This of course got me to thinking back to that day 10 years ago. I really wanted to get this written yesterday, but I was busy working and parenting and then it was after 11:00 and I wanted to go to bed. So here it is a day late, but no less important.
This is me early on the morning of July 30, 1998. I was over 38 weeks pregnant with my boy/girl twins and was scheduled for my c-section at 10am. Which meant we had to be at the hospital at 8am. Which meant I had to get up and be out the door by 7. Which explains the look on my face. I really was glad to finally be having my babies. You can just trust me. I had a scheduled c-section because Baby A (our son) was breech and Baby B (our daughter) was transverse and still pretty high. I was not dilated at all. Those babies had no intention of coming out that day or any day soon.
The day of their birth went very smoothly. Shell's dad had flown out the night before, so he rode with us to the hospital. My mom met us there. We were pre-registered, so checking in was a piece of cake.
This is the start of finding the babies for monitoring and starting my IV and the disclosures, etc. I was a little nervous about the surgery as I had never even had a broken bone, let alone any surgical procedure. But the nurses were great and the anticipation to finally meet my babies was much stronger than my nerves.
Notice the smiles in the above picture and this one. I was really happy that we got so far with healthy babies and very minimal complications. We were going to be mommies. It really was a dream come true.
They wheeled me into the operating room and then Shell came in wearing her scrubs. My mom was in the room next door watching through a window with the video camera. The anesthesiologist talked to me for a bit while checking the level of my drugs and then my fantastic ob/gyn came in and we got started. Shell was seated at my head and tried to tell me what was happening, but I think she was overwhelmed by it all. And it went so fast! Before I knew it, they said the first baby was coming out. My boy was born at 10:54am and started to cry. I quickly followed suit. He looked so little, but he weighed a healthy 5lbs 14oz. We had a son. Soon after, our doctor warned us that we would not hear the next baby cry right away because there was some meconium present. They would need to get her suctioned out so she would not aspirate any. Our daughter was born at 10:56am and after her nurses tended to her, we heard her cries as well. She weighed 6lbs 3oz. They gave both babies a little oxygen while they cleaned them up and took their footprints. 
My mom was able to come in the room and her and Shell held the babies while I got put back together. Their first picture in "the outside" was taken as my mom held my girl and Shell held our boy. The anesthesiologist said "Congratulations mom" and I lost it. These were my babies and I was their mom. Forever. I hardly remember getting stitched up and then I was off to recovery while Shell, her dad & my mom went to have breakfast. I started to get lightheaded and just as the nurse brought me a bowl, I threw up. A few times. After that, I really don't remember anything else about that day.
I know that my sisters and dad all showed up and there was a party in my hospital room (not really, but you get the picture) as the babies were passed around to many loving arms.
This picture was takenI was very puffy from the medication, but otherwise I like it. My boy is next to me, and the girl was being supported by Shell's dad. Again, I remember none of this. I was so out of it that they didn't even take my catheter out or have me get out of bed until the next morning. What a crazy day!
And to show for it, here are my babies, ten years later on their birthday:
Happy 10th Birthday my beautiful babies!
1 comment:
Happy bleated Birthday, Boy and Girl!
We're three years from the big 1-0 here. It's hard to imagine N ten, but I guess he will be and sooner than I think.
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