We took the kids on Monday to see their peditrican for their 1 year check-up.
They are doing well, growing and not missing any milestones for concern. The Peditrican however is referring us to a Pediatric Neoursurgeon in Madison (2 1/2 hours away) for Evelyn to be checked for Plagiocephaly. She was born with a flat back of her head, which turned into a side of her head being flat more than the back. We flipped her in the crib each night, and then it went back to being the back of her head. Well, its’ not fixed it’s self so we are seeing a specialist.
There are many things that could come of the visit, but we are hoping and crossing fingers that it is just nothing. A wasted trip if you will. It’s all too confusing and reading about it’s not helping. Thursday can and can’t come fast enough.
So if you can all cross your fingers and toes and send thoughts, that it ends up being nothing serious. Much appreciated.
On to good stuff, here are their stats;
James:
Height- 28 1/4 inches (12%)
Weight- 21 lbs 3 oz (35%)
Head Circum.- 44.6 (8%)
Evelyn:
Height- 29 inches (50%)
Weight- 20 lbs 10 oz (50%)
Head Circum.- 45.6 (50%)
Yes, our little man now weighs more than his sister, despite being almost a pound lighter at birth. The little man is more than 4x the weight he was when he was born (4lbs 15oz) Go momma & fruit!
James is a champ at walking now, he’s just such a pro. He just goes off and does his own thing, coming back to give a random hug or kiss to Dadd-dy or Momma. He’s just a ham, there are photos and I’ve talked about how he’d throw his head back and laugh when he was younger… well it’s begun again. This time he does it to get a response from us. He squints his eyes closed and throws his head back and sort of bounces it. It is A-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!
He loves to put things into other things, and has started bringing toys and handing them to us, or putting them all in a place, like on the couch or the end table, or like the other day when he stole the remote control and I spent 6 hours trying to find it (not straight :)) and found it behind the computer desk!
Evelyn finally rolled from back to front! She did it two days after she turned one. She’s been trying so hard, but just not quite getting her hips over. She’s got my hips & thighs indeed… which have to have contributed. We of course, were super proud.
She’s not walking yet, though she loves to run-walk when you hold her hands. She’s just not quite ready to do it all on her own. She did take a few steps with Grandma when she visited, but not for us yet.
Evelyn continues to purse her lips out what seems like all the time which is one of her unique things, she’s starting to attempt to share her toys, but she doesnt’ usually let go or if she does, it’s only for a moment or two.
Both kids have discovered that the cat door is a great place to stash toys, so now when we got into the basement we need to be careful with our step and watch for stashed toys.
They had their first chocolate on the day before their birthday, an Aero bar bit-Daddy’s favorite candy bar from Canada.
They tried eggs on their birthday, neither were impressed. But they did like the chocolate chip cookie they got after dinner. (we took them out, and they weren’t pleased with their dinner selection (cheeseburger & fries), we’d both ordered a breakfast item).
Yesterday they had whole milk for the first time. Neither drank much of it at all.
We ended up getting ot goto the zoo during a break in the rain on the kids birthday-and I got my belly cast handprinted, their heights recorded on our wall and their photos taken at their exact birthtime. So it was all in all a good day.
With that I’m off. I have a few things to take care of before the kiddos wake from their nap, and theN I think we are heading out if the rain holds off. I think they could do with a change of scenery.
June 12th, 2008
So they are 1. Well offically not for another 7 and some change hours.
Yesterday I kept saying to James oh a year ago we were doing this (getting our 2nd ultrasound, waiting for the Dr., eating Cousins ect.) I’ve spared him that so far today. Though I did note in my own head this happened a year ago, that happened a year ago.
We WERE supposed to be going to the zoo today, then having a picnic lunch and then heading off to get the kids their first ice cream cones ever. BUT, the weather is NOT agreeable. It’s been storming, thunderstorms, downpours and constant rain since around 7/8pm last night.
So, we’re inside for now. The kids are napping.
Today I want to;
- stamp their feet on my belly cast
- mark their height on our wall and add a handprint next to each babies mark (plan to do this every 6 months to a year)
- get a photo of them at their birth time (we’ll see if this happens)
SO here they are, a year ago;
Evelyn; our ‘first’ born
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James; our ’second’ born
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3 Days Old, just before we brought them home
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AND, today (well yesterday & the day before)
James
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Evelyn
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Together-James LOVES his sister… and she’s starting to warm up to him giving him hugs and kisses this week mroe and more.
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We did take a ‘one year’ photo of the kids last night, but I have to do some editing on it. But watch your mailboxes. They’ll be out soon.
Tomorrow we’ll take the kids for their 1 year checkup, James took off work to help me out. This is supposed to be a bad one being they get shots and then a blood draw too (which is done in another area of the clinic). It’ll be REALLY nice to have someone for each baby.
and, now
For those not interested…. here comes the birthstory I’ve been working on. It is LONG.
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Let me preface this by saying it is the every detail kind of birthstory. I am going to use this in the kids and my personal pregnancy scrapbook and I don’t feel like writing two versions. So it’s likely to bore most 
I’d been having on and off contractions thru the week, we have a notebook with them written down, but they would stop eventually. Practice I was told, one night we really thought we were going in, but I laid down and rested and they stopped coming as quickly. We had called the hospital that night though and they said to come in when they were consistant. At that time they’d been 2-7 minutes apart with no real pattern.
Oddly enough we’d met with the Dr before, she treated me once. She remembered us, and in the end she ended up assisting my own Dr with the babies delivery.
Thursday June , 2007 - 37 Weeks 1 Day
Kamie had an ultrasound early that morning. James & Susie came along but the ultrasound wasn’t that eventful-the babies weren’t cooperative and even if they were there just wasn’t room left for them to get any good images anyhow.
We all left thinking both kids were 5lbs 7oz. Kamie was supposed to see her OB the next morning for a checkup.
Like everytime I go into the Drs office or hospital, I turned off my cellphone. I didn’t remember when we left to turn it back on. So when I awoke from my nap around 11am I found that the ultrasound technician had called. She said that my Dr saw the ultrasound results and he wanted a doppler done on the kids cords, to check the flow of the placenta and could I come back sometime that day.
I of course, freaked out. I called James first asking if he would want to be along or not-I think I ended up just saying (after some proding) that I wanted him there. I wasn’t wanting to hear bad news alone - if there was bad news.
We were to go back at 3:45, so James picked me up and Susie stayed back. We all assumed that it was just going to be a quick thing, and the process of the ultrasound was quick. However, after the ultrasound the tech said that my Dr. wanted to see us but that he was in emergency surgery and would we mind waiting?
Um, sure. She wasn’t sure how long he’d be but he was going to call with an update in like 20 minutes. We sat waiting, guessing what might he want to talk to us about. About 10 minutes later she came back and said he wasn’t done yet, and it’d likely be a half hour at least but he wanted us to wait.
Since the clinic was closing in 10 minutes, we could wait there as long as they were open but to goto maybe to get a snack/drink and then Labour and Delivery after they closed to wait.
We got some M&Ms and a drink and talked more, getting excited that we might have the babies realy soon! Around a half hour later we headed to the Labour and Delivery area, when we arrived there the nurse took us to an observation room and asked if I was having any contractions. I said Braxton Hicks I think only, and she asked to hook me up to the monitors.
I sorta freaked, and gave James a look-which he’d done the same to me at the same moment. We were a bit confused as no one was telling us anything. We thought she was just going to talk to us, say how much longer the OB was going to be or something.
She asked us if we knew what was happening. Umm, No. She said Oh, well let’s get you hooked up, the Dr. will be in soon. Thus began the longest 15 minutes of our life. I remember James getting really impatient just wondering.
Then our OB came in. He said that our little boy had fallen in growth and was now considered growth restricted. I’m not sure the percentages work but he was 10% below or something or other… I really don’t know. He’d told us early in the pregancy that would be the threshold. This meant that his being in utero wasn’t doing him anymore good and being I was already into my 37th week, we weren’t waiting anymore.
My Dr checked me and I was 2cm and 80% effaced. He asked how we felt about coming in the following morning to be induced. Great! So he went to check the schedule, before he got ahead of himself and get us a time to be there at. When he returned he said;
Change of plans, how about now?
I think we asked … Like, now, now?
Well, go home, get your things maybe eat and then come back kind of now.
Sure! We set up to be back at 7:30. On the drive home James called Dad & Pam, Wendy, Rory & Ryan. I was too excited, nervous, astounded to speak I think. We arrived home to find James’ mom a bit frantic. We’d left her at around 3:30pm, and it’d been 2 1/2-3 hours, we’d also taken both our phones so we weren’t even able to call her to let her know what was going on… though we didn’t know ourselves.We quickly told her what was happening and began checking off the things on James’ list.
James ran his mom to the store for a few essentials, being as she’d be home for 2-3 days at minimum without us. And since the beginning stage of induction wouldn’t move quickly, she wasn’t coming to the hospital with us that night.
Around 7:10 we ate Cousin’s and then headed to the hospital, which we arrived at a little late (15 minutes). I had pre-registered, but I guess there was still something to do as I ended up sitting for around 10 minutes while we did some paperwork. Then they wheeled me to the Labour and Delivery area where our nurse for the night, Ann, greeted us. Our Dr. had gone home for the night-being there wasn’t going to really be anything likely that he’d be doing for us that night.
James took a last snapshot of me, and I changed into my gown. They hooked me up to a monitor and went thru the more detailed checkin progress like health questions, ect. At 8:30ish the Dr. must have called and asked how things were, I hadn’t yet had my first dose of medication, because another nurse came in and asked if I had. She said no, and I was given it right away.
The medication, Cervidil was given orally in pill form every 4 hours. I remember sort of freaking out when the nurse told us it is a heart medication of some kind, that they are careful to give to expectant moms because they found it caused abortions. Umm, ok? She said it was safe at this stage in the pregnancy though. I’d need to be monitored the first hour after a new pill, or rather the babies would need to be.
I got another dose around 12:30am and spent another hour being monitored. The kids were tolerating the medication well. James slept in between the pills I got and the monitoring, he awoke whenever I got a new dose and while they rehooked up the monitors. Our nurse changed thru the night, to Chelsea which was neat, as it’s a name we’d considered. We’d picked the kids names very early on though. And as soon as we knew it was a boy & a girl, we knew middle names very quickly there after.
Friday June 8, 2007
We both awoke around 5am when I got another dose of medication. At around 6:45am the Dr came in and checked me. I was still only 2cm and so he stretched me to 3cm. The medication was meant to soften not begin labour, thusly the ability to stretch, which was not very comfortable. I squeezed James’ hand pretty hard. Though and probably to his benefit the Dr didn’t say he was doing so, before doing so.
The Dr. said he was going to start me on pitocin at 9am to get things moving. The bad news was that this meant I’d be stuck in bed then. They have a monitor that you can take with you (as you have to be monitored 24/7 with pitocin) for a singleton baby, but not a two or more.
So I showered and James ran to the car to pickup the babies bag, the Boppy pillow and some snacks/soda we’d brought with.
At 7:40am my breakfast came and we got another new nurse, Wendy. My last meal before the kids were born consisted of eggs, coffee cake and orange juice. I don’t remember eating much at all though. Ice chips only from now on.
7:50am James rang Dad & Pam, Rory, his Mom and Roxanne with updates. We took a quick spin at 8am around the Labour & Delivery area, basking in what was coming soon for us and invisioning it a bit too. We stopped at the computer and I checked in with some of my friends on-line and James sent an e-mail to work.
8:40am an IV was started with water, to keep my hydrated. The contractions weren’t even noticable, I kept saying 0 to the smilie face pain level. 15 minutes later they started the pitocin. I got teary when James touched my arm-reflecting back I think I was just overwhelmed by it happening. We were going to be parents.
They will increase my level every 15 minutes, by 2. And seemingly with each increase I get teary, or actually do cry. James takes a spin around the room with the video camera around 9:30. It’s too cute to see him talking to his future kids (anticipating their watching it one day).
Pitoctin is increased at 9:10, 9:35, 9:45, 10:00, 10:20, 10:35am.
We hear a baby being born in the room next to us and feel excited about our own impending cries of life.
At 11:10am our family arrives, Dad & Pam had picked up Susie so James wouldn’t have to leave my side. No more than do they arrive and my Dr. checks on me (11:20am), and decides to break my water, I’m still only 3cm and feeling a 0 pain level.
11:25 the contractions get intense and I’ve gone from 3cm to almost 8cm and the contraction intensity that goes with it in a matter of minutes. I decide to get the epidural-we’d previously agreed that I would for safety measures for the twins delivery. Being knocked out for an emergency wasn’t something we wanted and carries more risks.
I got some rest after that while the family went to get some food. I can’t remember if James went with them or not, I doubt he did but I really dont’ remember and he doesn’t have it in the notes. Around 1pm family came back and I was doing much better and was rested.
For having gone from 3-8 so quickly, 9 took a lot of time. I am guessing Evelyn pushing opened things quickly. Finally 1:38pm came and I was 9cm, just one more to go… which went quickly as at 2pm I was 10cm and we tried a few pushes with the nurse.
I’d reached level 20 on the pitocin drip. For the next 3 hours we pushed, and pushed and pushed with little progress. The Dr. came in twice, once to just check on me, and he called at least once in between that first visit and the next. At that last visit (must have been around 5:30pm) he mentioned thinking we needed to do a c-section. I asked for a half hour more, and he agreed (looking back I wonder if that didn’t work out well, haha… for things to be setup, to get the other Dr in that assisted him, and the peditrican, ect).
In the end I’d made progress, he figured Evelyn was coming out crooked and that he could probably get her out with the vacumn but was concerned about James then and if there would be troubles with him.
Around that time we got new nurses too. Poor Wendy had been there from early in the morning, she’d been suposed to leave at 3pm. But no one relieved her.
We’d only ever pushed in one position and around an hour or so into pushing I’d gotten a horrible pain in my side. I compare it to a stitch like when your running. It was causing troubles with the pushing process because I was never able to get in a good breath, and never the first breath of the contraction.
Looking back I wish I’d told them sooner (the nurse) and allowed her to tell the Dr. I wonder if it had any bearing on the progress because it never went away the remainder of pushing.
Anyhow, the new nurses tried a few differnt ways to push-which little we could being I was hooked up and imobile. But the time flew by and it was time to drink my fancy concoction for the c-section and get wheeled away at 6pm.
James got on his scrubs and waited for him to be called in.
At 6:10pm Evelyn Cora was born weighing 5lbs 11oz and was 18″ long. A minute later (only cuz they have to give them each their own minute) James Mitchell was born weighing 4lbs 15oz and 16.5″ long.
The time after their offical birth is a bit of a blur, I remember seeing them, crying. Watching as they were cleaned up and weighed, ect. It went so quick though. And then suddenly they were taken out to the nursery and James went with and I was all alone while the Dr finished up.
Soon then I was being rolled back to my room. There was an anticipation that came over me which was very soonly crushed. I returned to my room to find no one.
I assumed they were all in the nursery looking at the babies.
James doesn’t have this written down, so I’m going off what I remember him telling me in the moments in between waiting. He came out with the babies, and into the nursery. My Dad, Pam and his mom looked thru the window as James flashed photos, eventually coming out to tell them the names, and what was happening.
Evelyn either while in the OR with me, or when they got to the nursery or I’m not sure when…. started having issues with her breathing. They werent’ sure what was happening, it sounded like she had fluid in her lungs, but she also had a high white blood cell count. She has a hole in her lung and may need to be transfered to the NICU hospital.
Between the time of the delivery and taking the kids away and my return to the room must have been a little bit of time, because James has notes in the book about what he was feeling/going thru.
His mom, my Dad & Pam left right after he told them the names and about Evelyns troubles.
When I got wheeled back in it wasn’t long, minutes and he and the peditrican must have seen me roll in as they came charging in saying they wanted to let me know what was happening. Huh? I remember feeling and wondering what? They were just fine?
The peditrican quickly went thru it, and I think in that moment I might have realized I really wanted this guy as their Dr. He was through but didn’t stay any longer than needed to return to Evelyn’s side. James stayed behind a moment or two to check how I was, and if I needed anything. But I wanted him with Evelyn. He gave me the notes his mom and my dad & Pam had left for me. I think the only thing we really did was discuss what we would do if she got transfered since the NICU hospital was 30 minutes away.
I think he’d taken photos already at that point and he showed me them. Thankfully I only ever had to see Evelyn in a photo under her oxygen hood.
At some point James’ sister called to say Congrats and ask if we were coming back for Susie’s 60th birthday party. And, the Dr came back in and gave us an update at some point, I honestly have no sense of time and writing down the times I’m sure by this time was the least of things on anyones mind. James did a WONDERFUL job with journalling the experience.
The update was that she was doing better, but may still need to goto the NICU hospital- it looks good at this point though. Perhaps she has a leaky thymus gland? They are taking xrays, ultrasounds, and running tests.
8:05pm our little man James is brought into our room. We attempt to nurse, but James is having troubles, as he’s so sleepy being 2 hours since his birth (and later we find out he’s jaundice). The feeling of being all alone, and the weight of Evelyns potential scare along with something that meant so much (nursing) being troublesome weighs on both of us.
They check James’ insilin levels and determine he needs to have a bottle, now and they wisk him away because of his blood sugar levels. He suddenly has troubles regulating his temprature and he’s put into an isolette. We won’t get to have either of our children in our room this first night.
I have yet to properly meet my daughter, because the epidural was far too effective and I’m unable to stand yet.
James bounces between my room and the nursery-I want him to be with our kids and he wants to be there too, but he’s torn and wants to be there for me also.
At midnight Evelyn is no longer on Oxygen and it appears she’s doing well. Shes’ on antibiotics for her white blood counts, but looking more and more like she’s doing fine.
Saturday June 9th
We go to see our kids together for the first time around 12:30am.
They are beautiful.
We both have an overwhelming want to be home with them though. Seeing them with tubes and inside an isolette is hard, even knowing that they are OK.
At 6am we get up after a rest and see both kids in the nursery, feed James a bottle, Evelyn hasn’t eaten yet, they tried thru the night but she spitup with mucus. She’s working it out.
Around 9am the Dr. came in to update us on Evelyn and she’s doing fine. The hole in her lung has closed on its own. She will remain in the nursery though.
James is still in an isolette, they will work at getting him off the heat lamps today, reducing the temp by a degree or two an hour and eventually to room air. Then he can come to our room.
The notes James took end there. So the rest is off pure memory.
I know that my Dad & Pam, and James’ mom returned today to see the babies more personally. It was wonderful to see them with their grandchildren. For James’ mom it was the first grandson and for my Dad the first granddaugther.
This day was a blur to us though. I think my Dr said something when he came by about nursing, and how it was going and we both kind of went, huh? as we hadn’t tried with Evelyn at all and not again with James. So he said something to the nurses.
I am thankful to two nurses in particular for my sucess in nursing. But as a result most of the day was spent in the nursery, nursing. It wasn’t till our last day there (the day the lacatation consulant was there) that we ever did a tandem nurse, and even then it was quick and only once. I have never done a feed really otherwise now, random here or there I guess but 99% of the time it’s been tandem.
I don’t think that the grandparents got to hold the babies that day.
If I remember right, Roxanne and Caitlin came that evening to see the babies.
James spent the night in our room.
The following day James mom came up and she got to offically meet her grandson. Later in the day Evelyn was able to join us-though briefly in our room, when they found she was jaudice and she was whisked away to be under the lights.
Rory must have come this day, because I remember he held James but not Evelyn-but she was basking in the sun (the lights).
The next morning we went home, and everything was a blur. The nurses wanted us to stay longer. Evelyn got to join us - they took their photos. It was smokin humid hot. We’d brought WAY too much with us.
Two days later we found out James was jaundice and he was put on a bili blanket at home. At some point, that day or the next or something, he got put on high calorie formula after nursing to help the bili levels and his growth. Even with the supplement he only gains 4oz by the time he’s 2 weeks old, but that 3rd week of life he gains a whopping 11oz that week alone.
June 8th, 2008
James updated the gallery so that you can see all the photo albums on the first page.
I know you (dad) weren’t able to find the 12th month when I talked to you yesterday, so I’m not sure if anyone else had troubles either.
We are OK here.
It’s been a really long week, and not all bad, but not all good either.
We picked up Susie on Saturday-the kids seemed to remember her or just knew it was Grandma or something. They had no troubles getting snuggly with her right away. Which was good. I know I was worried, as they’ve been hit and miss with people.
We took a little detour that wasn’t planned or wanted when we headed back home, so we added an extra hour to our trip because of construction in Milwaukee. We were all pretty tired when we got back home. The kids party was the next day, I was up til midnight hanging decorations and getting things ready, going to the grocery store, ect.
The kids got up and napped properly, so that was good. I’d planned the party to start when they normally get up from their nap, or within a short period after such. It was wonderful! I can’t believe they are almost one, but they got spoiled by everyone. They properly went into their cakes (after we took away the duck ‘candle’ which interested them more).
We have gorgeous babies, yeah I’m biased since they are ours but honestly…. they are. It’s amazing how I’ve been able to find beauty in myself-by looking at them. I’ve never thought anything other than that of James, but I of course, have been a critic about myself.
I remember when we found out we were having a girl, and James’ post reflecting on that. How he said he gets to have a little version of his wife-and in our talks about how he wanted her to have my eyes as he has always loved them but I have what I called odd eyes… but not anymore.
Anyhow, moving forward.
The party was successful. I didn’t get as many photos as I wished but the kids were good, we were surrounded by people who love us and the kids and that’s what mattered most.
The next day my Dad rang, and my brother, and then my dad again, and I think then my brother again. I was feeding the kids and it was nearly 8pm. James ran up to answer it the last time, and found a message.
My uncle was at the hospital. He’d been found after spending almost 2 days on the floor in his bedroom. My Dad told him he had to goto the hospital and it’s a good thing, as they found a growth in his brain. Thru the week they found another growth on his lung, and did a biopsy. The kidney cancer he’d overcome with removal of a kidney had spread, to his lung and to his brain. This same uncle just finished his 3rd time of Chemotherapy for luekemia in April, he’d gone into remission alreaady 2 times and he lost his house to a fire a few years back too. So he’s had more than his share of hard times.
So most of the week was spent calling back & forth with my dad & brother to see hwo he was doing, and what the course of action was to be.
We took Susie back on Saturday and turned around the following day to drive to see my Uncle in the hospital. The kids did well considering the amount of time they’d spent in a car the last week.
My uncle did his first round of radiation on Tuesday-we’ll have to wait a month to find out if it worked or not.
Just 2 more days till the kids turn one.
INSANE.
I also want to take a moment to reflect on something we never really got to acknowledge. A year ago today, the day before I was induced James’ last grandmother and the kids only hope for a great grandmother passed away. Our thoughts are with the entire Betterley family today as they celebrate the anniversary of her life.
I’l lleave you all with this photo of me, a year ago yesterday.
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and a photo of my belly cast- which I’m going to print with the kids footprints on Sunday. that was done on 5/31/07.
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I’ve been updating the birthstory I’ve started and worked on bits here and there over the last year. I plan to post it on the kids birthday, but (and I have a warning on the post I started) be warned it’s pretty detailed. Nothing gory or anything, but I’m sure most won’t care the nurses names, ect. 
June 6th, 2008