November 4, 2010, 12:23pm… our two precious miracles entered the world.

28 weeks, 2 days gestation.

They are doing AMAZING. Amazing. All of their doctors and nurses keep using that word, and we will too.

Their Story

Sam Michael Stibbe (aka Baby B)- Sam is the little man who brought us into the hospital on Monday afternoon after his “decel” on the NST in Dr. Barsoom’s office. From Monday through Wednesday both he and his brother were monitored for “decels” 24 hours a day.  During this time, he had a few very small “decels” but nothing that was concerning to Dr. Barsoom. Because Sam and his brother were both doing so well, it was decided to take them off the monitors Wednesday night and put them back on Thursday morning. Thank God we did.

They both looked great all morning. I was pretty confident I’d be on bedrest for the next few weeks! Then, around noon, Sam’s heart tracing started to slowly decelerate (“decel”). Over the course of a minute, it decreased from around 150bpm to less than 60bpm and stayed at this level for what seemed like forever. Luckily, we had a wonderful nurse (Kristen) who noticed the “decel” right away and quickly contacted the resident and Dr. Barsoom. Within five minutes, Dr. Barsoom was in the room and he took one look at the tracing and said, “I think they’ve told us what we need to do.” When Sam started to “decel” I looked into Adam’s eyes and I knew that this was it, but hearing Dr. Barsoom say it caused a rush of emotion I can’t even begin to explain. He officially made the call to do an emergency c-section at 12:12pm… 11 minutes later, at 12:23pm, Adam was able to hear and see his baby boys being born, Sam Michael (1lb, 10oz) followed by Jack William (aka Baby A) (2lb, 6oz).

Both Jack and Sam were breathing on their own when they were born and did not need any resuscitation. From the very beginning, these boys were fighters. They were taken to the NICU where they were given the once-over and proclaimed “Rock Stars” by the NICU staff (as overheard by the proud dad standing in the background). Soon after they were born, Adam was lucky enough to cut Jack’s umbilical cord. Little Sam needed some extra TLC.

Meanwhile, Momma Trish was quickly recovering from her operation and could not wait to see her baby boys for the first time. About an hour and a half later I finally got to see them! When I first saw them, Sam took after Grandpa Brad with his c-pap machine, but after only a few hours he quickly decided he wanted to be like his younger, bigger brother, and breathe entirely on his own. Rock Star!

As of right now, they are doing phenomenal; we even started them on feeds this afternoon. Mom and Dad get to change diapers, take their temperature, and do oral-care every four hours. Although sometimes we let the nurses take the 4am shift 🙂

We really want to thank everyone for all the love and support we have received, not only in the past few days, but throughout this entire pregnancy. We’ve once again been reminded of how amazing all our family and friends are. Your thoughts and prayers cannot be underestimated, and as a Thank You to you all… here are their first few pictures! We’ll try to update more once I’m discharged from the hospital.

As a little side note, here are the stories behind their names:

Jack William… Adam and I have loved the name Jack since we started talking about having a  family. William is Grandpa Brad’s middle name.

Sam Michael… We hadn’t decided on a second name, but as soon as we saw his face, we knew he was nothing but a Sam. Michael is the first name of the man who saved the twin’s lives… Dr. Michael Barsoom. Without him, we wouldn’t be here, writing this tonight, with two perfect little boys.