Delivery Day - 1.22.12 - Part 2

...continued from Part 1

The next half hour was a whirlwind of prepping me for surgery, getting Ryan dressed in his scrubs, making quick phone calls to parents, meeting the anesthesiologist, and packing up 6-days worth of our stuff from the room since we wouldn't be returning to that floor.

They wheeled me into Operating Room #20 around 10:15, got the spinal done, brought in Ryan, and started the surgery. It went very fast and the babies were born very quickly after surgery started - John came first at 10:45 and Andrew was next at 10:46. We had decided several days earlier that we did not want to see Nathan's body, so he was taken out of the OR at 10:47. It was a decision that no parent should ever have to make, but we are confident that we chose what was best for our family. We are at peace knowing that his soul is in heaven worshipping the Lord, not with his earthly body. We want to remember Nathan as the lively little kicker that he was, and we have several beautiful ultrasound pictures and his footprints which we will always cherish. For us, that is enough.

The OR was packed with people - each baby had a neonatologist, 2 NICU nurses, and a respiratory specialist, plus 2 doctors doing the surgery, Ryan, me, Nurse Nancy, the anesthesiologist, and a handful of other nurses.  Hearing the babies cry for the first time may have been one of the sweetest sounds we've ever heard, and we managed to even get it on video.



Once the boys were assessed by the NICU teams, they brought each one around the curtain for us to see, and then they were wheeled out to go to the NICU. They wrapped up the surgery and sent Ryan and I to the recovery room where I slowly regained feeling in my lower half and got to suck on the most amazing ice chips in the world. After 12 hours of no eating or drinking, I felt so thirsty that all I wanted was an ice cold Gatorade. I must have told everyone because I now have three bottles in my room (thanks guys!).

Our first view of John Stephen

Nurse Lindsey shows us our first view of Andrew James

Off they go to the NICU!

From the recovery room, the nurses rolled my entire bed through hallways and elevators and into the NICU to see the babies up close.   They wheeled the bed in between their two isolettes and I didn't know who to look at - I didn't want to take my eyes off either one for a second!  Ryan and I both got to hold Andrew, who amazingly didn't need any respiratory support at all.  John was already hooked up to a CPAP so we didn't get the chance to hold him (CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure.  It's a machine that delivers pressurized air to the baby’s lungs through small tubes in the baby's nose. CPAP helps a baby breathe, but it does not breathe for him.)

Andrew in the NICU

John in the NICU

Holding Andrew for the first time

Ryan and Andrew

Little "Old Man" John

Of course we didn't spend nearly as much time with them as we would have liked, but were thankful for every second.  They then moved me to our new room on the Mother/Baby floor and eventually later that night we were able to shut our eyes and get about an hour of sleep, knowing that in the morning we would get to see our precious little boys again!!!