Monday, July 22nd was a rainy, grey day. (Little did we know it was the beginning of the wettest few weeks we've ever seen). I got up early to eat breakfast and have something to drink. Then, it was just a waiting game. I made a batch of muffins to help pass the time and to use up the ripe bananas on our countertop. I took a shower, fixed my hair and make-up (for the last time in a long, long while). We took some final pics of my big belly and of our family of three.
These are the only pictures of Phil with my big ol' belly. And boy does it look big to me now.
We headed to the hospital at noon. It didn't take long to get admitted and get started on pre-op stuff. They would only let 4 people be in that room at a time, so family rotated in and out while they got me ready to go. I was so very nervous. The time went fast. Pretty soon they were wheeling me to the operating room.
A friend of mine from church was one of our nurse anesthetists. It was wonderful to have a familiar face in the OR and she was right by my head the whole time. Everyone was very chatty and kept me good and distracted. I was nervous about the whole epidural process, but honestly, it was not nearly so bad. I had very little pain or discomfort. But, it did take quite some time for the epidural to take effect, especially on my left side.
Finally, it was time to begin. It seems like things went pretty quickly (although my memories are quite foggy...I'll get to the reason for that in a bit. Know that the story sounds more dramatic in hindsight than in did in real time). The anesthesiology team talked me through everything that was happening. After plenty of pulling and tugging, Hattie Rose made her way into the world at 3:48pm. And she was screaming! It was a beautiful sound. They held her up over the drape for me to see. I couldn't believe how perfect she was. Tears.
Then, things got a little weird. I started experiencing a lot of pain. The best way I can describe it is severe cramping. I still have no idea why this happened (but will definitely ask the doctor at my follow-up). It got pretty intense. I was so thankful to have a friend there at this point, because I desperately wanted Phil to go see baby girl. Alicia kept me calm in the midst of the pain. At this point, I don't know what all they were doing, but I know it included lots of pain medicine. At one point, one of the doctors said, "we don't give you XYZ medicine because it can make you woozy and forgetful". It wasn't long after that they were indeed giving me XYZ medicine because I was having so much pain.
In the midst of this, Wyatt Paul made his appearance at 3:50pm, just two minutes behind his sister. I am so thankful for the pictures Phil took of all this. I kept asking about their weights. He had to go back and check with the nurses again and wrote it all in his phone so that he would have it right. Hattie was 6lb1oz and 18.5 inches long and Wyatt was 6lb7oz and 20 inches long. Perfection.
At last, they brought them over to me. Even three weeks later I sometimes struggle to believe that they are ours and were actually inside me just moments before this picture.
As they put me back together, I continued to experience quite a bit of pain and was so shaky. In fact, at one point, I handed off one of the babies, because I just didn't feel confident holding them when I was shaking so badly. About an hour after the whole surgery began, we were being wheeling back down the hall to the room we started in. Our families got to meet the babies briefly and Christopher shared their names. Then, they had to wait while the nurse attended to my recovery.
Again, this whole part is foggy, except for the drama. The nurse had to push on my abdomen every 15 minutes to help my uterus contract (I think that was the goal). When she would do this, I was passing large clots of blood. Apparently, this is not supposed to be happening. It was concerning enough that soon I had quite a few extra people in my room. I continued to hemorrhage and was given two different medications to try to make it stop. One of those meant I would not be able to breastfeed for the next 36 hours. At that point, it didn't matter, because the bleeding needed to stop. It was kind of a scary time. And what should have been just an hour that our families had to wait to come back and join us turned into 2 and then 3. Finally, I turned a corner and we were able to finish with the pressing on my abdomen (this was horribly painful, even with the epidural and all the pain medication).
Our families came back and got to spend time snuggling babies. I really don't remember much of this at all. I DO remember begging the nurse for water and food. I was so hungry and thirsty.
The babies got their first baths and one of them was having a bit of a hard time holding their temperature for awhile. Finally, though, everyone was good and we were moved to a room. At 10:00pm. It was not at all the afternoon we were expecting. But, in the midst of it, we were so thrilled with our two new additions, it didn't feel so bad. We were in awe.
And we continue to be. I am just amazed at God's goodness to us. Even in the midst of major sleep deprivation, I continue to be overwhelmed by the miracle of their birth. I really never thought we would have this experience and even the experience of pregnancy was so surreal. And now, at long last, they are here and they are ours. And we are in love.
1 comment:
Congratulations! They are so beautiful!
Post a Comment