5/27, Hospital Stay Day 1

I have been typing up a summary of what has happened over the past few days when I get a chance.  I let Jessie read over it so I will put it up now.  It is long so I will put it in three posts.  Part one, 5/27 is after the page break.
At around 6:30 on May 27th we were about to sit down to eat dinner (mustard seed chicken burgers and edamame) when Jessie's water broke.  She had gone to the bathroom and noticed some extra fluid, first a little then a lot more.  Even though 36 weeks was the goal our OBGYN had originally set for us, we didn't expect anything to happen for a little longer because Jessie hadn't had any labor symptoms yet.  We called our OBGYN's after-hours line and they told us to come straight into labor and delivery to either deliver the babies vaginally or by C-section, depending on the position of Baby A (Ben).  They also told us Dr. Meritt, our OB throughout the pregnancy so far, was not able to come in so we would be seeing Dr. Mills, another OB from the same practice.

We packed up our things (Jessie was already packed, I had put it off) and got them into the car and drove to the hospital.  My parents had come over to eat and followed us there.  We found the right entrance on the third try and some nurses took Jessie to a prep area to get some medical history and other information and have us sign some papers.  After an hour or so of waiting, answering questions and signing things Dr. Mills showed up to do the ultrasound.  This was our 11th of the pregnancy.  Ben was still breech so we had no choice but to deliver via caesarian.  There was no reason to put it off so they said they would deliver the babies within the hour.  I got a surgical "bunny suit" and a hat, mask and boots to wear in the delivery room.  Jessie's mom Shirley and brother Mike showed up in time to wish us luck before the delivery.

Jessie was wheeled across the hallway to the operating room.  I had to wait outside while a spinal block anesthetic was administered, which took around 15 minutes I would guess.  When they let me come in, Jessie had a drape up around shoulder level so we wouldn't see what was going on.  The spinal block causes numbness from chest level down but has no effect on mental alertness so Jessie and I were able to talk a little about the situation.  The anesthetic was so effective that Jessie only realized they were cutting about 30 seconds before they pulled Benjamin out at 9:09 PM.  The nurses took him over to a little table to test his reflexes, breathing and other stuff.  I went over to check on him and took a couple pictures then went back over by Jessie's head.  Evelyn came out a couple minutes later and got her own little cart to get tested and cleaned up on.  Once the babies were cleaned up the nurses brought them over to Jessie and then put them on a cart together to go to the nursery.  I went with the babies and Jessie stayed there for a while to have everything closed  up before she went off to a recovery room. 

Ben and Evie were both having issues breathing when they got to the nursery.  They were grunting when they breathed, their nostrils were flaring and they were arching their backs a little to inhale.  This is called grunting, flaring and retracting, or GFR.  It is more common in C-section babies because the fluid is not squeezed out of their lungs by the birth canal and in premature babies because their lungs are not as developed yet, and our babies are both of those.  The babies were also breathing faster than normal, another indicator of respiratory distress.  They got monitors to measure the amount of oxygen they were taking in, and although they were taking in enough oxygen, they were having to work too hard to do it.  I was back and forth between the nursery and recovery at this time, and while I was with Jessie in recovery a nurse came and told us that the grunting was getting worse and the babies would need to go to NICU.  They would get IV antibiotics for at least 48 hours in case of an infection and would be continuously monitored and given oxygen.  We were hoping to avoid the NICU, and the IV seemed especially bad at the time because it would commit them to two days without being able to stay with us or each other or eat (the eating part turned out to not necessarily be true).  But we had no real choice so we consented to send them to the NICU.  Jessie threw up as the nurse was wrapping things up in there (one of the side effects of surgery, not because she wanted to wrap up the conversation).

The plan had been for Jessie to be able to stop by the nursery to see the babies but when I got back the NICU woman who was in the recovery room was making it clear that the babies needed to go to NICU as soon as possible.  I went back to recovery to try to get Jessie to the nursery but I couldn't get in.  I went back to recovery and found Jessie getting cleaned up and ready to go, so we rolled by the nursery and the nurses held Ben and Evie up for Jessie to see in the window.  We got a few pictures of them next to each other and the nurses were kind enough to bring them both out so Jessie could finally hold them. Then I went with the babies to the NICU while Jessie went to our post-partum room, as she was having difficulty staying awake.  The babies still had all the GFR symptoms and quick breathing at this point.  It was around 1 AM so I told them good night and went to be with Jessie in our room.  We talked a little but she was getting pretty sleepy.  I laid down on the couch.  We had nurses coming in all night but I don't know what they were doing because I was in and out of sleep. Note from Jessie - nurses checked in on me every 4 hours to make sure I was recovering properly and I would have random people come in asking for blood it seems like. I was pretty out of it as well.