Well, if you’ve been kept on with me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know that the boys have arrived. If you need even more meaty details, this is the post for you! Please excuse me if this post is nothing, but goofiness–I’m still taking pain killers.

So what happened?

I was scheduled to be on bed rest from early Sunday morning (2-ish) until my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday afternoon. We did some shuffling, got family members lined up to keep an eye on Charlie, and I was a very good pregnant lady, staying in bed, mostly flat, and getting up to go to the bathroom. By Tuesday afternoon, I had effectively kicked the contraction train and thought that I’d be placed on modified movement after my appointment.

Well, at around 3:45 Wednesday morning, my water broke. Hubby and I sat around for a while trying to figure out if that’s actually what happened and finally just took ourselves over to Labor and Delivery for a test.

Louis, one day old

Sure enough, my water had broken, so they shot me up with steroids to strengthen the boys’ lungs, and put me on constant monitoring and bed rest. The boys continued to well, with steady heart rates, and we really thought that we would make it to Friday, which would have been 34 weeks gestation.

Again, the boys had other plans and I went into full blown labor around early Thursday morning. My doctor had warned me for ages that he wouldn’t wait if there was an issue with the babies, and both boys were delivered before two in the morning. Both boys cried when delivered. Their weights were almost exactly what had been estimated two weeks ago, which I find interesting–had they stopped growing? Or were the measurements just perfectly off? August weighed in a 3 lbs. 10 oz. and Louis was 5 lbs. 8 oz. Not too shabby for boys born 7 weeks early.

Louis was in a bit of distress, so they hustled him off to be ventilated and tiny August held his own with no problems.

So those are the facts. Now here’s my completely unsubstantiated theory:

When the boys were born, Louis was in some distress and had a low iron count–despite being the larger of the two babies. Louis is the same baby that was suspected of having Fifth’s Disease. Despite how good he had been doing, Friday (today) would have officially marked the end of his “high risk” period.

I think he was still sick. He was doing his best, but at some point his little body just couldn’t take any more.

August, one day old

No doctor would ever back me up on that theory, but he’s gotten better practically by the minute since he’s been born. By ten o’clock the day he was born, they were able to take him off the ventilator. Today they were able to start letting him have actually food (through a tube, but still). August is my spunky boy–they told me I might as well go ahead and get roller skates because he’s going to be running me ragged before I know it.

We are very happy. This birth, while still quite dramatic, is so much easier than Charlie’s. I wish the babies could have stayed put for a bit longer, but for us, it’s clear that Louis needed things that my body could no longer give him. We will hope for the best.

Again, please feel free to ask me any question I didn’t answer, or anything that wasn’t clear–given birth, lost some blood, and taken a bunch of pain killers–it’s entirely possible I just typed this entire post in French and didn’t realize it.