My Visit to the Fire Station

The other day we took our first walk as a party of five. We went to the fire station to return some blankets that were left behind. When we got there, Jerry came downstairs to greet us. He was one of the first guys to come to our house when the babies were born. He was calling the shots and seemed to be one of the few who knew what he was doing when it came to delivering babies! He clamped and cut Jacob's cord, and was prepared to deliver Anna when Mommy's doctor arrived. The best part of our visit was seeing and driving the fire truck!


Jerry holding the babies

Checking out the back seat

That is one big tire, bigger than me!

Mommy, it is FUN driving a fire truck!

I'm a Big Brother!

It's official, the twins have arrived! I have some mixed feelings about this big brother gig. I love the babies, but the attention has dwindled a little more than my liking! Now this blog will be about our little trio, but will still carry my name, one of the advantages of being first born! Mommy tells me all the time that having first born status totally rocks, we shall see about that! Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the new additions and then some words from Mommy to tell their amazing birth story in detail!

Mommy the day before delivery

Anna


Jacob (aka Mini Me)

I'm a really good helper already, just have to learn to be a bit more gentle

I'm not so sure about this

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit
First family photo, minus yours truly of course

My visit to the hospital, holding Jacob

Dr. Trebian and the twins, our gift from God!

Not happy to be photographed

Here is the full birth story:

Jacob and Anna’s Birth

I went to the doctor for my 36 week check up on July 14^th. Dr. Trebian asked me how I had been feeling that day, and my response was “fine, why?” She told me I was 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. She had to go to the hospital for another delivery and said she would call me to meet her back at her office that night to re-check me just to see if there was any progress. Two hours later, I was a little bit more effaced but still at 4 cm. That night I had some contractions about 16-17 minutes apart for an hour and a half and then they stopped. I went to bed disappointed that nothing was happening. I woke up at 1:30 am to hear a huge thunderstorm and water pouring into our bathroom. I woke Nate up to take care of the water problem. Again, I was disappointed that nothing was happening. I woke up at 5:50 am when there was a huge gush from my water breaking. The first thing I thought was ok we’ve got a few hours until anything happens since this was exactly how Isaac’s birth started. I woke Nate up to let him know that labor was starting. He packed the car and got Isaac up. I called my cousin Nicole who was coming over to watch Isaac. Nate showered while Isaac and I read books, and still no contractions. I got in the shower and the contractions came on strong, fast, and right on top of each other. As soon as I turned the shower off, I yelled to Nate to call Dr. Trebian to let her know we were leaving for the hospital right away. He called her at 6:43 am. I sat down to go to the bathroom and felt an enormous amount of pressure and I couldn’t stop pushing. I yelled to Nate who was still talking to Dr. Trebian to tell her that I had to push, and she told him to call 911 to get me to the hospital immediately. He called 911 at 6:45 am to let them know I was in labor and the first baby was about to come out. He was put on hold for about 2 minutes. I felt Jacob about to come out, and yelled for Nate, but he was still on the phone with 911. Nicole, who is an ER nurse, had arrived by this time, Nate yelled for her. She came in the bathroom and asked what I needed her to do, I said catch him! I held him to my chest and Nicole asked Nate to get her a bulb syringe and a towel. Isaac walked into the bathroom at this point and saw me holding Jacob. He gave me a look that said, ok, you have a baby, where did it come from? Dr. Trebian called back at 6:49 to ask what the progress was and Nate told her Jacob was out. She asked for our address because she knew Anna was not vertex. The paramedics arrived and clamped and cut Jacob’s cord. There were about 10 men in our house between the paramedics and fire department – keep in mind I had just gotten out of the shower and had only a towel wrapped around my head! They asked me if I could get up and move, but I was right in the middle of a contraction. After the contraction I got up and walked into Isaac’s room to deliver Anna. I remember one of the paramedics saying they could see her head. Dr. Trebian arrived and they told her the head was right there, but she could also see a foot and the umbilical cord. She pushed the foot back in and told me she didn’t care if I was having a contraction or not, I had to push and get Anna out now. I gave a big push and she came out around 7:15 am. It was really scary because she wasn’t breathing for about a minute and they had to do chest compressions and give her oxygen. I remember laying there on the floor thinking to myself, Ok Grandpa, if you’ve got a straight line to God, get there now, because she needs help! She finally turned pink, started breathing, and had a good strong heartbeat. They wrapped both babies up in blankets and took them in an ambulance to the hospital. Then they put me on a gurney and took me in a separate ambulance. Nate drove our car, and Dr. Trebian followed in her car. They took me up to labor and delivery to deliver the placentas and stitch me up because I had some minor tearing. We were finally able to go the NICU to see the babies around 11 am. They both were admitted on a transition status and had to be given oxygen for a few hours. Jacob was released to our room around 4 pm and Anna was released to us at 2:30 am. The nurse at Dr. Trebian’s office asked her if she thought we purposely delayed going to the hospital to have a home birth and Dr. Trebian said no, absolutely not! Giving birth over a toilet and on the floor of Isaac’s bedroom was definitely not a planned home birth. We are so thankful that everything turned out the way it did. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but we had some guardian angels watching over us that morning.

We've been getting some questions about the whole situation, such as, why did we wait so long to go to the hospital? There was no waiting, there were just no signs that things would have progressed so quickly. When Isaac was born my water broke and he was born 9 hours later. I had an hour from the time my water broke to the time Jacob was born and maybe 10 minutes tops from the time contractions started to his birth.

That's our story, and again, we are just so thankful that everyone is healthy!

Happy Independence Day!

Well, this was our first time in a while that we weren't able to be in Door County for the 4th. It was kind of sad, but we still went to the parade and I saw fireworks for the first time. I LOVED them. I call them stars, it's easier to say than fireworks. It was a long hot day, but we had a great time:)

Gearing up for the day...with my reading material.



Mommmmmyyyyyy, I don't want my picture taken!

Who is that guy behind the camera?


I know, I'm irresistible!


Jumping up and down in my wagon...

...oops, falling down in my wagon!


Oohh, FIRE TRUCK!


Yay, good parade!
Then we went home and I:

Chilled out in my chair


Played in my sandbox


Helped water the flowers


and ate corn on the cob.

Later that night we went to the fireworks


Here I am oohing and ahhing

Being silly with Mommy...

...and Daddy!


Winding down, it was a late night for me.

We had good old fashioned family fun this 4th of July. Now we wait for these babies I've had to hear about for the past nine months. We'll try to update as soon as we have news!