32 weeks...and they're here!!

Our boys decided that they would like to be around for Chrismas, so they came a couple months early! Lucas Edward and Andrew Jack were born yesterday, Dec. 22, 2008 at 9:45 and 9:57 am. We had quite the surprising day, as the nurses kept telling me I wasn't in labor and really wasn't having contractions. I was thinking "good lord, if this isn't labor I'm not doing this anymore!" But I'm getting ahead of myself... I'll start at the beginning. (Possibility of Too Much Information - TMI - be warned!)
On Sunday, I felt crampy all day long. Not too awful, just not all that hungry, the food looked icky, and at that point it kind of was, and just like it was that time of the month. I made it through the day, although there was NOTHING on t.v. and that night started bleeding again. This had been going on all week, off and on, so nothing really new there, only this bleeding was getting worse and worse. The nurse came in and monitered me at 8:00, then 10:00 and 11:oo. They kept their eye on me, and eventually the doctor on call (Dr. Ney) told them to send me up to Labor and Delivery so that I could be monitered all night.
At 1:30am I was wheeled upstairs with a groggy husband, and got settled into another room. I didn't sleep all night (Adam sure did), and my cramping was not coinciding with the few contractions I was possibly having. Dr. Ney came in and did a bedside ultrasound, but didn't really see anything substantial, and said there was a 50% chance of having the babies tonight, but they would need to be delivered via C-Section due to all the bleeding I was having. The nurse upstairs told me that "no, this is not labor" because my contractions were 2-6 min. apart and not really picking up that well on the moniter. Dr. Ney came in again and told me that she didn't think I was in labor, and that she wasn't ready to take the babies yet. Eventually I fell asleep from 5:30-6:30, then was awakened my my cramps getting worse. By 7:00 I called the nurse and told her that I was in a lot of pain and still bleeding. Turns out my water had broken (gross). By 7:15 I was thinking "Good Lord, if this isn't labor, I'm not doing this anymore". I seriously thought I was dying because I apparently wasn't having contractions (according to the moniters and nurses and doctors). So, at 7:30 Dr. Wolthe came on shift and came into my room. He checked me and sure enough, my water had broken and I was fully dialated and ready to have babies! He wanted to try a vaginal delivery (I was all for anything to get this show on the road) and asked if I wanted an epidural. By this time I was having at least 1 contracti0n every minute and holy crap they hurt! All the breathing exercises in the world were not going to do a thing for me! I gave the doctor a shaky "yes" to the epidural and they said they'd see if there was time.
They gave me a terbutaline shot to slow down the labor (something I was used to) and my contractions did space out a little - enough to wheel me down the hall and get me situated in the O.R. FINALLY the glorious anesthesiologist came into the room and gave me my epidural. Woo-Hoo!! That was a fantastic moment, and I would like to thank all those people that created that wonderful medicine!! So, once I had the epidural, we hurried up and waited for contractions and I started pushing. After 1 hour, Lucas was born. They gave Andrew a little shove and he went right where he was supposed to. 12 min later, Andrew was born.
I got to see them for a couple of seconds, and they whisked them away to the next room where the NICU team was waiting to stabilize them. Lucas was having a little trouble breathing on his own, so they put him on a C-PAP. They put an IV right into his umbilical cord, just in case they needed to give him any meds. When they were taking care of Lucas, I had Andrew and they took him away also to the other room. There were lots of windows, so we could see what they were doing, and Adam could go in and out of the room while the doctors were taking care of me. Andrew needed the C-PAP also, but he didn't so much need it as he got angry when they took it off of him. They took them to Children's and they have been there ever since.
We went twice yesterday to see them. They each have their own nurse that stays with them in 12 hour shifts. They were able to get off of the C-PAP machines yesterday afternoon at around 3:00pm and they took their IV out of their belly buttons at 10:00pm.
We haven't gone to see them yet today, because we're waiting to see the doctor to see if I can get out of this joint today. We're going over there in a little bit, and I'll keep you updated! Have a Merry Christmas!!