Happy birthday!

Today is Eloise and Amelia's 1 month birthday! Things are going pretty well here. The girls are growing and showing more and more interest in the world around them. While we are cursing the general lack of sleep, we are grateful to have two relatively well-behaved babies. They have even been known to sleep for 3 hour stretches at night! We've also managed to get out of the house a bit for walks around the neighborhood, some food, and even a trip to the mall!

We recently purchased a fancy new camera, and recently Tami took it out to take some stellar pictures of the girls. Here are some of the best of Eloise and Amelia.

A little home time

On Tuesday, January 13th, our whole family was finally home! On Friday, Amelia's MRI results came back without any signs of damage. Once they had weaned her off the IV nutrients, and determined she could regulate her own temperature, she got to go home. She actually put on some weight during her hospital stay with all of the nutrients they were giving her, so she came home noticeably bigger and plumper than her sister. Her only remaining issue is a little anemia from the blood loss, so she is on an iron supplement and is a little paler than her sister. We thought we'd have trouble telling them apart, but with their unique weights and skin tones we think the difference is obvious! They are also beginning to demonstrate their different personalities to us. Eloise loves to sleep and snuggle, and Amelia is alert and interested in interacting with us and the world.

Tuesday was also a homecoming for our cat, Lily. Lily had been acting sick, and got much worse after we came home with Eloise. She crashed rapidly the night before her scheduled vet visit, and by the time she got to the doctor she was close to dying. As we were waiting to find out Amelia's MRI results, our vet was giving us the option of putting our cat to sleep or doing extensive testing to figure out if she could be treated. We opted for tests and treatment, and after determining that Lily was suffering from a terrible bacterial infection, the vet inserted chest tubes, put her in an oxygen tent, and treated her with fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers until her infection was under control. Poor Lily and Amelia were both in intensive care units with all kinds of tests and tubes going on. Our little fighter kitty responded well, and was able to come home 5 days later shaved and sad, but on the mend. We are very grateful to our friend Krisana for taking her to the vet and watching out for her, and to Toni for giving her special care while at the vet.

Now that everyone is home, we're learning what life is like with newborn twins - crazy. Before they came home, everyone said that the advantage of having twins and no other kids is that you don't know how much harder you have it because you have no point of comparison. Though delighted to have Eloise with us, we also gained an unfortunate comparison point - we know that two is much harder! We have been working hard to try to get them on the same schedule, and to try to find a way for their moms to get some sleep! Thank goodness for all the great help we've gotten from friends and Christine's mom.

Meanwhile, the girls seem to be changing every day! Both girls are still pretty sleepy, but have been having more alert and crying time each day (particularly Amelia on the crying). They definitely like to look around and check out faces. They seem to be noticing and reacting to each other a little - we even caught them touching hands once in the crib!

We have finally got around to posting more pictures - check out our birth & homecoming album! If you haven't already picked a time to come by and visit, please do so. We'd love to see you and we're eager to introduce our little ones to all of our friends and loved ones.

Introducing...

This is Amelia Joyce Fisher. She was born at 3:44 pm on January 5th, 2009, and was 5 lbs 8 1/2 oz.

This is Eloise Colleen Fisher. She was born at 3:57 pm on January 5th, 2009, and was 5 lbs 9 oz.

Eloise is home with her moms now. Amelia is still in the intensive care nursery at UCSF. We are very hopeful that she can come home soon.

Christine's labor was induced on January 4th (when she was 37 weeks pregnant - just full term). She labored for about 27 long hours. Labor was very slow to kick into gear, but during the last couple of hours things progressed very quickly and we were surprised to be told that she was ready to push! She was wheeled into the operating room with Tami (standard procedure for twin births) and met by a crew of doctors for her and the babies. Both girls were heads-down, and were able to be pushed out into the world very quickly!

While Amelia (baby "a" - the first to be born) was in the birth canal, the attending doctor noticed that her heart rate was decelerating in a concerning way. Christine was instructed to try extra hard, and was able to push her out during that contraction (avoiding having to take extra measures to rush her out). Amelia came out with the cord wrapped twice tightly around her neck, and was extremely pale and floppy. The pediatricians immediately rushed her away and we heard a reassuring cry a few minutes later.

Meanwhile, Eloise was born just a few minutes after Amelia. She was very healthy and cried right away! She was allowed to see her mom for a kiss, and then went to go be with her Aunt Jessica in the well baby nursery. Amelia was brought to the intensive care nursery.

Christine had some more adventures after this, as the large shared placenta broke up a little and she lost a lot of blood. A team of doctors worked to stop the bleeding with manipulation and a host of contraction drugs (very painful for Christine!). Eventually things calmed down a little, and they were able to avoid giving Christine a blood transfusion that had been prepared. Christine had a few hours of shaking from shock following the birth, but eventually was feeling more alert and less in pain (thanks in part to her new favorite drug - morphine). At this point Eloise was able to be brought in and could be with her moms, who were extremely happy to see her!

We were told that Amelia lost a lot of blood in the last few minutes at birth. The doctors think that somehow due to the cord wrapping around the neck (which is a common thing that's usually not too bad) her blood went out of her body and into the placenta through the cord. This is probably related to them being identical twins with a huge shared placenta and blood supply. As a result of the blood loss, her brain was deprived of oxygen for a little while, and she became very pale and anemic. She received a transfusion for the blood loss, and is undergoing a special treatment to prevent any further brain damage. They cooled her to 92 degrees and have her on a morphine drip to keep her comfortable (and very sleepy!). This continues for 3 days, and then they gradually warm her and neurologists will examine her and give her an MRI. UCSF is one of the only places that uses this treatment, and we are extremely fortunate that she was born there! You can read about the treatment here.

We've been to see Amelia a lot, and she's looking better all the time. At first she was struggling a little. She had some trouble breathing and needed to be intubated for awhile, but as of yesterday is breathing on her own with no support. The brain monitors observed what might have been a small seizure the night she was born, but it was not noticeable to anyone watching her. She's been on phenobarbital to prevent future seizures, but they haven't seen any other evidence of issues. Despite being heavily drugged, she's responsive and has all the right reflexes. She will squeeze your hand and is making little sounds now. Today is when they warm her, and tomorrow is her MRI. We and the doctors are very optimistic that there will be minimal problems, and she will have a fast recovery with little or no issues in the future.

Eloise is perfect. She's an extremely good eater, and is wearing Christine down with her huge appetite! She's started checking out the world when awake and obviously loves her moms. Her favorite place to sleep is on Tami's chest. She and Amelia both like to stick out their tongues, which is unbelievably cute! She is allowed to see her sister, though they can't touch each other just yet. We think that she misses Amelia, as she has a hard time being alone. We've been exchanging clothes and blankets so they can each be near something that smells like each other (hence the blanket on Amelia's forehead in the picture).

Thank you all for the wonderful messages and offers of help that we've received so far. We feel extremely supported! Thanks to Aunt Jessica and Grandpa Manny for all the help in the first few days! We also feel extremely grateful to everyone at UCSF - we couldn't have had a better team of nurses and doctors! We're looking forward to visitors. Please let us know if you want to come by and we will work on getting you on the schedule (being coordinated by our wonderful friends Krisana is Christie).

Off to the hospital!

Tomorrow we will have officially made it to full term (37 weeks) - a big accomplishment for twins! The doctors want to induce labor at this point for the twins' safety. They share a placenta (which is how we know they're identical), and after this point in a twin pregnancy, the placenta is usually no longer able to provide them with all of the nutrition they require. We trust the doctors' judgment, and Christine is more than happy to be through with pregnancy! This last week has been a tough one, with 2 trips to labor and delivery due to frequent contractions and an embarrassing tumble during an evening walk. The upside of our adventures is we're now very familiar with the delivery floor, and feel like we know what to expect.

The plan is to check in tomorrow (Sunday) at 9 am, and then start with several drugs to hasten things along. We could be seeing our girls tomorrow, or it might take a couple of days. Since they're both heads-down, we should hopefully be able to avoid a c-section (common with twins).

While we wait, here are a few pictures of our completed nursery, all ready for its new occupants!

The cribs, and some lovely name art created by Aunt Jessica


Nursing corner, including a wonderful Dr. Seuss watercolor


Changing station and elephant shrine

34 weeks down, 3 to go (maybe)...

A sight many of you never thought you'd see: Christine bursting with maternal pride at her rather swollen abdomen. Note how small the seven foot tree looks in comparison (ok, it's a four-footer, but the King Kong imagery is funny). According to the docs, it's officially go time. If Christine goes into labor, they won't try to stop her progress. The girls will be (knock wood and perform any other superstitious ritual you find necessary) healthy and need minimal to no time in a special care nursery. Expect phone calls and emails, and check back for baby pics within a month.

And stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

After many (many, many, many) weekends of pawing through catalogs, Tami was finally permitted to order stockings for the girls. That along with a Christmas tree has made the house festive for the holidays! Christine has been celebrating the season by drinking a lot of egg nog.

We're now 33 weeks into the pregnancy, and the girls are getting big! Last Monday we had a growth scan and learned that the girls are 4 1/2 lbs each. This is well above average, which is great news. Christine has been heading to the doctor twice a week for an NST - non-stress test - in which the girls are looked at via ultrasound and have their heart rates are measured for a half hour or so. The test ensures that the girls are getting enough nutrients from their shared placenta. Aside from being very wiggly (and hard to keep a monitor on), they have been passing with flying colors.

Both girls are now heads-down and getting ready to make their grand entrance. The doctor has told us that we'll induce by around 37 weeks if they haven't come by then - that's a deadline of around January 4th! Christine is only getting bigger and a bit worn down by burden of carrying these big girls. She's received a number of well-meaning comments about how her "baby must be coming any day now." It's fun to see the looks on faces when she tells them she has weeks yet to go, and the flash of understanding when she explains that she's carrying twins. Christine will stop working next week to focus on resting up and preparing for the hard work ahead. There's a good chance that the next post will be baby pictures!

Wedding Photos

We *finally* posted some pictures - thanks contributors Dennis, Alan, and Kate. There will be more to come, but here is a taste of the weekend-o-wedding events. Enjoy!