The Big Day, Vol 2: The Arrivals

Jeni was wheeled into the delivery/operating room and prepped for the c-section. After prepping her, they came and got me about 10 minutes later. As I arrived in the room, Jeni was on the table and her head was behind a sheet that rose above her starting at her chest. I stood next to her where an anestesiaologist was stationed. Luckily they provided me a stool to sit on. Turns out I wouldn't need it, but it was nice to have that option.

I was only in the room maybe 5 minutes it seemed before someone said, "Dad, get your camera ready!" Oh man...

I was holding Jeni's hand and trying to comfort her as she could feel the doctors jiggling and jerking around on her but we could not see what was going on (thank goodness). Then suddenly, someone said "Ok, here's the first one. Breech at 10:49. Breech at 10:49." I looked up and that's when I saw one of the people working on Jeni with a tiny baby in their hands quickly walk over to the table surrounded by about 4 other folks. Quickly they started working on her. This was Olivia Kay!

Olivia needed a little help breathing at the beginning and I couldn't get too many good shots of her as I wanted to stay out of the experts' way as they helped her.

Back to my stool next to Jeni, and immediately I heard "Ok, here's B. Vertex at 10:51. 10:51." Upon that I looked up an the second little girl was in someone's hands being taken to another table. Welcome to the world, Sydney Ann!

Olivia Kay weighed in at 2 lbs, 8.1 oz and Sydney Ann weighed in at 2 lbs, 7.7 oz.

Sydney was breathing on her own quite well and crying. Jeni and I were very excited to hear her first little cries. I spent lots of time with her and snapped some pictures as well as handing my camera to the nurse as I cut her cord.

After the girls were cleaned up, they were bundled and taken down to the Special Care Nursery to be monitored and for tests to be conducted on them.

I know some of these pictures look scary, but they are doing well. The bundling is to keep them warm and confortable and the tubes are to help them breathe better since they are early. Both girls were doing well right away and needed only a little assistance.

Following their arrival and transport down the hall, I headed out to see if any of the parents had arrived while we were in the delivery room. Jeni was taken back to her room to recover.

M