C-Section

I had to wait outside the delivery room for about an hour before Jenny's C-section. I made a few calls to family, namely Jenny's mother and my folks. Also put a call into Jenny's father but couldn't reach him.

I wore scrubs and paper boots and a hair net (but, I have no hair?) and a surgical mask. I could not sit down. I paced in the small room.

A curtain made a divide in the room between beds. I could hear the folks on the other side of the curtain, a woman and her father. The woman had just given birth. She talked about the birth weight of her boy, Will. He was nine pounds.

We'd been given estimates of the birth weight for the twins: two pounds, and just under two pounds.

As soon as I managed to sit down, a nurse hustled into the room and told me to hurry, it was time for delivery. Next thing I knew we were jogging down the hall. 'They're in distress,' the nurse said. 'We have to hurry.'

Within a few moments of being in the operating room, the delivery occurred. I squatted next to Jenny, who had a curtain across her shoulders that prevented her from seeing the delivery, the open incision on her belly. She'd had an epidural. She was awake. Her arms were spread wide on the bed, and they were trembling, a natural reaction to the dope in her spine.

There were about twenty people in the room. Mostly women, mostly nurses. All the docs were women, two of them very young. Two isolets for the twins had been set-up on one side of the room, giant hot white bulbs above the felt bedding.

I said a few words to Jenny. Then, I looked over the curtain. A tremendous release of amniotic fluid. Just gushed out of the opening, sloshed over the hips of the doctors, speckled their scrubs with fluid. The docs were amazed. 'Never seen that,' said the lead.

They were in a rush. The heart rate of one of the twins had plummeted. The lead reached inside of Jenny's bare belly and pulled back the skin, ever so slightly. Then I saw both of the twins, heads down, ensconced. The lead pulled out Luna, the smaller twin, naked and white as fresh dough. 'Baby A out,' she hollered. She passed Luna over to a tray and a nurse. Her bright white body turned crimson, blood flowing throughout her veins. She was motionless, and I felt my whole body clench. I held Jenny's hand. Out next was Estella, so pale. But neither one of them were as small as I'd imagined, especially Stella. They were long, and from my position even, I could see delicate, long, nimble fingers and toes. 'Baby B out,' the lead hollered, and Stella's body color blossomed into rose.

The next good thing to hear? Baby B is breathing. I swallowed, and it hurt my neck. I sat down for a moment. I told Jenny the twins looked good. We could hear Stella cry, a sound like a baby kitten mewling. Then finally Luna was breathing. 'Baby A breathing,' the nurse said to me.

I got up and went to see them, wrinkled and red, but not all that small. Dark hair, long arms and legs, hard to imagine they were only two pounds. Stella was kicking, kicking. I took a few pics with my iPhone. I went back and sat with Jenny and told her the girls were beautiful.