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...