Theo Francis and Natalie Jade have arrived!!

Look what we made!

On the left we have Natalie Jade, who made her appearance at 5 pounds 10 oz and 19.25 inches long. On the right is her big brother, Theo Francis, who weighed 5 pounds 14  oz, but was a measly 18 inches long.

We awoke insanely early on Sunday, took one last picture, and headed to the hospital.

Another perk of a c-section- you can wear make-up and not worry about sweating it off during pushing. So when your babies meet you, you're looking less fugly. Not much sense in worrying about your hair though- it gets covered by a bonnet.

We got to the hospital at exactly 6:00. In fact, my phone went crazy as it was passing through the metal detector at the ER entrance, because the countdown app finally reached zero.

It took longer than I expected to get through pre-op. Andy and I passed the time by watching Friends reruns, which apparently are on 24/7. My second activity during this period was to complain about how hungry I was. Just to break up the boredom of waiting, we through them a platelet count curveball, and even had a fainting episode. The fainting worked. The doctor came in and said, "We need to get these babies out of you." then left, and suddenly nurses showed up to do their last minute checks. Things started moving pretty fast after that.

Spinals are the coolest thing ever. 

Let's skip the recap of the surgery, except to say that I finally have a photo of my insides. Theo made his vernix-y appearance at 10:02 am, and was immediately whisked out of the room. (We were warned that would happen with him though.) Natalie validated our c-section choice by immediately flipping breech when she dropped. She got yanked out at 10:03, and the first thing I said was, "There really were two in there!" And every nurse in the room thought "She really is an idiot."

Finally Theo was given the green light to come back. His Apgars were 8/9, and Natalie's were 9/9.

That lady talking to me is Amanda, the anesthesia nurse. She was wonderful, and let me throw up in her general direction twice.

Confession: I have no idea which baby this is.

Nor do I have any recollection of this picture being taken. I know we were in recovery at this point. I wish someone would have fixed my gown's shoulder snaps.

They eventually let us go back to our room and told me I could eat whatever I wanted. Let's just say that a cheeseburger was a bad choice for a feeble post-op tummy. The jell-o attempt didn't work much better. The next attempt of chicken broth was also unsuccessful. When the fourth attempt of water was a failure, I just gave up on eating. No chicken wings for the Super Bowl this year. :(

The next four days were a blur of pain meds, round the clock feedings and warnings that I was not doing my spirometry exercises often enough. We got the VIP treatment, with one of the biggest rooms on the floor! There are two rooms next to each other that are bigger than the rest, and that's where twins go. Both babies dropped some weight, but never got into the scary range, and then they started gaining it back. For all her misbehavior in utero, Natalie has proven to be easiest outside baby ever. Theo needed to be held constantly for his first few nights, which cramped our sleeping style. They both passed their hearing tests and their PKU screens, and got their first vaccinations. They didn't need to take the car seat test. Theo got snipped. I got stuck a couple dozen more times and learned to keep food down again. My drinking water craving subsided within a few days.

The most awesome picture I've ever taken of Andy. 

We were about to take this picture when my third projectile vomiting episode hit, resulting in mascara everywhere. So I had freshly applied make-up for attempt #2. Otherwise I couldn't have looked this good 5 hours post-c-section.

Chad came to visit "his" babies twice, but that deserves its own post, so check back tomorrow for that.

And then we went home! The doctor asked me to try walking around the post-partum wing a few times to make sure I would be able to walk after discharge. I kind of laughed that off, but ate of words after I was woozy and clinging to the wall bars for dear life a half a lap in. Andy came with me, pushing both babies in one bassinet, so it was during this time that we got our first "OMG, you have twins!" comments. I decided if Andy is alone and gets asked this, his response should be "No, they're both mine, but came from two different baby mommas."

Theo wasn't super excited about putting on clothes. Natalie is just so embarrassed by her brother's antics.