Double Hernia Repair Surgery

I've known quite a few pregnant women whose belly buttons "popped" during pregnancy. Isn't it one of those things that people comment about quite a bit? When I was pregnant with Brianna, my belly button never "popped", and - to be honest - I was a little disappointed. I thought it was a pregnancy rite of passage or something. 

However, when I was carrying Brenson (who was almost two pounds heavier than Brianna at birth), my belly button did pop out. I thought I would like it, but I surprised myself by being kind of grossed out by it. It was really distorted looking, and I'll admit that I was a bit horrified when my OB told me that it may never completely heal or return to normal. I was also surprised to learn that it was actually a hernia. I had no idea! (I'm not sure what I thought caused it.) My OB also told me that after I was finished having children, I would likely have to get it surgically repaired. 

After Bren came, my belly button did look really weird for a long time, but it eventually healed for the most part. I wouldn't say that it looked like it did before, but nothing in my midsection did. I definitely have some battle wounds from carrying BIG babies (or two at a time!). When I became pregnant with the twins, I was only a bit surprised when my belly button "popped" very early on. 

At each check-up with the twins, my OB would look at my belly button, sometimes feel it, and remind me to really monitor it. He said that it was a fairly severe hernia, and that I needed to make sure it always stayed soft. As my pregnancy progressed, so did the hernia. By the end, it was very prominent, but it didn't bother me at all. My OB told me all along that I would need surgery on it not long after I delivered. 

When I went to see my OB at 7 weeks postpartum, it was a whirlwind of an appointment (like it always seems to be with him :-). He had just walked out of the room when Chris stopped him and asked him about my belly button. At that time, it would cause me quite a bit of pain on and off, and it was still visible through my clothes. I was able to push it back in when it was bothering me - and that would generally help - but it was certainly concerning to us. Dr N took one look at it through my clothes, felt it just a bit, and said, "I'll send a referral to a surgeon today." 

I had just left his office and was on my way home when Tiffany (Dr. N's nurse) called me. She said that they had an appointment set up for me for the next morning with a general surgeon. Ummmm, WOW! I was shocked at how quickly they were able to get me in.

My general surgeon's name was Dr. G, and I had my initial consult with him on Friday, March 27th. I was 7 1/2 week postpartum at this point. Chris stayed home with the children while I went to the appointment alone. I was a bit nervous . . . really, I just didn't know what to expect. I also didn't like the idea of seeing someone that I knew nothing about. However, as soon as Dr. G walked in the room, I was comfortable with him. After talking briefly, we discovered that we both have four children including a set of twins. He has kids who are 10 and 8 years old and twins who are 5. So, not only do we both have four and both have twins, but our kids are the exact same age split, as well (he's just 5 years ahead of us). THEN, we discovered that he and his wife saw the same fertility doctor that Chris and I saw. I felt like it was a good sign to have so much in common with him. During our visit, he asked how we were adjusting to life with twins. I told him that things were pretty crazy, but oh so sweet at the same time. He replied that they still feel like it's crazy, just a different crazy than when the twins were newborn. He also told me that the thing about having four is that you always have several different moods going on . . . two will be doing great while one is grumpy and one is hyper. OR, two will be doing great while one is sleepy and one is hungry. He was positive about having a "big" family, but real at the same time. 

Anyhow, he confirmed that I would definitely need surgery because I actually had a double hernia. One hernia was above my belly button (the more severe one) while the other was located in my belly button. He planned to do the surgery laparoscopically, but wanted to allow my body to continue to heal from pregnancy for a few more weeks. The surgery was scheduled for Thursday, April 16th.

Dr. G had told me that I needed to plan to have full time help for a minimum of two weeks as my lifting would be completely restricted. My mom took off from work to come down and be with us during the day of the surgery and for a few days afterwards. Chris took of work on the day of surgery so he could be with me. My surgery was scheduled for 7:00am, but we had to check in at 5:30am. This meant that we had to leave our house at 4:30am!

Prepped and ready for surgery!

One of my biggest concerns (even bigger than the surgery itself) was my milk supply and Brecklyn eating. Brecklyn was completely refusing to take a bottle at this point, and Dr. G had told me that I would have to pump and dump for the first 24 hours after surgery. I talked with the girls' pediatrician about this, and he also recommended that I pump and dump for 24 hours. Regarding Brecklyn and the bottle, he basically said that she would take one when she was desperate enough. Sigh. I had also been working really, really hard to build my milk supply up enough where I was able to pump and store milk for those 24 hours when I wouldn't be able to nurse. I needed roughly 60 ounces stored for the girls. I was concerned that with not being able to eat OR drink anything after midnight on the day of my surgery that my supply would be affected.

I explained my situation to the nurse that prepped me for surgery, and she made time for me to pump right before I went back. Fortunately, my supply was not affected too much by not being able to eat or drink.

It wasn't long after being wheeled back to the OR that the anaesthesiologist came to put me to sleep. While drifting off, Dr. G stood and held my hand, reassuring me that he would do his best to take care of me.

Surgery went well, though I woke up in severe pain and very nauseous. I pumped again in recovery (strictly adhering to a 3 hour feeding schedule), and we were on our way back home by about noon. I continued to feel very nauseated on the ride home, and ended up throwing up in our yard as soon as I got out of the car. I quickly snuck in the house and to my room. I didn't want the babies to see me since I couldn't nurse them at that point, and I really couldn't even hold them. Despite my efforts, Brecklyn somehow knew that I was home. She started crying not long after I got home and continued for almost two hours. It was horrible! I had no choice but to lay in bed and listen to her fuss and cry, knowing there was nothing I could do to help her. My mom and my sister were taking care of my kiddos, and I felt bad for them, too! Chris finally got Brecklyn to take just a couple ounces of a bottle which was enough for her to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, I had my alarm set to wake up and pump every three hours. It was so hard to rest like I needed to when I had to continuously pump! And really, it was SO sad to have to dump all that milk down the drain :-(.

I dumped roughly 70 ounces that day!

Truly as painful as it looks!

While I was resting, my mom and sister made these super-cute fish cupcakes with the older kiddos. Adorable!

That night, Chris decided to put the babies in Brecklyn's crib to sleep for the first time. At this point, they were still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our bedroom at night, but we didn't want them in there with me (because we felt like it would be harder for them since I couldn't nurse). I didn't know how they'd do, but they both slept well! And, Brecklyn FINALLY gave in and took a full bottle during the night. We were ALL relieved! 

The next morning, Chris went on to work while my mom and sister stayed with me and took care the of the kids. The babies were so happy to be able to nurse again (and so was I!), but I had to nurse them laying in bed with a pillow between us protecting my tummy. I was extremely sore for several days, and I tried to rest as much as possible.

Mom & Brooke

On the Tuesday following my surgery (April 22nd), my Uncle Justin, Aunt Cindy, and my Granny came to visit. They had been trying to come down since the twins were born, and our plans had fallen through twice. This time, it worked out!

Aunt Cindy and Brecklyn:

Granny and Brooke:

Brecklyn, Granny, and an unhappy Brooke:

Still unhappy!

Mom holding Brooke, Granny holding Brecklyn:

The girls were born on Aunt Cindy's birthday, so this is a photo of the birthday triplets :-).

Brecklyn, Aunt Cindy, Brooke, and Uncle Justin:

Brecklyn, Aunt Cindy, Brooke, Uncle Justin, Brianna, and Brenson:

While it was wonderful to have visitors, I didn't rest like I should have and needed to. I ended up feeling really run down that evening and noticed that one of my incisions (I had 7 small incisions) was seeping and had an odor. This concerned me, for sure. I ended up going to see Dr. Griffin the next morning to have him check it out. I was super afraid that it was infected, but thankfully it wasn't. At this point, it had been one full week since surgery, and I was surprised at how slow I was still moving. I know that Dr. G had said to plan on a two week recovery, but I generally bounce back pretty quickly. I think part of the reason for my slower recovery was that my body was still healing and recovering from twin pregnancy AND that it was working so hard to produce milk for two babies. I was still a bit disappointed with the slow healing, though.

My Mom left to go back home right after my appointment with Dr. G. It was so wonderful to have her here, and we are forever thankful for her help!

G-Jo with Brecklyn:

G-Jo with Brenson and Brianna:

For the next week, I had lined up various friends and family to come help me. Chris took two days off from work and his mom came to help during that time as well. I thought it would be really difficult to not lift the babies, but I truly did not feel like doing much of anything, let alone any lifting. My core stayed very sore for the entire two weeks!

My friend, Angie, also came one day to be with us. She actually took off work to be here! I am truly blessed with wonderful friends!

Another day, my friend Amy was here. She also took a day off work to help us out!

My friend Kendall's mom came and helped for a day, and my sister was also a huge help to us. I'm sad that I didn't get photos of everyone! We had several others who brought food over, and we were grateful for that!

After two weeks, Dr. G released me to lift again. He said that I just needed to follow the rule, "If it hurts, don't do it!" I was very careful at first, but slowly worked back into my normal activities. Dr. G told me that I may feel sore every now and then for a while, but I only remember feeling that way one time about 6 weeks after surgery. For the most part, I felt great after those first two weeks!

During recovery, we took several family walks in the evenings (nice and slow) to help me work back into activity. The babies loved them!

Really, it was refreshing for us all!

It was about two full months after surgery before I would say that I felt 100 percent normal and free to bend, twist, and lift without hesitation. My belly button looks great, and most of the scars from the incisions have really faded. I am so glad that we got this taken care of early and that it didn't turn into an emergency situation. And, I'm very thankful for a great surgeon and successful healing!

Postpartum Check-up

One week ago today, I had my 6 week postpartum check-up with Dr. N. I was actually 7 weeks and a few days postpartum at the appointment because he was out of the office the entire week before, and I didn't want to see anyone but him. 

In the past, Chris and I have taken our entire family to the postpartum appointment. Dr. N doesn't do any kind of physical exam, and it's fun to show off our new baby to the nurses and staff. This time, however, I was kind of conflicted about what we should do. It would have been SO much easier for me to go to the appointment by myself, but at the same time I wanted to take the babies in. We finally decided that we would just drag our whole circus up there - and yes, we are certainly a circus these days! *grin*

As usual, I scheduled a morning appointment with hopes that we wouldn't have to wait too long to see Dr. N. We were called back by his nurse fairly quickly, and he came in the room after only about 20 minutes. That's not bad at all for his office! There are several doctors in the practice, so they have quite a few nurses and staff. However, Dr. N has two nurses that primarily work for him. One of his nurses I like really well. She's friendly and competent and upbeat. She is the nurse who came to the hospital to observe my delivery. His other nurse is not my favorite. Whenever she would call me back to do my weight and blood pressure readings when I was pregnant, she was very quiet and not friendly. I think I had only seen her smile one time. I always had to ask what my blood pressure reading was, and sometimes when I would ask her questions she would act annoyed. When I had to have my rhogam shot, my not-so-favorite nurse gave it to me. She was seriously yawning and sighing while she was doing it! Very unprofessional! 

The one I don't care for is the one who called us back at this appointment, but I hardly recognized her. She was smiley and friendly and chatty and kept telling us how precious the babies were. I was shocked but happy to finally see a different side of her! My weight was one pound above my pre-pregnancy weight according to their scale, and my blood pressure was 122 over 76.

Our not-so-little family waiting for Dr. N to come in:

Brooke was awake and a little fussy while we were waiting.

My sweet Baby A :-):

Brecklyn was sound asleep in her carseat, so we just left her there!

Bren was being so cute. I think he was excited to see Dr. N again.

Brianna has a hard time with waiting, so this was good practice for her.

Of course, it didn't take long for Bren to be done with the waiting, too. Ha!

It was a little surreal to be in that office with the babies on the outside of me. I felt like we had come full circle.

When Dr. N busted in our room, he was waving two little pink blankets and saying, "Yaaaaaay, I get to give away two blankets! Yaaaaay!" Haha! Then he looked at the babies and said, "Wow! We have a Mommy and a Daddy I see!" Brooke was still fussing a bit, so he took her and she calmed right down on his shoulder. He said, "I don't know what the problem is here, Mom. She's as calm as can be." Chris said, "She likes loud people." Ha! Dr. N pretended to act offended, so Chris said, "Like you don't already know!" We all got a laugh out of that. 

As he was holding Brooke, he made several comments about how Brecklyn was so chill (she was still sleeping in her carseat). He said it was because she got all of her drama out in the delivery room :-). As scary as her delivery was, it does make for a good story. He kept referring to it as "the one-legged breech delivery". 

After just a few questions about how I was feeling, the appointment was over. He gave Brooke back to me, patted my shoulder, said, "Good job, Mom" and walked out of the room. Thankfully, Chris was there with me and remembered to ask Dr. N about my belly button. In all the excitement/commotion that is Dr. N, I went completely blank on the questions I had for him!

When I was pregnant with Brenson, my belly button herniated pretty badly. He told me then that after I was done having babies, I would probably need to get it surgically repaired. It did mostly heal after I gave birth, but as soon as I became pregnant with the twins, it popped out again. And this time, it was much larger and more severe than it had been before. Dr. N had warned me several times during my pregnancy that I would likely be having surgery on it not long after I delivered. 

After I gave birth and my stomach started really shrinking, we could see how bad the hernia really was. It sticks out about an inch, and is at least an inch wide, as well. Sometimes, it causes me a lot of pain, but I can push it in and that will often help it feel better. Dr. N looked at it through my clothes, felt it quickly, and said, "Yep, you need to see a surgeon." He had his nurse, Tiffany, call in a referral for me, and I actually have surgery scheduled for just a few weeks from now. I'll do another post all about my appointment with the surgeon. One more pat on the back, and we were all through with our appointment (for real, this time). 

I was a little bit surprised with myself after we left Dr. N's office. I couldn't help but feel really sad to be leaving. The girls are very likely our last babies, and I will see Dr. P (my RE) for my gynecological needs from now on. The thought of never going back to that office or seeing Dr. N just made me more sad than I expected to be. He's a great doctor and has been part of some of the biggest moments of our lives. I will truly miss going to that office! 

Also, I immediately regretted how several things went during our appointment. Obviously, I had the camera with us, so WHY didn't I take photos of us with Dr. N when he was in our room?!? It just completely slipped my mind. Also, Tiffany was there but wasn't the nurse who called us back, so she didn't see the babies. I did see her in the hall when I was getting weighed, and I wished I had asked her if she wanted to come see the girls. She saw them briefly in the delivery room, but I wanted her to be able to see them in a calmer environment. I was just distracted and wasn't thinking straight. So, not only did I feel super sad after leaving, but I had regrets, too. Booooo.

However, I am feeling less sad now and just thankful to have had such a good and special doctor in our lives. Thank you, Dr. N, for everything (photo from the hospital when I girls were one day old)!

The Name Game

Now that our precious girls have arrived and we've revealed their names to everyone, I thought I should share with you how we chose their names and what they mean to us. Also, I think that someday the girls will be interested in this information, so what better place to document it than here?

We've had several people ask us if we planned to give all of our children names beginning with the same letter. The answer? No. In fact, unlike many couples, Chris and I didn't really have any name plans set in stone. What we would name our children was just something we never talked about before we got married, and rarely discussed after we were married. I'm not sure why? I do remember very early on in our marriage (we were still in college, so we had been married less than 3 years), we watched a movie with a character named Malachi that everyone called just Chi (with a hard "K" and long "i" sound). After the movie was over, we both said we really liked that name/nickname combo, but that was pretty much the extent of our talk. Also, I had heard the name Brenson when I was about 15 years old and had loved it ever since. Chris was aware of this, and I knew that he really liked it, too. Other than that, we hadn't really discussed names and certainly hadn't decided anything.

Our four adorable Bs

After we realized that infertility was going to be a serious issue for us, the topic of names kind of became taboo. It was just a big trigger for both of us, and I think it's because it brought up a lot of fear. What if we never had the privilege of naming a child? What if we picked out names that we loved but never got to use them? How would we feel every time we heard that name? There was just too much baggage, so we didn't go there.

And, even after we found out we were expecting Brianna, we put off the name conversation for quite a while. In fact, we didn't decide on her name for sure until about a week before she was born! When we did finally decide on her name, we weren't thinking about what we may name any subsequent children. We had no idea if we'd even be able to have any more after her, so it's just not something we considered. Had our first two children been girls, I'm pretty sure their names would not have both started with the letter "B". At the time we were expecting Brenson, we really liked Katelynn for a girl. However, as we all know, he came out a boy so we named him Brenson and that gave us two children with "B" names.

Our sweet baby Brianna Elisabeth Jo

When we became pregnant with B3 in October of 2012, I immediately told Chris that I wanted another "B" name. For me, I didn't like the idea of having two children with the same letter name and a third child with a different letter (especially since we didn't know if we'd be able to have any more after B3). I actually know quite a few families where that is the case and it doesn't bother me, but for my family that's just not what I wanted. Chris was fine with that, and thus we began calling the baby B3. For the record, both of us were convinced that B3 was a boy, so we had pretty much decided to name him Ben . . . we just didn't know if we would go with Benjamin or Bennett. We didn't even discuss a girl name.

The twinbies were probably the most difficult to name out of all our children. After two losses, we didn't discuss names until I was at least 14 weeks along, and even then we weren't for sure if we were having two boys, two girls, or one of each so naming felt very overwhelming. When we did find out for sure that we were expecting two girls, we talked very seriously about giving them their own letter. However, the two names that I loved were Brooke and Cammie (this would have been a nickname for something . . . probably Campbell or maybe Cambria). How do you have Brianna, Brenson, Brooke, and Cammie though? I really didn't like the idea of that! But, I couldn't find a name that I loved more than Brooke, so that brought us back to the "B"s.

Our handsome Brenson Charles Jacob

Chris actually preferred to go with all "B" names, so he pretty much immediately agreed to Brooke. Now we just had to come up with a second name. We looked a lot online and came up with three names that we both thought could work: Braigen (where the ai is pronounced with a long a and the e as a short e), Brecklyn, and Briley. I was really fond of both Braigen and Brecklyn, with Briley coming in a distant 3rd. Chris liked all three, but his favorite was probably Briley. Braigen was deleted from the list fairly quickly as every time Chris said it, it would come out sounding like Bregin (short e and short i). He didn't mean for it to, it just did and that would never work for me! So, with Braigen deleted, I was set on Brecklyn. It {surprisingly} didn't take much convincing for Chris to love it too, although he didn't tell me that immediately. I found out that he had converted to my side when one night before bed he prayed for Brooke and Brecklyn. I may have squealed just a little during the prayer :-).

Then, we were left with the task of choosing middle names. Both Brianna and Brenson have two middle names . . . a bible name and a family name. Brianna's middle names are Elisabeth Jo (Jo is my Mom's middle name), and Brenson's are Charles Jacob (Charles is my Dad's name). We knew we wanted to use Mae as one of the middle names as it is my middle name given to me because it is the middle name of both of my grandmothers. We had also decided that we would use Faith as a middle name to represent our long journey of infertility and baby loss. That left us needing one more bible name and one more family name (I count Faith as a bible name).

Chris's mom had sent me some name suggestions, and one of those suggestions was Sara. This was the name of her grandmother who helped raise her, so it was certainly a family name that meant a great deal to her. I have always been fond of the name Sara, and it was actually already on our list. However, I wanted to spell it Sarah like Sarah of the bible because I just love her story of how God fulfilled her dreams for a baby in a most unexpected way (even though she had tried to take matters into her own hands . . . such a lesson there!). Chris and I agreed that Brecklyn Sarah Faith was both beautiful and meaningful to us, so we officially decided that that would be Baby B's name!

Our darling Brecklyn Sarah Faith

As far as Brooke goes, we had a much harder time. It was her first middle name that was tripping us up, as we thought something with three syllables would sound the best. After googling "female bible names with three syllables", we were able to come up with a short list of names we thought might work. However, we didn't really love any of them or their meanings. Then one day, I was browsing the internet and the name Eliana came up. It wasn't exactly a bible name, but I read that it meant "My God has answered" and I was sold from that point on! How perfect was that?!? We had prayed for YEARS for these babies - and especially after losing two babies and not knowing if I'd ever be able to carry another - I just LOVED the meaning of the name. I brought it up to Chris, and he also loved the meaning.

What we didn't love is the way the name sounded. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, it was not our favorite. However, the more I used it (and said it with Brooke), the more it grew on me. Chris struggled a bit more with learning to like the way it sounds, but he also came around. I was about 34 weeks along when we finally settled on Brooke Eliana Mae for sure.

Our precious Brooke Eliana Mae

While we definitely struggled with naming these babies, we do love the names we finally settled on! We feel like they are the perfect mix of names we like and names that are meaningful.

Twin Pregnancy: Our Hospital Stay

*The story of my labor and delivery of the twins is here.*

*A post about the hours immediately following their birth is here.* 

During the first few hours after we were moved to our postpartum room, our room was super busy with hospital staff coming in and out and grandparents visiting. However, Chris's parents left at about 5:00pm (mine had already gone) and the number of hospital staff coming in and out dwindled a bit. It was so nice to get a break from all the commotion. This was the first opportunity that Chris and I had to spend time with our babies by ourselves, and it was much needed! It was also around this time that some severe pain was beginning to set in for me. I don't know if it's because I finally had time to notice it or because my epidural had completely worn off, but it hit me fast and hard. Chris called a nurse to give me pain meds, and when she came in she asked me when I had last taken anything for pain. I told her that I hadn't taken anything yet, and she was surprised that I hadn't been offered pain meds previously. I took one ibuprofen and one percocet at that time, but asked for a second percocet about a half hour later. I was trying to take the smallest amount of pain meds needed, but I was hurting too badly at that point to take less than the maximum dosage. 

As a side note: When I gave birth to Brianna, I never took anything stronger than ibuprofen. After Brenson's birth, I took mostly ibuprofen with a few doses of percocet here and there (but only for a few days after his birth). This time? I took ibuprofen and percocet around the clock for 4 days, then slowly tapered off the percocet until I took my last dose at 7 days after their birth. Like I mentioned in their birth story, I was pretty torn up this time and I definitely felt it!

After having a few hours to ourselves with the girls, my friends Kendall and Angie came to visit. I was thrilled to see them and to introduce them to my babies!

Kendall - a pro twin mom - holding Brecklyn and Brooke. 

After the birth of each of our children, Kendall has gotten cookies personalized with their names and brought them to us at the hospital. This is such a fun tradition . . . aren't they cute?!?

Angie holding Brooke and Brecklyn:

Angie and I have a photo of us at the hospital holding Kendall's twin girls (who are now two years old) that looks almost exactly like this! Kendall even delivered her girls at this same hospital, so the pattern on the couch is the same :-).

Brecklyn and Brooke . . . as their swelling from birth went down, they looked even less alike than they had already.

Sweet, sleepy Brecklyn:

Kendall wanted a photo of me holding the girls, and I realized that I hadn't held them both at the same time yet. I was finally feeling well enough to hold them together!

Brecklyn, Momma, & Brooke

We also hadn't gotten any photos of both Chris and me with the babies. Everything had just been so chaotic all day long!

Daddy, Brecklyn, Momma, & Brooke

Daddy, Brecklyn, Momma, & Brooke

Kendall, Brecklyn, Brooke, & Momma

Angie holding Brecklyn and Kendall holding Brooke

My sweet twin baby girls . . . Brecklyn & Brooke

After Kendall and Angie left, it was time for the girls to nurse again. At this point, both girls were nursing for close to an hour and eating about every three hours (or less). I decided that I wanted to try and nurse them together so that I would actually be able to get a little bit of rest. I held them both in the football hold, and they did great! I was so pleased to be able to tandem nurse them successfully so soon. 

Our first night in the hospital was okay. I was in quite a bit of pain, but was able to get up and take myself to the restroom (slowly) and nurse the girls. Chris did the diaper changing and transferring the girls in and out of their bassinets. The nurses were still coming in and out of our room fairly frequently, but we were able to get some rest. We did send the babies to the nursery for about two hours between 2:00am and 4:00am, and both slept solid during that time for sure. 

The next morning, our pediatrician came by around 7:30am to check the babies. He was especially concerned about Brecklyn with what she had gone through during delivery. Also, I haven't mentioned this yet, but Brecklyn was born with a large, circular indention in her skull. It's on the left side of her head behind her ear. It's about the size of golf ball and would be very obvious if not for her hair. Dr. F was pretty concerned about this (as were we!) as well as the shape her hips were in after a one-legged breech delivery. He determined that her hips and bottom looked good, but he wanted to do more research on the indention in her head. The nursery staff had already informed him about the issue with her skull, and his initial research pointed him to what is called a ping-pong ball fracture. However, he wanted to do additional research after he examined it himself. 

About two hours after leaving our room, Dr. F called my cell phone. Chris talked to him, and he reported that he and a colleague both agreed that it was indeed a ping-pong ball fracture. They aren't sure how it got there, but his theory and most of the nurses' theory is that my ribs or some part of Brooke put pressure in that spot in the womb and her skull basically formed around whatever it was. This makes perfect sense to me as she was almost always breech and very high (always putting pressure on my ribs!). Dr. F said that although we'll watch it closely, there's nothing we can do about it at this time. If she showed any signs of brain damage, they would do a CT scan or an ultrasound on it, but she doesn't at this time. It should "pop" out as her brain grows and be all but gone by the time she's about 6 months old. We hope and pray that it fixes itself with no problems!

I was able to get a shower, put on clothes, and fix my hair shortly after Dr. F left our room. This felt SO good!!! I was finishing up with my hair when my mom arrived with Brianna and Brenson. 

It felt so good to have our whole little family together!

Brenson had been fever-free the whole day before, so we thought it was okay for him to go ahead and come to the hospital. Even though him not being there the day before wasn't what we wanted, I think it actually worked out for the best. He would have really been overwhelmed with all the commotion of the previous day, so it was much better that he met the babies in the calmer atmosphere of the next morning. And yes, I do look like I'm pregnant with the girls' triplet sister in these photos. It took several days for my uterus to really shrink this time. It was just SO big when I was pregnant!

Bren was interested in seeing the babies, but he did not want to touch them. We didn't force anything, but let him warm up in his own time.

Family photo!

Brianna couldn't wait to get her hands on them!

Brooke in the dark pink bow, Brecklyn in the light pink bow:

Bren was also very curious about my bed, my room, and my hospital bracelets.

Another family photo . . . I was so happy to have all of my children there together!

Big sister was just beaming again (holding Brecklyn)!

G-Jo (holding Brooke) with four of her grandbabies:

Around noon, Dr. N popped in to check on me. He was so funny because Mom made a comment to him about the "intense" delivery, and he totally joked it off like it was no biggie. Of course, we all knew that even he got pretty serious for a few minutes in the delivery room, so it was a little bit of a big deal :-). He did tell us that it had probably been 15 years since this hospital had seen a one-legged breech delivery, so there was certainly a buzz about it (and this hospital has a high number of babies delivered there a year . . . when we had Bren, there were 42 new babies there that day). Apparently the med student that was in the OR observing was pretty excited to have witnessed it! 

Since I didn't get a photo of him with the babies the day before, I wanted to be sure and get one this day. When I handed him the babies, he knew exactly who was Baby A and Baby B. I was shocked! I said, "I can't believe you knew that!" and he said, "I spent a lot more time looking at Baby B's face, so I remembered." That alone tells you what kind of doctor he is!

Brecklyn, Dr. N, & Brooke:

Almost every time a new nurse would come in our room, they would say something like, "Oh, I heard about your delivery" or "You're the one who had one of your twins born breech doing the splits!" We were kind of infamous :-). We also heard from several nurses (like probably 5) that we are lucky to have Dr. N as our doctor, that he's the best, or that we should be glad he was the one in the delivery room making decisions. We think he's a great doctor and we trust him, but it was nice to hear from nurses that work with him that he's a good doctor! We had spent a lot of time praying for Dr. N's wisdom, discretion, and ability to make quick, sound decisions during delivery, and we certainly feel like those prayers were answered!

Brianna, Brecklyn, Dr. N, Brooke, and Brenson :-)

After Dr. N left, we convinced Bren to let Brecklyn sit on his lap for a photo:

Love these four!

However, when we asked him to take another family photo, this is what we got:

Ha! I think picture sums up pretty well how Brenson felt about this whole ordeal!

Here's a happier face :-):

Me and my girls . . . love!

Both Brianna and Brenson wanted to see the babies' feet, legs, belly buttons, etc. Here I am explaining to them about the hospital bracelets the babies had to wear:

Bren was very interested in examining his little sisters, but not touching them!

My friend, Tia, came by a little after lunchtime. Bren was super excited to see her even though he had been giving me the cold shoulder all morning!

Mom and the older kids stayed until about 2:00pm, then she took them home for naptime. For about the last hour they were there, the kiddos were acting pretty out of control. They weren't listening well and just acting out more than I thought they would. It was nice to have some peace and quiet after they left!

Brecklyn in mint, Brooke in white:

We rested and soaked up our precious newborns until about 6:00pm when we got another round of company. This time it was Chris's parents and Chris's sister and her family. We were happy to see everyone!

Cousin Abby, Brecklyn, and Uncle Joe:

Brooke, Aunt Cassie, and Cousin Zeke:

Zeke, Cassie (holding Brooke), Abby, and Joe (holding Brecklyn):

This photo is so cute! Zeke holding Brooke and Abby holding Brecklyn:

They all left at about 7:30pm, and my friend Amy arrived right about that same time.

Brecklyn, Amy, and Brooke:

Brooke was being so sweet and calm during this time. 

See how much they don't look alike? Brooke in lavender, Brecklyn in mint:

This is one of my favorite photos of the girls from the hospital!

Brooke & Brecklyn

Brecklyn decided that she had had enough of peaceful sleep and decided to cry for a bit.

Then doze off again . . .

Brooke was awake and calm this whole time:

Love this photo of Brooke:

These next few photos make me laugh. This pretty well sums up the remainder of our hospital stay as Brecklyn was very fussy for the rest of the time we were there. And Brooke? She kind of looks like, "What's all the fuss, sister?" Lol.

We finally got Brecklyn calmed down and asleep again for a while.

However, that night ALL Brecklyn wanted to do was nurse. I was drinking tons of water and snacking constantly, but I felt like Brecklyn just wasn't getting satisfied. She would nurse for over an hour, then be fussing and rooting again 20 minutes later! It was exhausting! We finally called the nursery to come take them at about 2:00am. Brecklyn had just nursed for an hour, but was fussing again when the nursery nurse came to get her. She asked us about supplementing with a bit of formula. As much as I didn't want to do that, I wanted Brecklyn to be satisfied, so I agreed. However, I specifically asked that they bring both babies back to me at 4:00am for me to nurse them, even if they gave them a small supplement. The nurse agreed and took the babies.

I woke up at about 4:15 am and was surprised that they hadn't brought the babies back yet. Chris called the nursery and was told that they would bring them back to us at 5:00am. I was furious! I wanted to nurse them every three hours to help stimulate my milk and my supply . . . that's why I asked for them back at 4:00am. Plus, they had given both babies a supplement of formula when we had only agreed for them to give it to Brecklyn. Brooke seemed to be doing just fine. NOT okay with me! At 5:30am, Chris finally went to retrieve the girls as they had not been brought back to us. I wasn't able to nurse them until almost 6:00am! This made me so mad as I knew that I needed to be stimulated more than that if I ever hoped to make enough milk for both girls. It had been FIVE hours since I had fed them at this point. On the one hand, we had lactation consultants being pushy with me about nursing, and on the other we had nursery nurses who didn't seem to care that I did want to nurse. It was extremely frustrating!

The next morning, Dr. F stopped by at about 7:30am and released the babies to go home. Dr. N came by at around 8:00am and released me to go home. We were thrilled and ready to get out of there!

But first, a few more photos :-).

Brooke

These are pictures that Brianna and Brenson made for us to decorate our hospital room. They made them a week or so before the girls were born and put them in the diaper bag :-).

Brecklyn was still having a very hard time. Poor girl.

We calmed her enough for a photo, but she was still tense (notice the straight legs and feet).

Daddy holding Brecklyn:

Momma with Brooke:

Yes, I look very tired this day, but I was still soaking up my sweet babies! 

During Brianna's birth, we had an L&D nurse that we were not impressed with. Her name was Nan, and she was very absentminded and flighty. Well, wouldn't you know that our nurse this morning was Nan! The minute she walked in our room, we remembered her. And do you know the first thing she did? She checked my c-section incision! I was so confused about what she was doing, and it finally dawned on me. She was pretty embarrassed when I told her I delivered the girls vaginally (and apparently she was the only nurse who hadn't heard the story of our delivery!) I was not impressed to have her as my nurse again, but we got a good laugh about it later!

It took a good while to get all the discharge paperwork completed and our stuff packed up to go. However, FINALLY at about 12:30pm, we were ready to leave!

Brooke and Brecklyn all ready to go home!

We loaded up and had to wait at the nurses' desk to get our hospital bands removed. Brecklyn started screaming at this point, and didn't stop for the next 30 minutes. She made quite the scene!

It was a little stressful riding home with Brecklyn screaming. She screamed until she became hoarse, then finally settled down and fell asleep for the remainder of the drive.

Daddy carrying a {finally} calm Brecklyn into the house:

Brianna couldn't wait to see the babies! Daddy could barely get in the door with her!

By this time, Brooke had started fussing. But, we were so happy to be home and finally have the babies here that we didn't care!

As usual, things felt really chaotic when we first got home, but they soon settled down. Praise God for two healthy babies, a successful delivery, and our expanded family!