Birth

We mentioned we hardly slept the night before Tuesday, October 3rd. I mean, seriously, how could we? We knew that these babies for whom we've waited so long would arrive TOMORROW! We were out the door of Jenna and Joe's house by 5:00am and made a stop at Kwik Trip (which is sort of like a Wawa) for some sustenance. Jenna & Joe made sure to pick up 2 copies of the day's newspapers for us to keep with the babies' keepsakes.  We arrived to the hospital with plenty of time before our scheduled arrival time of 6:00am.

Once we checked in we were given a room for the four of us to wait in as nurses began tending to Jenna. There were big ol' butterflies in our stomachs. Actually, they were some sort of winged creatures bigger than butterflies. Agh! It was really happening! The Dr. broke her water around 8am and then around 10am, we were invited to leave the room and go to the waiting room with our parents. During this time, the Dr. would be inducing labor and administering the epidural.

This time out of the room seemed like an eternity and then after about an hour we received a text from Joe that simply said, "come get your stuff." Like, come get our stuff bc the babies are coming?? Or come get our stuff because it's in the way of complicated Dr. things. It turned out to be the former.

After one final photo together in the delivery room (below), we all headed over to the operating room. It is standard procedure with twins to deliver in the OR, in case a C section is needed. We were hopeful it would not be since both babies were head down.

    We followed the nurses rolling Jenna's bed down to the OR and entered the OR with her.  The labor went very quickly and Jenna had asked Joe to take pictures of us while she labored so she could see our faces.  Words cannot describe seeing your child being born but here are some pictures of us witnessing the birth of our dear Evelena Julayne who had positioned herself to come out first.  Jenna, & the medical team, allowed us to position ourselves at her shoulder so we could be close.

After seeing Evelena being born, it was Henri's turn.  However, Henri, with his new found spacious living, decided to take full advantage and rotated horizontal in Jenna, despite a nurse trying to hold him in place by pressing on Jenna's belly.  We were promptly asked to wait outside the OR with Joe as Jenna now needed to have a c-section.  We could hear outside the doors as we waited with Jenna's husband, Joe, and would ask the nurses who came and went how things were going but eventually heard the beautiful cries of our little man, Henri Kreider.  We had no idea how long the C section would take but our babies were born 12 minutes apart. Our twins were in the world!

 Eventually the nurses rolled both babies out and we followed them to the nursery to feed them and give them their first baths.  Joe came with us while he waited for Jenna to awake from the anesthesia and return to her hospital room.  

Meet Evelena Julayne Frost born at 11:55am weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces & 19.5 inches in length.

Evelyn means "long awaited" and Lena is Rachel's maternal great-grandmother's name.  Julayne is Jon's mother's name.

and

Henri Kreider Frost, born at 12:07pm, weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces & 19.5 inches in length.

Henri means "ruler of the home" since in utero, anytime we had an ultrasound he would be moving around a ton, sticking his hinder in Lena's face, or kicking her.  Kreider is Rachel's paternal grandfather's middle name, also his mother's maiden name.

We spent the rest of the day in the hospital room with our babies as the hospital allowed us to stay in a room with them, down the hall from Jenna. It was wonderful, holy time with our parents simply being in awe of Evelena and Henri. They are beautiful. They are perfect. They are everything.

The Waiting Game

On Tuesday, September 26th, we boarded a one way ticket to Minneapolis knowing that we would be returning home as a family of 4! We made our best guess when making car, hotel, and airport parking reservations as to the return date for each reservation. If only it were that easy and predictable!

After sharing a brief dinner with Jenna and her family, we headed about an hour and a half north from Edgar, WI to Eagle River. As luck would have it, a few weeks prior we found out that Jon's aunt has a lake house there and she had graciously offered for us to stay there while we waited. What an amazing gift from her and a beautiful place to stay to pass the time while we awaited the arrival of the babies. It was just the two of us until Thursday when our parents began to arrive. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, delicious food, and a ton of games of solitaire! Day by day we kept our phones close just in case Jenna went into labor and we messaged with her daily.

                                           Here are some photos from our time of waiting: 

During the days of waiting, we scheduled a few different day trips to Wausau to be with Jenna. On Thursday the 28th, we went with Jenna to the final OB appointment and were told that it appeared the babies would stay in there until they were forced to come out! After the appointment we had dinner with Jenna, Joe, and Rachel's dad. We were so excited for our parents to finally meet this amazing family. 

On Saturday the 30th, all of our parents were now with us and we met Jenna, Joe, and their children at a sub shop to pick up sandwiches. We then went to a lookout over the city of Wausau for lunch, followed by a trip to an orchard. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for Wisconsin in late September and it was a very special time for our families to get to know Jenna a bit more.

As of Monday, October 2nd, the babies still had not decided to make their appearance so we headed down to Wausau.  After a delicious dinner at Jon's favorite spot in Wausau - Red Eye Brewing Company (their Wisconsin burger will change your life!) - our parents checked in to a local hotel.  Jenna & Joe graciously opened their home for us to stay there Monday night so we could all head to the hospital together Tuesday morning.  Jenna needed to report at 6:00am. Yeah - we hardly slept at all...