One Week Old!

The twins turned one week old today, and are continuing to show improvement every day. Evan's jaundice has just about gone away. They have him on a "bili blanket" now, which is just a little light which goes right inside his blanket. The great thing about this is that he doesn't have to wear the mask anymore. He's also back up to his original birth weight (of 3 lbs. 8 oz.) so hopefully we'll see him start to put on some weight.

Naomi is also showing lots of progress. She's still got jaundice and is under the bili-lights but it's been steadily decreasing so that won't be for much longer. On a positive note, her spells of apnea are pretty much cleared up, which has allowed them to increase her formula consumption. In fact, she's now passed Evan and is getting 30 mL a time!

Hopefully in the next few days Naomi's jaundice will clear up. Once that happens the doctor indicated they could be co-bed, so they'll be able to sleep next to each once again. We're also ready for Erin to try nursing them directly; our first attempt will be tomorrow so we're a little nervous and very excited about that.

I'll continue to report on our progress, thank you to everyone who has called and e-mailed, it has all been very overwhelming and we're very grateful.

Twins Update

As I promised yesterday, here's an update on the twins and how they're currently doing. Naomi and Evan are both doing very well, with an occasional hiccup but nothing too serious. The most obvious thing right now is that they both have jaundice so they are under the bili-lights. Naomi has it a big worse than Evan, but her level dropped yesterday so that's a good sign.

Naomi has had a few bouts of apnea, and the doctors treated that with a small amount of oxygen and caffeine. Apparently caffeine works really well in newborns for treating some of these breathing problems, and no, it doesn't keep them awake (that was Erin's question). She's doing very well bottle feeding, and gulps up her preemie formula in no time. She's a handful, too; if you don't watch her she'll pull her mask that protects her eyes right off.

Evan's been cruising right along since the birth, other than this minor bit of jaundice. He hasn't shown any problems at all, and in fact they took him off the IV yesterday. He's also eating quite a bit more than his big sister, about 20 mL at last count (she's at around 12 mL while they were fixing the apnea). Evan's a bit more measured in his bottle feeding though, patience is a virtue there. He'll suck a bit, then pause and reload (and sometimes fall asleep right away), so often we'll finish his meals through his "NG tube", which is a small tube they run through their nose down to the stomach.

I noticed in the first day I took way more pictures of Naomi than Evan, so here's another picture of him to leave you with:

The Rest of the Story (Plus Pictures)

First, for those eager to see pictures of the newborns, there's a Photobucket Album here. Just click on a picture for a larger version. If you see one that you think you'd like to actually print out then e-mail me because I have the originals stored as well, which are much larger and will print at a higher quality.

So, everything was going relatively smoothly all things considered after the events at 26 weeks. Erin (and her cervix) were doing a good job maintaining the status quo, keeping the babies on the inside. Last Monday (December 18), I went in to work that morning not concerned at all. On a whim, I decided to come home for lunch (it's about a fifteen minute drive) to check on the family before going back to work.

Unfortunately when I got home I found Erin lying in bed looking like she was in some pain. At first she wanted to attribute it to normal stomach pains, but after twenty minutes or so she became concerned. The doctor's office recommended that she head on to the hospital to at least be looked at, so we headed in.

Once we got there it became apparent that she had again gone into labor. When we first arrived her contractions were coming very quickly (6-8 minutes) apart and she was in quite a bit of pain. Another round of tocos was ordered up, with our good friends from before, Magnesium Sulfate and Terbutaline. This quieted her down some, but didn't completely stop her contractions.

Late that Monday evening, her water broke. No alarms sounded, there was no change in the babies' heart rates or Erin's contractions, but we knew at that point that we weren't leaving the hospital until these babies were delivered. Over the next few days it was a basic pattern: Erin's contractions would start up, she would be administered a shot of Terbutaline, and everything would calm down for 14-18 hours, when it would pick right back up again.

Things finally came to a head on Thursday. There was an ultrasound scheduled for us that day and around 4:30 that afternoon they wheeled the machine in. Erin's contractions had begun again around 2:00 and they had not yet administered any more of the anti-contraction medication. The technician was about a quarter of the way into the examination (which occasional pauses for Erin's contractions, which were coming about every 8-9 minutes) when the high-risk doctor on hand stopped it and decided to check out her cervix. At that point it was decided to go ahead and not hold off any longer and deliver the babies. The babies were delivered via C-section, which went very quickly and without any complications.

Coming Tomorrow: Update on the babies' condition! Enjoy...

Free At Last

I'm using the title of this post for two reasons: I'm finally clear of the hospital's horrid wireless service and a firewall that wouldn't let me do anything besides look at the most vanilla news sites, and because

ERIN HAD THE BABIES!!!

I will be posting the full story a little later, but I wanted to get this out here as soon as I could get under from under the oppressive regime that was the WebSense firewall. They were born on Thursday, December 21, at 8:30 PM, via C-section. Erin was at exactly 33 weeks on that day, so they are about 7 weeks premature. "Naomi Marie" was born first, and she weighed 4 lbs. 10 oz. "Evan Thomas" was next, and he weighed 3 lbs. 8 oz. The twins will be in the Neonatal ICU for probably 3-4 weeks, but Erin came home this afternoon. They are doing well and we've visited them every day.

Look for the full story and pictures tomorrow!

Still Going...

Sorry for the no news drought, I've been lax in my post-Thanksgiving updates; perhaps the tryptophan is finally wearing off.

In other news, no news is good news as far as news goes about Erin. The babies continue to be in utero and growing well, and Erin gets larger by the day. An ultrasound on the week of Thanksgiving showed the kids to be at 2 lbs. 13 oz. for the girl and 2 lbs. 9 oz. for the boy, a stunning reversal from our 26 week ultrasound when the girl was almost 9 oz. larger than the boy. Erin is now at 30 weeks, cruising on in to 31 this Thursday. She does remain on bedrest, which is getting more and more difficult to police. I think she's ready to be able to get up and move around again.

We also had a very busy couple of weeks with not one but two baby showers, one at our house and another at my mom's. Erin was obviously unable to make the two hour sojourn back to the homeland, so I made the trek for her and was the surrogate mommy for the day. Luckily there was no practice baby changing or anything like that, as it would have been embarrassing to fail miserably in front of 20 something existing mommies. We were able to bridge the gap back to Lexington, though, by employing the friendly services of Skype, an internet-based phone service which happens to be running a free beta of video conferencing as well. So Erin was able to sit comfortably on her couch and laugh while I attempted to ascertain just what to do with the 32 oz. container of Vasoline.

Our second shower was the next weekend and by sheer coincidence had been scheduled at our house. So, Erin was able to be right in the mix of things with friends and family, though she was fairly firmly grounded in the La-Z-Boy (almost on her side) all day. This time she got to see the little booties up close and personal, though I don't think she got the same looks of terror that I displayed.

We have received a tremendous amount of support from everyone and I wanted to thank you all for visiting while Erin was in the hospital and now at home, and certainly everyone that came to both of the showers. Events like that keep her going for a while I think.


COMING SOON: Pictures! Promised for the seventeenth time!

There's no place like home

Great news on the "Erin in the hospital" front: she was released from the hospital today and is now resting here at home. She has been stable since that Monday evening with no further contractions, so they decided we could take care of her at home. Erin's mom has also arrived here in town so she's all of a sudden Erin's got a household full of "the help".

We'll be going back to our ob/gyn on Friday to get a further plan formulated. It's still looking like she'll be on bedrest until the delivery date. Luckily, it's a very loose bedrest, as she's allowed to go to the bathroom on her own, and even go up and down the stairs (though we're trying to keep that to a max of once a day).

Thanks for all the comments, it's always nice to see people thinking about you. If we hear anything more I'll disseminate the information.

A Long Week

This post will start with some good news and some bad news. The good news is, everyone is okay, the twins are still in utero and growing. The bad news is, Erin started having some contractions on Monday night and probably went into pre-term labor for a little while. Here's the back story:

On Monday afternoon, Erin called me to let me know she was having some tightness and a bit of cramping in her abdomen. She had been on the phone with her Ob/Gyn's office several times, and they decided she should go to the hospital to get examined. As soon as she arrived back in Lexington (she carpools to Frankfort) I drove her to Central Baptist (the hospital that her Ob. practices at) to get examined.

Roughly ten minutes after the nurses put fetal monitors on her, the twins had a big "decell", where their heart rate went from up in the 140s range (normal) down to about 60 (abnormal). This triggered a very rapid sequence of events: all of sudden, 4 nurses were in the room working on her. She got a steroid injection, an IV with Magnesium Sulfate, a catheter, and a quick examination of her cervix. The drugs seemed to be effective, as the babies pretty quickly returned to normal and her contractions pretty much stopped. Her cervix was a little open though, which continues to be a cause of concern. A little later that evening they decided to move us over to UK's Medical Center because they have a better intensive neo-natal unit.

The next few days went very well, there were no further signs of distress of the babies on the fetal monitors and Erin didn't seem to be experiencing any more contractions. An ultrasound on Tuesday afternoon did confirm the results of the previous cervical exam though, which is that she's very effaced (thin, around 90% I believe is what I've heard) and open just a little (less than a centimeter).

Which brings us to the present day. Erin is still in the hospital, and probably will be for a while. The attending Ob. yesterday indicated that it would be at least a week before she is released. Certainly she is on bedrest and I doubt that will be pulled until the twins are delivered, even if she is allowed to come home. Luckily, it is a modified bedrest I guess in that she is allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and even take a shower. Laying on her back seems to start some pains/contractions, though, so she's limited to laying on her sides only. The babies have continued to remain stable and their heart-rates are strong when she is placed on the fetal monitors each day. She's not indicating any feelings of contractions, so it looks like she's stable in that regard.

Basically, now we're in a waiting game, where each day increases the health and the survivability of the twins. As I get more information I'll relay it on as I can. If this is the first you are hearing of this I apologize for not contacting you directly, but as you can imagine, it's been a long week.

Must..Finish..Basement

For those that didn't know, Erin and I moved into a new house at the end of 2005. Though I think we wouldn't have admitted it at the time, this was probably our first admission to each other that kids were on the brain (our public announced reason: closer commute for Erin).

It's a lovely house and we're still thrilled with it. One of the great features was a nice wide-open unfinished basement. There is plenty of room for a home theater area, a pool table, even a separate workshop for wood-working and the like.

In a fit of pure stinginess, combined with a good dose of do-it-yourself-ness, I decided to tackle finishing the area myself. Now, this might be a good time to ask, "Gosh, Ben, have you ever done any construction work before? Or even watched a video, or read a book, or had any encounter with anything remotely involving using sharp power tools?", to which my natural response would be, "Of course not, but how hard could it be?".

I started framing at the end of March, with the assistance of my mother and stepfather, whom I am eternally gratefuly for showing me, to use a bad metaphor, how to "start the car and put it in drive". We completed two solid walls in the first weekend, and I was well on my way... Of course, we all know what happened next, then there was travelling to Hawaii for my sister's wedding, then another trip, and bam! All of a sudden it was August, and well, three and a half walls were now completed (our of probably 9). This wasn't good! It's my heart-felt belief that if this basement ain't done by January, it won't be done for five years. Erin's belly put me back into drive again.

To put a cap on this journey, much progress was made in the last two months. I completed the framing, had the whole thing wired, made some adjustments to the plumbing, and made the wisest decision of the whole process: hiring out the drywall work. In a week and a half, the company I hired hung, taped, and sanded around 1000 sq. ft. of wall space, plus the ceiling. Painting now begins, and if I don't run out of money, maybe we'll even get the cabinets in.

I'll throw up a link to some pictures of the space once I get in and actually take some pictures of the space.

Puppies!

In a completely unrelated event to Erin's pregnancy, one of her aunt's dogs just had puppies! They are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and may just be the cutest things you see this week. Victoria is the proud mother of seven new little guys and gals. I guess this makes me an uncle!

Her aunt was nice enough to send along some pictures of the litter, so here they are and enjoy!

Gah, it moved!

I have to be honest, feeling one of the babies move around under my wife's skin is a bit alarming. Maybe I've just seen "Alien" one too many times, but when I put my hand on a heretofore smooth bit of unjostling skin, and then something slides under my palm like it's reaching out to me, well, what can I say?

On the baby front, I can report they are moving around now, and judging by Erin's lamentations, engaged in a heady game of one-on-one soccer, perhaps involving her bladder or maybe a liver. Apparently all we're requesting right now is that kid #2 on the right just stop using her lower rib as a jungle gym. Otherwise Erin is doing well and is still at this point mobile. I think we have another ultrasound around the beginning of November, so stay tuned for updates to our picture gallery around that time.

On a personal note, my work softball team just finished the season with a record of 4-2, thus clinching us a berth in the championship game for the first time ever. This is an exciting development, as in all previous years we've been scratching and clawing for last place.

Wait, how much?

Erin discovered there is a club here in Lexington for parents of multiples, so we attended a meeting to see what it is all about. I think it's going to be a great resource; the parents know about a lot of the issues that seem to face twins, they have an annual yard sale each year where they sell all the good twin-related items (like double strollers and such), and try to put together activities for both the kids and the parents.

During each meeting there is a guest speaker, and at the meeting we attended it happened to a rep. from Smith Barney who was there to talk about college prices. This was probably not the best meeting for us to attend. The estimated cost of tuition for ONE child in the year 2025? One Hundred and Thirty Thousand Dollars. Wha Wha Wha Whaatt? Oh, and this was based on tuition at UK! This wasn't MIT or Stanford (which will probably require all your earthly possessions plus indentured servitude for 7 years). This was especially poignant given that we're HAVING TWINS. I'm viewing into my crystal ball, and I'm seeing...lots of student loans for our rugrats.

In other news, Erin is doing very well, although she swears there are days when she outgrows her clothes during the day. She's at 20 weeks today, so we're over the halfway point and it's all coasting downhill from here. Our next doctor appointment is next week, and we're hearing rumors of regular (say, once every week or two) ultrasounds at around 32 weeks, so that's exciting.

The Results Are In

I know everyone has been waiting with baited breath for the results from our ultrasound on the babies' genders. Well, I've got 'em right here. Two pictures which clearly, um, expose the kids. Well, sort of. I mean, the ultrasound tech was very confident, but Erin and I examined these pictures and gave them a, "What you talking about, Willis?" kind of look.

In any case, without further ado, drumroll please, the Gold twins will be:

A Girl...and a Boy!

This has definitely been the most commonly hoped for by well-wishers, I guess given that penchant for having children until you have one of each gender. Well, we got that right out of the way.

In case you can read ultrasounds, here are the pictures showing the identification from the ultrasound (can YOU tell what they are?):

Note: click on the image for a larger version

The Next Question

Ever since we announced our impending doom pregnancy, there's been one question asked more than any other: "Do you know what sex they are?" Well, I'm here to announce, we do!

But, we're not sayin' (yet). I'll admit, the ultrasound technician was quite confident, but we have a meeting with the regular doc tomorrow to go over the results. If the doc confirms and agrees with the technician then I would start looking for some leaks to the media, if you know what I mean. In the meantime, we can confirm that the dynamic duo are indeed fraternal, not identical, so all three combos are in play (boy-boy, girl-girl, girl-boy).

Erin is doing very well, I think the overarching fatigue is starting to wear off, and she's definitely started to "show" her pregnancy a bit. I'm hoping I can get Erin to cooperate and get a little dressed up so I can take some pictures and get them posted.

Just to keep you intrigued until the announcement, here are some pictures from the ultrasound last week (click for a larger version):

Finally An Update

Whew, I guess finding a topic to write on once a week is hard. Maybe I"m not cut out for a writer's career after all.

Things are still growing in the Gold household. Erin has just started to "show" in my opinion, and in fact she moaned on Sunday that suddenly none of her shorts fit anymore. We have a new ultrasound this week with the High Risk pregnancy group, but nothing to worry about; all multiple pregnancies are automatically labelled "High Risk" by Erin's Ob/Gyn. Look for pictures from that next week.

On the vacation front, we just got back from Las Vegas. Erin and I both play in our local APA Pool league, although we play on different teams (for marital harmony). Well, Erin's team won a trip to Las Vegas to play in the National Tournament, and I tagged along as the spouse. First, it was extraordinarily hot. Not like, "whew, this is hot" hot; I like that hot. No, this was, "Holy Cow, we should never go outdoors" hot. 115 degrees during the day, cooling to a chilly 105 at night. Sure, it was a "dry heat" but that just meant it was better than if it was 115 AND humid.

Erin's team played well and ended up going 2-2, losing their first match, then winning two in a row before bowing out in a very tight match that started at 11:00 PM Vegas time. Erin personally went 3-1, losing in that first match then running off three straight. Not bad for a girl 15 weeks pregnant! Pictures will be uploaded shortly of the team in action.

Calm Before The Storm?

I wonder if this is what if feels like on the coast two days before a hurricane. You know the storm's out there, but right now it's just a nice day, with a slight breeze and a bit higher surf than normal..

Erin is doing well so far. The biggest symptom has been fatigue, of which she's had an abundance. No real morning-sickness so far, though, as long as she's snacking every two to three hours. She's not really showing right now, but I think we're both expecting that to change very soon. I think the breakthrough will be when she gets that first piece of official Maternity Wear. I'll try to get a profile picture of her taken and posted here soon (I'm not promising any Demi Moore-style photos, but I'll see what I can do).

In other exciting news, it seems our good friends from college, Dawn and Greg, just announced that they are also having a baby! Here's a link to her blog.

Schedule Update

Just to let folks now, I'm going to attempt to be on a one-post-per-week schedule right now, on Wednesdays. I certainly realize that everyone has been refreshing the browser every 3 minutes to verify that I haven't posted anything new, so this should help alleviate those worries.

Cheers!

Power Names

Two friends from college came into town this week. They are well into the family-making business, with an adorable 3 yr. old girl and newly created 3 month old boy. We got to talking about this whole pregnancy biz, and he suggested "Fetal Power Names" for the as yet unborn swaddlings, something that we could call our progeny besides Baby1 and Baby2 that would give them strength and power through their 9 month term (I believe they used "Ragnar" and "Mugatu").

Clearly, this was a brilliant idea and so Erin and I got to pondering. Her first suggestion was Romulus and Remus, the legendary Roman twins who were raised by wolves and went on to form Rome (an auspicious start to that civilization in my opinion). But Romulus had too much of a Star Trek feel to me, so it got vetoed.

Next we tried to think of boy/girl combos, you know, just to be equal. That led us to the trio of Ares, Aphrodite, and Athena from Greek Mythology. Ares was good - God of War, rolls off the tongue, perfect. I wanted to pick Athena over Aphrodite 'cause, well, if you have a choice between your prospective daughter being a) the book-smart tomboy, or b) the, um, veloptuous vixen, it seemed like an easy decision. But my wife countered with the power of love and beauty, pointing out that Helen of Troy was "a face that launched a thousand ships". Ultimately though, both lose to one simple fact: they're too long! Neither word is one you could drop into a casual conversation about the health of these critters. Thus, the search continued.

Keeping with the Greek mythology, I think we discovered a pair of names. Brother and Sister, these two ruled over the universe until Zeus blasted them with his lightning bolts. They were Titans, and thus our pre-natal infants are named: Cronos, king of the Titans, and Rhea, mother of the Greek gods. Sure, there's a bit of baggage here, since Cronos and Rhea were also actually married. And yes, Cronos did actually eat all of his offspring, so we'll have to work on that. BUT, but, the names are crisp, powerful, and we didn't have to think about it anymore. So, we'll take 'em.

Greetings World!

Greetings world! First posts are always the toughest. This blog will hopefully be an easy to access place for friends and family to keep up with what's going on in our little corner of the world. I'll try to post as interesting things occur, so check back or monitor the RSS feed. Cheers!

BIG News! No, I mean REALLY Big!

For those who haven't heard the news yet, Erin is pregnant. For some of you, this is big news. For a while, we may have been the last couple people thought would have a baby. But I guess we both decided we were ready, and so off we go down the slippery slope of parenthood. Oh, but wait. There's more.



We're having twins.

We just had our first ultrasound at 10 weeks, yesterday. I had stepped out of the exam room, and just as I walked in, baby #1 was on the ultrasound screen (just one). "Whew", I said, "because I saw the pictures of the twins in your lobby and was a little worried." Clearly, the universe could not let such a karmic slip of the tongue go unpunished. The doctor replied, "Well, let's look around.." and 10 seconds later my prophetic utterances came true and the doc discovered the second one.

Needless to say, this was a bit of a surprise to both of us. No fertility drugs had been used, no in vitro procedures needed. It appears we simply won the genetic spinning wheel that decided we should be that roughly 1 in 100 who naturally have twins. Erin and I are .. excited/elated/horrified/amazed/in shock at this development. It really is surreal. Hopefully in a few days/weeks we'll both settle on one.

As soon as I find a scanner with high enough resolution I'll post the two shots from the ultrasound showing baby #1 and baby #2. We are also now in possession of a VCR tape which contains the 2:00 minute Zapruder-esque ultrasound video. If I can somehow get it digitized I'll try to get it uploaded as well. There's no sound, so I'll have to post a separate narration ("1:35 - doctor finds twins; Ben gets glassy eyed. 1:45 - doctors looks for a third!? Ben and Erin scream, "No, No, No!").

I'll be updating the blog as there are more doctor visits. Thanks for tuning in! Here are the first shots of Baby1 and Baby2: