The Twins Have Arrived!

Man, do I have a story for you! But first, we would like to announce the birth of our babies, William Lawrence Haass and Sydney Claire Haass, born Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 9:39 and 9:40 pm (respectively) via emergency c-section at 33 weeks gestation. Both little angels are currently residing in the Level III NICU at Baylor Grapevine, and doing quite well considering their “preemie” status.  Mommy is doing well, too…working on a quick recovery so she can spend all of her time cheering on our little ones.  

The Story...

If you have been following our blog, you know that we were hopeful that I would be discharged from hospital bed rest on Monday afternoon.  I was in high spirits that morning, having passed two fFN screenings, and had even gone so far as to pack all of my things. However, just to be on the "safe side," my doctor asked me to stick around for one more sonogram to be sure that nothing had changed over the weekend.  If I got the green light from the maternal fetal medicine specialist, I was home free!

Around 4:30 Monday afternoon, Brady and I went down for my sonogram, expecting to hear good news.  After a few quick passes with the sonogram probe, the doctor informed us that although the babies looked great, my cervix had shortened dramatically over the weekend, and I was going to have to stay another week in the hospital.  Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed and surprised, because I had felt no painful contractions or pressure to warn me that this was happening! After that appointment, I was thankful that our OBGYN had asked us to stick around for the sonogram, because it told us that the hospital was exactly where I needed to be.  However, I had no idea what we were in for in the next few hours...

(Cue suspenseful music here:  DUN-Dun-Dunnn....)

After returning to my room, unpacking, and having some dinner, Brady left me for the evening around 7:30.  I was settling into my bed for the night a short time later when a nurse came in to do my routine evening monitoring. During these sessions, the nurses would monitor each baby's heart rate along with my contractions for about 30 minutes using little round monitors strapped to my belly with elastic.  Usually these sessions went pretty smoothly,  but the moment baby Will's heart rate was picked up on the monitor, I knew something was wrong.  Both babies' heart rates had always hovered between 140-160 beats per minute, and were never more than 8-10 beats apart during monitoring sessions.  But tonight, Will's heart rate was a steady 220 beats per minute, way higher than Sydney and well above the normal range!  

As soon as she confirmed that Will's heart rate reading was accurate, the nurse put an oxygen mask on me, turned me over on my side, and went to contact the on-call OBGYN.  Those minutes that she was out of the room were some of the longest of my life...I knew that a high heart rate meant that something was stressing my poor little boy, but we had no way of knowing what it was. All I could do was send him my love and pray that he would hold on until we could determine what the problem was.  

A few minutes later the nurse returned and informed me that the doctor was on the way and that they were going to transfer me to Labor and Delivery to prep me for surgery. Unless Will's heart rate dropped in the next few minutes, we were going to be parents that night! I only had time to dial Brady's cell number and choke out the words "You need to come up here now. They are going to deliver me!" By the time Brady arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, I was prepped and ready to go.  I was wheeled into the operating suite, given a spinal to block the pain, and before I knew it our babies were born! Both little ones arrived screaming and crying, which was the most wonderful sound we had ever heard.  I was only allowed a quick glance at each baby before they were whisked off to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for evaluation.  Brady accompanied the babies down there and then returned to be with me as the doctors sewed me up and then sent me on to recovery.  As  I began to regain feeling in my legs, Brady and I anxiously waited for news about baby Will's heart.  Luckily, we didn't have to wait long...

TO BE CONTINUED

Our little angels...

                            

                             Sydney Claire Haass

                  
                                           William Lawrence Haass

More pics and baby health updates to come!