Everything Happens in Threes: THE BIG DAY!

So the babies are 28 days old now, and I am just getting the chance to sit and write about the day of their birth... Let me just start out by saying this is not going to be easy for me.

I woke up at about 4 AM the morning of their birth ready to go, but my section wasn't scheduled until 9:00.. So, I put my make-up on, painted my nails, and finished packing the last few things as I was leaving room 220 to never return (I was very excited about that!) My nurses started coming in around 6:30 to start getting me ready for surgery - IVs, meds, paperwork, etc etc etc. Ryan arrived around 7:30 and my family arrived around 8:00. Just before 9, they wheeled in the stretcher, I climbed on... As they opened up the door, there stood all of the nurses, techs, and other staff that day that had been taking care of me the past 13+ weeks. Ryan walked along with us as they wheeled me down the hall and through the doors into surgery. Ryan sat outside the door of the operating room as they got me on the table, epideral in, and prepped.. There were over two dozen people in the operating room I was in. There was also a second operating room with a team for Baby A. There was not enough room in the operating room for all three babies and me.
I was very cold, nervous, and scared during this time. The epideral is really nothing.. the only thing that makes it bad for me is that they have to push along your spine to find the perfect spot.. so they had to push where my disc is herniated...
As soon as they laid me down and the curtain was up, they started cutting as Ryan was walking in to sit down. I asked the anesthesiologist to tell me what they were doing throughout the entire process. With in a minute or two, they pulled out baby A (aka Chloe). She cried a little and off she went, then baby B (aka Sophie), then baby C (aka Hollis). They really had to pull to get him out. There was tons of pressure and I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. As soon as they pulled him out, I was finally able to take a deep breath. I hadn't been able to do this in weeks!! Ryan commented on how well I was able to breathe. I kept asking Ryan how they looked and if they were okay. They had to put Hollis on oxygen to help him breathe. As soon as they got all three babies stable, they took them up to the NICU. I was able to glance at them as they left the room. I didn't get to really see them until later that afternoon. It wasn't anything like you see on tv on all of the Baby Story shows where they lift the baby over the curtain, clean them up, and then you get to touch and hold them... I wanted so much to see them but I couldn't... After they closed me up, they took the cerclage out. They said it was perfectly intact. They couldn't believe it. Those couple little stitches were all that was holding the babies in. I lost a lot of blood during the surgery, which made recovery very bad! When I got back to recovery they said I would be back there around 2 hours. They said when I regained feeling and my pain was under control then I'd get to go to my new room on the 3rd floor... I regained feeling a lot quicker than with my epideral when I had the cerclage. And with that came horrendous pain! On top of just the epideral wearing off, they had to come in take the binder off (big elastic belt over my abdomen compressing it so help keep pressure on the incision and compress my uterus to shrink back down to normal) and push on my abdomen to ensure that I wouldn't clot and hemmorage. They had to do this every 20 minutes or so. I can't even describe how painful it was... I'm not one to scream in pain or cry, but everytime the recovery nurse un-velcro-ed the binder and pushed on my abdomen I screamed very loudly (I wouldn't be surprised if you could hear me out in the waiting room...) and tears would just start flowing. Ryan was with me in recovery too and was absolutely amazing in taking care of me and trying to keep me calm. One of the NICU nurses came down and brought us pictures of the babies. This was the first time I got to really look at them. The NICU nurse asked Ryan if he wanted to go up and see them. I told him I would be okay and to go see them and make sure they were okay. He took a bunch of pictures and videos and was back down in 15 minutes or so in time to be with me when the nurse had to push on my abdomen again. I had to get an extra dose of pain medicine on top of what they gave me at the end of the section that was supposed to last 24 hours HA! I finally was able to leave recovery after 3 hours. Once I got settled in my room, I decided that I thought I was ready and okay enough to go to the NICU to see the babies. Ryan wheeled me down to the NICU and I was only able to see Sophie and Hollis before I got extremely nauseas and had to go back to the room. My family came up and Ryan took each of them into see the babies one at a time.
I finally was able to see Chloe at around midnight when I felt well enough to go back down to the NICU. During this time we were able to hold her. She was the only baby we were allowed to hold that day.
The day they were born was one of the hardest days of my life. I was so happy to know that they were out, alive, and healthy, but giving birth to 3 beautiful babies and not being able to see them for hours.. having to ask permission to even touch them and barely being able to touch them at that was the hardest and most difficult thing I have ever gone through in my life.