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Aug. 16th, 2005
Happy Birthday to You Two...
Aug. 16th, 2005 05:57 amBabies. Beautiful. Bed.
(Details after I have some sleep.)
(Details after I have some sleep.)
Post-sleep debrief
Aug. 16th, 2005 02:28 pmOK, now that I've had about 6 hours of sleep and a shower, I'm up for the full story. All that stuff Jen said about babies not coming as fast as they show on TV? Sometimes they do.
As I noted, yesterday she arranged with her doctor to be induced today. Her blood pressure was pushing the limit of acceptable (potato chip bag), and she was at 4cm. The twins must have thought that was way too much planning. She started having regular contractions about 6:30pm last night, but they were 6-7 minutes apart. We needed to wait until they were 4-5 minutes apart. Her mom arrived (in anticipation of the scheduled procedure) about 10pm, and she and I settled Ike down for the night. Then I took on timing the contraction intervals while Jenny concentrated on her self-hypnosis technique. (Which she gives rave reviews, by the way.)
Around about 11:30, the 6-7 minute intervals jumped 4-5 minutes. About 12:15am we called it in to L&D, and they told her to come on in. I note that the update I sent on the way out the door says that was 12:25am. With me futzing about and going to the wrong side of the hospital at first, say 15 minutes to arrive in L&D => ~12:40am arrival at the hospital.
She was settled in one of the recovery rooms for analysis while they hooked up all of the heart monitors and such. She was at 6cm upon arrival. Elli gave them a hard time finding her heartbeat, so they brought in the ultrasound to check her out. The doctor checked Jen again and she was at 9cm. This was about 15 minutes after the first check. Jenny wanted to visit the restroom. The nurse asked if she felt like she needed a bowel movement, which she did. "Don't! You don't want the baby in there." A quick restroom break, and it was off to the L&D operating room. All twins are delivered there both because it's a huge room and in case of any complications.
I put on my Steve Jobs-impersonation suit (surgical scrubs => ER => Noah Wylie => played Steve Jobs, OK, it's really a reach, I was already tired) while the doctor and two nurses wrestled the stirrups onto the operating table. I should note that from this point on, all I'm doing is standing around avoiding getting in the way. Jenny really wanted to push, but the doctor wanted to get a monitor on Elli first. So she broke the bag and tried to put on a monitor. She may have even succeeded. Mostly she was concerned with guiding out the baby that spit out about 2 minutes later. 1:45am, total time in hospital so far, barely over an hour.
Two more nurses appeared and started cleaning up Elli. I went over to the incubator/heated crib to watch this part and give more room to the increasing excitement around Jen. Another doctor appeared (anesthesiologist?), probably a few more nurses, and disturbing phrases started floating across the room: "slow heartbeat", "C-section", "arm covering mouth", "C-section". Then, "Oh, got it, never mind." 2:02am, 17 minutes later.
So everything went really well, though much faster than we had anticipated. Jen didn't get any pain medication until afterward (2 Vicodin, she was a happy camper when I left). She really liked how well her HypBirth tapes worked. (She loaded them onto her Dell DJ [iPod-oid] so she was able to use them until moved into the operating room.) I followed the twins off to the nursery for cleanup and warming, while she bounced around among three rooms before settling into a nice post-delivery recovery room by herself. I waited until the twins were finished with their measurements and brought in to her. We spent a while actually holding them, then I set off for home to crash.
We'll have an email with stats and pictures out later after I take some photos this afternoon. I'm going off to visit and prep for Ike's first meeting with his sisters. Here's hoping that goes smoothly.
As I noted, yesterday she arranged with her doctor to be induced today. Her blood pressure was pushing the limit of acceptable (potato chip bag), and she was at 4cm. The twins must have thought that was way too much planning. She started having regular contractions about 6:30pm last night, but they were 6-7 minutes apart. We needed to wait until they were 4-5 minutes apart. Her mom arrived (in anticipation of the scheduled procedure) about 10pm, and she and I settled Ike down for the night. Then I took on timing the contraction intervals while Jenny concentrated on her self-hypnosis technique. (Which she gives rave reviews, by the way.)
Around about 11:30, the 6-7 minute intervals jumped 4-5 minutes. About 12:15am we called it in to L&D, and they told her to come on in. I note that the update I sent on the way out the door says that was 12:25am. With me futzing about and going to the wrong side of the hospital at first, say 15 minutes to arrive in L&D => ~12:40am arrival at the hospital.
She was settled in one of the recovery rooms for analysis while they hooked up all of the heart monitors and such. She was at 6cm upon arrival. Elli gave them a hard time finding her heartbeat, so they brought in the ultrasound to check her out. The doctor checked Jen again and she was at 9cm. This was about 15 minutes after the first check. Jenny wanted to visit the restroom. The nurse asked if she felt like she needed a bowel movement, which she did. "Don't! You don't want the baby in there." A quick restroom break, and it was off to the L&D operating room. All twins are delivered there both because it's a huge room and in case of any complications.
I put on my Steve Jobs-impersonation suit (surgical scrubs => ER => Noah Wylie => played Steve Jobs, OK, it's really a reach, I was already tired) while the doctor and two nurses wrestled the stirrups onto the operating table. I should note that from this point on, all I'm doing is standing around avoiding getting in the way. Jenny really wanted to push, but the doctor wanted to get a monitor on Elli first. So she broke the bag and tried to put on a monitor. She may have even succeeded. Mostly she was concerned with guiding out the baby that spit out about 2 minutes later. 1:45am, total time in hospital so far, barely over an hour.
Two more nurses appeared and started cleaning up Elli. I went over to the incubator/heated crib to watch this part and give more room to the increasing excitement around Jen. Another doctor appeared (anesthesiologist?), probably a few more nurses, and disturbing phrases started floating across the room: "slow heartbeat", "C-section", "arm covering mouth", "C-section". Then, "Oh, got it, never mind." 2:02am, 17 minutes later.
So everything went really well, though much faster than we had anticipated. Jen didn't get any pain medication until afterward (2 Vicodin, she was a happy camper when I left). She really liked how well her HypBirth tapes worked. (She loaded them onto her Dell DJ [iPod-oid] so she was able to use them until moved into the operating room.) I followed the twins off to the nursery for cleanup and warming, while she bounced around among three rooms before settling into a nice post-delivery recovery room by herself. I waited until the twins were finished with their measurements and brought in to her. We spent a while actually holding them, then I set off for home to crash.
We'll have an email with stats and pictures out later after I take some photos this afternoon. I'm going off to visit and prep for Ike's first meeting with his sisters. Here's hoping that goes smoothly.
