Wednesday, May 21, 2008. I got up that morning to get ready for work. I was 36 weeks pregnant. Greg had already left for work. He was doing siding and was working out at Avimor a housing development just outside of town.

As I got up I put on a pair of green sweat pants and started to get ready. However, my water broke! It was just warm liquid gushing out. I called Greg but back then cell service was not available everywhere and he was out of the service area. I called my best friend Amy who came and picked me up. I changed my pants but the water kept on coming so I just went with it. I grabbed a towel to put down in her car. She rushed me to the St. Luke’s downtown Boise where my OBYN had an office. She helped me into the hospital with pants that look like I had peed them. We got checked in and then Amy rushed out to go find Greg. Then, my sister showed up.

Amy went to Avimor. She only knew Greg was working out there. She didn’t know where or what crew. She just kept asking people she saw if they knew Greg. Eventually she was able to find him. He jumped in the car with her and they made it back to the hospital. Gosh, what would we do without good friends? Just love them.

A lot of pregnancies that are multiples are done with c-sections but my doctor only did those as a last resort so he had me geared up for a vaginal birth. I knew I wanted an epidural, I didn’t need a natural birth. The contractions were horrible but once I got that epidural it was heaven and I was able to get some rest.

When it was go time we went to the operating room just in case. Greg and my sister were in there and they had to put on full scrubs. Greg was going to hold one of my legs and my sister was in charge of taking pictures.

I couldn’t tell you how long I had to push. It felt like forever and was exhausting but I don’t think it was that long. Jaelee was born first at 6:07 pm, weighing 6 lbs even 19.5 inches. She came out head first. Once Jaelee was out I was done. I didn’t think I could do another one. Greg was by my head telling me I could do it, I could do it for our son. However, he was turned wrong. He was facing feet down. The doctor was worried so after only a few minutes of me pushing he reached in up to his elbow and pulled Jayse out by his feet. Jayse was born at 6:14 pm, only 7 minutes later – weighing 6 lbs. 3 oz. 18.5 in. I still had to push out the placenta….so fun!

When Jayse came out I could tell something was wrong. They had the doctor and a whole bunch of nurses around him. I kept asking if he was alright. They wouldn’t say anything. They put Jaelee on my chest but it was hard to take her in when I was worried about Jayse.

We finally learned that our surprises were not over. Jayse was born with a cleft palate and bilateral cleft lip. Dr. Lovelace was very apologetic that they didn’t catch this on during my pregnancy. They screen for this.

When the nurse asked what the babies names were we still had not decided about Jayse’s name. I had compromised and said we could spell Jace J-A-Y-S-E since Greg’s room mate and really good friend at the time was named Chayse. It would be spelled similar to his. Greg was still holding on to Levi as his first name though. I wanted that as the middle name. When she asked I looked at Greg and he told her his first name was Jayse and his middle name was Levi. I had won! I think after he saw what I went through he let me have it.

Once I got moved to a room we had some visitors come and see the babies – friends, family and coworkers. Jayse was in the NICU for monitoring but Jaelee was in our room so they got to see and hold her. We were able to feed her from a syringe. I tried breast feeding but it was so painful. They brought in a lactation nurse to help and she wasn’t able to help either. She finally decided I should probably just try to pump. It was even worse. The pain was incredible. I decided nope, this is not for me. Greg changed her first poppy diaper.

That night I elected for her to stay in the nursery to get some sleep.

It wasn’t until the next morning I was able to go visit Jayse. Greg had to wheel me in a wheel chair. We were able to hold him and have some family and friends visit and hold him as well. They ended up hooking him up to a feeding tube since he wouldn’t be able to suck.

We met Dr. Griffiths a craniofacial plastic surgeon. He told his what was ahead for us with Jayse and his cleft. He was very reassuring. He told us about this special bottle we’d have to use to feed Jayse. It had a really long nipple on it and instead of sucking you just have to clamp down on it and it would shoot the liquid into his mouth, it was specifically designed for cleft lips. The hospital gave us a couple. Wish I had a picture of it!

The next day Jaelee and I got released from the hospital, it was a relief to get to go home but it was bittersweet because we were leaving Jayse. He was in the NICU for 10 days while he learned to eat. We really loved the NICU downtown Boise. The nurses were so great and kind. My sister had an apartment that was close to the hospital so we would leave and go over there to get some rest.

On May 25 Jayse was transported to the Meridian hospital. It was closer to our house and the NICU downtown was getting full and they needed the space for babies that needed higher care. He got to ride in a special bed in an ambulance. I was able to go with him. We had a room we could stay in there, we brought our pack n play for Jaelee to sleep in and we stayed in the hospital was well. We had to learn how to feed Jayse and wanted to be there as much as we could.

Once we got moved to Meridian I hated it. The nurses there were not the same, in fact I heard them complaining several times about having to work and how horrible things were and this and that. It just really bothered me. My kid is literally in the hospital relying on your help and all your going to do is complain. I mentioned it to someone that I thought it was unprofessional…not sure if that did anything.

After 10 days in the hospital Jayse was able to feed from the bottle and they released him. We got to go home on May 31! We were finally all complete at home.