Let’s start with the night before the birth. It was the last night of uninterrupted sleep (kind of) that I have had. I say kind of because, first of all, I was anxious about Jenni undergoing surgery and extremely excited to finally meet my son and daughter after so much anticipation. We also had to get up at 4:00 am in order to make the 1.5 to 2 hour trek on the D.C. Beltway to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda Maryland. So needless to say, I did not get much sleep the night before Evan and Amelia were born. So my actual last night of uninterrupted sleep was the night before the night before their births. Did I mention that it has been two weeks since they were born? Let me just say that this is the “single” most challenging, and at the same time rewarding, endeavor that I have ever undertaken in my 32 plus years on this planet. I hardly got any sleep for two and a half months when I went to boot camp, but that seems like a piece of cake when I look back and compare it to taking care of my two little bundles of joy. And oh-by-the-way, I have to go back to work in less than a week. That’s when the real challenge begins.
Ok, let’s get to all the gory details of the surgery…
We got to the hospital at around 6:00 am (we knew on Monday that she would have a C-section on Wednesday but did not tell anybody because we wanted it to be a surprise.) They took us into a room for initial admitting. They handed Jenni a gown and told her to go in the restroom, take everything off and put it on…. Easier said than done! 15 minutes go by and I start to wonder if she got cold feet and ran away because, theoretically, it should take less than 5 minutes to don the hospital gown. So I knock on the restroom door and ask her if everything is ok. She says yes but she can’t figure out which side of the gown is the front. I asked her if she wanted my help, but her fierce independence and ego would not allow it and she vowed that she was going to figure it out on her own. To her credit, 10 minutes later, she walked out of the restroom with the gown perfectly affixed to her body. Some time goes by and then the anesthesiologist comes in to meet her and discuss the spinal she would be receiving. This doctor seemed a little wacky. Not in an incompetent way though. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, but what do I know about doctor speak? He may have been a crazy person that just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before. It was kind of funny when he was explaining what Jenni would feel when they were slicing and dicing her innards. He said that she would feel pressure but it would not hurt. Then he proceeded to punch me in the shoulder several times to demonstrate this point. He said “see, he feels it but it doesn’t hurt him.” Then I dropped him with a Bruce Lee kick to the jaw (just kidding.) He kept reiterating to me that I MUST sit down in the operating room and I could not be there during the insertion of the spinal catheter. Apparently, he explained, some poor dude passed out when he saw the doctor apply the spinal and smacked his head on a metal pipe and died and his wife sued and got a bunch of money and ruined the experience for the rest of us.
Finally, the big moment arrives. They are wheeling her into the operating room to apply the spinal. I have to wait until this is done before I can go into the OR. Her bed is stopped outside the recovery room and a nurse tells me to go with her and she will show me where to put the suitcase and pillows that we packed during surgery. Then they wheeled Jenni away. I did not get to say good luck or break a leg or anything before she went into the OR. The nurse hands me a painter’s suit, booties, a mask and head cover and I put everything on (see pic) and wait... and wait… and wait. Actually, it was only about 25 minutes but it seemed like an eternity. I was a wreck. Finally, a nurse escorts me into the OR and guides me towards Jenni’s head where the anesthesiologist is standing and he hands me a seat and orders me to sit down. I comply. Then he hands me a shallow crescent shaped dish and says to “use it if I feel nauseous.” I did not need it, but if I did it would have been ugly. Picture yourself with your head 2 inches from the floor. Now picture yourself throwing up. Not a pretty picture is it? You just gave yourself an imaginary puke facial and that’s what would have happened to me if I would have used this shot glass sized barf bowl. I guess that’s why doctors are so specialized. They cannot multi-task. This doctor only knows how to manage anesthesia. He can’t help you with other medical problems so I guess it is too much of a stretch for him to contemplate someone actually puking in the Petri dish and realize that it will not suffice.
Anyway, here we are in the operating room and Jenni is being opened up. She keeps shivering uncontrollably and it is kind of freaking me out but she says she feels fine and the doctor says that it is normal. I was still not completely comfortable with the shaking but I tried not to show it. I just kept telling her that she was doing fine and to breathe. When I was in there, it was all very surreal and a blur. It seems like it is taking forever but I really had no sense of time. I kept thinking where are the babies? It is much quicker on TV. After several minutes, there was a pretty good sized blood splatter that left a big splat on the blue sheet that was hanging in front of her head. However, this sheet was not high enough to deflect all of the blood. Several drops flew over the sheet and landed on the screen of the equipment monitoring her vitals and on the sheet of paper that the anesthesiologist was using to log her vitals and times. He wiped it off the paper but it left a nice brown/red streak and turned the paper into a biohazard. True to his form, he jokingly exclaimed, you don’t have a disease or scabies do you? Oh! And a nice big drop landed square on her forehead. To her credit, this little incident did not disturb Jenni in the least. She just said hey blood splattered on my forehead and that was it.
Eons go by and finally at 9:04 am, we hear a baby crying and the doctor says there’s one of them “I see a little butt.” I was somewhat in shock but I told Jenni that that was Evan crying and she cried and said his name, “Evan.” I thought I was going to cry but I think I was too much in shock to cry. Then a minute later, we heard another baby crying and I told Jenni that that was Amelia and she cried and said her name, “Amelia.” Ok now it hits me. They are born now. How are they? Are they healthy? How is his arm? Etc… A million questions are going through my head. What seems like several minutes go by. It could have been 2 or 20, like I said, I really had no sense of time. Then the nurse came and escorted me to the babies and the doctor showed me Evan first. He was amazing to look at for the first time. I thought Wow, what a beautiful baby! Then I saw his arm and thought that it was not as bad as I had expected. The good news is that other than his arm, he appeared to be normal. We did suspect a heart defect though and found out later that he does have a moderate VSD in his heart that may or may not close up. Let’s hope for the best!
Then the doctor told me that I could cut the umbilical cord if I would like. I said that I absolutely would not like to cut the cord. I was feeling squeamish and did not feel like I had it in me. Then another doctor said that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I did not cut the cord. So I said what the heck, give me those scissors. It was kind of gross. Blood splattered everywhere. But looking back, I am glad that I decided to do it. Next the doctor escorted me over to Amelia and I got to see her for the first time. I thought, I can’t believe it, lightening strikes twice! Two beautiful babies! She was this perfect little baby with the cutest little button nose. I cut her cord and went back to Jenni and told her that they were beautiful. After a minute the nurses brought each baby over for Jenny to see and she cried each time. I was still numb and in awe of the fact that I was a dad for the first and second time. I didn’t realize until later that I could have seen her open belly with her guts spread out across the operating table. All I had to do was look right but I was too much in shock to realize it. Not that I would want to see that but just like a car crash how could you not look if it was right in front of you. The Nurse asked me to take Amelia and she would take Evan to the recovery room. At just over 5 pounds, she was a tiny little thing. So it took me a minute to figure out how to grab her and pick her up. I was afraid that I would crush her. So I finally picked her up and we took them to the recovery room and they both received baths while they closed Jenni up. Sorry about the long windedness but I wanted to be thorough. I have told the story leading up to their birth.
Part 2 coming soon… The experience of taking care of twins on their first day of life.
Ok, let’s get to all the gory details of the surgery…
We got to the hospital at around 6:00 am (we knew on Monday that she would have a C-section on Wednesday but did not tell anybody because we wanted it to be a surprise.) They took us into a room for initial admitting. They handed Jenni a gown and told her to go in the restroom, take everything off and put it on…. Easier said than done! 15 minutes go by and I start to wonder if she got cold feet and ran away because, theoretically, it should take less than 5 minutes to don the hospital gown. So I knock on the restroom door and ask her if everything is ok. She says yes but she can’t figure out which side of the gown is the front. I asked her if she wanted my help, but her fierce independence and ego would not allow it and she vowed that she was going to figure it out on her own. To her credit, 10 minutes later, she walked out of the restroom with the gown perfectly affixed to her body. Some time goes by and then the anesthesiologist comes in to meet her and discuss the spinal she would be receiving. This doctor seemed a little wacky. Not in an incompetent way though. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, but what do I know about doctor speak? He may have been a crazy person that just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before. It was kind of funny when he was explaining what Jenni would feel when they were slicing and dicing her innards. He said that she would feel pressure but it would not hurt. Then he proceeded to punch me in the shoulder several times to demonstrate this point. He said “see, he feels it but it doesn’t hurt him.” Then I dropped him with a Bruce Lee kick to the jaw (just kidding.) He kept reiterating to me that I MUST sit down in the operating room and I could not be there during the insertion of the spinal catheter. Apparently, he explained, some poor dude passed out when he saw the doctor apply the spinal and smacked his head on a metal pipe and died and his wife sued and got a bunch of money and ruined the experience for the rest of us.
Finally, the big moment arrives. They are wheeling her into the operating room to apply the spinal. I have to wait until this is done before I can go into the OR. Her bed is stopped outside the recovery room and a nurse tells me to go with her and she will show me where to put the suitcase and pillows that we packed during surgery. Then they wheeled Jenni away. I did not get to say good luck or break a leg or anything before she went into the OR. The nurse hands me a painter’s suit, booties, a mask and head cover and I put everything on (see pic) and wait... and wait… and wait. Actually, it was only about 25 minutes but it seemed like an eternity. I was a wreck. Finally, a nurse escorts me into the OR and guides me towards Jenni’s head where the anesthesiologist is standing and he hands me a seat and orders me to sit down. I comply. Then he hands me a shallow crescent shaped dish and says to “use it if I feel nauseous.” I did not need it, but if I did it would have been ugly. Picture yourself with your head 2 inches from the floor. Now picture yourself throwing up. Not a pretty picture is it? You just gave yourself an imaginary puke facial and that’s what would have happened to me if I would have used this shot glass sized barf bowl. I guess that’s why doctors are so specialized. They cannot multi-task. This doctor only knows how to manage anesthesia. He can’t help you with other medical problems so I guess it is too much of a stretch for him to contemplate someone actually puking in the Petri dish and realize that it will not suffice.
Anyway, here we are in the operating room and Jenni is being opened up. She keeps shivering uncontrollably and it is kind of freaking me out but she says she feels fine and the doctor says that it is normal. I was still not completely comfortable with the shaking but I tried not to show it. I just kept telling her that she was doing fine and to breathe. When I was in there, it was all very surreal and a blur. It seems like it is taking forever but I really had no sense of time. I kept thinking where are the babies? It is much quicker on TV. After several minutes, there was a pretty good sized blood splatter that left a big splat on the blue sheet that was hanging in front of her head. However, this sheet was not high enough to deflect all of the blood. Several drops flew over the sheet and landed on the screen of the equipment monitoring her vitals and on the sheet of paper that the anesthesiologist was using to log her vitals and times. He wiped it off the paper but it left a nice brown/red streak and turned the paper into a biohazard. True to his form, he jokingly exclaimed, you don’t have a disease or scabies do you? Oh! And a nice big drop landed square on her forehead. To her credit, this little incident did not disturb Jenni in the least. She just said hey blood splattered on my forehead and that was it.
Eons go by and finally at 9:04 am, we hear a baby crying and the doctor says there’s one of them “I see a little butt.” I was somewhat in shock but I told Jenni that that was Evan crying and she cried and said his name, “Evan.” I thought I was going to cry but I think I was too much in shock to cry. Then a minute later, we heard another baby crying and I told Jenni that that was Amelia and she cried and said her name, “Amelia.” Ok now it hits me. They are born now. How are they? Are they healthy? How is his arm? Etc… A million questions are going through my head. What seems like several minutes go by. It could have been 2 or 20, like I said, I really had no sense of time. Then the nurse came and escorted me to the babies and the doctor showed me Evan first. He was amazing to look at for the first time. I thought Wow, what a beautiful baby! Then I saw his arm and thought that it was not as bad as I had expected. The good news is that other than his arm, he appeared to be normal. We did suspect a heart defect though and found out later that he does have a moderate VSD in his heart that may or may not close up. Let’s hope for the best!
Then the doctor told me that I could cut the umbilical cord if I would like. I said that I absolutely would not like to cut the cord. I was feeling squeamish and did not feel like I had it in me. Then another doctor said that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I did not cut the cord. So I said what the heck, give me those scissors. It was kind of gross. Blood splattered everywhere. But looking back, I am glad that I decided to do it. Next the doctor escorted me over to Amelia and I got to see her for the first time. I thought, I can’t believe it, lightening strikes twice! Two beautiful babies! She was this perfect little baby with the cutest little button nose. I cut her cord and went back to Jenni and told her that they were beautiful. After a minute the nurses brought each baby over for Jenny to see and she cried each time. I was still numb and in awe of the fact that I was a dad for the first and second time. I didn’t realize until later that I could have seen her open belly with her guts spread out across the operating table. All I had to do was look right but I was too much in shock to realize it. Not that I would want to see that but just like a car crash how could you not look if it was right in front of you. The Nurse asked me to take Amelia and she would take Evan to the recovery room. At just over 5 pounds, she was a tiny little thing. So it took me a minute to figure out how to grab her and pick her up. I was afraid that I would crush her. So I finally picked her up and we took them to the recovery room and they both received baths while they closed Jenni up. Sorry about the long windedness but I wanted to be thorough. I have told the story leading up to their birth.
Part 2 coming soon… The experience of taking care of twins on their first day of life.
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