Splish Splash I was Taking a Bath...

The following blog entry was written the night that my children were born, but I am posting it nearly 5 days later.  Sorry if I have ruined the surprise for those that did not already know, but the girls have arrived.  I'm leaving what I wrote unedited, so please forgive it's rambling pace and inclusion of unnecessary information.  I had planned to write each evening that I was in the hospital, but it pretty quickly became apparent that was not to be the case.  At the time of writing I had been awake for nearly 24 hours...and that was the most rested I was during my entire stay. 

Actually, I was watching a french zombie film, called The Horde, on the main floor of our house when my wife called down to me from upstairs.  There were signs of impending labour.  Nothing to drastic, no contractions, her water hadn't broke, but there were subtle signs.  I called the emergency number and described the symptoms (I guess I should say it so that others in the same circumstance will know...there was some light bleeding), and was told that we should come to the hospital to be checked over.  There was no need to rush, because there had not been any additional symptoms to indicate a need for urgency.  This pleased my wife, it would give her and I time to quickly rinse off, maybe have a bite of breakfast (I not her.  A woman should not eat before a c-section), and to me most importantly...poop.  Gross, I know, but that was going to be my last chance for quite some time.  I grabbed a bowl of cereal and went upstairs.  Nerves were already taking hold of my wife, and she didn't want to be alone for even a second.  I had only just sat down at my desk, and began to lift that first bite of breakfast to my face when my wife shouted..."My water just broke!"  And then, in the time it took me to drop my spoon, "I found a mucus plug!"

The drive to the hospital was relatively uneventful, it being 6:30 AM there were few commuters, and therefore no traffic delays.  This was it...the big event that we had been training for, for nearly 9 months (37.5 weeks actually).  There would certainly be those that would be interested in sharing this day with us, so, to ensure they could find us, my wife was nice enough to leave a trail, that started at the hospital roundabout car driveway and ended at the birthing triage; a simple to follow pathway of aromatic, amniotic fluid for those that were to come later for a visit.  Unfortunately our first visitor was an orderly with a mop and bucket.

My wife went in to the OR/delivery room (multiples are always delivered in an OR because the likelihood of an emergency c-section is extremely high, even if one of the multiples is born vaginally) at about 9:00, August 7, 2012, a full 24 hours earlier than her planned section.  A warning to the women out there who may need this done.  We were told in our multiples prenatal class that you would have your partner with you during the procedure, and this is mostly true.  You do face the initial anesthesia procedure alone, and your partner is brought in about 20 minutes later.  The girls were born at 9:24 and 9:25 weighing in at 6.9 pounds and 6.2 pounds.  Both were healthy, and received APGAR scores of 9/10 (a 10 out of 10 is extremely rare, because almost all babies are born with slightly discoloured extremities).

I am writing this blog entry at 1:22 AM August 8th, but I doubt it will be posted for a few days (we don't have a wireless connection here in the hospital).  I am sitting between two little, swaddled pink bundles of noise who are allowing me to write a single sentence before deciding to explode once again.  In just the few short hours between their birth and now, I have experienced so much that I am looking forward to sharing with you...if my girls actually allow me to do any blogging.

I'm excited about this adventure and I'm happy that you are all sharing it with me.

As I mentioned, in the beginning, this was written on the evening the girls were born.  There are many details about the process which I will describe in subsequent entry, so for those that feel let down by this poor description of the event, fear not.  I will go into far greater detail describing what I saw, heard, smelt and did during that initial day, all in hopes of helping to prepare those that are following in our footsteps.  

Oh, and just as a side note, I seemed awfully worried about going to the washroom before the kids came into being, my advice, MAKE SURE YOU DO IT, because if the last few days are any indication, that might very well be the last satisfying bowel movement you have for months.