You wait all year for a birthday

....and then three come at once.


Today Daria, Aurelia and Isobel are six days old and looking beautiful. 


Last Sunday I went to visit Natalie, in hospital, thinking we might go out to the cinema. Natalie was not feeling especially well in the morning, so we thought we might go to a later screening. She began to have pains in her tummy which she said weren't that bad. However when one of the midwives, also called Natalie, examined her, she thought that Natalie was having contractions. 
Natalie was not convinced!
The Doctor examined her, the first time the Dr did not notice any particular change in Natalie's cervix, but the contractions continued and they decided to send Natalie upstairs to the delivery unit as a precautionary measure. 


They did some further traces (CTG scans) which showed that Natalie was indeed having contractions, and the nurses advised me that "now might be a good time to get something to eat, just in case"


I rather unwisely chose to eat the last portion left of the Beef Madras in the Hospital canteen, whilst wondering whether anything was going to happen this afternoon or tonight. I phoned my parents to let them know that Natalie had been taken upstairs, but I wasn't sure whether she wouldn't be back downstairs again later in the evening. 


When I returned to the delivery unit, Natalie asked me to sit down, and then told me that I might be a daddy again in an hour or two. Which all seemed very quick, but very exciting. 


There was lots of activity, with Nurses and Drs all preparing to give Natalie a C-Section; and I had to go and change into a green outfit and pink hat ready to go in to the operating theatre. 


I went back in to the room and shortly afterwards, Natalie and I walked to the operating theatre. 


The operating theatre was quite a large room, and parked along one wall were three "Panda" delivery stations, each with a team of three or four, Drs and Nurses. 
There were numerous other Drs and Nurses in the room. Natalie sat on the edge of the operating table while a nice Anesthetist, spoke to us, before she jabbed, what Natalie reports to be a "F******* large needle" into her spine. 
I think Natalie found this the most painful part of the whole procedure, because she squeezed my hand quite hard, quite a few times. 


Natalie lay down and I was very disappointed that they asked me to move from her feet to her head, as I had been hoping to see all of the operation and births in great detail (Not!)
So I moved around next to Natalie's head and held her hand. 
Natalie reported feeling, tingling, pins and needles in her legs which was particularly distressing to her, if somebody touched her feet, knees or other parts of her legs; in fact this seemed to bother her far more than having her tummy sliced open and giving birth.


The Drs put up a small screen on her tummy, smaller than I had expected, or hoped, and had I looked sideways, I might have seen more than I wanted to see.


Within a minute or two, the Consultant Shazia Batthi, had located the first baby (Daria 17:48) and I caught a glimpse of arms and legs and a very dark shape  being lifted out and placed on a towel in the arms of one of the nurses. 
There were two other nurses queuing behind each holding a towel or sheet waiting to catch her sisters. 
Within two minutes it was Aurelia's turn to be delivered, she arrived at 17:50, having a small pooh on her way out, she was taken to the Panda next to her sister. And finally 1 minute later Isobel was born at 17:51 and as she was taken to her Panda I could hear some faint crying coming from one of the girls.


I sat with Natalie for a couple of minutes while they began to stitch her up, she still found the worst thing about the whole experience, having her legs moved or touched by the doctors.
I couldn't wait to go and see our girls so I took my camera with me over to the Pandas.
Daria looked tiny but I was so delighted when she opened her left eye to have a look at me. Her eye looked almost black, which surprised me because I thought all babies had blue eyes. 


It was lovely hearing faint cries from our daughters as the Drs and Nurses checked them out on the Panda beds. 


I took some photos of Daria and then moved on to see Aurelia, who was much bigger, they looked so lovely lying on their beds. The Doctors moved the oxygen mask away so I could take some photos of Aurelia. 
And then they were ready for me to go and see Isobel.
Isobel was wriggling and crying. 
And I was so delighted to see our three beautiful, and they really were beautiful babies lying on their Panda's.
Natalie had always wanted a baby panda, and now she has 3!


As Natalie had not seen any of the babies yet, I took the camera back to show her some of the photos while she was still being stitched up. 
Natalie was delighted to see their pictures.
A few minutes later, Daria had been placed in a transport incubator,which they wheeled round to show Natalie. 
Followed a few minutes later by Aurelia and Isobel, before they were taken off to the Neo Natal Intensive Care (NICU).
Although Natalie didn't have a brilliant view, she was delighted to see our little daughters. 


I left to change back out of my scrubs, and went to tell Pam that she was a granny. And that she had three lovely grand daughters, at which point she beamed from ear to ear. 
Then I went with Pam to see Natalie in the recovery room, who was still telling off nurses who tried to touch her legs or toes. 


I phoned my parents, who were over the moon at the news, and congratulated us. I phoned Laura and Andrew too, they were surprised that the babies had come so soon, but were asking lots of questions about how big they were and were very interested to know what they looked like.


Then a couple of hours later manouvered Natalie's bed into the NICU, where we saw Daria and Isobel in one room and Aurelia in another room. 


The NICU is an intense environment, full of high tech machinery and displays with lots of beeping and wave forms and tubes and wires. 
And although I had been worried about visiting the NICU before our girls were born, it was very reassuring seeing all the care they were getting.
And they all looked very peaceful in their incubators. 
And after a long eventful day, Natalie returned to Lady Mary Ward where she was given a side room. And we said good night and, I went home very tired but unable to sleep because I was so excited. 


Happy Birthday Daria, Aurelia and Isobel.