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!