A very late introduction

First and foremost, hi I'm Joelle! This was a blog I meant to start a LONG time ago, like when the boys were born, but never did. So here it goes! I'll start off with a brief history of my husband and I then get to the twins next =)


History of Brandon & Joelle:
  
    We officially met January of 2008, but didn't ever really talk until April 2008.  Even then, it was just Brandon listening to my rants about men hehe. May 2008 is when we finally decided to give it a shot at a relationship and it's worked out perfectly since. He proposed in October 2008 and we were planning for a 09/09/09 wedding back home in Colorado. And by planning, I mean we already had the venue reserved, the catering, the DJ, and probably a few other things. We weren't trying to get pregnant, but sure enough the morning of February 7, 2009 I KNEW something wasn't right and took a pregnancy test (Wow.. just realized I found out I was pregnant with these two monkeys 2 years ago TODAY!!). We joked and joked that it was twins, never thinking much of it. Because of work related issues / insurance issues we moved our wedding date up to February 15, 2009 and had a beach wedding in Hawaii. Brandon left for some foreign country 2 days after we got married.

    About a week later I went in for an ultrasound and sure enough.... The u/s tech told me it was twins! When Brandon got online later that day I told him about the u/s, but he didn't believe it. I had to take a picture of the u/s print out with my cell phone and e-mail it to him! The pregnancy was somewhat easy, not too difficult, just uncomfortable. I mean, look at me. I'm 4'11, was 109lbs and carrying twins. I kept telling the doctors I was completely uncomfortable standing at work and trying to get them to take me out of work, but they wouldn't. So I quit on my own and less than 2 weeks later I had the boys at 29 weeks... born 11 weeks premature. I still wonder to this day if the doctors ignored my concerns and if I had stopped working sooner, if I would of carried the boys longer. I only gained 16 pounds through out the whole pregnancy.

    On Thursday, July 30th, 2009, around 7pm, I drove myself (and of course because Brandon was on the other side of the world!) to the Labor & Delivery ward at Tripler Hospital because I started having  contractions. About an hour into being at Labor & Delivery I was told that I was 3cm dilated, 90% effaced with Wyatt's sac bulging out. I was then moved into a birthing room where I started receiving Magnesium in order to try and stop the labor. I was also given one steroid shot around 9pm that night. The steroid shot was an attempt to help develop the babies' lungs. The morning of Friday July 31st, 2009 I was checked again to see if I was dilated and sure enough I had dilated to 4cm with Wyatt's sac still bulging out. Brandon had gotten word through Red Cross that I had gone into labor so he had been checking back in all day to see what was going on. It was hard every time he called because it was never good news for him. As the day went on I continued to dilate so they upped the amount of Magnesium I was receiving to see if it would fight the contractions some more. We were trying to make it at least another 24 hours so that we could get the 2nd steroid shot because it takes two to get the full effect on developing the babies' lungs. However, we couldn't hold off the contractions long enough, so I did not get the 2nd steroid shot.

    Around 2:30pm on Friday it was obvious that the babies' were going to come whether we were ready or not (and whether Brandon was there to be with me through it all or). Wyatt was breech and Riley was transverse so we had no choice, but a c-section. By about 3pm, I was being wheeled into the operating room and being prepped for a c-section. I had gone 24 hours in labor with absolutely nopain medicine at all only to end up needing a spinal for the c-section. I did have my friend Mandy come in for the c-section and somewhat keep me calm through it all. At 3:31pm on Friday July 31st, 2009 Wyatt came out crying. Within 20 seconds at 3:32pm, Riley came out crying and peeing all over everyone. They were quickly taken to the NICU to begin any treatments they needed. Wyatt weighed in at 2lbs, 11oz and Riley weighed in at 2lbs, 15oz. Both were 15 inches long.

    After the c-section I was stapled and taped up. I was taken to a recovery room where I waited for about an hour until they moved me to a "mother-baby" room. Mandy stayed with me the first 2 nights until Brandon was home. I wasn't able to see the babies until Saturday due to the c-section. I had to be able to walk and have a catheter removed before being allowed to go to the NICU.

   The NICU journey for us lasted 55 days, but felt so much longer. They were on different types of breathing machines, under lights for jaundice, feeding tubes, tons of cords, you name it, they probably had it. We visited them at least once a day, sometimes twice for me once Brandon went back to work. Eventually once they were able to maintain their own temperatures, eat all on their own, and breath on their own without any episodes they were released to go home with us and that's when our journey raising twins began....