The rest of the story...

Here I am holding them together for the first time... Penelope in the front and Amelia (w/ the hat) in the back.

The rest of our hospital stay went by in a blur although at times, it seemed like we would never get to come home. I had some post delivery bleeding issues and whatever my Dr did to fix that was quite painful. It took some time and a few tries and after several minutes of suffering (it was as bad as the birth itself), I was given Demarol for the pain. Unfortunately, that pretty much knocked me out for the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure some family came in my room to visit, but I don't have much recollection of it. So I spent the remainder of Monday in L& D, completely out of it and looking back on it now, I wish I hadn't said yes to the pain meds. Most of my memories from that afternoon are so hazy and I feel like I missed out on part of the experience. Especially since Paul got to do all the fun stuff like take our parents to the nursery to see the girls, watch them get their first bath, take pictures and video, etc, etc. At least by that evening the pain medication was starting to wear off and I was feeling a little more alert so we had a nurse bring Penelope to the room so I could see her. Unfortunately by that time, Amelia had some questionable oxigenation numbers and was sent to the NICU for the night. That was hard, only getting to see one of my babies and not being able to leave my bed to at least visit the other one in the NICU.

My magnesium-imposed bed rest was finally over at 9:50 on Tuesday morning and what a relief to have the IV and blood pressure cuff removed. By then, both Paul and I were super antsy to get into my post-partum room and have the babies with us. Of course, in a hospital, everything seems to move at a snail's pace and it wasn't until sometime after 11am that I actually changed rooms. And then it wasn't until close to 2pm that we actually had both Amelia and Penelope in our room. We spent the rest of Tuesday and all day Wednesday getting to know our girls, visiting with family and meeting with a couple different lactation consultants to help get nursing established. By Wednesday evening, we were feeling more comfortable with the idea of going home (at least Paul was - I still felt a little uneasy at the thought of taking care of something so tiny and innocent) but then my blood pressure readings started creeping back up and my Dr decided to try a couple different medications and keep me in the hospital at least one more night to see if we could get them to come back down. On Thursday morning, my blood pressure was a little better and both Amelia and Penelope passed their car seat tests. Yay! We were ready to come home and get settled into our new life. But remember, we had to move at the hospital's pace which meant waiting for hours to get discharge papers for all 3 of us. We spent a good three or four hours bugging my nurse to get a Dr down to my room with a couple prescriptions and then finally around 3pm Paul took all our bags out to the car and a nurse wheeled myself and the girls down to meet him. By 4pm on Thursday the 6th - 1 day before our scheduled delivery day, we were back in Plain City as a family of four. What a relief to actually be back home!

And then at the same time, the fear and anxiety set in..... Did we know what were we doing? Could we actually manage two tiny babies? When would we sleep? How would I survive on my own with Paul back at work? Plus I wanted to unpack, get the house back in order (I had originally intended on getting it clean and organized before the 7th), catch up on emails and this blog, the list just keeps going on and on. My brain just wouldn't quiet down. It was all so overwhelming. And here we are 1 week later and it still is a little bit. Thankfully my Mom has been here most of the time to help out with the cooking and cleaning and laundry and I've managed to get caught up on a few things between feedings.