The TWINS have ARRIVED!!!

So....SURPRISE!! The babies arrived much earlier than we had expected! They came into the world on December 7th, 2007! I was only 31 weeks and 4 days along, which is a bit earlier than I had wanted, but the Lord had other plans for these boys! We had anticipated them to come closer to Daddy's birthday on Jan. 6th, but instead they were a two day belated birthday gift for me!

This little guy pictured above is formerly known as Baby A and was born at 7:25am and is now called Caleb Del Carpenter. He weighed in at 4 pounds 1 oz. and is 16 3/4 inches long. He had to be assisted to breathe with this breathing tube from the start, but that is normal for someone his age. Currently, he is getting better and better at breathing and may soon move to a C-PAP machine (like those for people with sleep apnea).

This little guy pictured above was formerly known as Baby B and was born at 7:26am and is now called Daniel Joshua Carpenter. He weighed in at 4 pounds 6 oz. and is also 16 3/4 inches long. He was breathing on his own from the start and had this lovely C-PAP machine on to encourage his lungs to keep on working. However, after the first day he was put on a tube like his brother because his blood gases weren't as good as they would have liked to see, but they also warned us that this may happen.

The good news is, they are VERY good with the boys in the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) and they are very attentive to their needs. They are also very protective of our little guys and make sure that no one touches them or even enters the NICU without properly washing up or obeying the rules they set up there.

As you probably deduced, I had a C-section and I am doing very well also. If you want to hear the full story you can call and chat with me, but the gist is that I went into labor around 1:30am in the morning and then we came to the hospital at around 5:00am thinking that they would give me a pill to stop the contractions, however, because I was dilated to 6 centimeters, the doctor chose to do an emergency C-section instead. My recovery is going very well and it seems to be even easier than my recovery from my first pregnancy! Time will tell of course though. It will be helpful that I will have about a month to recover before the twins come home, which will make it much easier for me to care for the twins and Josiah! The Lord is good and we are discovering many things to be thankful for in this time! It is hard not to be able to hold the babies and such right now, but we are thankful they are so well cared for and will look forward to the day that we can take them home. They estimate they will be here at the hospital for 4-6 weeks (depending) and I will be released Monday morning.