We now have 3 sons all born on a Thursday in January.  Early on Thursday, January 7th, we got up and left the kids and Ahna at the house around 4 am.  They had us scheduled to be at Tampa General at 5:30 to prepare for a c section.  When we arrived, over the next two hours, we signed lots of paperwork, we went over various drug choices with the Nurse Anthesiologist, and started an iv line.  Finally Gary changed into scrubs and they showed him where to put our stuff in recovery, after one last ultrasound where we found Baby A's feet propped up on my cervix knees bent with his backside sitting on the side of my pubic bone and B's face.  It was disappointing but expected.

The worst part was having to walk into the freezing cold ER alone and get the spinal without Gary in there.  It hurt every bit as bad as I had heard, but at least the contractions I'd been having for several weeks weren't that strong, so I wasn't trying to deal with them and the spinal.  Another nurse held my hand, I squalled all while trying my best to not move, and the Nurse Anthesiologist talked me through everything, until they had things ready for Gary to come in.  She was worth her weight in gold, and I thanked her several times.  She stayed right by me the entire time, and explained what was happening and what to expect.  We had already talked about how that helped my anxiety a lot to know what was going on.

It was really unnerving to not feel cold or heat or them cutting, but to feel the pulling in other areas because everything is connected.  It was also a little scary toward the end that I knew I had to be breathing but I couldn't feel myself breathing anymore.  It took very little time to get both boys out.  William David was born breech at 8:27 am, weighing in at 7 lbs and 7 oz and 20 inches long.  He had way more vernix than any of our others have had, and they immediately started rubbing him and getting all the fluid out of him so that he would cry.  It first I wasn't sure if I could touch him, but I got to rub his check through the clear drape and at that moment he started crying.  They kept him them for about half a minute, before handing him off to finish suctioning fluid out.  During that 30 seconds, Baby B thought that looked like fun, so he turned breech too.  I had asked if it was possible could they be born in the caul, and let me see it before they broke their water.  I have always thought it would be neat to see, and they told me it was possible if they were head first, but not for breech babies.  So we missed out on seeing that.  Jonathan Lynn was born at 8:28 weighing in at 5 lbs and 15 oz and 19 inches long.  I was able to rub his hand through the clear drape and hear him make the most pitiful little meowling cry before they took him to suction and clean up.

Will

Jon

When they were cleaned up and weighed and checked out the NICU team gave them the all clear to stay with me.  It seemed like it was taking a while but I am sure it wasn't that long before Gary brought Will over.  By that point I was super drowsy, and it was hard to lift my arm to touch him, so Gary held him for me, while they kept an eye on my always low blood pressure.  After a few minutes Gary handed Will off to the nurses and brought Jon over the same way.  After a few minutes they set Gary up with both of the boys in the recovery area in a warmer, so they could finish up with me.  They told me that I bleed a lot partly because of needing to cut through a placenta (both of mine were anterior this time), but not outrageously high for twins.

Will and Jon

Jon and Will

I stayed in recovery from 9:14 till 12:30.  Despite me and the boys dosing they both managed to latch on and nurse some during that time.  We also all three slept some with Daddy to keep an eye on things.  We were able to get situated in our room by 1.  It took a little time, as they found us a bigger room to have a little extra space with double the equipment for the twins.  By 2 or 3, I was semi alert, Gary had unpacked, and at that point we were able to finally begin calling family members.  I was about to start getting up a little after 5 pm.

Will

Jon

They are all well.  Jon does have a congenital hip malformation, and will need a brace for at least the first three weeks, but that should stop his left hip from popping in and out of socket.  Both boys will need to follow up with the pediatric osteo doc since they were both delivered breech.  Jon still has a bit of fluid in his left ear as well, and will need to have a follow up hearing test sometime in the next month.  They are both an excellent size and very healthy, after "baking" for so long inside.  I have been pretty mobile, but will still have some restrictions on getting out and about, for the first 2 weeks, and then the next four weeks.  I am not allowed to lift both babies at once for example.  They have asked us to take some additional precautions about getting the boys out due to covid.  We are not to introduce them to anyone outside of our household for the next two weeks, but then with mask and hand washing we can start slowly expanding our circle.  As one of the nurses told me, it wouldn't be a quick recovery, especially with twins, but everything looked very promising if I will go slowly.