One Day Old

Jake and Abby had an exciting "one day old" birthday on August 7:

• Jake and Abby had a parade of excited visitors. All four grandparents, Uncle Jim and Aunt Cari, and Uncle Chris and Aunt Angela came to check them out.
• Jake came off of the ventilator he was using for breathing support and was moved down to CPAP like Abby. (Pictured here still on the ventilator, holding Grandma Lucrecia's hand in an attempt to melt her heart to make her buy him things. Trust me Jake - it works!)
  
• Totally unrelated note: Andrea was finally able to enjoy the Jimmy John's sandwich she had been dreaming of for approximately 31 weeks and 3 days. It was every bit as amazing as she wanted it to be. Since then she has averaged 2-3 sandwiches a day and there is no end in sight. Who knew that pregnancy cravings don't end with pregnancy? At least they are healthier than the DQ Blizzards she ate nearly every day while on bed rest. Hey, something had to fatten those babies up.
• Late on August 7, Jake and Abby's doctor decided to let them do a trial run on no breathing support, just to see how they would do. The result? Spectacular! Both of them were able to prove that they could breathe on their own with no support. No more annoying tubes on their faces for them to pull at!
• Not only were we able to catch our first real glimpses of the babies' faces with the removal of the CPAPs, but Andrea was able to hold one of the babies - Abby - for the first time. Abby's "I love you mommy" of breathing all by herself like a big girl while she was being held was another reminder that the 11 long weeks on bed rest were absolutely, completely, 100% without a doubt worth it.
  
• Very late that night, the delicious pain reliever cocktail that Andrea was given after delivery started to wear off - yikes! We were told the best way to start feeling better was to keep moving. Two adorable kiddos in the NICU is a great motivator to keep moving! 3 days left to go until hospital discharge for Andrea.

Here are some more pictures from August 7:

Happy birthday babies! Now Mom can stand up again.

After 31w3d of a pregnancy that included 76 days of strict bed rest, 3 hospital stays, more than 20 ultrasounds, a dozen doctors, countless nurses, way too many take out meals, and 5 seasons of Friday Night Lights, Jake and Abby arrived on August 6, 2011.

Jake Benjamin Pajauskas
August 6, 2011 at 8:59pm
3lb 11oz, 16.5 inches
Jake was born with a full head of hair! If the old wives' tale is true, this explains Andrea's raging heartburn. Good thing you're so cute buddy!

Abby Olivia Pajauskas
August 6, 2011 at 9:00pm
3lb 5oz, 16.25 inches
Abby came out screaming at almost a full pound bigger than the doctors expected her to be! They were the best, awesomest, cutest cries in the whole wide world.

Because of their early arrival, both babies were immediately transported to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Central DuPage Hospital to be evaluated. After hanging out in recovery for a bit, including a congratulatory visit from Jenna, one of our favorite L&D nurses, a neonatologist came to see us to let us know how Jake and Abby were doing before we went down to check them out for ourselves.

Babies born so prematurely typically need assistance breathing for the first few days, if not the first few weeks, of their lives. Because we had anticipated their early arrival, Andrea had two rounds of two betamethasone shots during her pregnancy, which are steroid shots designed to speed up lung development. They must have done their thing, because both babies were great breathers from the beginning.

Jake struggled a bit more initially so he was put on a ventilator to do all of his breathing work for him, but the doctors saw immediately that this was due to some yucky stuff in his throat that had been suctioned off after delivery, likely due to an infection which they were expecting. He began breathing on his own "over" the ventilator right away, and although it was left in as a precaution over night, it was removed the next morning.

Abby cried for 5 minutes (according to Andrea) or 1 minute (according to Jeff, who had NOT just delivered 2 babies so may be a more accurate judge of time) after she was born, which thrilled everyone in the delivery room. She started to get tired, so she was given breathing support by a machine called a CPAP (see-pap) which kept her lungs open for her while she breathed in and out on her own. We learned quickly that Miss Abby does NOT like anything in her nose, on her face, being moved when she wants to be still...the nice nurses use the word "feisty", so we'll leave it at that for now.

All in all, they were pronounced "great" by the neonatologist (Andrea thinks she may have even heard the words "advanced for their gestational age"), which was so exciting and an incredible relief after the long weeks we spent trying to keep them cooking long enough to be born healthy. We got wheeled down to the NICU to see them for the first time, and the 45 minutes we spent looking at their teeny faces and fingers and toes were the fastest 45 minutes of all of 2011 to date!

After our visit we went back upstairs, this time to the 6th room of our current hospital stay and the last room we will sleep in at CDH for quite some time. All four proud grandparents were there, and so were Aunt Angela and Uncle Chris. Although they didn't get to see the babies that night, they did get to congratulate two very proud and completely exhausted parents. What a long, crazy, amazing day! The countdown to discharge date from the hospital (4 days for Andrea, approximately 4.5 - 6.5 weeks for Jake and Abby) was on.