Kadri Claire Allen, born 23 October 2012, 9:49 AM, 1 lb. 9.8 oz.
John Alexander (Sander) Allen, born 23 October 2012, 9:53 AM, 1 lb. 11 oz.
Early this morning, Leslie seemed stable. The doctors did their rounds and said things might wait another week or two. But shortly after breakfast, things changed quickly. Leslie started having deep and low contractions, different from the ones she’d had up to now. The attending physician in the Labor and Delivery section, Dr. Ames, came back in and after an ultrasound and exam realized that she had dilated fully and the water sac was already on its way. There was no way to prevent it any longer. She decided that it was time for an emergency c-section so that they could control the delivery because both babies were transverse (meaning sideways in the womb) instead of head-down. This was why we had been roomed 10 feet from the operating room (OR) all week.
Within minutes, a team of nurses whisked Leslie away and handed me a paper gown, paper cap, and covers for my shoes. In the mean time, a team from the Doernbecher Neonatal Care Center (DNCC) were across the hall in the resuscitation room, preparing to take the babies and prep them for life in their incubators. One of the DNCC nurses came to talk to me and explained what they would be doing as soon as the babies arrived.
I waited for a long time in Leslie’s room as the delivery team prepped Leslie for the surgery. Luckily, there was enough time for Leslie to get spinal anethesia, which meant she could be awake during the procedure and I could be present for it. Finally, once everything was set up, a nurse brought me into the OR, and I sat near Leslie’s head. Neither of us could see the surgery, as a screen blocked our view of Leslie’s lower half.
The doctors started cutting, and Leslie and I worked on her breathing to keep her calm. We counted backwards from 100, keeping a slow and steady pace that she could match her breathing to. Pretty soon, the docs pulled Kadri out, and I heard her cry a little, which was extremely unusual for a 25-week baby. We didn’t get to see Kadri then, because she was taken to the resuscitation room to be worked on by the DNCC team. A few tense minutes later, and Sander was pulled out.
His birth had a complication. Once Kadri was out, Leslie’s uterus clamped down on Sander. This sometimes happens with twins because the body doesn’t always realize that there are two babies in there. Fortunately, the anesthesiologist sprayed a bit of medicine under Leslie’s tongue, and her uterus relaxed enough to bring Sander out. (It was a blessing that particular anesthesiologist was there. She had been among the ones that rallied the hospital to get that spray just a short time earlier.)
Once both babies were born, I was allowed to go into the resuscitation room and see the babies as breathing tubes were put into their throats and catheters were threaded into their umbilical cords. The lungs of 25-week-old fetuses aren’t developed enough to breathe yet, so the docs use ventilators to help them breathe. Through the catheters in the kids’ belly buttons, the nurses can administer IV fluids and draw blood. Once the babies stabilized, they took them away to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
I went back to Leslie, who was already in the recovery room.
Just after delivery in the recovery room.
After a few hours, I was able to go into the NICU and check in on the babies. Micropreemies, as babies born so prematurely are called, need light therapy for their skin to epithelialize, meaning it becomes resistant to germs and infections. But their eyes are also very sensitive to light, so the nurses put little blindfolds on them so the kids can still get the light they need without hurting their eyes. They look like sunglasses. It’s really cute.
Kadri finally has some room to spread out.
The uterus’s clamping down on Sander caused quite a bit of bruising. In an adult body, the liver can process the excess red blood cells that result from bruising, but Sander’s liver is underdeveloped. Blue light also breaks down red blood cells, so the docs put Sander under a blue light. He’ll likely need the blue lamp off and on for a couple of weeks until the bruising clears up.
Sander chilling in his sunglasses.
One of the truly brutal aspects of giving birth via C-section to two extremely premature babies is that mom doesn’t get to see them until she is capable of getting up and moving. Leslie didn’t get to see her babies until almost 12 hours after their delivery. This is one of my favorite pictures from this day. Leslie’s face expresses so much—exhaustion, trepidation, relief, fear—but most of all, you can see love for her baby girl.
Leslie and Kadri meet for the first time.
The babies have a very long road ahead of them. They’ll be in the NICU right up until their original due date, which is February 5th. Before they can come home, they’ll have to be able to breathe on their own, be able to eat and sleep, and generally show that their bodies can sustain themselves. Right now, they receive a lot of support from the various machines and nurses around them.
We love you so much, Kadri and Sander. Welcome to the world!
