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).