
I was rocking Faith to sleep last night in her beautiful room and was overcome with how grateful I am to be the mommy to these two precious, beautiful girls. I recalled all the prayers by myself and many of you that led first to their conception and then to their healthy birth. I remembered the words of my friend Nathan who said that it wasn't until he had children that he more fully understood the love that our God has for us. I praise God and give him the glory for this blessing in our life!! Filled with emotion and gratitude I wanted to share with all of you the miracle of their birth.
As I walked down the breezeway into A level while Andy parked the car, I had a flood of memories back to my first visit to LLU as an interviewing med student and felt a sense of coming full circle. Experiencing God's peace, we went into the day filled with excitement as both sides of our family gathered in the waiting room. We waited a little longer than expected due to an emergency C section, but were quickly ready to go in the OR. I remembered the words of Ryan while getting my spinal and distracted myself by talking to the med student who I had worked with last year as chief. The anesthesia resident did a great job and soon I was an official patient, feeling the effects of numbness down my legs. It was sureal being in the operating room as a patient watching the med students (a brand new first year and "experienced" 4th year), feeling vulnerable to whatever was going to happen next. There was such a positive atmosphere in the room as Dr. Balli called out- are you ready to meet these babies?
Everything went so smoothly as they operated and then delivered Grace first. I was still anxious until I heard her little cry (it is still her same cry that I have learned to identify late at night when I can't see them). A flood of relief came over me knowing that that strong cry meant she was ok. They soon peered her little head over the sheet and I began to weep. What an awesome experience, I knew instantly that Faith would be ok too. She was more than OK, one minute later I heard a very loud cry, distinctly different than the first and soon saw a very different looking little girl wailing loudly, warming my heart. Andy and I were overjoyed and emotional. He asked sweetly if he could go see them as the NICU team checked them out. I felt such a peace at that moment, I didn't need to see them immediately, I wanted to bask in the feeling of gratitude ( I think the morphine in the spinal contributed a little to my semi-drunk feeling).
Andy soon returned and informed me that both girls were fine, no problems, no need for NICU and he was going to bring them into me soon. Grace measured 5 lbs 15 oz and Faith 5 lbs 14 oz. Allison Blaze was the closest in her guess of the weights- congrats!
Andy, the proud daddy, came back into the OR with two swaddled little girls, one on each arm, to let their mommy kiss them. It was cute how he had difficulty maneuvering them so I could kiss both; we eventually worked it out.
We then got to spend about 1 1/2 hours, just the four of us in the recovery room, both of us skin to skin with the babies. I remember when we were engaged, Andy saying that he can't wait to be skin to skin with his babies after learning about the importance of that while on Pediatrics. Our nurse Susan was an angel and took some great pics of that special time.
The rest of the day is sort of a blur, many, many visitors, nausea and vomiting from the anesthesia and basking in the joy of staring at these new real life dollies! Everyone tried to see who they look like. The consensus is, they don't really look strongly like either of us, but have some individual features of both of us. It was pretty amusing hearing every family member claim certain features.
My nurses were amazing at the hospital, each with their own style and words of advice. I was so grateful to be a patient at Loma Linda and appreciated the mission of the hospital even more. I learned the importance and amazing ministry of nurses and have a greater glimpse into the feelings of being a patient.
Since that first day, I have been recovering amazingly well, learning the joys and frustrations of breastfeeding and loving every minute that I get to look at my girls. I will blog more on some of those specific topics in the days to come. Thank you for your patience in waiting for this entry and sorry for its length!!
If you haven't already, check out our pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/andyhayton