Surprise! Gabrielle & Alaina have arrived.

We had a feeling the twins would come early, but never expected they would arrive at 27 weeks and 4 days (roughly 3 months early). We'll spare you the gory details of the birth (if you really want to hear it, let me know!) so here's the G-rated version.

My water broke Friday night at 10:30 pm while I was laying in bed and when we couldn't find a cab, our doorman drove us to to St. Vincent's. I wasn't having contractions yet so the doctors were confident they'd be able to hold off labor for at least a few hours, if not a few days or even weeks, which would give them time to give me steroid shots to help improve the girls' lung function before they arrived. They even moved me into a room with a window so I'd be more comfortable during my stay. I figured a few days or weeks of bed rest at the hospital couldn't be that bad -- I'd be able to catch up on my soap operas and finish all of the baby books I was halfway through. But the girls had other plans.

By 2:30 am, I was having frequent and strong contractions and when the doctors checked, Baby A was already in the birth canal. No epidural for mommy! Gabrielle Victoria arrived at 3:22 am weighing 2 pounds 1 ounce and was whisked off to the NICU. The doctors checked on Baby B and saw that she was breech so they decided they needed to deliver her via c-section. Alaina Marie was born at 4:33 am and we heard her crying before she went to join her sister.

When I was in recovery, the neonatalogist came to see us and explained that the first 72 hours were critical for the girls but the fact that they were both breathing on their own was a positive sign. Jan and I spent those first three days counting every hour that went by. Luckily, all of their tests came back with great results and knock on wood, we haven't had any major set backs since. The doctors told us to expect that the girls will need to stay in the NICU until close to their due date, which was December 9th, but we're hoping that they'll be home before that.

Both Gabrielle and Alaina are in Isolettes in the NICU and hooked up to lots of monitors and gizmos. They're tiny little peanuts but it's amazing to see how active they are. When she was just two days old, Alaina managed to pull out one of the IV's in her hand so they had to put little restraints on her arms. But that didn't stop her -- she managed to hook her toe into the wires feeding her through her belly button and tried to pull those out too! So for a few days, this 2 pound baby had all four of her extremities restrained. The doctors said they'd never seen a baby that small with enough coordination or strength to do something like that. We take it as a good sign but there's no doubt we'll have to keep a close eye on that one when she comes home!

Here are some pictures of Gaby and Alaina in their first few days. I know all of the wires and things are kind of scary looking but they're slowly coming off. Both girls are on CPAP, which is a tube in their nose that delivers oxygen. Other than that, they have their heads and eyes covered because they're under phototherapy lights in their Isolettes and they have feeding tubes down their throats right now so they can get milk. It's hard to tell from these photos but Gabrielle and Alaina both look like their daddy!

Here's Alaina with her little arm and leg restraints:


This is Gabrielle chilling out:


Gaby's pudgy little toes:


Alaina holding daddy's finger: