Ethan and Liam were due December 21st, but it seems that they were eager to be born (or maybe it was me as I ended up with HELLP) as they arrived on November 7th by emergency c-section.

I went in to the hospital for one of my weekly non stress tests and although my blood pressure was fine they found protein in my urine. I mentioned to the nurse doing the test that I had a bit of swelling as well so to be on the safe side they ordered up some blood work.

The blood work came back and they were a bit worried as my platelets were low and my liver enzymes were high so they were going to keep me overnight . I called my husband to let him know that I was going to need a few things. In the time it took for him to leave work, pick up a few things for my overnight stay, and get to the hospital things changed from me needing to stay overnight to the babies needing to come out that night! My husband walked in and the nurse mentioned that the babies were coming out tonight before I had a chance to say anything to him and he had a very shocked "deer in the headlights" look on his face that I'll never forget.

They prepped me for surgery and I was very thankful that my midwife was there while I was getting my spinal as she explaining everything that was going to happen and was able to help me relax before my husband was allowed in the OR.

The surgery went quickly, but the anesthetic made me shake uncontrollably. They pulled out Ethan and I was so happy to hear him cry. The OB was trying to pull out Liam, but he was trying to get away from her and curled himself into a ball under my ribs. She was finally able to get him out a couple minutes later and he screamed louder than his brother.

Since they weren't able to show them to me right away as they were premies and needed some extra help, my midwife was able to help my husband get a a few pictures of the babies so I could see them.

Ethan was 4.8lbs and Liam was 4.1lbs. Ethan was having a bit of trouble breathing once he was in the NICU, but is doing much better now! They aren't quite back at their birth weight yet, but they are gaining weight.

My recovery hasn't been too bad and since it all happened so fast I didn't have time to overthink or worry about what was going on.

Here are a couple pictures of the boys (Liam seems to like making all sorts of funny faces when we take his picture)