Birth Story Part 2

And now for the rest of the Birth Story of Hannah Kate, Rachel, and Leah.....
-Dr. C came in to do an ultrasound to see where the babies were and where they needed to make the incision. We were thankful that Dr. B came in for the surgery as well. We had two amazing doctors working on us! Dr. B is in the front and Dr. C is in the back. Sometime during this visit, Wesley said, "You said I could make the incision, right?" (No "I'm a pharmacist on this request").....the answer was no (thankfully!). :)
-Kristy was in the room and she kindly got my hair back into a normal ponytail again (I had to look good for pictures, right?!)....it lasted a few minutes!
-Wesley and Carol got all suited up for the OR. We were VERY thankful that Dr. C allowed Carol to come into the OR with us to take pictures.

-Before they took me back, the anesthesiology team brought me a nasty drink to drink because of something to do with the acid in my stomach. A lady named Stacy said it was gross and to chug it. I tried to convince her to let me swish and rinse my mouth out afterward, but she wasn't buying it. I drink it in one gulp (it was a small amount) and it tasted like a million Sweet Tarts. The taste was gone by the time they rolled me in the OR.
-When we got in the room, it was HOT and I was feeling sick. Dr. C had told me that there would be a lot of people, the room would be warm for the babies, and if I started to feel bad to let them know so everyone could back up and slow down. The room wasn't nearly as big as I had expected (and it was the big OR). The ladies had to get cold washcloths for my head as they were doing the spinal because I felt so bad.
-I heard someone behind me say, "Yeah, I think I can do it," and then start on my spinal........that's not very comforting! Wesley said it was probably a resident and that a resident had sewn me up afterward. I am all about people learning, let's just not let me know that they are learning on me! :) BUT......I was numb and now I'm good, so I guess the resident did a good job!
-The anesthesiologist said it would feel like a big bee sting and I remember thinking why would he say that......then it felt JUST like a BIG bee sting....I guess that's why!
-By the time I started getting numb and laid back on the bed, Wesley and Carol came in. They had chairs for them to sit and Dr. C explained that they would drop the drape after they got Hannah Kate out for us to see. Their plan was to take their time and get her out slowly, then they could get Rachel and Leah out without having to worry about Hannah Kate.
-The majority of the events after this are a blur. All I remember is that I felt incredibly sick, they couldn't give me more Zofran because I had already had some, and I did NOT expect to feel them tugging on my stomach. When you already feel sick, you hear doctors saying, "Start the incision," there's pulling on your tummy, and you are already nervous......you get sick. The lady named Stacy kept talking to me to distract me...I was thankful for that! They gave me oxygen, kept the cold washcloths on me, and I still got sick during the surgery. (The big question from everyone was how Wesley handled it (he doesn't do very well with that sort of thing!), but he was fine. Hopefully that will be a shadow of things to come when our kids get sick!)
-The big moment! I remember seeing her and thinking she looked bigger than I expected and immediately I started crying. Typical mom seeing her baby for the first time moment!
-One of the ladies came over and asked Carol for the camera so she could take pictures. That was so sweet and we appreciate it so much! I wish I knew who it was so that I could send her a thank you note, but everyone looks the same with blue scrubs and masks! (And there were 20+ of them in the room with us........we were special!)

-Wesley and our girl! I am about to cry just looking at these now.
-Check out that my arms are not strapped down. I was SO anxious about that for about half of the pregnancy (from the time I found out that they might strap my arms down). I would cry just thinking about it.
-Wesley got to hold Hannah Kate for a few minutes before they took her to the NICU.

-Carol and a nurse practitioner for the NICU. I can't remember her name, but she was so sweet. I saw her in the NICU this week and she even commented on how awful I felt in surgery and how she felt so bad for me (it must have been really bad!).

-I believe this is the point where I started crying because I felt so awful and was thinking how I could never, ever do this again......my hormones were already at work. I think I may have even told Wesley that I could never do this again! I know I told him that in the middle of the night and he tried to convince me that it wasn't something we had to decide then! (Because of where the babies were, I had to have a "classical incision" which means they cut me horizontally on the outside and then had to do a vertical incision pretty far up on the inside.)
-At some point, as I was being sewed up, Dr. C was talking about how I was getting disolvable staples......then she made Wesley VERY happy by asking if he wanted to see. (Of course, he did.....he's a PHARMACIST. -- if you haven't heard)
-Side note: I could HEAR them stapling me up....now that is a little unnerving!
-Sweetness.
-I survived!
-Thanks to Britt for the next two pictures.
-Dr. C......she's pretty awesome. On Thursday or Friday night, she came by the room to see me and didn't come in because we had a bunch of visitors. She called my cell and left me her home phone number to call her if I had any questions. Seriously. She is amazing!
-From here on, I really don't remember much. A ton of people were coming in and out and we had Rachel and Leah with us. Our family/friends were taking turns two at a time to come back and see the girls. I was shaking from the epidural/everything and wasn't able to hold them much because I was afraid I would drop them. I was concerned all along about being "out of it" afterwards and not remembering much and that is what happened. I suppose it could have been worse-I didn't fall asleep for quite awhile into all of this. I am thankful for Britt's pictures because they do help trigger little snapshots of what happened for me.
-The NICU ladies (not sure who it was) brought blankets/hats for the girls that had been donated.
-They eventually moved me to my regular room and our family/friends went home. Sometime in the middle of the night, Amy-Rachel & Leah's NICU nurse-brought them to us in our room. By this time, they had already passed, but I am so thankful for that time Wesley and I had alone with them by ourselves. I am blessed with an amazingly strong Christian husband. I am blessed with a God who loves us and strengthens us no matter what kind of situation we are faced with. I am blessed to know that our girls are in Heaven-a place far better than here-and we will be with them again one day.

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Thank you to our brothers and sisters in Christ who love us, have prayed for us, and have supported us (and continue to do so) during this process.

I feel like the ending of the birth story is a total downer.......we need to pep it up a bit. Britt was able to go back to the NICU and take pictures of all of our girls with the help of AMAZING NICU nurses Amy & Michelle. We will forever be grateful to these three ladies for this gift! Here's a picture of sweet Hannah Kate hanging out in the NICU on a ventilator breathing ROOM AIR in the first few hours of her life! She was deemed a "rockstar" that night by someone in the NICU and they called her that for several days. :) They even got her a blanket with stars on it for her bed cover.
-Thursday was a busy day......I'll just leave it at that. :) We did pictures with Rachel and Leah (thanks Britt and Mindy) in the morning, I was VERY slow moving and definitely hurting, we had lots of visitors, I had a reaction to the spinal and itched a TON (that doesn't even begin to describe it), I was still hot and tired (I woke up every 30 minutes the night before)........etc. Thursday night, I was finally able to go to the NICU to see Hannah Kate. Wesley had been wanting me to go down all day, but I felt too bad to leave the room. I started feeling sick again on the way there, but once we got in there and I saw her, I was all better! Britt went with us to take pictures of me seeing her. They are so sweet and I cannot wait to share (I'll try to do that tomorrow.)

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"As arrows in the hand of a might man; so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Psalm 127:4-5