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News and Updates
Newborn * PregnancyMonday, August 28, 2006
Cale Monroe Hehmeyer Teevan and Dillon James Hehmeyer Teevan have arrived! Mom and babies are healthy and happy. From now on, news about the boys can be found at their respective Web sites:
http://www.teevan.org/cale
http://www.teevan.org/dillon
The story of Cale and Dillon's birth After 12 weeks of being in and out of the hospital for preterm labor, all the time terrified that their identical twin boys might be born early, it was a real change for Jaime and Alex when the boys hit 36 weeks and Mom and Dad no longer had to wish they'd stay put. In fact, despite reassurances to the contrary, Jaime was starting to worry instead that they'd never be born.
Sunday night Alex and Jaime were certain that the twins had at least another week of gestating ahead, even when Jaime woke up at 1am with frequent contractions. Frequent contractions were nothing new, but something about the quality of the contractions was different. So she got out of bed and started timing them while doing a little work on the computer. After two hours she decided to call her midwife, and the midwife suggested she come in to be checked out. Like they had done many times before in this pregnancy, Alex and Jaime called a friend to watch Griffin, grabbed Jaime's bag, and headed for the hospital.
Jaime's not entirely sure whether she knew her babies would be born soon at this point, or if she still thought it was preterm labor -- but she could no longer walk through her contractions, and scared Alex a little when she stopped for a minute in the middle of the street because she couldn't finish walking across until the contraction passed. An internal exam when they arrived at the hospital at 4am showed she was 5cm dilated, and definitely going to meet her boys soon.
Two hours later, Jaime's cervix was 7cm dilated, and by 8am she only had a thin rim of cervix left. The whole time she labored she was able to relax through the contractions, welcoming the progress they brought and enjoying the breaks between them. When birthing Griffin, dilating was the painful part; actually delivering him was oddly satisfying. Given she was basically fully dilated, she and Alex believed the mythical painless drug-free childbirth was within reach.
They were wrong.
It took her cervix the next two hours to dilate the remaining itty bit. The contractions were very intense, and she quickly got frustrated with them because she felt like she was no longer progressing. Alex recalls Jaime saying many times during these two hours, "I'm done." Jaime recalls just wanting to give up, stay pregnant, and go home. The midwife recalls Jaime responding to, "You're doing awesome," with, "I'm done being awesome." Jaime would have taken any drugs they wanted to offer her at that point, but her good midwife knew she really was almost done.
At 10am she was finally complete, but she still didn't feel the urge to push. Jaime consented to have her water broken because she was getting frustrated that things were moving so slowly. Five intense minutes later, Jaime and Alex's first boy was born, followed in two minutes by their second.
Those seven minutes were pretty crazy. A whole team of people who had been waiting outside flooded into the room for delivery -- joining the midwife, the nurse, and Alex was an OB, a pediatrician, several pediatric nurses, a medical student, and probably a few more people that went unnoticed.
It was a more medical birth than the parents had expected, especially given it was unmedicated. The babies heart rates were monitored continuously throughout the labor, which meant Jaime didn't get to walk around. Jaime didn't get to catch her babies like she had hoped, although during delivery she had no thoughts of catching them and just wanted them out. And even though both boys were big (7lbs, 6oz and 7lbs) and healthy (Apgar scores of 9 each), they were whisked to the warming table to be looked after immediately.
But nonetheless everything was perfect. Jaime was able to deliver vaginally without any pain medication, and the twins couldn't be healthier, despite being one day shy of full term (36 weeks and 6 days). Once the two of them were in Mom's arms, they didn't fuss at all. They just looked into her eyes and happily nuzzled at her breast. They still never cry, but rather alternate happily between quiet alert, asleep, and hungry. Jaime and Alex had thought tandem nursing would take weeks to figure out, but within minutes of holding them Jaime had them both nursing.
The meaning behind Cale and Dillon's names
Jaime and Alex chose the names Cale and Dillon for many reasons:
- Both names are ones that were on their short list for Griffin.
- Both names sound good with each other and with Griffin.
- Both names mean "loyal".
- Both names are Irish with Western US connotations.
The shared meaning is nice not only because it connects the boys' names with each other, but also because it connects them with Alex's family patriarch, Heman Dodge; Heman also shares the same meaning.
The names are both Irish, reflecting Jaime's Irish background. And as Alex and Jaime are both from the West Coast -- Alex's family for many generations -- they like that the names have a Western connection, too. Alex is actually related to a Dodge City sheriff from back in the "Wild West" days, so they think it particularly fun that Dillon is the name of Dodge City's marshal in Gunsmoke.
Each twin is also named after one of Jaime's parents. Dillon's middle name (James) is her father's name. Cale's middle name (Monroe) is her mother's maiden name, and his first initial is her mother's first initial. Because the twins have Jaime's last name, Cale's name ends up very similar to her mom's despite their first names being different.
It's kind of interesting that the boys' two middle names together make the name of a US president (James Monroe). That was not intentional. Jaime and Alex don't know much about James Monroe, except that he issued the Monroe Doctrine and that his presidency was considered the "Era of Good Feelings." Perhaps they'll try to learn a little more about him -- it would be fun if this ended up being another interesting connection. According to Wikipedia, Monroe's presidency was marked by a disappearance of partisan politics, and that's certainly something everyone probably wishes for at the moment!
Griffin was given the difficult responsibility of choosing which baby was given which name, and handled it beautifully, naming the first born Cale, and the second Dillon.
Mom and Dad keep track of who is who by painting Cale's toenail green, and wrapping both boys consistently in different colored blankets. But they think they're already getting a handle on being able to tell who is who just by looking at them.