The Wonderful People That Helped Us

I thought I would share with you how wonderful the nurses, anesthesiologist, respiratory therapists and doctors were during our pregnancy, delivery and after. First of all, everyone at the perinatologist were pretty much at our beck and call 24/7. Every question we had, every request we needed, all of it was attended to immediately. Sometimes they couldn't answer our questions. And they were honest about that and always tried to get us the answers we needed. No one there had ever seen conjoined twins before, we were their first, so it was scary not only for us but for them as well. About 6 weeks after we had the boys, they had another set of conjoined twins at the perinatologist. We had them give the couple our contact information, but they never got in touch with us. We were comforted by the fact that we had "broken them in" at the perinatologist and that they were fresh and up to date on conjoined twins. They also could tell those parents with confidence that they had seen and delivered one set of conjoined twins. I am sure that helped the experience both on the staff and the new parents.

The people at Children's were so amazing. They had a whole team dedicated to our boys. We sat down in a conference room with them several times and just shot questions out at them. "What if this happens, what do we do?" They were able to "dumb it down" for both of us and explain all of our options so we had a good birth plan in the event of anything. It all went so smoothly because we had no decisions to make once the boys were born, we had already made them and signed on the dotted line and everyone working with our boys new exactly what we wanted and didn't want. I feel like they loved our boys as much as we did, different than us, of course, but I know the boys had an impact on the lives of everyone they came into contact with, and even on those that only heard about them. That is an awesome and inspiring thought. They did everything they could to help give our boys everything they needed to sustain life. There just wasn't anything anyone could do. They were meant to be here only a short time. God's timing is awesome, even if I do not understand it. He gave us exactly what we needed. At the time, I wanted them to live long enough to at least bring them home. But I know now that would have been so much harder. Watching them live, and then seeing them die would have been unbearable. God knew exactly how it would go. He had a plan for us and for Joshua and Caleb.

Everyone at Ft. Sanders was equally amazing to us. They were also prepared for us. Roger, our anesthesiologist, was hoping he would be working the day we went into labor. He had heard of us, as most of the staff had, and had been following our blog and praying for us. He prayed with us twice before the surgery. He was sweet and wonderful to us. He came back the next day to check on us and brought us the book "The Shack." We both read it while sailing with Bob and Nancy to Catalina and were inspired, strengthened and changed forever. He also played the Curious George CD during delivery and that soundtrack now always takes us back to that day, in a good way. We used the music for our slide show of the boys, too. Sometimes the songs make me cry still, but most of the time they just make me feel closer to the boys. The funny thing is, we already owned the CD-it just didn't have any meaning and we really didn't think it was that great before. Jack Johnson is now one of my favorite artists. Just hearing his voice makes me think of Joshua and Caleb.

The nurses at Ft. Sanders were all great. Some of them came in just because they had signed up to be on our team. They came in just to be there for us, for the boys. It is very humbling that so many people would sacrifice their day off just to help me, someone they didn't even know, through a hard time. They had let everyone know they were going to have conjoined twins, but they were not allowed to talk about it outside of closed doors, not in the elevator, not in the cafeteria, not anywhere. They knew that we wanted our privacy, and they were going to keep our secret. Our friends that had conjoined twins said that it turned into a media spectacle at their hospital, and we didn't want that. If the boys had lived, we would have been forced to share them and at the least let the hospital make an announcement, but since we knew they might die we didn't want to have to deal with media while trying to grieve. Everyone at both hospitals respected that. There is not one person that worked with us that I can't still picture their face. They all hold such a special dear place in my heart and always will. They make me feel closer to Joshua and Caleb. I am so lucky to have them. Thanks for putting up with my reminiscing. It is so good for my soul. Thursday my boys will be 2, it is hard to imagine that on one hand, and on the other it seems like even longer since they have been gone. God is so good to let me be healthy and happy even without Joshua and Caleb in my arms.