{introducing...}

Jack McKay and Henry Benjamin! They were born on Sunday, July 26th, at 1:55pm and 1:57pm respectively. Henry was 6 lb. 8 oz., 19 inches long, and Jack was 6 lb. 0 oz., and 17.5 inches long.

(Jack on the left, Henry on the right)

Here's how it happened...

I started having regular contractions around 7am on Sunday morning, between 8-10 minutes apart. After an hour and a half, and lying in bed, they still hadn't subsided, so I called the doctor. She had me come directly into labor and delivery, where I could be evaluated. I was 35 weeks that very day, and while I was far enough in my pregnancy to be fairly safe, another week would have been even better. So they tried several things to stop the contractions and prevent labor. After two bags of IV fluid, lab tests to rule out infection, and a shot of Terbutaline (which would stop labor only if it was false), the contractions still kept coming. My blood pressure also kept rising, and was significantly higher than normal. At that point, the decision was made to go ahead and take them by c-section.

The rest of of my family was at church, along with the babies' doctor who would be there for delivery. We called our family to let them know, and they paged to the doctor to come right away. I was prepped for surgery, signed a million forms, and tried to prepare myself for the fact that I was actually going to have two more children. We have an excellent hospital, and that includes all the doctors, nurses, and staff. They put me right at ease, and everything went smoothly.

They were born about a half an hour after I got in the OR, but after only one quick glance, they were whisked away for evaluation. Baby A (Henry) was fine, and didn't require any oxygen. Baby B (Jack) had had a knot in his cord, some fluid on his lungs, and needed a little help breathing when he was born. He did need to have antibiotics through an IV to prevent possible infection, but luckily, did not have to have oxygen either.

My parents brought the kids up to see us the day after they were born. This experience will go down as one of the sweetest I've ever seen. They were only able to hold Henry, since Jack wasn't quite ready for visitors, but they were able to see him in his bassinet. The girls were enraptured by the babies, and Ryan was wearing a permanent grin the whole time. They each got to take a turn helping feed the baby, and Kate and Emma sang him a lullaby (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). They weren't able to stay too long, but it turned out perfectly.

The next day, they were both discovered to have borderline high bilirubin levels, so they spent the next 24 hours on dual photo therapy, under bili lights. This morning the levels had thankfully decreased, so they were able to be out from the incubators, but we did bring them home today with bili blankets. I'm so grateful they were able to come home when I did though, and hopefully their levels will be down on Friday so we can hold them a lot more!!

Jack

Henry

I realized very quickly just how things might be different now, while attempting to leave the hospital. Trying to take pictures of 5 kids and 7 people? Getting two babies dressed while three other kids are jumping off beds and are needing to go to the bathroom? It's a really good thing that my parents were there--otherwise it would have taken us 3 hours instead of 2!! We finally made it though, and I do have to say that they were pretty patient while I made them sit for what I'm sure seemed like hundreds of pictures.

Jack is blond!

One more redhead...

Welcome baby boys! We are so glad you're here!