Dad's perspective on "Birth Day" - 4/07

The hospital was starting to feel so much like home by day 23 that even nights on the hospital couch were becoming an afterthought.  Joyce's dinner was great and it was time to settle in for a little studying next to Dave reading the newspaper.  Minutes after dinner, Lindsay complained of increasing cramping.  With all the pains and issues to this point, it was hard to take one symptom more seriously than the last.  Joyce's motherly instincts kicked in though and she helped calm Lindsay while Dave and I retreated to the corner.  After the pains persisted, I grabbed the nurse that had just checked on us from down the hall and she already seemed one step ahead of me (my first clue).  One more visit to the nurses station 10 minutes later resulted in a call to the doctor (my second clue).  Dr. Kahn entered the room and took all of 15 seconds to make her evaluation and next stated what I'll never forget..."3-4 centimeters dilated and I see baby parts, it's time for a C-section!"  I was even surprised by the doctor's sense of urgency but more impressed with the series of events that followed as Room 308 quickly came to life with more medical staff than I knew existed in the hospital this time of day.  Lights outside the room were flashing and it was "go time."

I informed Dave & Joyce who were standing outside the room at this point, waiting for the results of the Doctor's visit, and fired off a few text messages to the rest of the family as I jumped into my scrubs and paced anxiously to be called into the OR.  

Lindsay was long gone and getting her "margarita" compliments of the anesthesiologist.  No more than 20 minutes lapsed since Dr. Kahn's first judgement to the time I stood next to Lindsay and a team of specialists and on-call doctors, many of which had amazingly just arrived from a night at home with their own families. 

The C-section itself was basically uneventful as I literally watched Lindsay "loose" almost every ounce of "baby weight" she put on over the last 7 months in about 10 minutes.  The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staff took our girls in a handoff as Lindsay was stitched back up.  I guess the names we had tentatively discussed were about to stick at this point.  I cut the umbilical cord on each of our girls and followed them down the long hall in their incubator to their new home in the NICU.