4, where she stopped breathing and set the alarms on her monitors off. She didn’t need to be revived or anything, and started breathing again on her own both times. Scary though!

Anna has been a little piglet from the start. She loves to eat and within days had ripped her feeding tube out herself and was taking her feedings from a bottle. She isn’t the best at breastfeeding and gets very frustrated quickly and starts to scream. She prefers the speed and ease that the milk arrives from a bottle nipple.

Anna loves to cuddle, but is often quite happy to be on her own as well. She is an uncomplicated little girl and as long as she is clean and dry and well fed she is pretty happy. Like any baby she has her moments, but she makes parenting pretty easy.

Anna came home a week before Alex, and for one week we got to experience having one baby at night. Anna made it easy for us, and it was a bit of a shock to us both when Alex came home and our sleep seemed to disappear.

Anna loves to poop, pee and barf on her Mommy. It is a good thing she is really cute!

Two weeks old today! More photos...

Pictures

Update and pics

I will post later about our whole NICU experience. It certainly is not an easy thing to have your babies in the NICU. We are managing though. Anna has been released, and while I am loving being at home with her over night, I miss Alex dreadfully when we leave the hospital. I feel like my heart is being torn in two. We are hoping little Alex will get to come home soon.

Photos of Anna

Pictures of Anna

More photos. Thanks Emily and James.

Pictures of Alex

Birth Story

Thursday July 2nd I had an appointment with my OB. My blood pressure was up a little, but she figured, like the previous times, that if I was sent to have it monitored in the hospital it would be fine. I had no proteins or sugars in my pee and everything looked okay. She did notice that my belly had dropped and I was carrying way lower. I was also having pretty regular contractions, never more than 4 an hour though. We talked at this time about having a scheduled C section on the 14th, but she said she didn't think they would wait that long. She jokingly said she was on at the hospital Friday and Sunday as I left the room...

I had a scheduled ultrasound (BPP and growth) on Friday the 3rd of July. The ultrasound the week before had looked really good with the babies both scoring 8/8 on the BPP and showing good growth. This time didn't go so well. Both babies were measuring smaller than the previous week (ultrasounds have a large degree of error for weight) and most concerning of all was that Baby A (Alex) had almost run out of fluid. I had noticed a decrease in movement the last couple of days as well. The Dr. (who happened to be the one who did my cerclage surgery) turned to me and asked how I felt about having the babies that day... She was really worried about Baby A especially.

I was checked into a room and Ian left to get our bags, to make plans for the animals at home and to meet up with my Mother. They hooked the babies up to monitors and kept checking in on the 3 of us most of the afternoon. My OB came to visit ( As she was working that Friday) as well as her student Drs. I was asked all kinds of questions, had multiple blood works drawn, filled out all kinds of forms and basically was prepared for the surgery. One nurse tried to get an IV into me and gave up. I wasn't considered an emergency C section yet as the babies were doing fine on the monitors, and I wasn't a booked surgery, so basically they were fitting me into what ever slot there was time.

At about 5 they came to take me to the pre op room. They warned me it might be a bit of a wait. Well it was... Every once in a while someone would stick their head in and let us know there was another emergency I was being bumped for. They were monitoring the babies and me and everything looked fine. Finally sometime after midnight they came in to say it was finally me next in line. They finally managed to get an IV into my hand after a few pokes and prods.

During our wait for the surgery, I started to have stronger and more frequent contractions. They were getting quite painful and were coming a lot more often, about 10 an hour at the end. So I think my body knew Alex had no water left and that I would have gone into labour soon if they hadn't already planned for me to deliver. It was nice not to have to make a rushed trip to the hospital.

Once things got going it moved fast, They took us into the OR after getting Ian scrubed up and gowned, masked and hatted, They gave him a stool and the teams went to work. The anesthesiology team had the most to do with me getting things all set up for my epidural. There was also 2 neo natal teams in place, plus a lot of nurses and other people getting set up. The OR is a small room and there was a lot of people all moving fast. It was a bit surreal.

Finally everything was ready for the epidural. It took a while for them to get everything ready. I sat curled around mt belly and a pillow and tried to take my mind to a happy place. The epidural took a while and after much poking and proding and a whole lot of pushing and a few twinges it was in place. When I had had my spinal for the cerclage surgery my blood pressure had droppped really fast (too fast) so this time they added the freezing really slowly to try to keep me a bit more stable. I lay down on the board, arms stretched out on the Jesus Cross and they seat belted me in and tilted me slightly to the left. At this point the freezing was moving up my body and suddenly I was hit with a huge wave of nausea. For a minute or 2 I was sure I was going to barf and the suddenly the freezing hit the bottom of my rib cage and the feeling was gone.

As soon as I was under and they made sure I couldn't feel anything the surgical team flew in. My OB was in charge and she had a couple of Residents with her. Like on TV they all came in with heir hands in the air, freshly scrubed in. Within minutes I was cut open and the babies arrived... There was less than a minute between the 2 of them. Alex arrived at 1:31 and Anna arrived at 1:32. Alex didn't cry for what felt like the longest few seconds of my life. It sounded like Anna cried as she was still in my belly. Seconds after hearing Anna I heard Alex from the side of the room start to cry and I was able to relax. The babies were finally here.

Each of the neonatal teams went to work cleaning, measuring, weighing and prepping the babies. Both were brought to my head for 5 seconds each, I said hello, gave them a kiss and they were whisked off to the NICU. Ian left with them at that point to see them installed in the NICU in their incubators. Neither of them needed any help breathing on their own and both did well on all the tests they gave them.

Now the longer part of the surgery took place. There was much pushing and pressure on my ribs, but other than that I couldn't feel a thing. They delivered my placentas and stored them (they were apparently being sent for testing) and closed up all the things they needed to inside. My belly was then stapled shut and tapped up from side to side.

After the C section was finished they got me into position for the cerclage removal. One of the residents seemed to be in charge of this, so I got to hear what was going on as he was talked through it. I was glad to have this done with the epi still in effect, as I have heard the removal can be very painful.

At this point I was wheeled into recovery and we sat there and waited for the freezing to leave. Slowly but surely I could feel one body part after another start to move. Ian came back to the recovery room to sit with me, and reported the babies were safely installed in the NICU. At this point they offered me ice chips, since I had had nothing to eat or drink for ages they tasted and felt so good in my mouth. Finally I was unfrozen enough, so they decided to take me to my room.

On the way to my room they took me on the stretcher to the NICU to see the babies again. Things were a bit foggy at this point and I was happy to know they were safely here and I was ready to sleep. They wheeled me into my room and I wiggled myself over from the stretcher onto the bed. It was now 5:00 am on July 4th. I had been awake now for almost 24 hours. There was no cot for Ian, so he curled up in a chair, and we both fell asleep for a few hours.

After a few hours of sleep my Dr came by to check how I was doing. She told me to get up and moving asap and that that would make things feel better and would keep the gas from building up in my belly. I was still hooked up to my IV and had a catheter in. We had called my Mom at our friends where she waited the night at 5 when I was back in my room, and told her to come around 8 to see us. With Ian and my Mom helping, I was able to get up out of bed and walk to a wheel chair. Moving wasn't the easiest with tubes, poles and pee bags attached to me, but between the 3 of us we managed to get things set up to go to the NICU. The first few movements after the surgery hurt a little, but I managed to breathe through them and once I was in motion, the pain was gone. I was also really motivated as I wantd to see my babies again.

I was wheeled down to the NICU, was taught how to scrub in and such , and the parenting began.

Anna and Alex July 4th

Welcome to the world Anna and Alex

Alexander Murray Frosst was born at 1:31 am July 4th and Anna Margaret Frosst was born at 1:32 am July 4th by C section.

Alex weighed 3 pounds 12 ounces and Anna weighed 4 pounds 1 ounce. They are little peanuts!

Both babies are doing well, breathing on their own. Anna is eating well and learning to nurse. Alex needs a little help in that department.