Happy Halloween!

Thank goodness no trick or treaters again this year - we did not even buy any candy. But being Halloween we had to get out the girls' pumpkin hats. They were a gift from Emily Duke, a lady that goes to church w/ my parents. The bibs are from my mom. When we got the hats, I did not think we'd be able to use them on Halloween since we were not expecting the girls until next month!



The thing to do here in Charlottesville is to dress up the kids and take them out to the lawn at UVa. The lawn is surrounded by the Rotunda and some prestigious dorms where you have to be somebody to live there - they have wood burning fireplaces in each room. I think you have to go outside to go to the bathroom though... but I digress... The point is that the place is overflowing with parents and kids and I heard that the students are told to buy around $300 worth of candy each to have on hand. It is a Charlottesville tradition. I met w/ some folks in my Mothers of Multiples group Monday night and they were talking about going to the lawn and what their kids were going as this year. I guess if we are still in C'ville we will be out there with those crazy parents. At least we live close so we would not have to worry about parking.

We had a nice Halloween here at home though. A lady from our church brought us some fried chicken for dinner. And some guys came out to fix our furnace so we have heat now. Peter could not get the pilot lit the other day so the landlord came by yesterday but it would not stay lit for him either. He also brought us a big gift basket w/ lots of goodies. :) It was fun watching the heating and cooling guys try to fix our ancient furnace. Peter said they had to take it out from under the house and clean it out 3 times before it would work. They said it must have come over on the Mayflower.

Fortunately we have a space heater for the girls so they've been nice and toasty this whole time. But now I won't be cold when we get up to feed them. I'm happy to hear the clanging and popping of the furnace again. And I'm enjoying the gift basket too, except I made myself sick today from all the peanuts and chocolate I've been eating out of the basket. Maybe I could have used some trick or treaters after all. I would have not eaten so much chocolate, and I would not be eating so many Tums right now! Tomorrow I'll eat the fruit. Isn't that always the last thing to go out of gift baskets?

Together at Home

We're all at home now - actually tomorrow it will be a week but we've been adjusting to our new home life, hence the delay on updating the blog. Sophie and Mary were discharged from NICU on Tuesday, October 23rd, which is the day they would have been considered full term for twins (37 weeks). They are having their first tummy time at home in the picture above, Sophie on the left, Mary on the right.

We've had a pretty good week. Thursday was our first trip to the doctor and we got a clean bill of health. Grandma and Grandpa Edge came to visit over the weekend and helped with some of the feedings, diaper changes and baby kisses. Mom and Dad are doing well and getting a bit of sleep now and then. It is fun to be together at home!

Mom and Mary at the NICU

Mom and Sophie at the NICU

Dad getting Sophie ready for the ride home

We made it!

Sophie slips into something a little more comfortable

Mary and her lion chilling in the bouncy seat

Mary and Sophie's First Bath

We got to give Mary and Sophie their first bath in NICU last night. It was so much fun. We finally got to get them naked and take all the little monitors off of them. It was the first time we've held them without any wires attached. Peter went first and gave Sophie her bath. She was not too happy at first but did fine. I think Peter was a lot more nervous than she was. Our nurse Donna coached him well though. Then I gave Mary a bath and we had a great time. She really enjoyed it, especially when I washed her hair. Peter said he had never seen her so happy. She has actually been more alert since then. I know how she feels! It is no fun being in a hospital bed without being able to take a shower or a bath. We did not have our camera with us but took some pictures with Peter's phone to capture the moment. The pictures are a little red - that's because the girls were under heat lamps so they would not get too cold. They are doing well with maintaining their temperature though. I think they may get out of their isolettes tomorrow and will be coming home with us soon!

Peter and Sophie	Sophie in the tub
Mary in the tub

Making Progress

Today was a good day in NICU. The girls still have to be there a few more days until they can both maintain body temperature. As it stands now, Sophie may get to come home a day or 2 before Mary since her isolette is at a bit lower temperature. She's also the bigger baby.

Mary is eating a lot better now and is doing well at both breastfeeding and the bottle. Over the weekend one of the nurses could not feed her and put in a feeding tube. They left it in and she's been feeding from that for about 1/3 of her feedings. They finally took it out today and she's eating a lot better. Today our nurse was Sarah, who is also a lactation specialist. She explained that if the girls breastfeed well, then they should not be expected to finish their entire bottle. That was a relief. Mary breastfed twice today for 20 and 15 mins and did a good job. She did not finish her bottle after breastfeeding, but she came pretty close. At the other feedings she just had a bottle and finished it fine. Hopefully she is continuing to do well tonight. Peter was there for the 6:00 PM feeding but we did not go back there tonight - we went out with some friends.

The girls are wearing their own clothes now, which is nice. They got some outfits in the mail from Grandma and Great Aunt Dorothy. We did not have any preemie size clothes. We bought some too though and actually had a few things in "newborn" size that fit them fairly well. Now that we can use our clothes we can dress them a bit warmer too, which will help them get out of those isolettes. Both Mary and Sophie have broken in their new outfits by soiling themselves, but that's OK! When Mary gets dirty she gets very upset - she likes to be clean and fresh.

Here's a picture of Sophie that Peter took yesterday. I just wanted to finally get one of her with her eyes open. It will be a lot easier to capture some Kodak moments when they get home...

Still growing...

We are so ready for our little girls to come home! But all the same, we don't want them to come home too soon - they are still working on getting strong. Peter and I have a little feeding routine now. He checks Sophie's temperature, changes diaper, hands her to me to breastfeed then does the same with Mary. After we try breastfeeding a bit, each girl goes back to Daddy to get fed from a bottle. Sophie is a good eater, she eats pretty steadily and finishes her bottle with no fussing (like her dad). Mary is eating but takes her time and has to burp a lot (I admit - like her mom!). They are both making a little progress with breastfeeding. Sophie seems to have the hang of it lately, in fact, when I've passed her over to Daddy for the bottle she's tried to suck on him a couple of times. :)

The thing with breastfeeding is that you don't know how much milk they are getting, and that's something that's really important right now. But they are both getting mom's milk through the bottles with no formula supplement. So I am proud that I'm able to provide for my girls.

The real reason for this post is that my mom wanted to see a picture we have of Sophie with her little hat. So here's Sophie! We still have to get some pictures of her with her eyes open. We have just been keeping busy during our last few visits and have not taken any new pictures. We'll get on top of that.

The Girls are HERE!

Sophie Elizabeth and Mary Virginia Horanyi were born on Sunday, October 7th, 2007.

Sophie was born at 7:14pm, weighing 4 lbs 5 oz and 44 cm (17.33 in) long. Mary was born at 7:15 pm, weighing 4 lbs and 43 cm (16.93 in) long. They arrived 5 weeks 2 days early but are doing great. They had to be born early because mom got really sick (mom is doing fine now too). They are still in the UVA Children's Hospital being monitored to make sure they are growing and eating well and should be at home in a week. They are just perfect but a little small. They have been breathing, eating and doing everything on their own since they arrived, and we are really proud of them! We can see them as much as we like but cannot get them too tired because they really have to concentrate on getting fatter. In a way it has been a blessing that they are being taken care of there, because we were not prepared to bring our babies home yet! We are learning a lot from the nurses and doctors there and will be much better parents when they are ready to come home.

We were anxious to find out if the girls were identical or fraternal. Though we figured they were probably fraternal, there was a small chance they were identical - I thought that would be cool since it is a rarer occurrence. Well, they are very different! It is like Peter and I each have a little image of us. Sophie is the spitting image of her daddy and Mary looks more like I did as a baby. Here's Sophie getting a little tan. She has been lounging under the lights some because her bilirubin count has been a bit high and they are preventing her from getting jaundice. Peter actually had similar issues when he was a baby. But of course he was fine, and Sophie is doing well, too.

Mary is a little smaller than Sophie but she is doing well and will be able to catch up soon. She has been eating well for Daddy but some of the nurses are not able to get her to eat as well. They are all good but each have their different ways of handling the babies. She is very curious and likes to see what's going on while she's awake. This picture was taken after she got a new little hat. They have lots of knitted caps that are donated by volunteers. Their nurse Donna found these 2 hats earlier and thought they were nice and set them aside for Mary and Sophie to wear.

Getting there...

Our girls are doing great, but it was not an easy road for either of us - it took a lot longer than expected with several detours. I was in the hospital for a week. I was admitted on Thursday afternoon, October 4th, after stopping by the OB clinic for what I thought was a stomach bug. Though I had been retaining fluid and swelling a lot, I never had any other issues and the pregnancy was going pretty well. Each time I had an appointment, I asked about the swelling, but my blood pressure was always low and the doctors had no reason for concern. It had gone up a bit when I stopped by the clinic but was 118/70 so still on the low side. I got a prescription for a nausea pill but was told to go up to Labor and Delivery for some blood tests as there was a trace amount of protein in the urine they tested at the clinic. Just as a precaution - it would probably take a couple of hours then we'd be on our way.

Peter went with me to Labor and Delivery then went back to work for a while (he just has to walk through the hospital link to get over to his lab in the next building). He came back and walked in as they were telling me that we may not have the babies that night or the next day but I had to be admitted immediately. I had severe preclampsia. From the time we left the OB clinic and went up to the 8th floor, my blood pressure had skyrocketed. I also had issues with my liver and blood platelet count. During the time between being admitted and having the girls, I swelled up beyond recognition. You can tell in this picture of me and Mary during my first visit to NICU that I had been through a lot. Who's arm is that? It's not my arm, my arm is maybe half that size!

They tried to induce labor at the UVA Hospital for three days, which sounds just ridiculous. But they were hesitant to do the surgery because it would take longer to recover from all the complications. And the girls were in position for delivery, so I really wanted to avoid a cesarean. They finally did the surgery on Sunday night after I had not had much success dilating and by that time had other issues like a swollen cervix. Yeah, everything was swollen.

Looking back, all that craziness did give the girls more time to grow in the womb. And they did great through the whole thing - they were monitored the whole time - and were in much better shape than their mom when it was all over with. I am doing well now and am feeling better every day. I look like myself now too, though it will be a couple of weeks before all the swelling goes down completely. Now we are just enjoying our beautiful girls and can't wait for them to come home. We are so proud of them!

We will all be home together soon and the next chapter begins. More to come!