Saturday, May 2, 2009

First Night Out


Hey, even if it's for an hour, it still counts right?

We've been home a little more than 24 hours and already have ventured out. Sure, it was only to BabiesRUs, but it's important for us to TRY to do things. We got showered while the girls chilled in their downstairs bed. We put them in their car seats and drove 2 miles down the road to pick up a few things. Daddy stayed in the car while Mommy ran inside (am I one to sit in the car?). It proved to be good exercise, although I've been on my feet all day anyways. I've probably climbed too many stairs, but oh well. I feel good, my incision is perfect and I haven't had any other issues that would point to "over doing" it. After about an hour outside of the house, we returned home for another feeding.

Our day has been great. We've fed the girls every three hours -- combo of nursing, formula and pumping. It's quite the process, but I think we already have it down. Too bad David will have to return to work one of these days. We are just hoping our good luck during the day holds up tonight since we haven't napped at all today!

Crazy Legs Romley


We are starting to nickname the girls. Evelyn is easy...Crazy legs Romley, She loves to be swaddled, but ultimately works her legs out of the mix. These crazy legs go back to her first moments of life when they pulled her out and took her over to the cleanup/assessment area. My first view of her were her legs straight up in the air with her toes all spread apart. I was so funny!

Also, Daddy's nickname for Evelyn is Coo-Baby. She makes these hilarous soft cooing noises all the time. Often, you can coo first (more of a hum or grunt) and she will coo back. The exchange will go on and on. Certainly she will have advanced communication skills as a result! HA!

We're still working on nicknames for Sylvia. Stay tuned.

We Love Our New Home, but we TESTED Mommy and Daddy Tonight

[Evelyn is on the right and Sylvia on the left]

We enjoyed an afternoon at the house on the main floor. I am only able to walk upstairs a few times a day because of the c-section, so we hung out downstairs. All of the feedings went well (we are nursing, but supplementing with formula until my milk comes in), but it is a bit of a process (latch, manually express, provide formula through syringe directly into her mouth while I'm "nursing" to avoid nipple confusion) and takes a while. We went upstairs after the 9pm feeding and set the alarm for 11:50pm. Unfortunately, Sylvia woke at 11:15am so we hung and and she nursed for a bit (it's just a comfort thing since she's not getting anything really...colostrom only lasts a few sucks). We started really feeding her at 12AM, then we fed Sylvia. They both were a bit fussy but went down FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES. They were awake ALL NIGHT!!! They were screaming hysterically and rooting, so we figured they were hungry. We'd feed them, they'd scream some more. We'd swaddle, they'd scream. Etc. Etc. Around 5am, I was in major pain (from my incision) and needed to rest. David toughed it out until 8am (again, he's a ROCK STAR DADDY!) and when I woke, he was downstairs feeding again. He finally got them to calm down and sleep!!! We woke them for a 10am feeding and they have been sleeping peacefully (with interrupted hiccups) ever since. I don't know why he didn't wake me (or why I didn't heard it), but he recognized I needed to rest. I am SWOLLEN all over. My legs and feet are ENORMOUS, my incision area is inflamed (not infected) and I was on my feet way too long, so I started to bleed quite a bit. TMI, I know, but I'll tell you the real joys and pains of parenthood! David and I realized yet again that we are a great team and in this together since having babies is not going to filled with perfect days with cooing and smiles.

We think they weren't getting enough to eat and have upped the amount of formula. Babies are born with 3 days of food rersereve and the were not eating a lot in the hospital and now they need more. Since we are nursing and formula feeding we received a lot of conflicting advice from the various lactation consultants who visted us. Hopefully my milk will be in soon, but I am afraid the questions about feeding will always be there if they are fussy! Whi knows if they are crying because they are cold/hot, hungry, dirty, etc.

Today is already a better day. David is napping. I will soon begin the feeding process again.

Going Home


Although we were given the choice to stay in the hospital another night, we decided that it was time to brave the big bad world on our own. We got the girls all dressed in their personal duds (hospital duds were soooo boring!) and headed home. They napped the whole ride (10 minutes plus a stop to get my pain meds at Rite Aid).

Sylvia has the blue hat on and Evelyn is in the pink outfit.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Background on Names





Ok, you all must be wondering -- HOW ON EARTH DID THEY COME UP WITH THOSE NAMES? Picture Above -- left=Sylvia (A); right=Evelyn (B). Not sure why Evelyn's pic came up sideways, but you can still see her pretty face. And the hospital put A and B on their hats...I SWEAR we can tell them apart!

Well, we both love traditional names and those that aren't too popular. I love the top 10 list (Ella, Sophia, Emma, etc), but they are just way too popular. We know it will be hard for the girls to distinguish themselves as individuals, but if they are the Sophia R. in a class of three Sophia's, how will they ever be uniquely identified? So, we thought long and hard. First, we had a name for a boy and a girl -- Benson Thomas Romley for a boy. Benson is my maiden name (duh!), Thomas is David's middle name (his namesake was his father's best friend who died in Vietman). Then, the girl's name -- Sylvia Winters Romley. Sylvia is David's Aunt. Actually, she's his second cousin, but she is sort of his mother's older sister. She is an absolutely lovely woman whom David always held in high regard and loves very much. So, that choice was easy. Winters was easy too. William Winters is my great, great, great grandfather who fought for the Union in the 76th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861. Louise is my mother's middle name, and she is named after my great Aunt Louise. Evelyn isn't a family name, but we LOVE it! It's one of my all time favorites!

There you have it. We hope you like their names are much as we do!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

More Pictures and Update



Day 3 in the hospital and we are feeling great. I've been up walking around the morning after the c-section and the pain hasn't really been that bad. Thank you, percocet! Wednesday was a bit of a whirlwind day with doctors checking both me and the babies constantly (this is a matter of routine, not because of anything unique with us). Both babies are doing great. They have passed every test with flying colors and haven't yet lost the typical 10% body weight that most babies lose (which is good since they are on the smaller side). Also, because of the c-section, I get my share of poking and prodding to make sure everything looks good with the incision and the uterus is shrinking as usual. My belly feels huge, but that's typical, I know.

We have been given the option to go home tomorrow (Fri) or Saturday. We're not sure yet. We have been provided excellent care we're in no rush to go home. Plus, we really want to make sure they are feeding properly and learn as much as we can about nursing. I need to be efficient with feeding or I will never sleep! We met with two lactation consultants today for about 45 min and then about an hour. They were both great, but I have a lot to learn!

Also, it must be said that David is SUPER DADDY! While I always knew he'd be a great father, he is really an INCREDIBLE father! He has pretty much done all the changings and swaddlings, while I've handled the feedings. Neither of us would have been able to do it alone. I can honestly say that this whole experience has just made me grow to love him even more! I better stop now...hormones are making me mushy!

The Romley Girls Have Arrived


We welcome our healthy, beautiful baby girls on Tuesday, April 28, 2009:

Sylvia Winters was born at 7:17PM. She weighed 6lbs and 1oz and measured 19 inches.

Evelyn Louise was born at 7:18PM. She weighed 5lbs and 13oz and measured 19 inches. Mom, Dad and the girls are all doing well after 24 hours of inducement and a c-section.

Both pictures attached are just minutes after birth; in both pictures, Sylvia is on the left and Evelyn is on the right. They do look very different!

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement through the pregnancy!!!!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Not Even Dilated

Dr. Santiago (my cute, petite doctor) arrived! She checked on me and then said she wanted to break my water to move along the labor process! Unfortunately, the girls still aren't quite ready and the doctor is unable to break her water. In fact, I'm not even dialated (the opening of the cervix is dilated, but them it closes further down), as the other doctor suggested. The doctor just visited again (about three hours later) and indicated that it appears the pitocin is not working. The doctor will return two hours from now and we'll talk options, but it appears that a c-section might be in our future. Oh well, we all must remember the goal is safe, healthy girls.

David is still chilling...reading a newspaper and waiting to be a Daddy.

Until the next post!

Still No Storm

Well, it's been a few hours since they started administering pitocin, and they just turned it up. The doctor came in and woke me by saying "you're sleeping? We need to turn it up." I'm having regular labor contractions every 2 minutes or so, I'm dilated 1-2cm, Baby A (left) is at station -1 (she needs to get to -3). Hopefully with this "turn up" I'll be headed into some pain, then I'll get the epidural, and we can push out one of these girls in a few hours. Who knows...could be 3 to 15 hours more to go. I'm still fine, just sleepy from last night.

The Calm Before the Storm


So, Meredith did great last night! Doctor Tacktill administered two "doses" of gel to help facilitate the inducement process. She wasn't dialated at all throughout the early evening, although her contractions increased in strength and frequency to about one every three minutes or so. Note that in the attached picture Meredith IS blackberring in her hospital bed - she cracks me up!

The hospital is fantastic - really. We have wireless internet - cool. The room is huge, nicely decorated (Meredith would say "that's my gay husband talking"), and private. The staff is very attentive - Crystal and Ruth are Meredith's nurses. I am kicking back creating this log post, listening to some John Mayer, and eating a granola bar.

Unfortunately, the night didn't offer much opportunity to sleep. With the volume cranked up on the baby monitor we could hear every heartbeat from the girls. You might think that the rhythm would lull us to sleep. I guess that may have been the case, except for the occassional kick to the microphone monitor by the girls which would make this really loud "wherrppp" sound. Plus, whenever Meredith needed to use the bathroom the nurse would have to disconnect her from the IV she has going to keep her hydrated. I brought my camping "mattress" and just slept on the ground - a common place for a Marine to sleep - so it wasn't bad. We ate some tasty spinach, garlic, pepperoni, and cheese pizza from Atlantis, laied in bed together for a few minutes before trying to get some sleep.

This morning the doctor will administer Meredith potocin to really get this party started. I am predicting a delivery time around 3:30 for baby one. Meredith thinks they will come much later. If you want to get in touch with us, just give us a call at either 202 744-4146 or 571 234-3880.

David

Sunday, April 26, 2009

30 Hours to Go!


Well, in about 30 hours we'll be headed to the hospital. You know the drill from there (see last post). I estimate in about 55 hours we'll be parents! We're both extremely excited (I'm scared, but David seems to be taking it in stride--see pic below).

Below is my last pregnancy belly shot. 38 weeks today! It's crazy we've made it this far!

Besides swelling in my feet and legs, numbness in my hands and some pressure (which comes and goes), I still feel great. We've had a busy weekend of running errands, going out to eat, watching movies, and visiting friends. After going to work at 7am on Friday and working from 3-5am because I couldn't sleep, we still went to a friend's house for dinner and didn't make it home until 10:30PM! It was a long day, but we had a blast and I'm really glad we did it.

I think our next post will be from the hospital and you'll hear the news of the little Romley ladies' arrival! Wish us luck! Let's hope the delivery goes well and the girls are healthy and big!

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes!