Introducing...Maya and Liana Smith born 5-15-98

From: sandi.smith <sandi.smith@MCI2000.com>
To: bedrest <bedrest@pregnancytoday.com>
Subject: Hello Again!!!!!!!!!! Birth story and more
Date: Friday, June 05, 1998 10:07 PM

Well, ladies, I don't even know where to begin. For starters, I haven't even had a chance to catch up on my unread 150+ messages. I thought I'd take a minute to thank all of you who sent congrats messages to Tom's e-mail address.

Can I start from from the beginning? This will take a little while....

I reached the 36 week mark the first week of May and decided that I would NOT be confined to the house any longer. I was the size of a small Orca by then and needed help getting off the sofa. But, I didn't need help getting in and out of the van. So I went shopping, went for walks around the block (these took some time, as my fastest waddle was at a snail's pace) and tried to convince Tom to attempt some "fun."

All of this did nothing to turn baby A from the breech position, so the drs began preparing me for a c-section. After a regular appt the first day of week 36, we agreed to do an amnio when we reached day 1 of week 37. I got LOTS of flack from everyone for agreeing to this, but after hearing from > Dad and the rest of the drs about babies brought into the world by cs before week 39 who had been born w/probs and ended up in the NICU, I decided it was worth doing. The risks were very low at this point and I felt very comfortable w/the dr doing it (my favorite dr). I was terrified and wanted dh to be there to hold my hand. When I reached the dr office I discovered that they wanted to do it before the NST rather than after. DH didn't have time to reach the dr office, so I told him to stay home and I sat on the exam table and hummed and stitched my needlepoint. They did the initial u/s to find the babies' locations. Dr. Coulson found a good spot, prepped me and stuck. I was so nervous I layed w/eyes shut, humming "Jerusalem of Gold" the whole time. It was over in a short time and was much less painful than the morphine injections I had for my "rests" at the hospital.

By that afternoon, we knew that the babies' lungs were "done" and it was safe to do the c/s. Oh, I forgot an important part...The dr had initially said if the amnio was good, we would do the c/s on Tuesday, May 19. However, Greyson was to be in a wedding the following Saturday and dh's family was going out of the dairy business on that following Monday (Memorial Day). They were having a complete dairy herd dispersal sale. It was **very** emotional. Soooooooooooo, I called the dr back and said, "If we're scheduling this c/s anyway, would it be inappropriate for me to ask that we consider our family's schedule?" She said no and that we could > sched for Friday, May 15 instead so I would have a few extra days to recuperate before the weekend. That's how we ended up rolling into Labor and Delivery on Friday a.m. at 6:45.

Here's a really neat part: That Thursday evening, we had a special meal.

A friend of mine went shopping for me and picked up some wonderful steaks and we had a yummy meal. Then, we were sitting out on the patio in front > of th house and one of the pastors drove by. He stopped and came back and sat with us for a few minutes to chat so we told him we were having babies in the morning. He took the opportunity to pray with us. He is also the only person who ever asked Greyson what the babies' names would be. So Greyson told him. Then we let him know that he was the ONLY other person who knew what the babies' names were going to be. It was just a cute moment.

On Friday morning, we were supposed to be at L&D by 6:30 (we had told Dennis - the pastor - this). When we rolled in at 6:45, the nurse told me as she escorted us to the room that we had an unusual situation. We had a visitor waiting for us in the delivery room! Imagine our surprise and delight when we got into the room and found Wally, the head pastor, waiting for us. He had a very busy day scheduled and wanted to stop in and pray with us and wish us luck before the surgery. I was so touched! He's a really terrific person and we've always had a great friendship with him. As far as I was concerned, that was way above the call of duty and I really appreciated it, as I was terrified of the surgery.

Ok, so there we were, due to go into the OR at 8:30 a.m. The nurses were working on prepping me. The anesthesiologist came in and explained everything he would do, took some history, and tried to calm my fears. He was a really nice fellow w/six kids of his own so he did calm me a bit. Then the nurse let us know that the dr who was to do the surgery was tied up w/some emergent procedures and would be up as soon as possible. Right around 8:30, I started to shake uncontrollably. Now, I already had sat calmly through the placement of not one, but TWO, IV lines, an injection, shaving and the discussion of placing the catheter *after* they did the spinal. I couldn't understand why after all this time (4+ mos of bedrest, an amnio and all the prepping) I was suddenly unable to control my reactions. Finally at 10:15, we all walked across the hall to the OR. The anesthesiologist took me into the OR and sat me up on the table. There were nurses in there getting things ready for the babies. Another anesth. was there and dh was waiting in the scrub room. (He had to wait there until they were ready to start the surgery. I wish they had let him in while they were doing the spinal.) I was still shaking so much the anesth. had the nurse get me another warm blanket. Then, the nurse stood in front of me and held my hands while the anesth numbed the area where he would do the spinal, and then actually did it.

I realized it was "taking" when the nurses came in to do the catheter and I couldn't move my legs. It was a very wild sensation. They had also given me some other injections and made me drink some really dreadful tasting stuff to keep my stomach settled. I was hooked up to one IV and had monitors stuck all over me. One notable instant was when I looked up and realized that I could see them scrubbing me where they would make the incision...I could see the reflection in the edges of the lights above my head. I was pretty concerned that I would be able to see the operation .. NOT something I wanted to experience. However, once they got the drape in place I couldn't see a thing. Then they let Tom in and he sat by my head with his face close to mine and helped me calm down by talking w/me about the babies, how healthy they would be and what neat things we would do with them and Greyson and Sarandon. I wasn't aware of when they started the operation. I just felt my body being pushed around a lot. I heard some suctioning when they suctioned the fluid out of the first baby's sac and then I heard, "Well, the first one's a girl...and look at all that dark hair!" Then I heard Liana cry and I began to get weepy. Tom was taking photos and was very excited and telling me about her. Her APGARs were 9/9, so she was doing great when she arrived. Next came another little pair of feet, another "It's another little girl! And what a bruiser! And look at that...another dark-haired baby!" Then I heard Maya cry. It was wonderful to know they were both here and doing so well. Maya's scores were 6/9.

I wasn't able to hold the girls for a little while. Because of my GD, they > were both supplemented w/formula immediately. Liana had some trouble regulating her temp and blood sugars so was in the intermediate nursery for a couple of days. (It was Sunday before I got to hold her and Maya together, Saturday afternoon before I was able to hold Liana at all.) It was Friday evening when they brought Maya in to me and she did nurse a little then. I requested help getting out of bed and walking to the nursery then so I could see Liana, since they wouldn't bring her out of the nursery like they did Maya.

On Saturday, they removed the catheter and I was allowed to shower and walk to the nursery. By Sunday, Liana was moved to the full-term nursery, so we were allowed to bring her to the room and I held both of them for the first time. Wow!! They were sooooooooo tiny! With little tiny fingers and toes. They have "piano fingers." For the first week, we couldn't tell them apart very well. (We left the hospital bands on them for the first > week, just to be certain.)

I just realized how long this message is....I really want to ship it and give more updates later. I'm going to sign off and write again asap.

I send my love and best wishes to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all so much...just don't have time between dealing w/the two older kids and trying to keep babies fed and changed.

Love, Sandi Mom to Greyson, Sarandon, Maya and Liana