Answered Prayers for Judson

Many of you have asked about an update on Judson.  I am happy to report that, thanks to all of your many prayers and the goodness of God, Judson is doing remarkably well!
As you can probably tell from some of my previous posts, Judson was taken to NICU shortly after he was born.  I knew this would likely be the case, but I had prayed that I would still have an opportunity to hold him before he was taken.  Thankfully, I did.  This was when I held him for the first time:

I wasn't able to see him again until the next day, right before he was transported to Egleston:

When he was assessed at Egleston, the team of doctors and nurses decided that they wanted to monitor him for a bit to make sure he received the most appropriate care.  After more than a week in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at Egleston (which felt like an eternity!), they finally decided that Judson did not need the more invasive shunt but that he did need to have the stent placed to make sure that he received enough oxygen.  The cardiologist was able to place this stent using a catheter through a vein in his neck.  The only external way you can tell that he had this procedure is by a tiny bruised area on his neck.  He was monitored a few more days in the hospital, and then he was released to come home on Wednesday, October 28, exactly two weeks after he was born. 
While it was only two weeks (much less than it could have been), it still was so difficult!  I felt like my heart was torn in two:  I wanted to be there with him, but I also wanted to be with my other two babies at home.  More than anything, I yearned for the day when we could all be together as a family.  We visited as often as we were able to, and he had a steady stream of visits from the grandparents, too.  When we were there, it was so hard to see our little peanut hooked up to all those machines and unable to eat (he was given nutrients through an IV before he could eat by bottle). 

Not only did God answer all of our prayers in the fact that Judson only required the less invasive stent, but he also provided in that when Judson came home, he did not require an NG tube or any other monitoring device.  He was able to eat by bottle with no problems and he was maintaining his oxygen levels well while in the hospital.  This was a rarity according to all the nurses and doctors! 
Here Judson is, ready to finally come home:

 Since he's been home, he's continued to flourish, acting mostly like any other baby.  He continues to eat well and has surpassed his goals for gaining weight.  His oxygen levels are good, and the doctors have not seen any causes for concern.  Our little peanut is quite the fighter!

He's not totally out of the woods yet.  Barring a miracle, he will still have to have major surgery sometime in the early to middle of next year.  He will go to the hospital in January to see how the stent is holding up and to decide when he will have the next procedure.  So please continue to pray that the stent will hold up well; that he will continue to grow; that he will stay healthy over the winter; and that the next procedure will be delayed as long as possible.  We continue to thank you all for your prayers!  We know that God is good and faithful and that he hears all our prayers.

First Introductions

After Wren and Judson were born, we had a steady stream of visitors to meet the newest members of the family.  One of the first was Caleb who came to the hospital to meet his new baby sister and brother.  Because Judson was in the NICU, he couldn't yet meet him, but he was able to meet Wren.

 Mommy was awfully happy to see him!

I think this is when it finally clicked with him that the babies in Mommy's belly that we were always talking about were real!
We also had many other visitors those first few days, both in the hospital and at home.  Here are a few pictures we remembered to take (unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures with many of our visitors):

 When we first got home with Wren (while Judson was still in the hospital), Caleb started to show some signs of jealousy, which is perfectly normal, of course.  On the first day, he head butted Wren (although I think it was just an accident) and threatened to bite her.  And you should have seen his face when we brought Judson home!  It seemed to say, "So you really weren't kidding about that two babies thing?!  When are you going to stop bringing babies home?!"  Now, he's adjusted well to his new role as big brother.  He will kiss their heads and check on them when they're crying (with our vigilant supervision).  It's really quite funny when one or both of the babies is crying.  Caleb will scrunch up his face and say, "Crying" or "Upset."  He still has his jealous moments, but they are becoming fewer and far between.

I pray that this is the beginning of a lifelong beautiful and loving relationship between Caleb and his new sister and brother! 

Wren and Judson's Birth Story

October 12, 2015.  It was a beautiful fall morning.  The sky was bright blue, the leaves on the trees were the perfect shades of yellow, red and orange, and the sunshine caused everything it touched to glow.  Maybe it was the autumn weather or maybe it was because my body knew Wren and Judson would be making their debut soon, but I awoke that morning with quite the agenda.  First on the list was a trip to the gym for my morning workout (ok, I'll be honest, at this point, my morning workout mostly consisted of chatting with gym friends - but I worked in a few sets of weights too!).  After my "workout," I convinced Tony to take us all to Pike's to get our fall annuals that I desperately needed to plant before the babies arrived.  Once home, I planted my pansies while enjoying the warm sun.  It wasn't my most creative fall planting, but at least it was done.  Here are some pictures of me and my sweet Caleb from that morning.

I think my belly was bigger than our large pumpkin!

Later that afternoon, I got the notion to make blueberry muffins from scratch.  Caleb helped, of course.  He was supposed to just turn the mixer to a low speed...

But I guess he was a little overzealous.  We had quite the mess in the kitchen!
After Caleb went to bed, I worked on putting pictures into frames that I planned to hang up the next day.  Tony and I began watching a movie, and then we prepared to go to bed about 10:15.
As I lay in bed awaiting sleep, I began to feel contractions, which was not unusual for this late in a twin pregnancy.  But these started to get a bit stronger than I was accustomed to and they began occurring more frequently than was normal - about one every 10-15 minutes.  All that night I was up and down - from the bed to the couch to the office to the bathtub.  The contractions never let up enough to allow me to sleep at all.  There was even a random thunderstorm that popped up in the middle of the night (there wasn't a cloud in the sky that day or the next).  I was convinced that I was the only one who heard it.  Everyone in the house was sleeping soundly, unaware of what was happening inside or outside the house.  It was a long night.
When 6:30 finally rolled around, I finally contacted my mom and my friend Becky, my "labor coach."  When Tony woke up, he took the news in stride and began making preparations (and some of Caleb's breakfast cookies we were completely out of!).  I also called my doctor's office who directed me to head towards the hospital to be checked out.  I remember running around the house that morning making sure we had everything (and periodically yelling instructions and ingredients to Tony across the house for Caleb's cookies!).  When my mom arrived to watch Caleb and we finally finished packing up all our stuff, we hit the road.  It was another beautiful fall day.
At the hospital, I was assessed and told that I was only one centimeter dilated.  I already had a doctor's appointment scheduled for later that afternoon, so I was lobbying the hospital to just let me go to the appointment instead of waiting on the doctor to arrive (who wouldn't arrive for another hour or more, we were told).  After another hour or so, the nurse checked me again, and I had gone from one centimeter to five centimeters dilated.  "You're in labor!" she said.  The doctor then magically appeared and confirmed what the nurse reported, and she had us moved to our own room in labor and delivery.  It was also confirmed that both babies were still head down - so no c-section!  She also said that the babies should be here by 8:00 or 9:00 that night (although she didn't make any promises).  Hooray!
We called my sister and Becky (who were going to be present during labor) and the rest of the family to let them know that the day we had been anticipating for so long had arrived!
At this point, the contractions were becoming more intense and more frequent.  We had my relaxing music playing, and I was using my deep yoga breathing to help me through the contractions.  Ashley and Becky were spoon feeding me ice and offering me sips of apple juice or ginger ale between contractions (that was all they would let me "eat" and I was starving!).  It didn't seem too bad...After all, 8:00 was only a few shorts hours away!  And Tony, Becky, and my sister were helping me pass the time during and between the contractions. 
The doctor would appear every couple of hours to check on my progress.  Late in the afternoon, it became apparent that I was stalling out at seven centimeters dilated, and the doctor recommended starting pitocin in order to increase the intensity of the contractions.  I had been very adamant that I did not want pitocin because it seemed that it led to a c-section in almost every case that I had heard of.  But when the doctor said that we could just wait and see if the contractions intensified on their own...and that she would be back to check on me in two more hours, I agreed to the pitocin.  Two hours is an eternity when you're in labor!  And that would mean that we would likely miss the 8:00 deadline for the babies to arrive.  So they started the pitocin.  My mom also arrived about this time. 
And the contractions did become more serious.  I would move from sitting on the bed to leaning on the bed to sitting on the exercise ball to standing doing hip circles to taking a trip to the bathroom just to keep moving and distracted.  I know that images of me doing hip circles in a hospital gown (with my bottom sticking out!) will permanently be seared in the memories of Tony, Becky, Ashley and my mom!
9:00 passed, and I was nowhere close to time to push.  I became very frustrated.  At one point, I was about to say something out of frustration that I would regret, and Coach Becky said to me (in a rather harsh tone for someone so sweet), "Don't cross the line, Alicia!"  We still laugh about that moment because she said that after she said that I just shut my mouth, stuck my chin out and sucked it up.
The doctor appeared again about 11:00 that night.  They checked me, and I was still only 9 centimeters dilated.  The doctor said that she would be back...in two more hours!  I looked at her and said, rather desperately, "Where are you going?!"  I didn't want to hear about her other patients and obligations...We were already passed the deadline that she had set!
Shortly thereafter I had the overwhelming urge to push, but because I was allegedly only 9 centimeters dilated, I wasn't allowed to.  Finally, the midwife made her appearance, and she had the nurse check me again.  I was finally at 10 centimeters and ready to push! The finish line was just ahead!  They wheeled in the mirror, we all got in position, and she had me do some "practice pushes."  To this day, I'm not really sure what "practice pushes" are.  They felt a lot like real pushes to me.  In fact, they were so effective that I had to stop pushing (while I could see Wren's full head of hair in the mirror!) while they called the doctor and other hospital personnel into the room to get set up for the babies' births.  Why they were not ready to go before I was allowed to start pushing, I do not know.  Those were a long few minutes!
At last, I was allowed to push again, and within a few minutes, we welcomed Wren Naomi Argo into the world at 12:38 a.m., October 14, 2015!  She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz.

I took a short break while the doctor got ready for Judson.  At this point, I had been awake for over 40 hours straight and had not eaten anything (other than ice, apple juice, ginger ale, and a few popsicles they allowed me to eat early on) in over 16 hours.  And I had been in labor for 26 hours and had already delivered one baby.  I was exhausted!  When I started pushing again, there was one time that I either fell asleep or blacked out in the middle of the push.  Thankfully, Judson was smaller than Wren and did not take as much effort.  At exactly 12:48 a.m., October 14, 2015, Judson Grant Argo was born, weighing 5 lbs. 2 oz.

 The next hour or so was a whirlwind!  We were all on cloud nine!

Here's the wonderful nurse that was by my side when they were born.  (I still chuckle thinking of when I asked her (while we were still "practice pushing") if we were making progress, and she said, "Progress?! Can't you see that baby's head sticking out of your...?!")

Here's Wren, me and all my wonderful support.  I couldn't have done it without them! (I'm going to go ahead and apologize for my apparent nakedness in these...Wren and I had been doing skin-to-skin contact before they were taken!)

 Here's Dr. Killian, who did a great job of delivering my babies:

Shortly after all the excitement, we were wheeled to our own room in the mother and baby department.  And soon after that, all I know is that I passed out from being utterly exhausted.  I do remember waking up just at sunrise.  I had the perfect view from our room of the sun creeping above the horizon in the clear sky.  It was going to be another beautiful fall morning.