Not so fancy (but informative) baby website:

This series of photos does a pretty good job of telling the story of the last few days.

Colin MacIntyre 6lbs 10oz is on the left, and Owen Parker, 6lbs, 2oz is on the right.

Beckie was umm, kind of large and in charge and the twins wanted to come out, but biology was not cooperative. So after weeks of thinking tomorrow could be the day…the hospital finally scheduled us for an inducement. They were very busy so we were pushed back about 5 more days than we expected. 5 days might not sound like much to you guys, but, according to Beckie, there are circumstances where it really is. This was moments before we left for our “last-last date” together without worrying about planning or baby-sitters. The previous night we went to the movies. This night we went to Jimmy Johns and Blockbuster. Exciting.

Here we are on Wednesday night. “Let’s get this show on the road,” we and the doctor said! We were excited. We would be parents within hours. The pads monitor baby heartbeats. They work…sort of. Little did we know…

Beckie is thinking, “I can do this.” The drugs are amplifying the labor process. Yes, it isn’t fun, but neither is being about 39 weeks with twins. You’d think the end is near.

This is 12 hours later. We are wondering why we just didn’t go to C-section straight away. I just caught Beckie’s round of vomit in a pan (well most of it). It’s a long story, but the gist is that the first baby had turned his head sideways and lodged it in her hip/pelvis on a nerve. For 5 hours the medication didn’t help and it was constant pain. I think Beckie’s exact words after I, feeling so guilty asked if there was anything more I could do, said, “Take a sludge hammer to my head.” Just when you think you can’t feel any more guilty J. Little did we know it would be another 8 hours until the babies would arrive.

By applying all my weight to the heel of my palm on Beckie’s hip area we were finally able to move Colin’s head off the nerve and into the right position. It felt kind of strange because I could feel him and was worried I would hurt him, but the nurse helped us discover this solution. It made a big difference and at least I was finally good for something. Anyway, this is right in the operating room as we are being wheeled out. The babies are about 15 minutes old. I was happy that I did not pass out during delivery. There were a couple of moments where I felt odd, but overall, it was so engaging and dramatic, there was no time for pansiness. Beckie was a champ. She said it was nothing compared to the nerve thing 3-8 hours earlier.

Amazing how a couple of babies and a few hours can make it all worth it. The nurse is our neighbor Angel, which by sheer luck was on duty that Friday morning (yes, 32 hours after being induced). She was the first person to bathe, test, and evaluate the babies.

Maybe someday I will use a real program instead of Word to fix up this Web page, and add to it. For now, this will have to do. If we had to write a sentence to sum up the days since last Wednesday it would be this: We never thought 4 hours of straight sleep would be a blessing, and we are so happy nonetheless—let the games begin!