Brenden, Tamara, and Caitlin — part 2

October 12, 2009 — Brenden Connor Hunt, Tamara Elayne Hunt, Caitlin Alyssa Hunt

It was starting to look like we might get the full 48 hours on the steroids, maybe even more. Then my water broke. I rolled over to go to the bathroom and felt a bit of a gush, and felt it again when I rolled back. The nurse couldn’t really see anything, but she called my doctor in anyway, and he did the little litmus paper check and sure enough my water had broken. That was at about 9:30 or 10 in the morning. So he scheduled the surgery for 11:30 and the ball got rolling.

I got shaved from the top of my belly down past my clitoris, and let me tell you, that’s a bit scary having somebody you don’t really know wielding sharp objects around that part of your body! After that, the anesthesiologist came in to talk to me. I made sure to tell her about how fast my spinal wore off when I had the cerclage done. She thought it sounded odd, but she said she would have some stuff on hand if the spinal did wear off too soon. Unfortunately, the records of that surgery were not with my current admission papers, so she had no way to check.

I got lucky in one respect. My labor and delivery nurse for Tuesday had a student nurse assigned to her for the day. The student nurse couldn’t do anything, she just followed the regular nurse around and watched her. So she was in the operating room for the surgery, just observing. We found that out and decided to give her my mother’s camera, so she was the one who took the pictures I have of the birth.

It took the anesthesiologist several tries to get my spinal in. She was about to give up and had actually called for assistance when she finally got it through. I guess I was just too tense; she said the anti-anxiety meds I was getting at the cerclage probably made it easier then. But it took effect real good and I was pretty numb by the time they laid me down. Put the oxygen mask on me, set up the drapes, wiped down my belly with the iodine and stuff.

Brian finally came in, all decked out in scrubs, even a mask, so all I could see was his eyes. I didn’t even notice when they first got started; I asked my doctor what was happening and he said they were already cutting. It took them a while to get to my uterus, but when they did, everything happened at once.

The nurse behind me said they were at the babies, and just a few seconds later they had Brenden out. He cried really good. They rushed him out of the room pretty fast, and I didn’t get to see him; Brian’s head was in the way as the doctor was carrying him out. No sooner was Brenden out of the room then they had Tamara out. Her they brought by for me to see and touch before she left the room. The same with Caitlin. She was still bent in half with her feet up by her head when I saw her! So Brenden and Tamara were born at 12:09 and Caitlin was at 12:10.

BrendenBirthTamaraBirthCaitlinBirth

Right after Caitlin was born the spinal started to wear off. Where I had just been feeling pushed and pulled around a bit, I started to feel more distinct movements. This moved to achiness, then cramping, then finally by the time they were stitching me up I could feel everything. The doctor kept pumping various drugs into my IV, and I was getting a little groggy, but nothing was really killing the pain. Finally they gave me something called Versed, I think, that causes short-term amnesia, and I don’t remember them taking the cerclage out, and I barely remember going to recovery.

I did get to see the babies one more time before they went up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). They brought them in to me in isolettes and I was able to put a hand in and touch them for a minute before they were taken away. Brian was able to be in the room while the girls were being tubed and stuff, and he got to touch them then.

Brenden was 2 lbs, and the girls were each 1 lb 13oz, and they were all about 13 inches long. The doctors said that singleton babies would have been that size at that age, so the triplets have a head start there. It’s a long road ahead!

Published by solinox

I am a Wiccan priestess, a libertarian mother of triplets plus three, a wife and homeschooling mom to blind and autistic children, a fiber artist, and a Jane of All Trades, always learning and seeking to help.

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