Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Lily on the left, Rebecca on the right



A picture of them sleeping at home 5 days later.

I think it was the third night we were in the hospital when we decided that, whenever possible, we would place Lily on the left and Rebecca on the right so that visitors and friends would always know who was who.

From there, it just stuck and seemed like the obvious move.

The first night they both spent it in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). We were allowed to visit them and hold them, but they were hooked up to baby monitors that measured their heartbeats and the number of breaths they took per minute etc.

They sat there in their incubators and held the positions they were most familiar with in the womb. Lily was on her back, curled up in a ball and Rebecca was on her stomach in a similar position. They weren't together, in fact if they could see they wouldn't even be able to make eye contact. But you just had a feeling that they knew they were close enough to each other to share some whatever it was they were sharing before they entered this world. Brain waves? LOL

The labour itself was an event. We showed up on Tuesday at 9am and by 9pm the wife was hooked up and having regular contractions about 2 minutes apart. The doctor had broke her water manually about 2 hours prior and we were regularily enjoying the laughing gas together. I didn't get much out of it, but Mom really did love it in the end. That, combined with the epidural made for a somewhat pain free experience. Albeit very temporary. At 11:15 we were moved into the operating room. This was precautionary in case there were any complications and an emergency c-section was to be had.

By 11:30pm I knew there was a real chance that they would be born on seperate days. By the time it was 11:45 we knew it was only a matter of minutes before Baby A would be born. The room was filled with 15 doctors and nurses and everyone was buzzing with the thought of seperate birthdays. All of the sudden the doctor realized that the cord was around Lily's neck! She took quick action and applied the vaccuum to Lily's little fragile skull and gently pulled her into the cold welcoming air. We realized at that exact moment that we were having twin girls. It was such an amazing sight, I have chills as I type.

They wisked Lily off and three doctors took care of her. In between pushes and contractions we glanced over to make sure everything was ok. It was. She was a bit white in color but the doctors did their thing and eventually Lily was moved to the NICU.

By this time we were already into Wednesday morning and it was official. The girls had seperate birthdays. An odd feat, but one that was not overshadowing the real goal of the evening which was - two healthy babies. 15 minutes passed and Rebecca was born!

We couldn't have asked for a more successful delivery. Two healthy babies born naturally and Mom recovering with minimal damage. The fact that they were born on different days is kinda cool, sure. But the most important thing was that all three of my ladies came out of it happy and healthy. I love them so much.

2 comments:

  1. How great that everything worked out great. Didn't I tell you that watching your kids being born is the most amazing thing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The girls are beautiful. I love how they are both facing each other.

    And having separate birthdays is the coolest thing ever IMO. Except Rebecca has to wait an extra day for her birthday presents. lol

    ReplyDelete