Smiles!!

So I've been pretty bad- more like majorly bad!- about posting anything about what life's been like since the delivery and since the boys have come home.  And I do have a couple of good reasons why (at least in my opinion).

A great part of it has been because I've been way too busy living and not really choosing to spend the time writing about it!  Over the past eight weeks, if the choice has been between cuddling with my boys or blogging, I don't think you could fault me if I chose cuddling almost every single time.  I'm not going to lie- these boys could keep anyone wanting to cuddle 24/7...

And I'm loving it, despite the challenges.  I'm exhausted, I'm pretty sure that I only know what day it is about half the time, and sometimes I forget when I last washed my hair (for the record- it was yesterday).  But I wouldn't change this.  I love our boys so much and I love the way that my life has been completely turned on its end and completely changed over the last two months.  The boys are almost two months old already- where did the time go?!?

The other reason that I haven't wanted to post too much?  I blame the media circus.  It was absolutely wonderful to get the media exposure for the Sutter Mothers of Multiples and to get to share our story with people.  But I never, in my wildest dreams, ever dreamed that there would be the level of fascination with our story as there was.  I never dreamed that the story of our boys would literally be heard around the world (even in North Korea!!).  I don't want to be the fox in the sour grapes, but I didn't anticipate how excited people would be to learn about how much I could eat while I was pregnant and about potential new Guinness records.  Jason and I are still amazed that people are as fascinated about the triplet thing as they are.

Jason and I are just living our lives everyday and that happens to now include these stinking adorable munchkins.  While we celebrate their presence everyday, we didn't understand before they were born how much others would want to celebrate with us!

And while the celebration has been for the most part wonderful, I wasn't as appreciative of the inherent inaccuracies in the media in regards to our story (see my November post entitled "Misinformation") and the impact it could have had on others.  I felt the need to pull back a bit and just focus on the boys.  So now that our 15 minutes of fame are done and we're settling into a routine here at the house, I'm back in the blogging mood again!  After all, there are so many exciting things to share about our boys!!!

Sidney, Jenson, and Elliott in their duckie outfits

There is so much that I want to write about, but right now I just want to share one thing.  Sunday, January 30th, 2012 was a very special day in the Deen family.  Why?  All three boys smiled at us!  This is not the first time we've seen their smiles, but this was the first day that they actually were intentionally smiling at something (and not just because of gas)!  Elliott started the trend by waking up for the early morning feeding and giving me two big grins.  Jenson and Sidney both decided this was a good thing to do, so they both smiled at either Jason or me after their 1 pm bottles.  I tell you this with all sincerity- there is nothing that will melt your heart faster than your child smiling at you.  I wish I could have had my camera there to record the moment, but I'm sure there will be plenty of smiles in the future that will be just as sweet...

The Recovery Room

So a lot of the delivery day continues to be a blur for me...  I don't think I realized just how blurry things had gotten until I've been sitting down and writing these entries, trying to recall.  I've come to the realization that while I have very good recollection of particular details, a good amount has actually either left me, been repressed, or just never registered in the first place!  I keep asking Jason for particular details of that day.  Luckily he's been pretty patient with me in this regard.

To continue our story...    :)

Jenson and I were wheeled into the recovery room on our gurney.  They must use that room at times for overflow patients because I distinctly remember seeing another pregnant woman in there, surrounded by family and hooked up to monitors but still in her street clothes.  Until the nurses closed my curtains, she kept looking at the little peanut in my arms and smiling.  I'm hoping that she was soon able to hold her own healthy little babe...

Whenever I talked with women about their Caesarean sections, more often than not they would mention how cold it was in the operating and recovery rooms and how uncomfortable that made them.  Well, I loved it!!  After having what I can only describe as massive hot flashes for months (thanks to the healthy overdose of hormones coursing through my body and the three little furnaces hanging out in my tummy) the cooler temps in the OR and the recovery room were an absolute blessing.  The irony in all of this is that I moved away from Minnesota to get away from cold temps... and yet that was really something that I'd been craving throughout most of the pregnancy!

Once we were in the blessedly cool recovery room, the nurses went to town on me.  Checking my vital signs, checking for bleeding, etc.  And they went to town on Jenson too.  Checking his vital signs, checking his blood sugar, giving him the usual medications that all newborns get (antibiotic ointment for his eyes and a Vitamin K injection).  And they did this all while he was in my arms!

But what I am so excited about is that he and I were actually able to go "skin to skin" less than an hour after his delivery.  And thanks to my friend Pat and the nurses, we were able to put Jenson to the breast as well.  There is a lot of research that talks about how beneficial these things are for the baby (and for Momma too!), and I was so glad that I was able to do this with at least one of our babies.  Because I had basically thought that I wouldn't get to do this with ANY of the babies (thinking of how likely it would be that they'd all be going to the NICU) leading up to the delivery, getting to do it with Jenson was such a gift.  I kept looking down at this magical little creature on my chest and it seemed so strange that someone would actually entrust me with him!  Really?!?  I get to keep this little guy?!?  He's ours?!?  Babies are absolute magic.  Absolute magic.

The nurses kept checking on my pain level, and I don't really remember having any pain at that point.  When we first got into the room, I still couldn't feel my legs, but the feeling started to come back pretty quickly.  Pain wasn't really an issue at that point for me, but the shaking was.

Aahhhh.... the shaking.  I almost felt like I was having convulsions.  I couldn't get my arms and shoulders to stop shaking, which is a common thing to happen after delivery.  It's caused by the hormonal and fluid shifts that occur after delivering the baby (or babies!), and as you can imagine, I'm sure my hormonal and fluid shifts at that point were pretty significant as I'd just had three big placentas taken out.  The nurse was on it, and I got some great medication to help bring the shaking down to a dull roar (God bless Demerol).  I wasn't cold at all, so I don't think it was actually shivering.

The shaking probably wouldn't have bothered me so much except for the fact that I was holding Jenson.  I remember asking people if I was going to give him "shaken baby syndrome" before he was even an hour old because of my shaking arms!  They continued to reassure me that he was fine and that I wasn't hurting him.  And so the worrying that I had during the pregnancy about how I might be damaging my children?  Destined to continue after delivery...

And then they finally let me have some ice chips.  I don't think anything has ever tasted so amazingly wonderful and delicious as those first spoonfuls of ice chips!  At that point, it'd been almost 16 hours since I'd gotten to eat or drink anything.  Because of the shaking, Pat took over the task of rationing ice chips into my mouth.  I probably would have launched ice chips across the room if I'd tried to handle the spoon on my own for too long.  Plus my hands were a little full with a certain adorable baby!

Jason and I were so lucky to have Jen, Janelle, and Pat at the hospital with us that day- someone had to keep our respective families up to date with news!  I have no clue how they managed to do it because it seemed like they were always surrounding us (which was exactly what Jason and I needed!), but they were sending text messages, making phone calls to each of our families, and sending pictures too.  Amazing! They even made phone calls to our coworkers so that they knew that everything was okay with us as well.  In the months leading up to the delivery, I'd put a family phone tree down on paper and had arranged for certain family members to be ready to disseminate information on down the line.  Since I knew that Jason and I would probably be a little too preoccupied on the delivery day to make all of the phone calls that would need to be made, my close friends got copies of the phone tree too.  We were so blessed that our friends not only used the phone tree that day, but they also hadn't laughed too much at my ridiculousness when I'd previously emailed it out to them!  Once again, I have been blessed with some pretty amazing people in my life...

Everyone (Jason, Jen, Janelle, and Pat) continued to keep me up to date with what was going on with Elliott and Sidney in the NICU.  It may sound odd, but I was not worried about them- I knew in my heart that they were going to be okay.  I also felt that they were truly in good hands with the nurses and staff in the NICU.  The Sutter Memorial Hospital may be an older facility (they're actually in the process of building a brand new hospital that they'll be moving to!), but their NICU staff has one of the best reputations around.  And I guess that I'd encountered so many other high caliber staff throughout my time with the Sutter health system that I just trusted that the NICU staff was going to follow suit.

Perhaps I was slightly delusional at this point (need I remind you that I had just given birth to three munchkins!), but I was actually more concerned about Jenson than I was about Elliott and Sidney.  Whoever the heck determined that it was okay to let me keep him was obviously as delusional as I was!

To look down and see this gorgeous creature in my arms who had only taken his first breath in this world less than an hour previous... you just can't look at that and not believe in a higher power.  To know that Jason and I had created three of those gorgeous creatures... you can't help but see the hand of God in it.  To feel such love for someone that I had only just met... it takes my breath away just thinking about it.

I wish I had the words to do justice to how I felt at that moment, to help describe exactly what it feels like to have three new little munchkins alive and breathing their first breaths in this world... for once, I am at a loss for words.  I've been sitting at this computer for a while trying to come up with something good/witty/appropriate/heartfelt (after weeks and weeks of trying to come up with something in my head) and I am just at a loss for words.  To say that it's indescribable, while totally true, doesn't seem to cover it either.  I felt...  I don't know.  I just felt.   Maybe I could say that I felt full.  Maybe.  Or maybe I could say...  I got nothing.  I'm still, almost seven weeks later, totally at a loss as to how to describe it.

Maybe I could tell you that you should take every positive feeling you've ever known... and wrap them together... and just drench yourself in them.  Perhaps that will serve to give both of us- you and me- a starting point...

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from Jenson, Elliott, and Sidney!!

L to R:  Elliott, Jenson, and Sidney

In The Actual Delivery Room

Jason and I got to walk down the hall (holding hands) to the operating room (OR) together.  So surreal... so very surreal, but I guess that was one of the key words for the day.  Unfortunately, they don't let your support people in the OR with you until after your spinal anesthesia has been administered.  I would have preferred to have Jason in the room with me for that part, but I wasn't going to argue with the system on this point.

Jason and Jen had to sit on chairs outside the OR while I continued on into the room with my nurse.  My first thought when I walked into that room?  "Who the heck are all of these people??"  There seemed to be about a million people in there, although there were probably only a handful at that point. The operating table looked so stinking tiny- I was pretty sure that my tummy and I were not both going to fit on it.  Surprisingly, I climbed up on it and it held me!  The anesthesia resident (who had almost made a mistake earlier with my IV) was there and ready to get my spinal anesthesia going.  Perhaps I should have been more nervous at that point- needle about to go into a place where it normally doesn't!- but I was actually pretty calm.  And wouldn't you know it... she got it in and started faster (and on her first try) than I would have ever thought possible.  The girl had skills!  Shortly thereafter a few people helped get me into the correct position on my back for the surgery.  I was still sure that I was going to fall off of the table because it was so small, but they all reassured me that they wouldn't let me!

At that point, things kind of seem to run together... I began to feel totally separated from the bottom two thirds of my body.  The spinal anesthesia was definitely taking effect.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect to feel, but that was not it.  All I could think about was that I just wanted to scratch my feet together, but I knew in my brain that I wouldn't be able to.  It actually felt a little like when your foot falls asleep and then slowly starts to come back with feeling- you feel the tingling before you can actually move anything.

Everyone in the room seemed to have multiple jobs to do, and while they were very good about telling me what they were doing, it was strange to see so much activity buzzing around me and yet not be doing anything myself.  One of the of the weirdest things that happened during this prep time was the taping of my tummy.  Because my tummy was so large, they actually used some kind of tape (if you ask me, it had to have been pretty heavy duty if they were using it for this purpose!) to pull the weight of my tummy up towards my chest and secure it prior to the actual incision was made.  And how do they do that?  Picture a BIG "X" of tape running from my hips to over my shoulders that also secured me to the table.  It's hard to not feel like a side of beef when they do that part!  :)

Once Jason and Jen came in, I felt much better.  The anesthesiologist (who was supervising the resident) we had was absolutely wonderful.  She explained to all of us what was going on as it was happening as well as what was going to be happening.  I think her presence really contributed to keeping both Jason and me calm and collected.  I really appreciated her injecting humor into the situation too- never hurts to have a laugh!

Even though I knew things were happening around me and people were talking, I couldn't really follow what was going on or see what was going on for a few reasons:

1.  I was flat on my back with my arms secured at my side- not exactly the ideal position for looking around

2.  They hung a sheet that obscured our vision of anything below my chest.

I remember asking the anesthesiologist if they had cut into my belly yet.  I'll never forget her playful response.  "Oh honey... we rent this room by the hour!  They've already started!"  This was music to my ears for one very important reason- I hadn't felt the cut.

Allow me to explain why this was a big deal for me.  Throughout the pregnancy, I learned that I actually have a pretty high tolerance for pain, so I wasn't really worried about feeling the pain of the cut.  But I worried that I would have the same experience that my mom did decades ago when she delivered my siblings and me via Caesarean section.  With all three of us kids, she wanted to be awake for the delivery- receiving spinal anesthesia without having to be "put under" using general anesthesia.  Because of her unique anatomy (she has a spinal cord that splits into two spinal cord sections with functioning nerves coming off of both sections), the spinal anesthesia never worked for her- she'd feel the doctor making the incision and would have to be put to sleep for the rest of the delivery.  I didn't tell anyone this, but I was so worried that I'd experience the same thing, and I was petrified of not getting to be awake for the birth of our munchkins.  Thank God for answering my prayers in regards to this irrational fear of mine.

At that point, we were just waiting.  Waiting to hear the doctor tell us something, waiting to hear a baby's cry... just waiting.  It sounds so cliche, but all of the activity and sound in the room seemed to fall away as I waited to hear the cries of my first child.

And then it happened.

I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to think of that moment for the rest of my life without tears coming to my eyes...

Baby A entered our lives with his sweet but strong cry at 12:42 pm.  I'm pretty sure my heart stopped.  Jenson Joseph Deen, our firstborn.  He was beautifully perfect, and I fell in love from the moment I saw this beautiful little being.

Baby B, our perfect middle child, arrived at 12:43 pm.  I know my heart stopped again.  Elliott Jackson Deen, crying the most beautiful music ever.

Baby C, our youngest little peanut, arrived at 12:44 pm.  I wasn't sure if my heart would ever start beating again.  Sidney Miller Deen, our sweet little man.

Life will never ever be the same.


And here's where I can tell you that I got my second selfish wish- all of them came out with hair on their heads!  It's such a goofy thing to think of, but I kind of wanted them to come out with some hair.  :)  Laugh if you must.

Their Apgar scores were blessedly high- eights and nines for all of them.  I think Jenson's and Elliot's were both 8's at one minute and 9's at five minutes (the highest they can be is a ten, so eights and nines are about as perfect as can be!).  Sidney's were both nines!

Everything became a bit of a blur at this point.  Each of our boys was whisked out into the hallway at one point or another for assessments and to make sure that their respiratory status was stable.  Unfortunately, Elliott and Sidney both needed some extra help with their breathing.  They ended up being put on CPAP, which is a noninvasive form of respiratory support, which also meant that they would have to go to the NICU.

I was still strapped to the operating table and they were still finishing up my surgery, so both staff members and Jason and Jen kept bringing me the updates on the boys in the minutes after their delivery.  I think everyone thought that I would freak out when I heard about the need for respiratory interventions... but I was grateful.  Only CPAP?  In my mind, that's practically nothing!  All three of our boys came out breathing and looking relatively healthy.  At that point, all I could do was thank God for such blessings.  There were so many things that could have gone wrong, so many things that could have been wrong with the boys.  In the grand scheme of things, their needing some extra help from the nurses and doctors was something to be grateful for in light of what could have been...

As Sidney and Elliott were stabilized by the staff members and readied for their short journey from OR to NICU, they brought them one at a time to my side in the operating room.  One of the nurses (I think she was a nurse and was in charge of the other baby nurses, but she might have just been an angel too!) came with each of them and explained to me what was going on with them and what had already been done for them.  She was very kind with her words and very gentle with me- if I could have hugged her, I would have!  And even with the wires and tubes already attached to the boys, they looked perfectly beautiful to me.

Jason went with Elliott and Sidney to the NICU, and I stayed in the OR.  Apparently they frown on you leaving your own surgery while your own tummy is still open from your surgery!  Jason and I had talked about this numerous times in the months leading up to the delivery and were prepared for this moment- if any of the boys had to go to the NICU- so we knew what our roles were.  I heard later that Jason was wonderful in the NICU with the staff and with the boys in those first few hours after the boys arrived, which came as no surprise to me.  For a man that has little medical experience and claims to get grossed out by the sight of blood and anything even slightly medical, he sure has a way of rising to the occasion!

Janelle, my dear friend who is a NICU nurse, went with Jason and the boys to the NICU, which was another thing that we had planned for.  I had wanted to make sure that someone was there to help take care of Jason so that he could be there for the boys.  Jen, who had been taking video and pictures of the delivery in the OR, stayed with me.  I had always thought that I would not want to have a video of my Caesarean section- major gross out factor.  But I was wrong- Jen took video of the delivery and it is actually one of the most wonderful reminders of that special day.  Our boys' first cries... the first time we ever laid eyes on them...  I have yet to watch it without tears springing to my eyes.

Soon enough, my surgery was finished and they were lifting me onto a gurney.  My sweet Jenson was placed in my arms, and he and I made the short journey to the recovery room together...

Delivery Day (Part 2 of ??)

So I got to walk into the hospital on the day of delivery... goal met!  A few months prior, Dr. McElvy had told us that one of the longest triplet pregnancies that she'd seen was somewhere around 36-37 weeks and the mom had walked into the hospital for her delivery day without ever having been admitted during her pregnancy.  I guess I may have a little competitive streak in me because that little comment put the idea in my mind that we had to try to do the same... challenge accepted.

Having already gotten most of my paperwork completed previously, I just had to sign a few forms in the registration office upon arrival before the registrar lady walked me (just me- Jason and Jen had to wait 5-10 minutes before they could follow me back to my triage room) to the labor & delivery front desk.  As most of you know, I can cry at the drop of a hat.  Sad movies, Olympics commercials (I swear they put the most inspiring music in those things just to get me!), you name it... it'll bring tears to my eyes.  Jason and I have had a running joke for years that I cry because I'm "bloated" and it's my body's way of getting rid of excess water.  :)  I knew I was bound to have some tears on our delivery day, but I wasn't expecting them to start on the short walk to the front desk!  I didn't actually cry then, but I definitely had to steel myself a little- no time to cry at that point as we had stuff to accomplish.

They took me to a private triage room and I met my nurse, Angelique.  We had been hoping that Jason's longtime friend, Susan, would be our nurse that day, but she was already assigned to another patient.  Any disappointment I felt at that moment was quickly gone once Angelique started doing her thing.  She immediately put me at ease and was so calm and friendly.  Since I'm a nurse myself, I'm probably a little more inclined than the average bear to be judgmental of my nurses (it's hard to turn off your "I know how certain things should be done" mentality at times!).  And yet I feel that at times since I know how tough it can be sometimes to be a nurse, I might be more inclined to cut my nurses some slack.  I was so grateful that I didn't have to do either- judge or excuse- with my delivery day nurse.  She was obviously skilled and knowledgeable about what she was doing and what needed to happen- thank God.

She quickly got me on the monitors to start checking on how the munchkins were doing in my belly.  I made her laugh when I brought out my own blood pressure cuff from earlier in the week, and she probably thought I was a little mental when I pulled out a typed list of my current medications with the times listed of when I last took them (let's just say that might have been a little bit of overkill on my part).  

Another nurse came in and started an IV on me, and I was pleased that she got it started on the first try. I'm not exactly an "easy stick" as my veins love to hide under a nice layer of insulation (e.g. fat).  I feel badly at work sometimes because I'm totally fine letting nursing students practice starting IVs on me, but my veins aren't easy to get (student nurses gotta learn on someone, and I'd much rather it be on me with my high pain threshold and not necessarily on my patients who are probably already dealing with enough pain and drama).

Jason and Jen eventually got to come join me in the room, which was good for my peace of mind.  I really didn't want to be separated from Jason that day.  What can I say- he can keep me calm better than anything or anyone else in this world.  The three of us proceeded to fill out some general information forms, which I feel very badly about now.  We may not have taken them as seriously as we should have, but they definitely helped us keep the mood light.  For example, we chose to answer the question about "what information do you need to help reduce your anxiety today?" with "help us figure out how to pay for three college educations".  I'm sure whoever read those forms got a good laugh at our expense.  

When I reflect back on that morning and those hours leading up to the delivery, I remember feeling very excited, positive, and laughing a lot.  Jason seemed a little "different", but he quickly admitted that he just wanted to be doing something to help me but there wasn't much that needed to be done at that time.  Jason's a "doing" kind of person- not a "let's just sit and wait" type of person.  And since there wasn't much to do except follow directions (and there weren't many of those for him until delivery time), my sweet pumpkin was probably having a harder time than I was.  He was nervous for me, nervous for our babies, and there was very little that he could do to make things easier on me at that point.  But I have a little secret for you- had it not been for his presence and his smile that day, I would have lost it.  I would have been a hot mess of tears, fears, and anxiety.  So even though it may have appeared that he wasn't "doing" much for me, he did more for me that morning than he'll ever know...

Two of my other dear friends, Pat and Janelle, got to come into the triage room with us.  Technically I think I was only supposed to have one or two people in there with me, but I guess they give you a little extra leeway when you have already have three people in your belly.  :)  More laughing and joking, more smiles as we waited patiently (and somewhat impatiently too!) for our turn to go to the operating room.  Seriously- when I try to remember what exactly we all talked about that morning, all I can remember is that I laughed and smiled a lot.  My life was about to get oh so much more complicated and delicate and crazy... and all I could do was be happy.  I guess when your heart is full, there's no room to do anything but be happy.

Finally Jen, Jason, and I got dressed to go into the operating room.  The two of them got some awesome disposable scrubs to wear, and I got to don the dreaded hospital gown.  Because I have a firm policy against patients showing their "business" to people except for when it's medically necessary, I threw another gown over my shoulders as a makeshift cape.  My belly was so ginormous that I could barely get the first gown tied.

The anesthesia resident came in and introduced herself and asked a bunch of questions.  She seemed very nice and obviously knew her stuff, but unfortunately she did the only thing that day that I could find any sort of fault with.  She went to give me some antinausea medication (I wasn't nauseous- they just do it as a precaution) through my IV, but she didn't clean the IV connection first.  Stop right there!!  I politely- at least everyone told me I was polite enough- asked her to clean the IV connection first.  She obliged, of course, and I felt kind of bad for calling her on it because it seems like such a minor thing, but I didn't feel like increasing my risk for infection at that point.  In hindsight, the poor thing had a roomful of witnesses and I'm sure she had a bajillion other things on her mind- like how to keep me alive in the OR- and almost made a teensy mistake that I'm sure a bajillion of nurses have made before.  After that, however, she was totally on her game (more on that later).

Soon enough, we were being told the operating room was ready for us and Jason and I stepped into the hallway to take our last walk together as a "without child" couple...

Delivery Day!! (part 1 of ??)

Our delivery day was amazing from start to finish...  We were scheduled for our Cesarean section at noon, which meant that we needed to be checking in at the hospital by 10 AM.  I would have preferred an earlier time (we were told that the earlier your time in the morning, the more likely you were to get a private room!), but that was the earliest that we could get.

It was totally surreal, to be getting ready that morning knowing that this morning was going to totally change my life- never again was it going to be just Brittany, or just Brittany and Jason.  Soon it would forever be "Brittany and Jason plus...".  It was so strange to think that the day that we'd been waiting for and planning on for months was FINALLY here!

Both Jason and I had gotten our bags packed prior to that morning, so it was more about last minute things that needed to be done around the house- filling the dog bowls, making sure there were guest towels in the bathroom, shaving my legs, etc.  Apparently everyone who knew that I'd shaved my legs that morning thought the idea of it was hilarious- apparently if I did anything that required any physicality at all, people were shocked.  To be sure, I had to sit on the shower chair that we'd set up the previous night in our bathtub (the first and only time I used it!).

I'd actually had my bag packed for months, just waiting for that moment (that never actually came) when I'd be admitted to the hospital before our planned delivery day.  I figured I'd be at a doctor's appointment, my blood pressure would be high, and they'd admit me for monitoring- but that never happened.  The social worker with the Mothers of Multiple program had encouraged me at one point to consider keeping my bag in the car- but I could never bring myself to actually move my bag from its resting spot in the guest room into the car.  The logical side of me knew that if I was admitted early, the last thing I'd be worried about at that moment would be if I had my bag with me or not (someone would be able to bring it to me within a few hours anyway, so it's not like I couldn't last without my shower sandals for that time!).

I knew that she was just giving me great advice, but I literally could not follow it and here's why- I was too superstitious.  I just felt that if I put the bag in the car, it meant two things.  First, it would be my way of subconsciously admitting that I was okay with going into the hospital early.  Second, it might jinx me and cause the universe to conspire to get me into the hospital early.  Neither of those things were something that I wanted, so hence my bag stayed firmly planted in the guest room until delivery day.

Jason had to make a last minute run to the eye doctor's office a few minutes away to pick up his brand new reading glasses that were finally ready.  As he'd told me the previous evening, he wanted them at the hospital so that he could see his boys clearly when they arrived (Seriously?!?  I don't know if it's possible to love that man anymore than I already do... and then he goes and says adorable things like this).

While he was picking up his glasses, I thought I'd try to walk the dogs so we'd be able to leave that much faster for the hospital upon his return.  BAD idea.  I hadn't been able to really walk the dogs on my own in months, so I don't know what possessed me to think that I'd be able to that day.  Luckily enough I got the dogs to the end of the driveway and then they couldn't really decide which way to go- left or right.  At some point, I just got frustrated with them and threw the leash on the ground, at which point they just looked at each other and made a beeline back up the driveway and sat by the car door (apparently they thought they would get to go to the hospital to get our babies too!).  My conscience cleared in regards to the dogs' welfare, I took them inside and waited.

Jason soon came home and Jen arrived as well.  Jen was going to be "our #2" in the delivery room- she'd already been given instructions on what kinds of pictures we wanted to have taken in there (and which we didn't!).  She arrived smiling with snacks for us for later.  I hadn't had any food or water since 10pm the previous night, but I was doing alright.  I tried to get my friend Brandi, an operating room nurse, to tell me over the phone that morning that it would be safe for me to have a small glass of orange juice, but she decided to be obstinate... hence no intake since the previous night (I may have swallowed a little bit of toothpaste water out of desperation...).

I'm not going to lie: dealing with Jason was a teensy bit frustrating that morning.  My sweet pumpkin is definitely not a morning person and has the tendency to be a little on the slower side in the AM hours when he's at home- NOT what I needed that morning.  But what I figured out later, in reflecting on his behavior from that morning, was that he appeared to be silently freaking out inside and doing a good job of hiding it by just being his normal self.  :)

So we piled into my car and headed off to Sutter Memorial.  I'm so proud to say that I got to WALK into the hospital ON our delivery day WITHOUT having ever been previously admitted as a patient...  I'd so wanted to be able to say this!