Long Overdue Update

I still am finding it hard to believe that everything has changed so quickly. There's no going back, not that I would ever want to. It's been over two weeks since we all came home from the hospital, and it has been a haze of feeding, diaper changing, crying (me and the babies), and general survival mode.

The first visit to the Pediatrician was less than fun. Anna lost weight (1/2 oz.) and Alex stayed the same. Not necessarily bad things but babies born early need to gain weight steadily. So we powered up the feedings and on the next visit both had put on weight beautifully and have been doing well ever since. Our next appointment is the one month well baby visit in two weeks.

They have been behaving very nicely so far. There are the occasional fussy moments but in general they eat, take a nap, get up to eat, and nap again. I'm very lucky. The worst is when they get off schedule, I know, what baby can't stick to a schedule? Especially at night, when I can be up every 1 1/2 hours on a rotating feeding schedule. It gets better, right? Right!?

Let's see, so far the milestones we have been able to check off:

Umbilical cords falling off - check
First bath - check
First Pediatrician appt (and second and third for weights) - check
First spit up on mommy and daddy - check
First diaper blow out - check

I have found a day care provider after a panicked search. She will watch the babies in her home with two other children, which is what sold me. I don't like the idea of a large day care with lots of kids passing around colds. It is also conveniently located on my way to work. After meeting with her it really hit me that I will eventually have to drop my children off with someone every morning and leave them. I wasn't anticipating how strongly I would feel about that, this is all still so new to me.

I'm trying to take lots of pictures but at this point there is very little awake time so the pics are all pretty much the same. Here is a picture my sister took this past weekend.

And here is another one of me and Alex taking a snooze on the couch.

Twenty Fingers Twenty Toes

Anna.Eugenia.Churilov was born at 7:29 PM on Thursday, June 26, 2008. She weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. and in perfect health.

Alexander.Eugene.Churilov was born at 8:12 PM on Thursday, June 26, 2008. He weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz. and also came out in great shape.

It was a crazy day. I always thought I would know labor when it was happening but I really had no idea. My water broke early on Thursday morning, around 6:30 AM and I thought it could be something else so I called to make an appointment with the OB at 10:45 instead of going to the hospital. It was confirmed that my membranes ruptured and I was admitted to the hospital around 11:30.

My cervix was dilated to 3 cm at 1:45 but contractions were not strong enough so pitocin was started to speed things up a bit. Meanwhile Alex was behaving very nicely in a head down position but I was prepped for a C-Section just in case.

At 3:30 I was offered an epidural since the anesthesiologist was on the floor with another patient. The pain was not too intense at this point but you never know when those guys come around again, so I said "Yes Please!"

The pitocin was upped every fifteen minutes until at 6:25 PM my cervix was dilated to 9 1/2 cm. A last check on Alex to make sure he was staying vertex and I was wheeled into a delivery OR to start pushing.

I was ready and prepped by 7:00 PM, and a half an hour later my baby girl was in my arms. Alex took a little longer because he had so much room, but he cooperated and got in a good place and 40 minutes later Z cut his cord.

I was in the hospital an extra day due to some hemmoraghing but all came home together and are doing well. As you can imagine it has been chaos, thanks to everyone for their well wishes. I will try to update more often in the coming weeks on our progress.

Proud Papa in Scrubs

Alex and Anna