Why we all ended up in the hospital.

Because our sons are identical and shared a placenta, they were at higher risk for a number of complications in the womb, so Liz had been going down to Baystate Medical Center for frequent ultrasounds for a couple of months. Everything looked great for a while, even though both boys—especially Owen—were a little bit small. Then, when we reached 35 weeks gestation, the doctors became concerned that the placenta might not support the smaller twin (yet unnamed) for much longer. By 35 weeks, they figured that the babies should be ready to come very soon anyway, and decided that the risk of delivering early by cesarean was smaller than the risk of leaving the boys in with a placenta that looked like it was going to become insufficient any day. We were advised to come in the next morning to deliver.

Friday: Birth Day!

I scrubbed in, and was present in the operating room to see Jonah Daniel Libby born at 8:17 am and Owen Winslow Libby born at 8:18 am.

I think this is Jonah, but it was all so fast and surreal that my memory of the delivery is just a series of brief instants.

Jonah as they were prepping him to go up to the NICU. You can tell by the "A" on his hat. He was "Baby A" until we named him the next day.

Everyone expected that the babies wouldn't have much trouble, because at 35 weeks gestation, their lungs are usually very close to being fully mature. However, both boys turned out to have more respiratory trouble than expected. Saturday was the day that everything got worse before it got better. Owen was on the oscillator vent, which is the highest level of breathing support, but he was still having trouble oxygenating himself and he nearly had to be transferred to Boston. Finally, he responded to Baystate's last resort, which was to give him nitric oxide.

Jonah had been breathing on his own for the first 24 hours, but he began to show signs of respiratory distress, and then had to be intubated as well. He also ended up on the oscillator, just like his brother (but without the nitric oxide).

In addition, the neonatoligists were worried about both of the boys "shunting", which is basically pumping blood through a vessel between the pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein, and effectively bypassing their lungs. It normally closes soon after birth, but premature babies sometimes don't close it as easily. It ended up resolving itself, but if it hadn't, that also would have meant a transfer to Boston. It was a harrowing day.

Sunday: Beginning of the recovery

Sunday they stabilized, and began the long road to recovery.

Here's Owen in the NICU on Sunday, with all his equipment.

And Jonah.

Wednesday: A great day!

Both Jonah and Owen had improved greatly overnight, so this morning both the boys were extubated, meaning the breathing tubes came out of their lungs, and they were taken off the ventilators that were breathing for them. Both of them have been doing very well breathing on their own!

Here is Jonah. He still has oxygen to breathe (the thing in his nose is the canula, which delivers it), but he's doing the work himself. The other thing in his mouth is his feeding tube.

Here is Owen. He still needs a little bit of pressurized air, which is why he's on some heavier looking equipment (CPAP machine), but he's also doing all the breathing on his own. Owen also has a feeding tube.

We got to hold Jonah today. It's the first time we've been able to hold either of them!

Week 2

Owen and Jonah have continued to improve a lot over the last few days. In fact, the nurses and doctors all noted how fast the boys are progressing, considering where they were a week ago.

Here's Jonah. As you can see, he has no breathing support at all anymore. It's so nice to be able to see his face!

Here's him doing some kangaroo care with daddy. It's proven to help them get better more quickly.

And here's mommy holding him.

Owen is still getting a little bit of oxygen, but is doing very well. Today both of the boys came out of the incubators and are just in normal hospital bassinets!

Jonah again. He's been hungry all the time lately, even though they increase his amount every other feeding. He actually got to breast feed for the first time today, and did really well with it! He'll have another go at 6pm, too.

Owen gets exhausted sometimes with milk from a bottle, so it will be a little while before he can nurse. But we have been able to do kangaroo care with him! Here he is with mommy.

One Baby Home, One Left to Go!

September 27th was Jonah's day to come home! I had to work, but I sent my camera with Liz and her mother, and they documented the event. Here are the last few pictures of him in the NICU.

Here he is saying goodbye to his primary nurse, Vicki. She was really great. Almost all of the NICU nurses did an amazing job, but Vicki in particular spent a lot of time with Jonah, and was very sweet and helpful to him and to us!

His "final exam" was to sit in the car seat for an hour while his monitors were on, to make sure he could handle the journey. He passed easily.

Today Liz got to hold both boys at the same time! It was really nice to get them together again for the first time since they'd been born. They both have had central IVs for most of the time they've been here, and these have a potential for bad infection. Thus, they couldn't be put together until the IVs came out. Owen's had just come out that day.

Grandma got a chance to hold both the boys as well. She was very happy!

Owen still has another week or so to go. He is now getting all his nutrients via milk, so he no longer has an IV, but he sometimes has to get the milk through a feeding tube because he tires easily. His oxygen is slowly being reduced, but it's a "two steps forward, one step back" process, sometimes. Here are some of the photos of him that Liz and her mother took.

Owen comes home too!

***If you want a large size for printing, just click on the image and it will link you to the original-sized version. Then right-click and save that one***

On Saturday, Owen came home as well! Grandma and Grandpa were there to help us move out of the hospital.

Here's Grandpa feeding Jonah.

A happy mom, posing with Owen.

Sleepy Owen, all disconnected from the monitors.

Mom and Dad, getting ready to leave.

Here they are in the car together, ready to go! Jonah was 5 lbs exactly on Friday, so we put him in the normal infant car seat and gave the special seat we had to buy for him when he came home to his brother.

Back at home, I took this symbolic shot of the end of the hospital part of their journey.