THEY'RE HERE!!!

Welcome, Salvateenies!!!

9/15/2010

The day got started early – the alarm was set for 4:30, but my bladder woke me up around 3:45.  Who needs more than 4 hours sleep anyway, right?  Joe and I took showers and packed the final items around the house.  While he was in the shower, around 5:20, someone from Kaiser Labor & Delivery actually called with a “wake-up call” to make sure we remembered where to be and when – as if we could forget!  But definitely an appreciated gesture.

We got out of the house and to the hospital by 7am and rode up in the elevator with a nurse heading to our same floor.  From there we signed in and waited a few moments before being escorted to a prep room to change clothes.  Next thing you knew, the same woman from the elevator came in and introduced herself as “my” nurse!  A bunch of things needed to happen before we left the prep room, including some blood draws, the insertion of an IV, a quick medical history, an ultrasound to locate all the babies, and a full 20-minute non-stress test on each, being sure that each baby had two hearbeat accelerations during a 20-minute period.  Daniel’s heartbeat was found right away, and Caroline’s not long after, and monitors were strapped in place for them.  But, as has been his habit, Max was hiding!  It took until nearly 8:30 before his heartbeat was identified (though some of the problem may have been that the probe was malfunctioning too).  Needless to say those were some stressful minutes as I tried to remind myself it was a technical glitch and not a medical problem.  Finally they found his heartbeat and he performed on cue.  I had my belly shaved and cleaned and they wheeled me over to the operating room.

As we entered the operating suite, we went through one room with three little bassinets a-waiting the ‘teenies.  Then another sort of ante-room with machines.  Then the OR itself.  It’s funny, the OR doesn’t look like the ones you see on TV.  Sure, there’s a big bed in the middle with turbo lights overhead, and a table of shiny instruments (SO MANY CLAMPS!), but it’s also painted white, and has built-in cabinets and a plate glass window letting in natural light and a nice view over the City.  Certainly less of a scary environment than the room where I had knee surgery a few years back.

It was now time for the anesthesia – a spinal block.  Hunched over, the doctor found an opening in my vertebrae and gave me a shot of morphine to numb the area.  Then he inserted the medication into the lumbar area and I slowly felt my hips, lap, and then legs get warm and then sort of swimmingly numb.  By the time it had all spread, I had no control over them, no pain whatsoever, and yet had enough sensation to feel as I was moved and tugged into position on the bed.

This is when Joe entered, covered in a white hat and full-length gown, with a green surgical mask. I’m very sorry I didn’t get a picture of him, but truthfully I didn’t even recognize him amid ALL the other people in the room (2 surgeons, 2 anesthesiologists, 2 surgical nurses, my nurse and the 2 students/assistants who had been with me all morning, and in the other room 3 pediatricians and at least one support person for each of them) until he started talking.  He took a spot by my head as the anesthesiologists set up a big drape between us and the target area and then, almost instantly it seemed, the surgeons sat down on either side of me and started to work.  Again, I was numb to all pain so I didn’t notice when they did any cutting, but I could feel as my torso got moved from one side to the other. 

Joe did a great job with the video camera, interviewing me and keeping our minds off of the surgical element of what was happening.  Then, a lot more quickly than I anticipated, I heard the doctors say, “OK, he’s coming out, this is Baby A – it’s a boy!”  Someone helped Joe angle the camera so he could catch a peek, and then it was time for them to shift to Baby B…a minute later – “It’s a boy!” and more filming. 

Two down and one to go!  Remember that Caroline (or “Baby C”) has spent most of the pregnancy way up high on my left, tucked under my ribs in her “superior sac”.  This made her slightly less accessible than the boys had been, and I couldn’t help but giggle as the doctors said, “Grab a foot or an elbow or something and start dragging her out! No, not the head, that’s going to be a difficult angle.  OK, OK, I think we’ve got her.  Yes! Baby C – It’s a girl!”  And she cried on command, which the boys had not done.  And then Joe was taken off to the anteroom to watch them all get cleaned off, checked over, and swaddled up while the surgeons worked to remove all the other excess baggage from my belly.

Before the surgery we had explained to the nurses and doctor that it was important to us that the babies be kept straight – that Baby A and Baby B had different personalities and had already been assigned names based on those traits we’d observed in utero.  Secretly, I was a little nervous they would think I was being silly, but they took us remarkably seriously.  As each baby was brought in to meet me briefly, the pediatricians introduced them by name.  I got to reach over and kiss little Daniel on the nose, Max was struggling to open his second eye so he looked like he was winking at me, and Caroline was wrapped up like a triangle sporting chubby, chubby cheeks. 

Once I met them all, Joe went with them down to the nursery while I stayed to get stitched up – definitely the right choice.  I’ll encourage him to get us an account of how things went specifically, but as I understand it they were weighed (they all were in the 4.5 lbs – 4lbs 14 oz range) and measured (17.5-19 inches long).  They needed Joe’s permission to be given a bottle right away, but their blood sugar was dropping so they got sugar water IVs inserted pretty quickly.  And then, after some miscommunication, all the assorted family members (both sets of grandparents, one aunt, one uncle, and a great aunt on each side) were welcomed in one at a time to peek at the babies.

Meanwhile, I was upstairs.  Laid out as I was on my back, with my arms sticking out at roughly 45 degree angles from my body, my Carpal Tunnel was in full swing. My hands were bright red and I could feel nothing but my pinky fingers.  In addition, the medicine was making my face itch like crazy!  To save me from scarring myself as I raked my face with my nails, the anesthesiologist gave me a handful of gauze to wipe across my face like sandpaper – thank goodness! 

I dozed in and out of sleep while I was stitched up, hearing things like, “time to stitch up the fascia,” and “make sure you’re keeping lap count,” and other things that meant little to me.  I did understand when they said, “Wait, where’s that oozing coming from?” and “OK, can I get some scissors, we’re going to have to go back in and check this,” and, “I think we have to just pull her uterus back out and check the incision to see how it’s going.”  Not necessarily a visual any of us need to have, but I can say I’m glad they double checked!  As I was being tucked back together a second time, the surgeon peeked over the drape to tell me my uterus, tubes, and ovaries all looked “really good”.  Then a little more stitching of the “layers”, a final lap count (which I think is a count of the number of used sponges taken out of me compare to the number of packets of sponges opened), and it was time to recover! 

There was no room at the inn, so to speak, on the Labor & Delivery floor, as there was a set of twins scheduled and one of the anesthesiologists got called out to do some 4 epidurals during my time in the OR.  So off it was to another floor to wait in the general surgery prep area.  My nurse, Ana, and the two assistants came with and checked my blood pressure and bleeding and ability to move my legs over the next hour and a half or so, until word came that a room was ready for me back on the L&D floor.  The motion of the gurney still made me a little nauseous, so I kept my eyes closed through most of the journey. 

When we got to the doors to the unit, I had to be signed in, and the nurse found Nathanael and my dad waiting in the waiting room (everyone else was either in a cafeteria or café or in the nursery visiting – it was just after 1pm at this point).   Grandpa and Uncle Kelly came into the room after I got a bit cleaned up and all squared away and started showing me pictures of the babies and giving me their stats.  Daniel is still the biggest – 4 pounds 14 ounces and 18.5 inches long.  Max is still the smallest – 4 pounds 8 or so ounces and just under 18 inches.  And Caroline, who did not have any competition for nutrients, had the chubbiest cheeks – she was 4 pounds and 10.7 ounces and at first was measured at 19 inches long, though by later in the evening that was revised down to 18.5, so she and Daniel are tied.

Slowly everyone filed back into the room and started telling me stories of how cute the babies were and what they were doing when they were visited in the nursery.  If I hadn’t still been so foggy-headed, I might’ve been a little jealous that there were nine other people in the room who had all gotten to see the babies I had only glimpsed briefly in the OR.  But I was still foggy-headed, and a little nauseated – I drank a cup of apple juice too quickly and immediately threw it all back up – so I wasn’t really in shape yet to meet the Salvateenies.  At some point it became apparent to folks that I was not really that entertaining in my current condition.  The Kellys (and Aunt Laya) departed first, and a while later we convinced Joe that he needed to go eat something, as it was now 3pm and he’d had nothing but a banana and coffee all day.  At last I was on my own to sleep, though fitfully.

The only problem was that the room was SO HOT.  The nurses swore to me they were turning down the temperature, but the thermostat must’ve been broken because it was just warm, stuffy air being recycled through the room.  Or so I thought.  Turns out, it was my thermostat that was broken (and still is, to some extent).  The temp was set to 50 and the room was an ice box according to those who visited, and yet I was still warm.  Must be all the extra blood I’m still carrying and all the excitement of having my internal organs shoved around!  I apologized to everyone for the cold, but let’s face it – it’s my room and I’m the patient – they’ll just have to deal with it!

Joe and Lee Ann came back from dinner around 5:30, with a fountain Coca-Cola for me.  This is what I had announced to Joe I wanted first when I was no longer on caffeine restriction – a fountain Coke full of sugar and caffeine and bubbles.  After nine months of finding Coke restaurants and machines everywhere we went (a disappointment during pregnancy because it means the root beer offered is Barq’s, whose “bite” is the caffeine that made it off-limits) and wishing for a Pepsi fountain that would offer me Mug root beer, this day all they could find was Pepsi and finally had to track down a McDonald’s for Coke.  But it tasted SO GOOD.  Mmmmm….

While I sipped and rested, Joe took LeeAnn back to the nursery.  About an hour later I got a text from her that they were allowing Joe to hold the babies and she was taking lots of pictures and not to worry.  My mom and Aunt Laya came by to visit and kept me company for a while, and Nathanael brought me things he had gone to pick up at our apartment.  As my head was clearing out, I was noticing I was a little uncomfortable – I needed to get cleaned up and get a new gown on and I really wanted to get up so I could meet the babies.  I’d been told they’d get me sat up around 8pm, cleaned and waddled out to the nursery, but 8pm came and went.  It was closer to 9 when the nurse came to get me prepped for the hallway, and after 9:30 by the time I was actually slowly moving down the hall to the nursery.  So it was almost 12 hours between the first time I met the babies and when I got to go back and hold them.

My very first impression in the OR was that Caroline looked exactly like Joe, but when I held Daniel, I realized he is really the mini-Joe.  Same shaped face, same shaped lips and eyes.  Beautifully shaped fingernails.  All three of them were tuckered out from their big day, so he slept quietly in my arms, just opening his eyes a little bit now and then to check who this strange person was.  The nursery is kept quite warm to make sure the babies are warm…and remember that my internal thermostat is off…so I was very warm sitting there with the baby in my arms.  The nurse brought me water, which I downed much too quickly, and soon I had to call for Daniel to be taken away so that I could throw up my whole “clear liquid” dinner (broth and jello – not a huge loss).  My nurse was called and I was given some IV liquids and a medication for nausea that I had asked for earlier, but apparently not forcefully enough.  After everything settled down, I moved on to hold Max, who was squirmy but still snuggled in nicely.  Since he and Daniel are identical twins, it shouldn’t have surprised me how much he looks like Joe, but I was starting to wonder when someone would look like me!  Or at least my side of the family.   I realized that I could easily fall asleep holding Max like that, I asked to switch over to hold Caroline.  She looks less like Joe than I remembered, and actually in her sleepy state reminded me and Nathanael of her namesake, my grandmother…except that she’s got my dad’s dimple in her chin!  Finally – signs of the Kelly side of the family!

It is amazing to me how big the babies seem – they are much bigger than I expected them to feel and I cannot image how they all fit inside of me!  But there’s no point in wondering about that now because they’re OUT!

This morning has all been about getting medicine, taking vital signs, and getting my surgical dressing removed.  Soon I’ll be heading over to see the babies again.  Check back soon for pictures!