Chile Chocolate and Creamy Jalapeño : Babies and birth stories

So... We haven't told any baby stories yet, and I'm gonna have to go back and write our pregnancy story, but before I forget too much I want to write the birthday story!

So, in mid May my doctor stopped saying "You're making this twin pregnancy thing look easy"! Up until 32 weeks that's what I heard each visit. But at 32 weeks my blood pressure slowly began creeping up. We did weekly testing to make sure I didn't have protein in my urine (a sign of preeclampsia). At 34 weeks he asked if i was still working. Thankfully, the day of that appointment had been my last day of teacher workdays for the school year. My rock star best friend, Beth, monitored my blood pressure daily. It continued to creep up. However, let me insert that our green card interview for Chile was scheduled for June 12- my 36th week of pregnancy. If I didn't appear with him at the interview we would have to go to immigration court, or possibly delay once again (loooong story, but this is our second go-round with the green card process). So we'd all been praying that the babies would make it until the 12th. On June 11 I went to the doctor. My bp was up again, and the protein was slowly creeping up. My doctor was looking ahead to the weekend. He would be out of town. He didn't want anything happening while he was gone and he wanted to be the one to deliver me. He no longer saw the benefit of waiting till June 17 (when my c-section was originally scheduled for). He thought it was best for my health that we went ahead and delivered. THE. NEXT. DAY. JUNE 12. As in, the DAY of the interview. So we scheduled the c-section for 6 pm. We had to arrive at 4. Our interview was about 45 minutes away at 1:45. So crazy. But if you've read the "Our Story" posts, you know this is sort of how the Chiles roll. God was totally laughing at us- "You asked me if you could just make it till the. 12th, right?" I left the office and called Chile. He, of course, was shocked. Apparently he left a training to answer my call. When he went back in he was speechless and dumbfounded to the point the manager running the training had to stop to see if he was ok. He couldn't get it out at first, but when he finally did everyone clapped and cheered.

So the next morning we got up and went to breakfast. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink after 10 am. We then ran some errands and got ready to go. We got to our interview site at 1:15, per instructions. At about 1:43 we heard someone mention how the things can run hours late. I began typing a text message asking our friends to pray for it to be at least close to on time because we didn't have time to waste. Before I even finished the message they called us back, right at 1:45. What a blessing! Our interview lady was super stoic. We answered questions to prove that we were actually married and cohabitating (wasn't my belly indication enough?!). We showed her our paperwork. We told her the babies we arriving that evening. No emotion. About 20 minutes later she told us she would review our file and let us know within 2 weeks. I wasn't worried- it was pretty obvious we were legit. Since we had so much time we went home. We relaxed and watched an episode of Shark Tank, and then headed to the hospital.

At 4 we checked in and things got rolling. They put an IV in me (I should say I have impossible veins and the nurse blew out 2 veins before calling an anesthesiologist to do it). Randomly, our nurse was a Cuban American. She recognized Chile's accent immediately and they started chatting. After they got me all ready they rolled a terrified me into the OR (I had never been in the hospital even before). Chile had to wait while I got the epidural put in. As they were doing the epidural they were speaking amazed about some black guy who was speaking Hebrew to some Orthodox Jews who had just come in the waiting room. "That's my husband actually. To make it even crazier, he's from Cuba." Honestly, the worst part of it all was getting the epidural. I am unable to not flich, which isn't good when they're trying to get a needle into a 1 cm space in your spine. Soon enough Chile was in the room and the super hip, motorcycle riding, single and loving it at 40, anethesiologist was narrating the c-section for us. It went fast. They held Joseph over the curtain and we both just started crying. Then he did too, which was just about the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. 2 minutes later Kenzie emerged, red and screaming. 6 lbs 13 oz and 5 lbs 1 oz respectively, they screamed and cried and settled as little bundled burritos on my stomach. And I'm pretty sure I cried again.

They rolled me to the recovery room and brought both babies to me. They told me to try and nurse them. I remember thinking, "Ummm, no one is going to show me HOW?" We figured if out though. After a while they came back and took the babies. :-( Kenzie was headed to the NICU because she was small. Joseph was headed to the regular nursery because his blood sugar was low. I was rolled to my room. Thankfully, after an hour and a half, Joseph joined us. They monitored his sugars throughout the night, but he was fine. We spent that sweet first precious night snuggling and getting to know one another.

They called my room to inform me that Kenzie would be staying in the NICU a bit longer. She had an irregular breathing pattern, which meant she would breathe for a while and then stop, and then start again. The doctor told me they would put her on an oxygen mask to help her regulate. If she improved she would move to a nasal cannula, then room air, then be released. If she didn't improve she would be given caffeine, but this meant she would have to go home with an apnea monitor. We all got to praying, and got a much sleep as we could that night. Friday Chile spent most of the day with our sweet girl in the NICU. She was doing well and progressed from the oxygen all the way to room air. I wasn't allowed out of bed almost the whole day, so I had to get phone updates via Chile and take care of my little man. Late in the afternoon the word was that she was doing great and was ready to leave the NICU. However, we got stuck in weekend rounding and the doc didn't write discharge orders before leaving Friday, so we had to wait till Saturday. Unfortunately, the rounding doctor (since it was the weekend) didn't come till lunch time so my girl didn't join us till the afternoon.

Needless to say I was grateful to have two healthy, big, beautiful 36 weekers. I know we were exceptionally blessed that they didn't have issues.

My doctor had told me we could go home either Sunday or Monday, whatever we chose. I was recovering really well (not even taking extra pain meds) and was ready to stop being bothered by nurses checking all of our vitals at different 4 hour intervals thought the night. Sunday afternoon we gathered everything and headed home as a family of 4!

That first night was baptism by fire. They fussed and whined all night. We were exhausted. My parents arrived the next day. It was a calm day. Thankfully the next night was exceptionally better. They actually slept when they weren't eating. Thank goodness for the magic that are Sleep Sacks. Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Chile went to work, my mom took me to the ob and all of us to the pediatrician. We were all doing well, though I was pale and obviously anemic still. I was encouraged to eat lots of iron to help me recover from what the babies had drained me of. The babies got a clean bill of health and were sent home with the regularly scheduled 2 week appointment.

The next day, without realizing it, my health took a turn for the worse. This will be another long entry, so you'll have to wait, but I don't want to scare anyone who doesn't follow me on fb- what happened was serious and still has health implications for me today, but I am home and doing fine. Hopefully that part can come tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with their beautiful stats: