Background - The Birth of our Twins

Todd's Posting - This is our first posting so we want to bring everyone up to speed with our story. Amy was having a relatively event free pregnancy until the week before Thanksgiving. She didn't feel well on Monday but she had an appointment to see her doctor on Tuesday. Her blood pressure was very high, so they sent her directly from their office to the hospital. I was on a business trip in San Antonio TX and got a call from Amy that she was being hospitalized so I caught the next flight home. They were able to get her BP back down so she was released that night but put on bed rest. We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. On Saturday night, Amy's BP was elevated but borderline. By Sunday it exceeded the tolerances we were told to look for and so Amy called and they ordered her back to the hospital.

At the hospital, Amy was still showing an elevated BP along with other concerning signs from the blood test. While she was there her random contractions started to get more frequent and more rhythmic...Amy went into labor. There was a brief debate whether to kick her out of it or let her go on, but her medical team decided to let her stay in labor and deliver if she was ready. On Monday, November 29 at 2:35pm, our second son Asher Dennison (6lbs 2ozs) was born. Following Asher's delivery, his brother, Hudson Taylor, flipped. Fortunately, the doctor and mid-wife were able to turn him so Amy could avoid a c-section. Hudson (4lbs 13ozs) was born 8 minutes later at 2:43pm. Because they were preemies at 35 weeks with some trouble breathing, Amy was allowed to hold them for a few minuets then they were taken to the transition nursery for close observation. Later that evening they were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

The doctors explained to us that preemies at that gestational age (35 weeks) tended to use their abdominal muscles to breath rather than their chest. We will post video of our sweet little boys that shows you this condition. However, the doctors told us not to worry as most infants would get over that fairly quickly, but that their ticket out of the NICU was the ability to feed sufficiently on their own. Preemies at this age have a few developmental issues, specifically, they don't have the consistent automatic reflex to be able to eat and even if they take a few pulls, they don't have the strength to continue feeding too long.

On Wednesday both boys were transferred to a different section of the NICU with less intensive oversight (lower nurse to baby ratio). This was a very good sign that they were progressing in their development. that was also the day Amy came home from the hospital. She had to stay an extra day because of the high level of blood loss she experienced during the birth. Fortunately she did not need a transfusion but it was close.

One of our current struggles is that our son Zachary (3 and 1/2 years old) hasn't seen his brothers and they are only a vague concept to him at this point. Fortunately his Nini (my mom) came up from Florida to take care of him this week and provided him ample love and attention.

The twins are still in NICU as of today and we visit and spend as much time with them as we can. They are getting excellent care and attention.

Asher is baby "A" on the left and Hudson is baby "B" on the right.

You can link to more pictures and some videos here