Sunday, September 25, 2011

Birth Story - A Year Overdue...

I realized that I never posted our birth story, and I figured it would fitting to do so on their 1st birthday. Sleep deprivation and the general daily grind may mean that I can barely string together two intelligible words, but I will never forget the day they were born.

I went to bed at around 11pm on Friday, September 24th, feeling pretty good. I was 31 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Two days prior, I had a very routine prenatal appointment, and I was feeling very confident - as were they - that I'd make it to my c-section date of October 15th. I was so confident, that I didn't even pack our hospital bag. This was a mistake.

At 2am, I woke to a lot of sharp pain. In fact, I was already dragging myself out of bed while I was still partially asleep; a pretty major undertaking at that point of my pregnancy. I remember standing beside the bed, wobbly and groggy, trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, my water broke. I yelled for Edward, who literally jumped out of bed, and we both stood there, wide-eyed and mouths agape as we tried to process the situation. Every movement I made created more of a mess, so Edward grabbed a huge towel, and, thusly "diapered", we began a somewhat reasonable conversation about what to do next. Well, Edward was being reasonable. I couldn't decide if I was nervous, excited or terrified, so I settled on all three.

He asked about the contents of the woefully empty hospital bag: "What do we need?". "We need the three little stuffed monkeys for their incubators and the camera," I said, helpfully. "Don't you need, like, underwear and a toothbrush?" he replied. Um, right. Thank God he's on the payroll!

With a few necessities assembled and a garbage bag spread over the front passenger's seat, we drove the 10 minutes to the hospital. I gingerly waddled into the Emergency, looking for a wheelchair as Edward parked the car. It was early Saturday morning in late September, and the Emergency was full of university kids in various stages of inebriation and recovery. The room went silent as I slowly approached the triage nurse and informed her of my predicament. Then, the room erupted in mayhem. The kids were pushing their intoxicated friends out of wheelchairs which were careening madly in my direction. I found myself sitting in one, rescued from the exuberant crowd by a nurse who was just going off duty. She pushed me to Labour and Delivery just minutes ahead of Edward, who couldn't understand why he got a standing ovation, and cries of "Go Daddy!" when he entered the Emergency Room in search of me.

I was put on monitors and the babies were located. I wasn't dilated, and was having random contractions, so they decided they would wait to see if they could hold off labour for a few hours or even days to give the babies more time to mature. I sent Edward home, and tried to sleep. Deep down, I was a little disappointed that I'd have to wait a little longer to meet them. But of course, I wanted them to be as healthy as possible, so I mentally prepared myself to hunker down for a longer haul. At 8am, the High Risk OB materialized at my bedside to inform me that they were, in fact, going to go ahead with an emergency c-section. Baby A's ruptured sac wasn't replentishing its amniotic fluid and she thought it was only a matter of time until I went into full blown labour. I called Edward to come in, and he joined me moments before I was prepped for surgery.

I was wheeled into Labour and Delivery for my spinal epidural. It involved a resident anesthetist who had a REALLY hard time finding the right spot, so he tried many spots without success. Finally, the senior anesthetist pushed him out of the way with quite a cutting remark and finished the job within a matter of minutes. I was really emotional by this point, and was so relieved when Edward joined me and took my hand. We waited a few minutes while the teams of nurses, obstetricians, respiration techs and neonatologists assembled, and then without much fanfare, I heard the indignant cries of Baby A, followed by Babies B & C. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. They whisked the babies away, and got to work stitching me up. At one point, the OB asked us if we knew the genders of our babies. We didn't, so she announced that we had two boys and a girl.

Edward had the camera, and he was allowed to see the babies almost right away and take their pictures, which we have shared before:


Colin

Keith

Evelyn

These pictures were the first time I'd laid eyes on our babies, and I couldn't believe how tiny and still they looked - well, except for Keith, who looked MIGHTY unhappy at having been turfed off his gravy train, where he had spent the previous seven months lolling about while the other two fought over the scraps. Everyone was congratulating us, but as I waited for a chance to catch a glimpse of our babies as they rolled by on their way to the NICU, I didn't feel at all celebratory. The nurse who was with us kept anxiously scanning the hall, telling us she was sure the babies would be by any minute. Edward was allowed to see them, and reported that they were "working on them" in the delivery room because they had more space there than in the NICU. These are not things one wants to hear about one's children. But eventually, after several stressful hours, I finally got to see them as they came by, one by one. Under their masks, hats and wires I couldn't see too much, but what I did see of them looked tiny, yes... but perfect.


Edward at Colin's bedside on September 26

Despite some initial breathing issues, primarily with Keith, once the babies began to thrive, their improvement was astounding. They gained weight, started to eat their feeds, breastfed like champions and charmed all the nurses. Looking at the babies around us in the hospital, we knew how lucky we were.

Before we knew it, they went from being in the excellent care of the nurses, to being in our nervous, sleep-deprived and wholly inexperienced care. Somehow, we all managed to survive this first year. Somehow we managed to wade through the mountains of dirty diapers, clothes and bottles. The 3am groggy feeds, the hours spent cuddling a colicky baby, cleaning up after yet another bad reflux episode and kissing bumped heads and bruised knees. We made it because our friends and family shared all those moments with us: the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Because those desperate and tearful late-night phonecalls always brought sympathy, advice and help. And because we have always viewed our babies as an incredible gift, no matter what the time of night or the issue at hand.

We are so very, very lucky.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, BABIES A, B AND C!!!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Birthday Party!!


Evelyn strikes a pose in her ladybug birthday shirt

Keith = MORE!

Colin spies the cake

Thanks to everyone for coming and making the babies' first birthday party such a fun time! The babies were absolutely wonderful, and happily mingled with all their well-wishers. There is no doubt that these guys LOVE a party :)

More pictures to come - these were the first ones off our camera.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

....And We Found Our Nap

Flexibility is key in this whole baby business! The babies are snoring quietly as I type. Except for poor Colin, who is snuffling and gasping. I think this is why they've decided to nap - Colin is now coughing a lot of the night, and is keeping everyone up. They're exhausted, and so are we :( I took him to the doctor yesterday, who proclaimed him "a mess". With his persistent and spreading eczema, his perpetually runny nose and his wheezing, he certainly looks worse for wear. So, the doctor sent us home with a stronger medication for his skin and a Ventolin inhaler, and diagnosed him with asthma. As an asthmatic myself, this is a hard thing to hear. Hopefully, it will clear up as he gets older.

We raised his crib even higher, and last night at 12:30 gave him saline nasal spray and then again at 2:30 and tried out his inhaler. I'm not sure if any of this is helping, as his allergies seem to come and go in waves. I'm currently battling through a small cold, so here's hoping everyone is healthy for Saturday, and that we get a little rest in between!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Holy Crap... We Lost a Nap!

My apologies for another photo-less post, but as the bottles cool for their 4pm feed I wanted to pop in to say that we have officially lost our morning nap. I could tell last week that we were at a crossroads, because every day a baby (or two) would decide to forego their morning slumber. But as of Saturday, they went on (nap) strike, and no amount of negotiating would sway them. The turning point seemed to be Evelyn's ability to pull herself up in her crib. Colin and she would spend a good chunk of time chatting to each other across the room, while Keith rolled around in his crib, chiming in every now and again loudly.

So, this morning, after trying unsuccessfully to get them to settle, I dressed them and took everyone to the nearest Early Years Centre with a drop-in play group. They met a 6 month old baby, and crawled around looking for things and people to pull up on. It was pretty busy for me, but all the other parents were very helpful and kept an eye out for Colin and/or Evelyn when my hands were full. They seemed to enjoy the story circle!

I have playgroups all week that I can go to, so we'll see how we do tomorrow morning. Keith is the least enthusiastic about dropping his nap, but as is often the case with my Pumpkin, he kinda gets taken along for the ride. Perhaps tomorrow we'll go to the park and visit the baby swings. They are a hit with my daredevil Evelyn and her accomplice, Keith. Colin isn't so sure... he's yet to figure out the laws of gravity and finds the whole scenario a little dangerous. He spends most of his time staring up at the swing mechanism, no doubt wondering if it will hold :P

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Another Mouth to Feed at 3am!

Yesterday afternoon, Edward, the babies, Sprocket and I were out for our daily walk along a busy street in our neighbourhood, when we noticed a small squirrel coming toward us... and he kept coming. He wasn't at all afraid of Sprocket; in fact, it soon became clear that he wanted to join our motley crew by climbing up my leg. We tried to shoo him off to no avail. He was VERY persistent and taunted me by playing chicken with passing cars. I picked him up in a fabric shopping bag and took him to the nearest house. The squirrel was SO tame that I asked the man who answered the door wether he had raised it. He said he hadn't, but noted that the squirrel had approached him hours earlier on the sidewalk. He gave me a box, and Sherbourne (the name of the street we found him on) came home with us.

I immediately got on-line, found and called the only wildlife rehabilitation center in the area: The Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. I had to leave a message. Meanwhile, Sherbourne was hungry. He had curled up against my chest, wrapped his tail around his head and was making soft chucking noises. We put him in his box in the garage, and got the babies to bed. I then rushed out and bought puppy formula as per instructions I found on-line (this turned out to be incorrect and dangerous advice). I tried to syringe-feed him, but he was not interested. Dismayed and concerned that he would become dehydrated overnight, I reluctantly left him to his own devices. However, in the meantime, I found an on-line squirrel rehab community (?!) and they were very helpful.

Their advice is what led to me sitting on the garage floor at 3am cuddling a groggy squirrel and syringe feeding him a home-made electrolyte mixture. That went over well, and somewhat satiated, he curled up in an old shirt against his hot water bottle and went to sleep. Yes, I am that sucker.

After a long day waiting for several leads to get back to me, when I got home from my dentist appointment this afternoon, the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary had called. So, after another feed to a now ravenous (and clingy!) Sherbourne, I packed his box in the car as soon as Edward got home from work and drove to North Gower. I was SO impressed with the Sanctuary. They've already cared for 130 orphaned baby squirrels this year! They thought Sherbourne was between 10 and 12 weeks old, and confirmed my suspicion that he had been tamed by someone. They're going to desensitize him to people and if they feel that is successful and he won't endanger himself unduly, they'll release him.

I feel so remiss by not having a picture of a temporary lodger, but trust me, he was cute. Really!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Happy Babies on the Move!



A few more videos - taken yesterday - of the babies on the move... my apologies for the shaky camera!