Caitlin Yvette and Emma Sophie were born on the 23rd of June 2008.
I'll add a link with photos later, I still have to go through those and haven't had time yet.
OK back to the story. It has all gone so fast, yet at the time it all seemed to be very overwhelming, hec, it still is. We checked in the hospital at 6:45 on the 23rd for a 9 am c-section. Got ready, and went off to surgery. The Anestesists name was Frank and he was absolutely brilliant. Well, the spinal worked great so thats good, but besides that, he kept me up-to-date with what was going on on the other side of the curtain. As a side note, after the spinal was placed I got really nervous and scared. Frank then proceeded to tell me exactly what was going on, letting me know when the skin was opened, when the uterus was opened etc, explaining all the noises I was hearing and his talking kept me calm as I was totally focussing on what he was saying. I kept looking for Duane too, who was told to park his rear-end in a chair but wanted to see what was going on and kept looking over the curtain. The most memorable phrase from him: "I can't see anything honey, there are too many hands in the way..." This was before Caitlin was born.
I remember asking "head-first or feet-first" when they told me baby no 1 was on her way. They told me "head first"... they must have thought it an odd question, but we had already named the babies beforehand and seeing one was head down and one was breach... it was kinda important to us.
So Caitlin was born at 9:15, and Emma followed a little later at 9:16. They used forceps to deliver Emma, and the little bugger was holding her breath so she was whisked away fast to get her to breathe. Both babies were a lot smaller than expected. On the last scan we had (35 wks) both babies were calculated at approximately 2400 grams. A week later, they should have both been over 2.5 kgs, however Caitlin weighed 2265 gr and Emma only 1945 gr. Because of that, and because they had problems staying warm and my gestational diabetes, the girls were send to Special Care. Duane was quite torn whether to stay with me or his daughters.
I told him to stay with them so off he went. I got to see the girls for a quick few seconds, and got to kiss both of them.
At 9:50 I was wheeled into recovery and regulary a nurse/mid-wife came and gave me updates. According to her Duane was a natural and spend a lot of time caring for his daughters. I was alone in recovery, and feeling it. It was a bit of an anti-climax. I just had two babies, and here I was, on a bed, not being able to move my legs and alone and listening to other parents who were together and had their babies with them. The nurse/mid-wife told me I was going to be allowed to see my girls on the way to the ward. The nurse who came to collect me wasn't too happy about that but did allow a quick de-tour to special care. I was there for less than a minute according to Duane. I got to see and touch one of them, but only her back as they had placed both babies in the same isolette and I couldn't get up to look at them propperly.
Off to the ward I went. Duane followed a little later. He told me that the girls were meant to come out of the isolettes later that afternoon and that they could come and visit me if they were ok in their little cots. Unfortunately they didn't do too well out of the isolettes and couldn't come to me. I had a drip and a catheter and wasn't allowed off the ward so I couldn't visit them.
So approximately 24 hours after giving birth, I finally got to hold one of my babies. The other one had just been fed so I had to wait until just before her next feed to be allowed a cuddle there.
My first cuddle with Emma
Finally, both my girls are in my arms
and all of us together
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