We thought we would do this blog as a way to keep you all updated on what's going on with our expanding family. As you know, we are expecting twins... we are expecting them to arrive anytime now.
Here is a recap of the past 7 1/2 months. In July we found out we were expecting a baby and couldn't have been more excited. We went to our first ultrasound in August and everything with Baby K looked great - we were given a due date of March 29, 2009. Then, at an appointment in September, the Dr. couldn't find the heartbeat on the little handheld doppler, which caused her to do another ultrasound just to be sure everything was ok. She quickly found the baby on the ultrasound and everything looked great. But just as she was turning the machine off, there was a hestitation in her voice (the one where doctors try to sound casual but they don't)... and she said "I see an extra membrane..." and then she asked me who did my first ultrasound, because she was on maternity leave for my first one. So, I immediately thought this "extra membrane" was some sort of growth I'd have to have removed during pregnancy. Keep in mind, I was alone at this "routine" appointment because Scott was in Chicago for work, which was fine because the appointment was supposed to last about 15 minutes. So, the doctor suggests that we move into the big ultrasound room with the better equipment to take another look, and I heard her say something about how it could be a twin but I could tell she doubted that because they would have seen it at the first ultrasound. So, we go into the other room, and the ultrasound tech has my very first picture pulled up from my previous appointment and says "there is just one baby." So she puts the ultrasound wand on my stomach, and immediately 2 babies show up on the screen... yep, TWINS!!! So I'm laying there on the table and they are giving me all of this information and I'm hearing bits and pieces, but it didn't really hit me until later. So the routine appointment turned in to a two hour appointment. As soon as I got to the car, I called Scott and he didn't answer and I couldn't stop crying because I was so overwhelmed. I kept looking at the new ultrasound pictures they gave me and it was so clear that there were two babies!! I finally talked to Scott and he couldn't have been more excited, and I couldn't stop crying. After I calmed down, I started to see why this was such an exciting thing.
Fast forward to January 2009... up until this point I was having a completely normal twin pregnancy. Every appointment and every ultrasound was completely normal and I was feeling great, other than the normal pregnancy complaints (tired, sick, headaches, etc...). Also we found out in November we'd be having one boy and one girl and because of twins, we were getting a lot of extra ultrasounds, which was exciting! So, on January 7, 2009, I had a normal check up scheduled. The day before I had an ultrasound done and we were under the impression everything was normal. So at my Dr. appointment, she said she was concerned about some things from the ultrasound and wanted me to go on a monitor that would show if I was having contractions and I just didn't know about it. So she sent me next door to the hospital and within 15 minutes I was hooked up to 3 monitors: 1 for each heartbeat and 1 to show contractions. Sure enough, I was having contractions and they were every 3 minutes!!! I was shocked because I had no idea this was going on. I had always assumed contractions would be somewhat painful and I hadn't felt any pain. So, after they saw the amount of contractions I was having they decided to have a doctor examine me, and it turned out I was already 4 cm. dilated. This was not good news, as I was only 28 1/2 weeks pregnant. This is the point I started to get really nervous and wasn't sure what was going to happen. Scott was actually at my parents house in NC becuase he had a meeting near there the next morning. So, he jumped in the car and drove the 5 hours to the hospital - probably much faster than he should have. By the time he got there, I had an IV started with fluids and magnesium to stop the contractions and had a steroid shot that is supposed to help develop the babies' lungs faster. The steroid shot was the first of 2, and the 2nd couldn't be given until 24 hours later, and needed 24 more hours to work. So, at this point our goal was to hold the babies off from coming for 48 hours so they could have full advantage of these shots. The magnesium medicine I was on was meant to stop or slow down contractions. I spent one night at that hospital, and had a nurse in the room most of the night, monitoring my magnesium levels and the contractions. The next day, they decided to transfer me downtown to MUSC incase the babies decided to come because that's where the closest NICU was. So, I took my first ambulance ride the long 8 miles from one hospital to the other. Scott met me there, and I was admitted to labor/delivery. I had a bunch of tests done, but was pretty out of it because of the magnesium. I found out that this was called "The Mag" and it was never talked about in a good way - it does what it's supposed to but the side effects are awful. They don't like to keep you on it longer than 48 hours. Anyway, I spent one night in this L/D room and got the 2nd steroid shot, and then finally the next day I was taken off "the mag." I was then started on another medicine which didn't work, so then I was started on procardia, which I was given every 6 hours.
After a night on the very uncomfortable bed in L/D, I was moved to a private room. At this point, I was under the impression I would be staying at the hospital until the babies came, whenever that was. I had made it the 48 hours when I moved, which was our original goal. Our goal now was to make it through the weekend, then after that to 30 weeks. I continued taking the procardia, and it seemed to work. I was hooked up to a monitor for about an hour everyday and the contractions were watched closely during this hour. I still couldn't really feel any as they were happening, which stressed me out even more. This continued until the following Wednesday - January 14. The procardia had stopped working like it should and my contractions were increasing, but I hadn't dialated anymore, which was great news! So they decided to put me on the terbutaline pump. This was placed in my upper thigh and would give me a dose of medicine every 3 hours. The site would have to be changed every 5 days, switching thighs each time. Scott got a lesson on how to do this - which involved jabbing me with a needle each time. Not fun, but worth it. I got this in late on Wednesday night, and they said as long as things were going well, I could go home on Thursday. HOME!!! I got very jittery on the pump, which was an expected side effect. It made me sick on Thursday, which was also expected - the good news was that my contractions were lower. Just as I thought I was ready to go home, I thought my water was leaking. After some tests on Thursday, they determined that I wasn't leaking and I could go home on Friday as long as things stayed the same.
Finally, on January 16, I was released and sent home. I was to be on strict bedrest, up only for a quick shower and to pee. I would also do hour monitoring once in the morning and once in the evening. After I did the monitor, I would put the monitor in a machine and it would send my information to a nurse, who would then call me and tell me how many contractions I had in that hour. If I had more than 5 in an hour, I had to do it again. I felt like I spent most of my day monitoring. I also would go to the Dr. every Monday - my only outing each week. I actually got sort of excited about going to get an exam done. Somehow, I still hadn't dilated anymore and was holding steady at 4 cm. This was always great news, b/c 5 cm. is considering "active labor."
While I was in the hospital, my parents came down and my mom ended up staying the week so that Scott could get some work done and she could hang out with me. It was such a nice distraction. I also had some great visits from great friends too!!
The week went smoothly, and I just laid on the couch or in bed. Friday came and I was having some bad back pain, but it went away by Friday night and I didn't think much of it. Saturday morning I was fine, but by Saturday afternoon I started having some really bad back and rib pain. By 8:00 that night it was so bad that I couldn't get comfortable at all, and finally had Scott call the Dr. to see what I should do. I didn't think I was in labor b/c the pain was in my back and ribs. The Dr. told Scott that it was most likely growth pains and that the babies were just running out of room in there. She told me to take 2 Tylenol and to take a warm bath. This actually worked and I was able to go to sleep around 9:30. At 2:30 am I woke up to pee (as usual)...I went back to bed and a few minutes later woke up again with awful pains in my back. So bad that I didn't know what to do! I walked into the bathroom and my water broke! I had been praying that my water would break so that I would know for sure I was in labor. There was no questioning this. I woke Scott up, and we were out the door in about 10 minutes. Poor Scott had to listen to me yelling "oh God!" the whole way to the hospital. I was in such pain!! When we left my contractions were around 7-8 minutes apart. When we got to the hospital (about 20 minutes away) they were about 2 minutes apart. Things were happening fast!!!
I had some exams done (I was 9 cm!!), had to fill out some paperwork (I have no idea what I signed) and finally was ready for my c-section. This was by choice, but I felt it was the right thing to do. The babies were born very quickly. On Sunday, February 22, 2009 (35 weeks exactly) Addison Avery Komarnicki (baby A) arrived at 4:30 am weighing 4 lb. 7 oz. Fischer Scott Komarnicki (baby B) arrived at 4:31 am weighing 3 lb. 15 oz. We were a little confused b/c in all of our ultrasounds, Baby B was the much larger one! They both were about 17 inches.
I was taken to recovery, and Scott went with me. We weren't able to see or hold our babies right away b/c they were taken to the leven 2 nursery - a step up from the NICU, which was great news! They had to have a little oxygen right when they were born but started breathing on their own very quickly. Scott was able to go see them a few hours later and took his phone with him to take a picture for me to see. I hated that the first time I saw my babies was on a picture, but I was so happy they were doing so well. A couple hours later, I was able to go see them!! They were so tiny, with so many tubes and wires on them. It was overwhelming but we were told they were doing extremely well. Later that day, I was actually able to hold Fischer. We couldn't hold Addison until late the next day, because she was needed some extra assistance at keeping her body temperature up.
They weren't able to come to my room at all, but we had 24 hour access to their nursery except for the 2 shift changes from 7-8 am and pm. Then nurses were all so great and answered all of our questions, which were abundant! After a few days, we were finally able to have our first family picture taken. We were able to help feed a little bit, but because they needed to gain weight, they were only given 30 minutes at a time to eat, so we usually let the nurses do it since they were the pros. Anything they didn't finish within the 30 minutes from a bottle was given by the feeding tube through their noses. They started to hate these tubes and even pulled them out on more than one occasion.
On Wednesday, I was discharged. I was happy to go home but hated the fact that I was leaving my babies in the hospital. While I was in the hospital, they were right down the hall. We settled into a routine of going to the hospital twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. We would spend about 2 hours each time, and usually got to hold the babies for a little while. We even started changing diapers and clothes, which was very exciting!! They would go back and forth with their feeding - sometimes taking it all by the bottle, and sometimes not. Finally, they BOTH pulled out their tubes on the same day and the Dr. decided not to put them back in and see how they did They both started taking their whole bottles on their own. They were ready to come home and wanted to prove it to the nurses and doctors! They were good to never tell us an estimated time to go home - it was pretty last minute when they were ready to release them. This was much better than getting my hopes up everyday, only to be told they couldn't leave yet.
The weekend before coming home, they had to do their carseat tests. They had to sit in them for 1 1/2 hours while hooked up to all of their monitors. Their oxygen levels had to stay consistent and they did! So they were able to come home in their carseats. If they hadn't passed, they would've had to come home in a carbed, where they wouldn't been strapped in while laying down. So finally, after 8 days in the hospital, they were able to come home on Monday, March 2. We were so excited, but also very nervous to bring 2 tiny babies home. We were used to them having constant care by the nurses.
We brought them home, let the dogs meet them, and began our new lives as a family of 4!
