The room was
cold.
My ob-gyn checked the babies' position on ultrasound one last time before deciding to proceed with the c-section. I was scheduled to be taken into the operating room at 8 PM. The anesthesiologist was standing by my head side on the right, monitoring my blood pressure and my heart rate. I was lying down on the operating table just after he injected a liquid in my spine (for which he asked me to bend in front as further as I could) and I felt the liquid flow down. Then he pressed something on my stomach and asked if I felt anything. Then he dabbed a wet cotton and asked if I felt anything. He had to ensure the spinal anesthesia he injected worked so I would not feel a thing chest-down. He also gave me live commentary on what was happening beyond the curtain that blocked my view of the operation so that I'm aware. Perhaps because I was constantly asking him questions to know what was going on.
My ob-gyn checked the babies' position on ultrasound one last time before deciding to proceed with the c-section. I was scheduled to be taken into the operating room at 8 PM. The anesthesiologist was standing by my head side on the right, monitoring my blood pressure and my heart rate. I was lying down on the operating table just after he injected a liquid in my spine (for which he asked me to bend in front as further as I could) and I felt the liquid flow down. Then he pressed something on my stomach and asked if I felt anything. Then he dabbed a wet cotton and asked if I felt anything. He had to ensure the spinal anesthesia he injected worked so I would not feel a thing chest-down. He also gave me live commentary on what was happening beyond the curtain that blocked my view of the operation so that I'm aware. Perhaps because I was constantly asking him questions to know what was going on.
Alok was on my left holding my hand, trying to stay strong during
my operation, anxiously waiting for the time to pass, excited to see our
newborns, and I don't know what other emotions he might have been experiencing.
Me -- I was just plain nervous about everything. Will my operation go fine? Will the stitches hurt me? Will the scalpel cut anything beyond my skin and flesh? Will my ob-gyn and the assisting doctor do a good job? Will my babies be safe and turn out normal? Will there be any problem at all, however unthinkable unimaginable it may be?
"I'm shivering, is this normal?" I asked the anesthesiologist. I wanted to make sure whatever I experienced was OKAY. It's common to feel so because of the spinal and the operating room was supposed to be cold too, he said, and placed another warm blanket on me.
"Hey, I felt something on the left of my stomach!" I was alarmed if the anesthesia was wearing off in the middle of the operation! "That's right, they're pushing on the left to bring the first baby out, you're fine," he calmed me down.
And then ... *drumroll*
While noting down the time of birth, "it's a girl!" everyone said in joy. One minute later, "the second baby is a boy!" they said in unison. "Do you want to go see the babies or stay with the mother?" they gave Alok a difficult choice. "Go, I will be fine," I reassured him.
They quickly cleaned the babies, tied a name tag around their hand and leg, tightly wrapped the babies up in blankets and brought them on each side of my face. For a vaginal delivery, they would have placed the babies skin-to-skin on mother's chest. For c-section there's the curtain that leaves no space, so they bring the baby to the mother's face. The babies' cheeks and mouth touched my cheeks. I was in tears. Alok was in tears. Our babies were the only ones who were calm.
Then they
took the babies to measure all the stats, their heart rate, body temperature,
height, weight, head circumference, and so on.
I gave birth to twins.
