Home!

Sorry for the lack of blogging, we have been very busy now that we're home from the hospital. We checked out Saturday afternoon and got the boys home safe and sound. My Mom also came Thursday and has been a tremendous help to us! She stayed one night in the hospital with me so that Brandon could go home and get a good night's sleep. She has also helped with the middle of the night feedings ever since we got home.

Nursing Update (males may want to skip down to the pictures):

Good news! My milk finally started to come in on Saturday. Very, very slowly at first but I think the supply has been steadily increasing. My colostrum started to dry up on Thursday so I didn't have really anything to feed the boys for a day and a half. They were also losing weight so we had to supplement with formula during that time. They haven't had any problems at all adjusting to breastfeeding or any of the 'nipple confusion' that I was warned about. However, the formula has had some bad side effects such as giving the poor boys bad gas and constipation. We had two nights in a row where they barely slept and were up all night in pain and discomfort. Their poops weren't looking the way the books said they should (this is how I know I'm a mom now, I'm blogging about my kids poop) and they were shrinking up their legs every few minutes and writhing in pain.

So we've been working very hard on building up my milk supply so as to avoid any further formula for the boys. Unfortunately the only way to build it up is to nurse and pump as often as possible. I now spend the majority of my days on the couch with my EZ to Nurse pillow nursing and pumping. I am still learning how to do it so I nurse each separately. I also let them go as long as they want which is usually about 30 minutes each. I try to nurse them every 2 1/2 to 3 hours so by the time I nurse both and then get them burped and changed I usually have about an hour break before it's time to start the whole process over again. My mom and Brandon help as much as possible with this but it's still very time consuming for me. It seems to be working though, it's been 36 hours since we've had to give either of the boys any formula. Their poops are getting to be the right consistency and they appear to be in a lot less pain and discomfort. I am also getting more and more milk out at each pumping session and have even started leaking a few drops here and there if I wait too long to nurse or pump.

All in all, the nursing is alot of work but totally worth it and love getting to spend some quality time with each boy curled up next to me for a few hours each day. We are hoping that they might sleep for at least 3 hours in a row tonight as long as they don't have gas. That would be wonderful!!

Other than the nursing, things at home are going great. My mom cooks delicious meals for us and I've been getting a little more sleep since she stays up with the boys and their gas until the 3 or 4 am feeding. The cats also seem to like the boys so far. They have thoroughly smelled them have even tried to come over and cuddle with us while I'm nursing. While we're relieved that the cats seem to like the boys, we don't want them to get too comfortable around them. We're very careful to close the door to the boys' room while they're sleeping and not let the cats around us when we're sleeping with the boys. Hopefully, we can find a good balance between the cats and the twins where the cats aren't jealous but also mostly leave the boys alone.


Ok and now for some pictures :-)

This is the nurse cutting off their hospital bracelets before we go home

Here's the boys being dressed for their ride home from the hospital

Their outfits were waaayyy too big (even though I grabbed the smallest clothes I could find) and they looked a little ridiculous, but still insanely cute!

Here's the classic 'leaving the hospital' shot

They didn't seem to like their car seats too much. I don't blame them, they were so small that they didn't fit well in them and the straps were hitting them in the face.

Here's one of them crying on the couch, I honestly don't know which one though.

Don't know which one this is either... it's hard to tell in pictures unless they're right next to each other

Snuggled next to each other their first night in their crib

Ok, now I'm off to nurse again!!

Grandma is so happy to be here!!!

It looks like he's smiling, I think it's really just gas ;-)

Jack just likes hangin' around

Day 3

Some of you may get tired of baby picture after baby picture, sorry but my sisters are begging for more! Here you go girls!

Jackson

Jackson again

The boys both like to cuddle with me while I blog, and I wouldn't be blogging if it meant sacrificing cuddle time! So we kill two birds with one stone :-)

I love this one!

This is Cullen wide awake. I love his precious blue eyes!

Brandon taking a nap with Cullen this afternoon

Jackson taking a nap next to me

Napping together, they have spent most of yesterday and today fast asleep

The Day After...

Yesterday was another great day for the new O'Malley family. I was allowed to be off the 'liquid diet' which consisted of broth, popsicles, juice and tea and was given permission to eat real food. Even though the 'real food' was hospital food and therefore not that great, it was definitely much more satisfying than another bowl of chicken broth. They also removed the leg-squeezers and my epidural and I started to get feeling back in my legs and abdomen. I'm now taking two prescription painkillers every 4 hours and although there's still a little pain, I prefer the pain over total body numbness. They removed the dressing from my wound too so I can see it. It's about 6 inches long and held together by staples, gross! And I finally got the IV taken out too. That was especially uncomfortable since I had to bend my arm every time I attempted to feed the babies and that stopped up the IV line. Later yesterday afternoon, after all feeling returned to my legs and I could walk again, they finally removed the catheter too. I don't have any more cords or bags attached to me and that feels fabulous! I was also able to take a shower last night and I now feel like a new woman!

I was pretty surprised and disappointed to see that I hadn't deflated as much as I'd hoped. I still look like I'm about 4 months along and my belly is much softer and saggier and covered in stretch marks, blech! The bleeding has already begun to decrease but I am still stuck wearing paper underwear and a pad that's bigger than my kids' diapers. I know, I know, too much information!

Moving on to happier things, the boys are still doing great. They had lost 8% of their birth weight by yesterday afternoon. This is perfectly normal, however that combined with the fact that my milk hasn't come in yet caused us to have to supplement with formula last night. A teaspoon here and there of colostrum isn't quite cutting it for the boys, they need more nutrition. Hopefully by tonight my milk will begin coming in and we can start trying to exclusively breastfeed. We're also hoping that the formula will help them gain weight and become strong enough to breastfeed better. After attempting to breastfeed yesterday though, I got some really painful contractions. Luckily the lactation consultant was here and she assured me that this was normal. Apparently, breastfeeding causes your uterus to contract which causes pains similar to hard labor pains. Why did nobody tell me that? I had a c-section and now I still have to experience labor pains? The only thing that was slightly encouraging about these painful contractions was that it meant that the breastfeeding was working at least a little.

The boys were also circumcised yesterday but they seem to be doing great. We slather on the vaseline so they're not in pain during diaper changes and have been doing alot of extra cuddling and loving on them. Brandon was shocked at how calm they both were immediately afterwards.

We spent New Year's Eve cuddling in bed with our boys and watching the ball drop on tv. Best New Year's Eve EVER! Also, can I just say how glad I am to have such a wonderful husband who loves me despite the fact that I still look like I'm in my 2nd trimester and am currently wearing a diaper :-)

A close up of the boys together. Although they're not identical, they look an awful lot alike. Brandon and I can't really tell them apart, we often have to look at their ankle bracelets to be sure!

One happy dad!

One happy mom!

One happy Jackson!

One mad Cullen!

The Birth

The birth process went so much better than I had imagined/feared, praise the Lord! We woke up yesterday, loaded our bags in the car, dropped off our cats at a friends' house and arrived at the hospital 2 hours before the scheduled c-section. They hooked me up the a monitor and had us wait in a room until the surgery. I met the nurses and anesthesiologist then and once my doctor arrived, they took me down the hall to the operating room. This was when I began to get really freaked out, but everybody was so nice and encouraging that they really helped to put my heart and mind at ease.

The epidural was by far the worst part (why oh why did I ever watch Discovery Health shows of actual epidurals being inserted??) But a nurse helped me to breathe and calm down and let me lean on her when it was inserted. It stung a little and then gave me a burning sensation all down my legs. But it was all over in about 3 minutes and then I began to go numb. They let Brandon in the room after the epidural was inserted and he sat with me and held my hand throughout the entire operation. They put up a sheet so that neither of us could see anything. I could feel some pressure (but no pain) so I thought for sure that I'd know when they were cutting and taking the babies out. But I couldn't tell at all, I was shocked when a minute later they announced "Baby A is out!" A nurse took him and paused in front of me so I could get a quick glimpse before taking him to a warmer on the opposite side of the room. I let Brandon leave my side at this point so he could see our babies and take some pictures. Then Baby B came out 3 minutes later.

They were only a few feet away from me but they were above my head so I couldn't really see anything. Brandon took some pictures and showed them to me as the doctor began to stitch me up. Once the babies were relatively clean, they swaddled them and Brandon brought them over to me. They let the babies stay with me for about 10 minutes before they had to bring them to the nursery. I'm not sure of their exact scores, but I do know that both babies received excellent APGAR scores, thus the reason why they let me spend 10 minutes with me before whisking them off to the nursery. Brandon went to the nursery with them and I spent another 20-30 minutes being stitched up. He met me at the exit of the operating room and showed me all the pictures he'd taken of the boys. I was a little disappointed at how little time I got to spend with my babies immediately after the birth. I know there's no way around it since I was in surgery and then had to be monitored closely afterwards, but it was still a little sad because I was so anxious to see them and spend time with them.

I had to spend nearly 2 hours in a recovery room being monitored by a nurse. They put these super awkward leg-squeezing devices on my legs, an IV, and hooked me up to a portable epidural dispenser. Brandon kept going back and forth between my room and the nursery. He took pictures of the babies and brought them back to me every 30 minutes or so. I was so glad for at least that little glimpse of my sons!

At nearly the exact time that I was able to leave the recovery room to settle into the room we're currently in, Brandon brought Jackson back from the nursery. He was all bathed and warm and had been thoroughly checked out by the nurses and received a clean bill of health. There was apparently another baby in the nursery who needed some attention so Cullen's release was delayed for another 3 hours or so. I was really bummed out about that since I had only seen him for about 10 minutes at this point. But I was extremely grateful to have at least one of my sons with me. I was able to hold and cuddle with Jackson for a few hours, it was love at first sight!

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally released Cullen. He had a slightly low level of blood sugar so they had had to feed him some formula in the nursery. Then they bathed him and put him under a warmer until he reached a safe temperature. By about 6 pm, we were finally all together as a family!!

The nurses came in every hour or two to check either me or one of the babies. We didn't really get any sleep and I was numb from the waist down the entire time, but it was so special to have time to get to know our sons. It was such a wonderful first night!

I also made my first attempts at breastfeeding the boys which went just ok. Both are slightly smaller than the average singleton baby and aren't that strong of suckers so we have had some difficulties. A lactation consultant came by this afternoon and helped us a little. She brought me a hospital-grade pump to use to help stimulate milk production. She also showed us how to wake up the boys by switching breasts often and un-swaddling them before feedings. Otherwise, they either don't latch on at all or simply fall asleep after 1 or 2 sucks. So far we haven't had to feed them any formula (aside from what Cullen received in the nursery) but we probably will later tonight. They just aren't able to get enough milk and I haven't produced that much so far. I will spend the next few days doing everything I can to build my milk supply and get the boys to learn how to breastfeed. It's much harder than I thought it would be but Brandon is as helpful as can be and encourages me to keep trying when I get discouraged.

Anyways, that's the birth story and a rundown of our first afternoon and night together as a new family. The boys are healthy and sleep alot and LOVE to be cuddled. Cullen often fusses until he's picked up and cuddled. Last night, I slept with him in my arms for a few hours and let me tell you, there's no better feeling in the world :-)

Me in the monitoring room anxiously awaiting the birth of our babies

This is immediately after Cullen was out and he was placed in the warmer next to Jack. Funny story: Cullen peed on Jack as soon as they were face-to-face out of the womb. You can see it if you click on the picture to enlarge it ;-)

This is Jack right after he was weighed

and Cullen right after he was weighed

This is the first moment that I met them both, what a wonderful moment!

Here they are on their way to the nursery

This is Jack receiving his first bath

Brandon's holding Jack and Cullen is in the bed

Here's a picture to show how small the boys are, their heads are about the size of my palm. However, when I think that they were this size inside of me, they seem like gigantic monsters!

Introducing...

Jackson David
born at 1:04 pm EST
5 pounds, 14 ounces

and
Cullen Scott O'Malley
born at 1:07 pm EST
6 pounds, 3 ounces

Our very first family photo, while still on the operating table

24 Hours!

I'm starting to shake out of excitement and nervousness. Am I ready to be a mother?? I don't know, but regardless of whether I'm ready or not, I will be in less than 24 hours!

My contractions are still coming but have slowed a little so I highly doubt anything will happen before tomorrow's scheduled c-section. I've spent this morning just finishing up some last minute things for the office before I turn in my laptop and Blackberry this afternoon. I also have to run to the hospital later to have some bloodwork done in preparation for the operation tomorrow and to make sure we have the insurance information all straightened out. Then Brandon and I are going out for one last dinner date and then home to give the house a last once-over cleaning and make sure we aren't forgetting anything else.

If you would all please pray for us tomorrow at noon (Eastern time) while the surgery is going on, we would greatly appreciate it. I have never even been in a hospital before and now the first time I'm going to one it's to have surgery. I'm pretty freaked out about that. Especially the whole being awake while they cut me open part, yikes!

I am very excited to meet my sons though! This is all so surreal but I'm sure it will sink in once I'm holding them in my arms tomorrow! We will post pictures as soon as possible, even if they still don't have names ;-)

Still nothing.

We went to the morning and evening services at church and I got a pedicure today. Still having a lot of contractions but they're highly irregular and not getting any more intense.

It looks like it will be the 30th after all, but that's ok. It will be nice to have tomorrow to tie up all the last minute details and go one one last date :-)

Who the heck has contractions round the clock for 2 1/2 days straight but doesn't actually go into labor???

Me, that's who.

Still Nothing...

Despite my constant hopes and prayers, there are still no signs of true labor. I can hardly walk or sleep anymore and everyday I wake up hoping that 'today will be the day.' No such luck though!

Oh well, today's over and that means only 3 days left! I still hope it will be sooner, but I guess I can survive 3 more days of this :-)