Flashback: The Birth (Episode 2)
Having twins is great and all, but there are definitely times when I envy all those people who have one baby at time. In terms of the whole birth experience, I'd say that as a parent, giving birth to one baby probably kicks giving birth to twins's ass.
It was at about 12:15 pm on October 2, 2008 that our first daughter, Riley, was born into the world. Like many first-time parents, I had envisioned those first golden moments holding my newborn son or daughter in my arms, looking into his/her eyes, connecting with his/her soul, telling him/her how glad we are that he/she is in the world and how much we love him/her. That's how it's supposed to go, right? Right? I mean, isn't that the way the movies said it would be?
Except that with twins, those first "golden moments" apparently don't really happen. Because as soon as the first baby is born, the doctors start working on getting that second one out of there. A couple minutes after Riley was born, Kathy had to start pushing again - no basking in the glow of the birth of our first child allowed. And plus, because our baby was technically a preemie, the doctors quickly whisked it away to a heated incubator and then to the nursery to do a bunch of tests on her. So, Riley was gone from the room in minutes, before I even had a chance to remember to take a picture of her. The doctors did ask me if I wanted to go to the nursery with her, but that didn't seem to be quite the right thing to do, since my second daughter was about to be born any minute.
So after another fifteen minutes or so of pushing, our second daughter, Leah, was born. For Leah's birth, I did remember to take a couple pictures, and we did get to hold her for a few seconds, but again she almost immediately had to go to the nursery. This time I went with my daughter, thus leaving my poor wife stranded in the operating room, with a bunch of doctors massaging her uterus from the inside. (I don't know quite how that works, but based on Kathy's reports, it doesn't sound like a very fun kind of massage.)
Anyway, there I was in the nursery watching my new daughters in their incubators, dodging the doctors who were running about, feeling kind like I was in the way but not knowing what to do about it. I tried to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I guess I knew I was supposed to be bonding with my daughters, but I found that it's hard to bond with your daughters when you're not allowed to pick them up yet and when they're so far away that they can't actually see you anyway. So I just stood there and watched. Sheepishly. The whole experience felt not-quite-real, especially since Kathy wasn't there to share it with.
Of course, if I had known that Kathy was at the moment getting her uterus massaged from the inside, I probably would've been thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't in there witnessing that. Bleech.
Hm -- Don't want to end with THAT image. Hey look -- more cute baby pictures!
Anyway, there I was in the nursery watching my new daughters in their incubators, dodging the doctors who were running about, feeling kind like I was in the way but not knowing what to do about it. I tried to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I guess I knew I was supposed to be bonding with my daughters, but I found that it's hard to bond with your daughters when you're not allowed to pick them up yet and when they're so far away that they can't actually see you anyway. So I just stood there and watched. Sheepishly. The whole experience felt not-quite-real, especially since Kathy wasn't there to share it with.
Of course, if I had known that Kathy was at the moment getting her uterus massaged from the inside, I probably would've been thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't in there witnessing that. Bleech.
Hm -- Don't want to end with THAT image. Hey look -- more cute baby pictures!
posted by Dave @ 12:28 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Great story. I had one of those "that's not how the movies portray it" moments, too, when Diego was born. Nobody tells you that you spend most of the c-section operation staring at a giant sheet covering the mother from the neck down. At least we got to hear the doctors talk about their weekend plans.
"...thus leaving my poor wife stranded in the operating room, with a bunch of doctors massaging her uterus from the inside."
And with that, you have obliterated the desire to have children of my own. You better be extra nice to Kathy for the rest of her life...that sounds awful.
Also, you busted out the Bumbos AFTER I left?? What gives?
P.S. With those pictures, you have renewed the desire to have children of my own.
I should probably mention two things:
1. We just got those bumbos. They're a big hit, especially with Leah.
2. That uterus massaging thing ain't normal. I think it had to do with the twins, Kathy's super-stretched out uterus, and the fact that she was bleeding a lot after Leah's birth. Hm -- Too much information?
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