The Twins' First Photoshoot

When the twins were 6 days old, their Aunt Holly came over for their first photo shoot so that I would have some cute pictures to use for their birth announcement.  She takes great pictures and I am grateful that she had taken the time to learn to use her new camera (unlike me, who still has the manual sitting on my desk waiting to be read). 

She came up with the great idea to put a heating pad on one of Aiden's bean bags and then cover it with the beautiful hand made blankets that my Mom gave us.  This worked out great as the babies mostly just stayed asleep and let us pose them however we wanted. 

Holly took over 300 pictures. 

These are just some of the "gems".

Sweet Little Addison

Our "Chill" Boy Ryan

Baby feet - so cute!

Cuddle time

So peaceful.....

A BIG thanks to Aunt Holly for helping us document this exciting time in our lives!!!

The twins are here!

I know it has been more than a month since the twins arrived, but since I am just now getting this blog going, I figured I should start at the beginning.  So, for those of you that hadn't heard exactly how these little cuties came into the world - here is my birth story in all its glory.  Sorry if it is a little on the long side - I didn't want to leave anything out.


I knew “something” was happening the weekend that the twins arrived. I had been having serious nesting urges for about a week prior to their birth and the day before they arrived I just HAD to finish cleaning the family room, kitchen and living room so that they would be clean and ready for whenever the twins decided to arrive. That Saturday, I was pretty sure that lost my mucus plug. I knew from my internet research that this didn’t really mean much and that I could go into labor within hours or weeks. However, I just felt “different” somehow and joked with Chris that I didn’t think it would be too long before I went into labor.
 That Saturday night, I went out to dinner with Kellie, a friend from high school and again remarked that I was starting to feel like things were moving along. Along with losing my mucus plug, I had also been feeling a lot more pressure in my pelvis since Addison moved to a head down position. After mentioning to Chris repeatedly that I didn’t think we would have to wait too much longer, he asked that I at least not go into labor during the evening hours (when we would be tired from a long day) but that I only go into labor in the morning. Well, he got his wish.


Chris was snoring on Saturday night and I didn’t have the heart to continually wake him to make him stop, so I took my pile of pillows out to the family room to sleep on the couch. Plus, I was restless. I finally drifted off to sleep, only to awake several times over the next few hours to use the restroom (as I had become accustomed). When I awoke for my 4 a.m. potty break, I noticed that I was having some contractions. I wasn’t too alarmed as I had been having contractions since the 24 week mark. However, I was surprised that they continued at about 10 minutes apart since I knew I was well hydrated and hadn’t been doing anything physical. I drank some more water and grabbed a pen and notepad to start timing them. They continued to be 10 or so minutes apart for about the next hour and then picked up to about 6-8 minutes apart. I didn’t wake Chris because I still wasn’t sure this was the real thing (since they weren’t hurting that much, just slightly uncomfortable) and even if it was, I wanted him to rest. At around 5:40 a.m., I felt Addison kick me harder than she ever had before and heard a “pop”. My water had broken.  There was no longer any doubt in my mind that I was in labor.
I then went to the bedroom and woke up Chris. After my water broke, my contractions slowed down a bit and really weren’t bothering me at all. I took a shower and put on some makeup. I then called Kaiser and they said that we did need to come in but they didn’t sound like we needed to rush. I also called my parents to let them know to get ready and meet us at the hospital. Chris and I took our time getting ready at first since we figured we had a LONG day ahead of us. We were wrong.


After quickly putting on some makeup, I attempted to start packing up the few odds and ends that I hadn’t already put with the pile of stuff to go to the hospital. However, since my water was still leaking everywhere, I had to direct Chris what else needed to be packed. He showered and got everything in the car. About an hour after my water broke, I went from having very few contractions (which were virtually painless) to being in full blown, “kill me now,” super intense labor. Very suddenly, my contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and were hurting like hell. I told Chris that we needed to leave NOW.
 We hurried to the car and I struggled to breath through my contractions the whole way to the hospital. I was so miserable that when we arrived, Chris didn’t bother grabbing any of our hospital stuff and just parked the car to rush in to check on me who was in triage. Besides, we figured we had plenty of time for him to go out and grab everything (like the camera and the birthing ball) after I got settled since surely I would be in labor for at least 10 hours. Again, wrong.


Once in triage, the nurses tried to get me to sign my admission forms, which was very difficult since my contractions seemed to be only 1-2 minutes apart and were SO PAINFUL. I told them that I was feeling a lot of pressure “down there” and they finally had someone check me. The doctor was very surprised to find that I was already 7 centimeters dilated. My parents finally arrived and lucky for us brought in their camera so that we were able to get some pictures.

The doctors then said that they needed to do an ultrasound to confirm that Baby A wasn’t significantly smaller than Baby B (since I wanted a vaginal delivery). They knew things were moving fast so they hurried us up to labor and delivery to do the ultrasound there. Luckily, there wasn’t time.


In the short time it took us to travel from triage to labor and delivery, my contractions got even more intense and by the time we got up there I was yelling that I felt like I needed to push. The doctor checked me again and was again surprised to find that I only had an anterior lip. She then told the nurses that they needed to get me into the operating room NOW and that there wasn’t time for an ultrasound. They then explained to me that since Baby B was still traverse, and they would likely have to manually turn him to deliver him vaginally, I really should have an epidural to make the process bearable. I agreed since I was in a lot of pain and had already done all of my laboring naturally anyway. Once we got into the operating room, the doctor confirmed that I was fully dilated and that Baby A’s head was at +3 station. I then had to sit up on the operating room table and lean over a doctor while the anesthesiologist gave me an epidural. I think that part was the most painful of all since I had to stay very still and he couldn’t wait for a break between contractions because by then there weren’t any. Once the epidural was in, it took what seemed like a good 10-15 minutes for it to take effect and I kept worrying to myself that it wasn’t working. Once it finally kicked it, I was somewhat relieved to finally be free from the terrible pain I had been in. I have to say, it is a very strange experience to have your entire lower body totally numb. Once the anesthesiologist confirmed that the epidural had taken effect, it was time to push. Unfortunately, I couldn’t feel my contractions and they weren’t showing up on the monitor so they had to give me some pitocin to jump start things again. Since the contractions still weren’t showing up, the nurse had to continually palpitate my belly to try to figure out when I should push. Once it was time, they told me to push like I was having a bowel movement. However, I couldn’t feel ANYTHING down there so that was useless. The only way I could even tell I was pushing at all was that I sort of felt like I was lifting my upper body to so a sit up. They kept telling me how great I was pushing and I thought it was sort of funny since I couldn’t even feel what I was doing. As Addison crowned, the doctor asked me if I wanted to feel her head and I said yes. It was very cool. Also, Chris was such a trooper as he continually watched what was going on “down there” and wasn’t grossed out or alarmed by anything. Since I couldn’t see, he kept telling me what he was seeing and gave me encouragement that I was making great progress. Without too much pushing, Addison came into this world and cried almost immediately (which put me at ease). When I saw her, I immediately noticed how tiny she was and knew that she wasn’t the 6 pounder that we had expected. I was worried that she would need to go to the NICU but I was put at ease when I saw that she didn’t seem to need any assistance breathing. The nurses commented about how she peed as soon as they put her in the warmer and how that was also good. Addison was born at 9:35 a.m., weighed 4 lbs, 12 oz and was 17.75 inches long.

After delivering Addison, it was time to deliver Ryan. The doctor reached up into my uterus and tried to turn him while a nurse pushed on my belly from the outside. At first, it wasn’t working and Ryan’s heart rate was decelerating so the doctors said that I would likely need a c-section to deliver him. By then, I didn’t care and just wanted him to be delivered healthy. As the nurses prepped the tools for a c-section, Ryan’s heart rate stabilized and the doctor was able to break his bag of waters. Once that happened, his head descended into my pelvis and the doctor told me that I could likely push him out just fine. I started pushing and they said that we needed to deliver him quickly so that I needed to push as hard as I could. After just a few pushes, Ryan was delivered at 9:55 a.m., weighing in at 5 lbs. 10 oz and measuring 19 inches long.

Like his sister, Ryan let out a good cry and then promptly peed in the warmer. Unlike his sister, he needed some assistance breathing and they said he would need to go the NICU to be checked out. You could tell he was quite a bit bigger than his sister and we soon found out that he outweighed her by almost a pound! Had they done that ultrasound, a c-section would have been in my future for certain.Chris accompanied Ryan to the NICU while they finished up with me. He then came back up to check on me. I felt pretty good but was shaking like crazy from the anesthesia. The nurses then wheeled me to the recovery room where I was relieved to find that Ryan was already back from the NICU (just a “drive by” as we say). I watched as they tested the babies’ blood sugar (which was a little low, necessitating that they be given a bottle of formula to bring it up), gave them a bath, and did the other usual stuff. All this time, I was still shaking incessantly which really annoyed me and definitely caused my Dad some concern.


After what seemed like FOREVER, I got to hold my babies.

Daddy was VERY excited too!

It was better than I had even dreamed and I was so relieved that they were finally here. Very soon after, Jeremy, Holly and Aiden and Kim and Sydney arrived to meet the new additions. The Morales crew also came to pick up my placentas (which Tamara graciously encapsulated for me) but didn’t stay long as they wanted to give us some family time.  


All in all, it was a fast and furious labor but well worth it!


Aren't they just the cutest babies you've every seen?!!