6/27/08

Today Emma Starr and Fina Starr were born, at 10:03 and 10:04 A.M.

Of course, I'm writing this a good five and a half weeks later, late at night.  I didn't exactly have time to write it all down while it was happening.

Here's some of what I remember of the day they were born:

The cesarean section was scheduled, so there was no uncertainty about the date or time of the delivery.  We spent the night before at Heidi's parent's house.  That morning we woke early, and left Logan there while we got ready and left.  I ate breakfast, but Heidi was on a no food "diet" until delivery.  We drove over to Seattle in the pre-rush hour morning.  It was already light out - it was nearly the longest day of the year!  

We arrived at Swedish, and I immediately went the wrong way down into the parking garage.  I had to back up the ramp.  We parked and then went up to the delivery ward.  A rather excitable nurse took us into the "delivery" room, which was really more of a preparation room since we were going to have an operation rather than a natural birth.  The nurse spent her time putting IVs into Heidi, producing paperwork for us to sign, and explaining how she normally didn't work in this area.

Like clockwork we left for the operating room at 9:30.  By 9:50 doctor Gopaloni was operating on Heidi.   It was the same set up as last time, with twice as many nurses.  The delivery was quick and seemingly uneventful.  Heidi, the anesthesiologist and I talked while two doctors operated on the other side of the blue fabric screen.  When the babies were about to be delivered I stood aside and watched them both get pulled out of the incision.  They hustled me over to first one table and then the other to cut the umbilical cord.  I remember Fina came out first, and was very "clean" for a newborn.  Emma was second, and was covered in blood.  After they were out and cleaned up I got to hold both of them to show to Heidi.  The anesthesiologist took a picture for me!

After the delivery we spent a while in the "delivery room."  Heidi was hooked up to a bunch of monitors that continually beeped when her heart rate or blood pressure were out of the ordinary.  They made me nervous for no reason.  

Eventually we moved down to the post delivery ward.  I remember Heidi had a running battle with the nurses there over her insulin.  They wanted to control insulin, and they did a very poor job of controlling it.  Her blood sugar was all over the place.  It didn't help that it took them a long time to give her the doses she requested, or that the kitchen was impossible to predict.

My parents, Heidi's parents and Kimmies family all visited while we were in the hospital.  Logan's visits were hard for me, because I wanted him to stay with us!  

We left after three days, and went home with two new babies.