Twins at the hospital

After an awesome delivery and a few hours of tending to the boys, we were carted to the postpartum floor for the rest of our hospital stay.

Erin enjoyed some cuddle time with the boys. They weren't interested in feeding for the first 16 hours but have been doing great since then.

We wanted to make sure the first visitor would be big sister Evelyn. She came clomping down the hallway looking for those 2 babies everyone was talking about. When Evelyn arrived they were in the nursery so I help her up to look through the glass. Evelyn also noticed all the other babies. When we went back to the room with William and Jack Evie wasn't very interested - "Daddy, I want to see more babies" and a few minutes later (sadly), "Daddy, I want babies to be all gone."
As you can imagine it was a little hard on Evie. But her next visit was much better. She happily talked about William and Jack and ran around the postpartum floor with glee.
Of course both sets of grandparents came to see us.

William and Jack also met most of their aunts and uncles, some friends, and some great grandparents.




On Thursday morning we brought them home. Leaving the hospital with them wasn't nearly as strange of a feeling as with Evie. But in a very similar way, our lives will never be the same, we're looking forward to it!
(Jack in focus below)
(William in focus below)

Elenbaas Twins

After 36 weeks of pregnancy and 2 months of strict bedrest, Erin was given the OK to start walking around again. Turns out it was a good thing she was on bedrest that whole time, because 24 hours after going off bedrest she went into labor.

Monday was kind of a strange day. Erin called me from her appointment and said "do you want to have some babies tonight?" She was measuring 5cm and the doctor said if she kept contracting to just check into the hospital. So she drove home and we spent the afternoon just hanging out at our house. We did some chores, watched a movie, and then went in to the hospital around 5:30.
Erin's work connections kicked in again. We walked into the hospital, skipped triage, and were admitted into a corner room.

From 6 to 8 not much happened. We hung out with the other nurses and walked around hoping for Erin's contractions to pick up. She progressed slightly, got an epidural, and then the doctor broke her water around 10:30. We put on a movie (The Holiday) but Erin progressed quickly and by 11:30 it was time to prep for labor so we moved into the OR (in case they needed to do a crash C-section).

The OR was almost comical. There were 2 doctors, a nurse practitioner, and SIX nurses to "assist" and we pumped the Christmas music. Once everything was set, Erin pushed a total of 3 contractions for baby A and he came right out. The doctor held the baby up and we were both surprised to see it was a boy! The baby cried and I cut the cord. About 3 minutes later the doctors told Erin to push for baby B. This time it only took 1 contraction. The doctor held up baby B and we were even more surprised...another BOY! Twin boys, WOW!

The nurses and doctors did their thing while Erin and I spent our first few moments with our two sons. We named them William Lloyd and Jack Douglas. William was 5 lbs 14 oz and 19.5" long. Jack was 6 lbs 3 oz and 19" long. They were born at 12:30 and 12:34 a.m.

Once again Erin is my absolute hero. She was rightfully nervous all day, but did such an amazing job. I am so proud to be her husband.


Jack had low blood sugar initially and both were struggling with deep breathing. After some consultation we decided to keep them with us and keep an eye on them. Within a few hours they were breathing well and all other tests were normal.
Our fabulous team of nurses made our experience great.

The Countdown

The real countdown has begun. At week 20 and 28 we were pretty sure the babies would come very early. Erin has now reached 34.5 weeks and is feeling relatively well. We have a scheduled induction on December 19. Getting close!

Erin at 31 Weeks

Erin at 34 Weeks

A couple nights ago we packed our hospital bags. We didn't want to break it to Evie that she wouldn't be staying with us at the hospital so we let her pack her own bag. She made 10-20 very urgent trips between our bedroom and her toys. Don't worry, she has all the essentials including "Guess Who", a Rubik's cube, a naked doll, silverware, and one pair of jammies.

Since Erin's real bed rest started 4 weeks ago she has only gone upstairs once per day (our room is on the main floor). She'll come up to put Evie to bed but not to peek at Evie before we go to bed. So I've been taking pictures of Evie every night for Erin to see. Saving those memories has been great. We tuck Evelyn into bed in the standard sleeping position, but she seems more comfortable moving around.