Welcome Twins!

We're so proud to share that the twins were born happy and healthy on Thursday, June 19, 2008!

Ella Erika Bushey 7:08 a.m. 5 lbs 14 oz

Blake Brian Bushey 7:18 a.m. 4 lbs 15 oz

Our Story...

We started our labor and delivery journey on Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. with a routinely scheduled NST and doctor appointment. During the NST I started having contractions at about 7-8 minutes apart. Already having had some random contractions I didn't think much of it. The contractions continued throughout the NST and into the doctor's appointment. When Dr. Cherukuri examined me I was still only dilated to one cm but about 75% thinned, so she decided to send us over to Labor & Delivery to be monitored for a while to see what happened with the contractions. Dr. Holmes was the doctor on call and came and re-evaluated us. Although the contractions were getting closer together, nothing else was really changing. He decided to keep me and watch and see what happened.

We were admitted and taken to our room where they hooked me backed up to the monitors to watch some more. This continued for most of the day--steady, fairly strong (but completely bearable) contractions, but no dilation. At about 8 p.m. Wednesday evening Dr. Holmes decided to help the process along by breaking my water. The contractions immediately became much more intense. After a couple hours, I elected to have my epidural--by the way, I'm convinced this is the best thing EVER CREATED! I was able to rest quite comfortably throughout the night. Around 10 p.m. I began receiving Pitocin through my IV. This helped, but still wasn't quite doing the trick. At 2 a.m. I was still only five cm. This continued on until about 5:30 a.m. (when I was STILL only at five cm) and Dr. Holmes took another "look" and began trying to manually move things along. I'm happy to say we finally had some success!!! At around 6:00 a.m. we were moved to the operating room to get ready for delivery. At this point it was still very unclear whether we'd be successful at a vaginal delivery so we had lots of "teams" of people standing by-Neonatal, Anesthesiology, a set of nurses for each baby, etc.-altogether Brian counted 21 of us in the room. Ella proved to be a little--okay, A LOT stubborn! (She must get that from her dad! :o) Dr. Holmes was getting quite frustrated with her as she kept almost making it out then changing her mind. She finally decided she was ready to make her grand entrance at 7:08 a.m.!!! Thank goodness! Blake was much quicker (I think he was ready long before his sister) and entered the world exactly 10 minutes after Ella.

All in all it was a pretty great experience. There were times of discomfort of course, but for the most part I was quite comfortable and only spend somewhere around an hour (probably a little less) actually in pushing and in hard labor. We can't say enough great things about our doctor, Dr. Holmes, Blair, our nurse, and the entire crew of people at Hurley. We were treated like royalty and truly appreciate all they did to make this the most amazing experience of our lives.

Ella and Blake were both taken to the NICU become of some minor breathing issues. There respirations were a little fast and the docs really wanted to keep a close eye on them, especially since they were technically four weeks early. Neither one of them needed any help breathing--they were just being watched. Blake received an IV because his respiration was a little more elevated and they didn't want him to have to worry about trying to eat and breath. They both resolved their respiration issues very quickly.

As of Friday, our main concern was getting them eating well. Blake is a much better eater than his sister, but Ella's getting better. The other reason they were kept in the NICU was because their Billiruben levels were elevated so they had to "go under the lights" to help resolve that.

Today (Saturday) they were both eating very well. We got a chance to speak to the doc before we left today and he was very happy with all of their progress. Tomorrow morning they'll have their BR levels checked again and as long as they're coming down they'll be removed from the lights and be able to come home either Sunday or Monday afternoon. We're so happy to be able to report they are strong, healthy, and happy and will be home VERY SOON!

We are so proud of our new family and are really looking forward to sharing our beautiful son and daughter with the world. I'll be sure to post tomorrow when we have the results of their bloodwork and hear from the docs. If they get to come home we'll be sure to share that, too. Enjoy the rest of this weekend and we can't wait to show off our gorgeous new babies!

Lots of Love to Our Family and Friends,
Brian, Erika, Blake, Ella & Drake