So here's the story...

Wow...what a few exciting, surprising, stressful, adrenaline packed days we've had. First and foremost, we have 2 happy, healthy babies. Vivian Marie Hursh was born at 2:32 on 6/26/2010 weighing in at 3 pounds 9 ounces. Oliver Matthew Hursh was born at 2:34 on 6/26/2010 weighing in at 5 pounds 13 ounces.

This is how it all went down...

Around 3:30 AM on Saturday morning I woke up to a "funny feeling" thinking maybe I needed to go to the bathroom, which I was doing very frequently so I wasn't too surprised. So I went to the bathroom and then realized this may be a bit of a different situation then I had ever experienced?? I thought "could it be?" Has my water broken? I assessed the situation and calmed myself quickly and woke Matt up. He suggested I call the doctor immediately (in my confusion and slight panic, I proceeded to speed dial my mom's cell phone at this alarming hour...oops :)) and they told us to go ahead and come to the hospital and they could check me out. By this point my mom had called back to make sure we were ok and Matt told her we were headed to the hospital to be assessed. I packed a few things in a bag and off we went. We got to the hospital and they confirmed yes indeed my water had broken and I would be there to stay until the babies were born. I told them I had every intention of staying pregnant until 37 weeks! They politely smiled and said let's get 48 hours of steroids in you (to help the babies' lungs) and reassess Monday morning. They also told me if I started to show any signs of infection I'd be delivering immediately. I was tucked into a labor and delivery room, got an IV for hydration and I was mentally preparing myself for a week or more of hospital stay to get my babies big and strong. Around 12:30 or 1:00 my mom came to sit with me so Matt could run home and pack a bag of necessities. I'd been having some contractions since I got to the hospital but they told me they would hopefully get them to calm down. The uterus sometimes gets irritated when the water breaks. I initially was only having them every 15 minutes or so. But about the time Matt left they were coming more like every 8 minutes and a little more intense (picture me clinging to the bedrail saying things like, "oh boy, I don't know if I can take this" "is someone trying to kill me?"). My smile was fading.

Matt hadn't been gone but 5 minutes or so and my mom said I should call the nurse and see about getting some pain medicine so I could relax and take a nap. The nurse came in and said she needed to talk to the doctor and get some pain medicine ordered and she told me the doctor would probably want to check my cervix. When I came in that morning my cervix was still closed. The doctor came in said she'd order me some pain medicine but she did want to check my cervix first. This is when the "excitement" turned on. She check my cervix and it was completely thinned out and I was 5 centimeters dilated and she could feel Vivian's butt :) She said there's no stopping the labor and I was going to be heading to the OR for a c-section right now! I had my mom immediately call Matt, who was only about 15 minutes away at this point so he turned around and headed back to the hospital. When he walked in they handed him his OR clothes and then they wheeled me to the OR for my c-section.

They quickly gave me my spinal and I was numb and no longer feeling the contractions. They got me prepped and very quickly I was ready to deliver. At this point they sent Matt in to join me. I was nervous, scared, excited, overwhelmed, but most of all ready to meet my babies. Out came Vivian and in what felt like a full minute but was more like 5 seconds we heard her cry 3 mighty cries. They whisked her away to another room to stabilize her, which is standard because they were premature. 2 minutes later with a few comments from the doctors like, "wow I can feel his head and he's much bigger!", out came Oliver with immediate loud boisterous cries! They paused and briefly held him up to show Matt and I and then he too was whisked him away to join his sister in the other room to be stabilized. Matt and I were overwhelmed with emotion, to say the least.

A few minutes later the doctor came in and told us they both looked great, healthy and active. Both babies were breathing room air. Matt quickly went to the other room to see them as they were being stabilized and came back to tell me they were perfect. 10 fingers and 10 toes....what a relief, although it didn't 'matter we loved them already. I said no less then a dozen times, "I just had two babies, I just had two babies!"

They brought the babies into the OR and I got to see them very briefly while they stitched me up. Then I was off to recovery and around 5 they took me in my bed into the Special Care Nursery (yes, this is where I work) to see and I got to hold both of MY babies! That night is kind of a blur, due to adrenaline, pain medicine and excitement but I truly believe this was the best day of my life this far. Matt and I love these babies so much and finally meeting them was a dream come true.

Both babies are now spending time in the Special Care Nursery where I am more than blessed to have my co-workers taking care of them, loving them just about as much as we do. They've been nothing but wonderful to my babies, my husband, my family and me. I can't begin to say thank you enough. They deal with me being slightly crazy, it's both a blessing and a curse to know too much :). They are both still breathing room air and overall doing extremely well for being born at 33 +6 weeks. They change so much each day. They both need to learn how to eat from a bottle and just this morning they each took their entire 8:00am feeding from the bottle. We are trying to not push them too quickly because they will just tucker out and could even take a few steps back. Steady and slow wins the race! They will be here as long as they need to be but of course we are ready to take them home today! It's possible the babies will come home at different times but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Vivian has occasional brief episodes where she forgets to breath and drops her heart rate below 80 (normal is 120-160) for about 20 seconds, sometimes she corrects herself and sometimes she needs a little pat on the bottom to remind her to breath. This is all completely normal for a premature baby and she will grow out of it, it just a matter of when. She'll have to grow out of this before she goes home. We could be here as few as a couple of weeks or maybe longer, closer to their due date (8/8/10). Like we've said from the beginning of this pregnancy, one day at a time one step at a time.

We appreciate everyone's thoughts, phone calls, love, prayers, texts, goodie bags, and treats for the babies. Please understand if we can't return every phone call but we thank you for thinking of us. We are truly blessed.