Early Delivery
November 21, Monday evening.
I hadn't been sleeping well, so while I sat in bed with my wife watching TV after dinner (our nightly routine, since she has been on bed rest for a few weeks) I started dozing off and decided to just call it a night, right then and there. Problem is, I know if I crash at, say 8:00, I'll be awake again at 2:00 or 3:00 am, since I usually only average 5-6 hours of sleep every night. Sure enough, I was wide awake at 2:00 and went down stairs to watch some TV. About 3:30 I decided to go try to get a little bit more shut-eye and headed for the stairs.
My wife was clutching the railing at the top of the stairs because she had been trying to find me. She had been having contractions that were more painful than the Braxton-Hicks (false labor) contractions she had been experiencing for weeks. Being the caring (and tired) male that I am, I get her back in to bed, climb in beside her, then try to ignore her and go to sleep. But the contractions keep coming and she keeps waking me up. Soon we start writing them down - about every 15-20 minutes. I'm still thinking this is nothing. We are still two weeks away from the scheduled C-section date, which is again three weeks early (37 weeks). Our daughter had been born almost two weeks late and delivered by C-section without any contractions to speak of, so in the back of my mind I was expecting more of the same.
November 22, Tuesday morning.
Next thing I know it is time to get up and get myself ready for work and my daughter ready for school. My wife had her weekly Ob-Gyn appointment scheduled that morning at 9:30, so I ask my Mom (who has been staying with us and being a regular angel of mercy) to take my daughter to school so I can stay home and take my wife to see the doc. I call in to work to leave a voice mail to let them know what is going on, and do my best to help get my wife ready. The contractions are still regular, and she is getting sick (in between cursing my name for making her pregnant). We had just finished packing the bag for the hospital the day before, so I threw it in to the car, just in case. I also packed my briefcase, because I'm still convinced all will be fine and I will be heading to the office after the visit to the doctor.
So we get there and tell the doc (one of two we regularly see) what is going on. They decide to check her cervix (still routine, I'm thinking), and she's 2 cm dialated - were having babies, today! With that they call the maternity ward and tell them we are on our way to check in. By this time both docs are there, totally tag-teaming and being superheros for us, just like they did when our daughter was born. And then we're out the door and wheeling her down the hall and over to the hospital. We get her settled in and comfortable (I know - just because she is reclining in bed doesn't mean she is comfortable) while we wait for our scheduled time in the OR, about 90 minutes later. She is being a real trooper, and obviously in better shape than when she gave birth to our daughter.
At 12:30 they took her to the OR, and I joined her there about 20 minutes later. At 12:55 pm, Son #1 was born, kicking and screaming, at 4 lbs. 4 oz. One minute later, Son #2 followed in similar fashion, at 5 lbs. 2 oz. Wow, so far everything was going great! If you had told me ahead of time how much these guys were going to weigh, I would have panicked and been certain it meant they would be in trouble. But we were both so suprised and greatly relieved to see how big and healthy they both actually looked!
We all stayed in the hospital for three nights, spending our first Thanksgiving there together. Son #2 needed a little extra oxygen through the first day but we were assured he was doing fine, and by the next morning he was able to leave the nursery and join us in our room. Even Dad (that's me) got lucky and some decent sleep (even if only for 2-3 hours at a time) on the other hospital bed in the room. Last time I had to use a roll-away cot, even though there was no one else sharing the room. This time I'm guessing the nurses had pitty on me because of the twins and let me sleep on a real bed.
I hadn't been sleeping well, so while I sat in bed with my wife watching TV after dinner (our nightly routine, since she has been on bed rest for a few weeks) I started dozing off and decided to just call it a night, right then and there. Problem is, I know if I crash at, say 8:00, I'll be awake again at 2:00 or 3:00 am, since I usually only average 5-6 hours of sleep every night. Sure enough, I was wide awake at 2:00 and went down stairs to watch some TV. About 3:30 I decided to go try to get a little bit more shut-eye and headed for the stairs.
My wife was clutching the railing at the top of the stairs because she had been trying to find me. She had been having contractions that were more painful than the Braxton-Hicks (false labor) contractions she had been experiencing for weeks. Being the caring (and tired) male that I am, I get her back in to bed, climb in beside her, then try to ignore her and go to sleep. But the contractions keep coming and she keeps waking me up. Soon we start writing them down - about every 15-20 minutes. I'm still thinking this is nothing. We are still two weeks away from the scheduled C-section date, which is again three weeks early (37 weeks). Our daughter had been born almost two weeks late and delivered by C-section without any contractions to speak of, so in the back of my mind I was expecting more of the same.
November 22, Tuesday morning.
Next thing I know it is time to get up and get myself ready for work and my daughter ready for school. My wife had her weekly Ob-Gyn appointment scheduled that morning at 9:30, so I ask my Mom (who has been staying with us and being a regular angel of mercy) to take my daughter to school so I can stay home and take my wife to see the doc. I call in to work to leave a voice mail to let them know what is going on, and do my best to help get my wife ready. The contractions are still regular, and she is getting sick (in between cursing my name for making her pregnant). We had just finished packing the bag for the hospital the day before, so I threw it in to the car, just in case. I also packed my briefcase, because I'm still convinced all will be fine and I will be heading to the office after the visit to the doctor.
So we get there and tell the doc (one of two we regularly see) what is going on. They decide to check her cervix (still routine, I'm thinking), and she's 2 cm dialated - were having babies, today! With that they call the maternity ward and tell them we are on our way to check in. By this time both docs are there, totally tag-teaming and being superheros for us, just like they did when our daughter was born. And then we're out the door and wheeling her down the hall and over to the hospital. We get her settled in and comfortable (I know - just because she is reclining in bed doesn't mean she is comfortable) while we wait for our scheduled time in the OR, about 90 minutes later. She is being a real trooper, and obviously in better shape than when she gave birth to our daughter.
At 12:30 they took her to the OR, and I joined her there about 20 minutes later. At 12:55 pm, Son #1 was born, kicking and screaming, at 4 lbs. 4 oz. One minute later, Son #2 followed in similar fashion, at 5 lbs. 2 oz. Wow, so far everything was going great! If you had told me ahead of time how much these guys were going to weigh, I would have panicked and been certain it meant they would be in trouble. But we were both so suprised and greatly relieved to see how big and healthy they both actually looked!
We all stayed in the hospital for three nights, spending our first Thanksgiving there together. Son #2 needed a little extra oxygen through the first day but we were assured he was doing fine, and by the next morning he was able to leave the nursery and join us in our room. Even Dad (that's me) got lucky and some decent sleep (even if only for 2-3 hours at a time) on the other hospital bed in the room. Last time I had to use a roll-away cot, even though there was no one else sharing the room. This time I'm guessing the nurses had pitty on me because of the twins and let me sleep on a real bed.
3 Comments:
Congratulations to both of you--that's fantastic!
Hope you can catch a little sleep here or there...
Congratulations! So glad to hear everything went well!
Just found you by way of childsplayx2. Congrats on the boys. The lack of sleep was such a shock to me when we had ours, but I guess maybe you were at least somewhat prepared since you have an older child.
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