Well - I am sitting in the recovery room - 3 days after the birth of Matthew & Arianna - and still in awe that they came out of me! Here's their story...
On Tuesday, March 3, 2009 (which we later found out is "square root day" 3x3=9) - and only happens 1x a century for this date! The next "square root day" will be 4/4/16)...so back to the story...
I didn't get much sleep the night before due to the excitement and anxiety of meeting the babies. We got up at 5:15, showered and headed off to the hospital. We got to registration and checked in and headed down to Labor and Delivery. I got changed into my Johnny and they hooked me up to the fetal heart monitors. The nurse kept coming back in so that she could check the monitors because she kept getting the same heart beat! At 8:00 a.m. - Dr. Pang came in to check on the monitors and he was having trouble getting two separate heart beats as well. They wheeled in the ultrasound monitor and we realized that Baby Boy was "transverse and breached" so before going any further he said I was going to have to have a C-Section. I was surprisingly ok with the news - but then called mom and started crying. She decided to come up and stay with us in the room to help David keep his mind off of me having a C-Section - he had already said he wasn't going to go in with me! So just in case, mom was there if David freaked out.
Since I had breakfast at 5:30 a.m. - I wasn't able to have my C-Section until 1:00 due to the fact I had food. Oh well - We only had to wait a few hours to meet our babies. The time was now 1:20 and David started putting on his scrubs and Anesthesia finally arrived. She went over some paperwork with me and off I walked to the Operating room.
I entered the operating room and there were enough people in there to play for the Red Sox (haha) - I sat up on the table and the Anesthesiologist started doing the spinal tap. I was thinking this was going to hurt SO unbelievably bad, but the nurse that I had walked me every step of the way and held my hand through the entire process. I felt a little pinch with the Novocain, but other than that, I didn’t' feel anything. They laid me down on the bed and Dr. Pang started "painting" my belly with iodine. He kept saying he's in the wrong profession and that he should be a painter! I told him that wasn't funny! They put the oxygen mask on my face and I started feeling nauseous so I had to have it taken off my face. They then put up the blue tarp and one of the nurses escorted David in the room where he sat right next to my head. He came in at 1:50 p.m. and by 1:51, I was vomiting! It was so hard being tied down to the table and vomiting at the same time! I got everything out of my stomach and all seemed to go well from there.
At about 1:57 Dr. Pang I would start to feel some pressure on my stomach - and boy did it feel like David standing on my chest. Arianna Lynn Manzello made it into the world at 1:58 p.m. after only 8 minutes of surgery! They took her over to the warmer to clean her off and as soon as I heard her little cry, I started to cry. She was finally here! She weighed in at 6lb 9 oz and was 19 inches long. They then were working on getting the 2nd baby out. They told me that I would feel pressure again, and this time it felt like I had a giant elephant standing on my chest cavity! After 2 minutes, Matthew Robert Manzello made his way into the world, weighing in at a whopping 6lb 10oz and being 19 1/2 inches long!
I was able to see him being taken care of in the warmer and being cleaned up due to the location of his warmer. It was so amazing to see and witness! After a few minutes of being cleaned up, Arianna was handed off to David for our first family picture (which I will post when I get home). After a few more minutes Matthew was handed off and David finally had both babies in his arms - we were able to get a great shot with Dr. Pang and both babies.
They then wheeled me back to my room where I had to recover for about an hour before I could have any visitors. My legs were still completely numb and they had me on pain medicine - so I didn't feel too much. After an hour, Mom and Steve were able to come in and visit with their new grandbabies. They were so excited and the babies were so excited to meet them too! They were in there for about 10 minutes and Uncle Brian came in to meet his new niece and nephew. The nurse then came in and told us that they had to be shipped off to the nursery for their tests and to be fully cleaned up. As they were being wheeled out, Auntie Marci showed up along with Joyce and Mike! The babies had lots of visitors!
At about 7pm - and a few hits off my morphine drip I started feeling really sick. Morphine has the same effect Codeine has on my stomach and it makes me vomit. After I ate some jello and got some juice in my stomach, I quickly lost it all and threw up 1/2 the night! I had them take away the morphine around 11:00 pm and get me something else because the pain in my stomach from throwing up and the result of the C-section really hurt my belly!
The first night we kept the babies in the nursery so I could get some sleep and had the nursery take care of their feedings - I tossed and turned most of the night and was pretty uncomfortable. They did give me more pain meds and that seemed to help a bit!
On Wednesday a.m. - they were able to take my IV out and I was able to get my bandage off and was able to take a shower! That felt GREAT! We've had lots of visitors and the babies are doing so wonderful! They are little love bugs and only seem to fuss when they are hungry or when we take their diaper off and they are cold.
Thanks to everyone for your support, emails, phone calls and visits! Feel free to visit at any time - we are always looking for diaper changers!
Love and Kisses
Tara, David, Dominic, Arianna & Matthew
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