Trick or Treat

I know that it has been a little while since I have made a post.  So, for those of you who don't know yet, our trick or treaters showed up at the house a little early this year.  On Halloween, at 4:45 in the morning, my water broke.  So, after a little running around the house, Mike and I jumped in the car to head to the hospital.  Luckily, I remembered to grab 3 things for the trip - my wallet, something to focus on during labor (which, incidently, never came out of the bag), and my camera.  On the way to the hospital, I called my doctor's answering service.  When the midwife called me back, she told me that, since I was 34 weeks and 6 days, the hospital was going to send me to Asheville for delivery (I was too early for a hospital that did not have a NICU).  Mike and I decided not to even worry about stopping at our hospital and went straight on to Asheville.  Lucky for me, I did not start having contractions until we were on the way to the hospital and they did not get painful until about 30 minutes before the epidural went in.  The delivery went quite well.  The doctors decided that they wanted to deliver my babies in the OR.  That way, if Leftie (we still had not named them at this point) got into any trouble, they could do a stat c-section.  However, lucky for me, we had a fairly simple delivery.  Jack Chasteen Park was born on October 31, 2010 at 12:51 pm and his little brother, Miles Robert Park, was born 17 minutes later, at 1:08 pm.  The worst thing that happened during the delivery was that they put a little oxygen on me so that they could make sure that Miles was getting enough to breathe while he was being delivered!  The nurses brought Jack to me so that Mike and I could see/hold him for a few minutes.  They brought Miles over as well, but my IV started to leak a little, so we did not get to spend as much time with him.  Then, the NICU teams swept the boys off to the NICU with their daddy.  They did not have any problems, but all babies born before the 35 week gestation mark go to the NICU automatically.  We missed the line by 12 hours. 

Anyway, they finished fixing me up and sent me back to the labor and delivery room to let the epidural wear off.  Once that was worn off, the nurse promised that I would be able to go up to the NICU to see the boys.  Unfortunately, my body had a different idea.  Without getting into all of the gruesome details, I bled more than normal.  So, after a long afternoon, having to have my epidural re-dosed with a different & stronger drug, another procedure that was excruciatingly painful (even with the really strong drugs that they gave me), my bleeding finally slowed down.  Mike was so sweet during the whole thing.  He was there by my side holding my hand for all of it (other than when he went with the boys to the NICU).  I don't think that he realizes how much it means to me that he was bragging about me after the procedure in the afternoon.  He kept saying that I was a strong person and that a lesser woman would have been screaming and cursing throughout the procedure in the afternoon (I was just crying quietly.)  For the rest of the evening, every time someone went to touch my stomach, I had to brace myself using the bedrails.  I felt a little like a punching bag at that point.  But, since they were finally able to get my bleeding to stop, they were able to take me up to the NICU to see my boys.  I had to do this on a stretcher, but that did not matter!  I just started to cry as soon as I saw them!

Then, comes the saga of naming the boys.  When we got to the hospital on Halloween, we asked some of the nurses if we had until the babies left the hospital to be able to name them.  They said yes.  So, imagine our surprise the next morning, when a woman came into the room and told us that due to their software being changed, we had to choose names by Noon or we would have to go to the Health Department to fill out the information.  At first, we were both fine with that option.  However, the woman from the hospital called the Health Department to find out what steps we would need to take if we did not come up with names by the deadline.  Turns out that we would only have 5 days to get the names back to them.  If we did not have the names at that point, the Health Department would assign each of the boys a number, then there would be a bunch of fees to get the names changed.  So, with 30 minutes to spare, we came up with Jack and Miles.

On to their story, they were in the NICU for 10 days.  They did not have to have any feeding tubes or oxygen!  They just monitored them to make sure that they were OK.  They did have to stay under the warmers for a couple of days and Jack ended up having to use the bili blanket for a few days to get his bilirubin numbers back down.  But all things considered, I will take it.  And they were born at pretty good weights, too!  Jack was 4 pounds 11 ounces and Miles was 4 pounds 8 ounces.

Here we are on Day 20.  The boys had to go back to the pediatrician's office today for a weight check.  Jack is up to 5 pounds 11 ounces and Miles is up to 5 pounds 6 ounces.  They are doing so well and Mike and I could not be happier!

Thank you all for the love and support that you have been sending our way.  Even if we don't always get the chance to say thank you, please know that it is appreciated!

Jack Chasteen Park

Born: October 31, 2010 @ 12:51pm

Weight: 4 pounds, 11 ounces

Length: 18.5 inches

Miles Robert Park

Born:  October 31, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

Weight:  4 pounds, 8 ounces

Length:  17.1 inches