Mantha's story – The beginning of the beginning part 2

We left off where my wife was recalling where, although we were told we were only having one child, it felt to her that it was two or 'an olympic swimmer.' So she goes to her ultrasound appointment without me, as I was tied up in an exercise and I couldn't get the time to take her. No big deal, as it was a routine ultrasound and there was nothing to indicate any issues. As I was working, some of my coworkers were starting to come up to me asking 'did you talk to your wife?' Now this was odd, as it was in the days before cell phones were ubiquitous, and when people are asking if you talked to your wife it can't be good. So finally my commander comes up to me and informs me my wife is waiting outside the building we were in. I go down, and my wife holds up an ultrasound picture saying 'baby a, baby b'. I immediately doubled over in shock, as that was the last thing on my mind.

Once I got over the shock, I grew to enjoy the concept of having two at once. We even announced it in church the Sunday after we found out, complete with some audible gasps. Going out and purchasing two of things: carseats, clothes, hats, and so forth. Having the two carseats sitting together on our coffee table one day really hit the point home about twins.

I wish I could say that the rest of the pregnancy was uneventful, but it wasn't. As the pregnancy progressed, complications ensued. Primarily pre-term labor/contractions. They started in late June, and proceeded to put my wife on bedrest, with a variety of medications. She broke through terbutalene, and then magnesium. I remember a number of occasions where, immediately after work, I would go to the local German 'chicken man' to get roasted chickens and french fries, since I really didn't have time to cook.

Finally, in August, we went in to the emergency room, because my wife seemed to be having issues with a bladder infection. The infection started triggering contractions, and labor was beginning. The hospital decided not to stop it since we were at 34 weeks gestation. Since the hospital we were at couldn't handle 34 week children (wasn't equipped), they moved us to a German Frauenklinik. After the labor slowed a little bit, it picked up again. Finally at 12:34 pm Mantha was born, she came out despite the midwife (Germans are nice in the fact that they rely on midwives for deliveries and keep the doctors out except for emergencies. We only saw the doctor twice and he barely poked his head in the room and asked 'how are you doing?' each time) telling my wife to stop pushing. Her twin was born 18 minutes later (it took that long because they had to maneuver her arm out of the way so it wasn't on top of her head). Her twin was immediately taken out because she seemed to 'have trouble breathing'. We were relieved and concerned at the same time. We had two new daughters, but one had 'medical issues'. We were completely fooled about which child had medical issues, and how serious they were.....

to be continued.   

Whose daughter is this?

Let me give you a couple of examples, as we were discussing this over our wonderful breakfast of ice cream (see my wife's post on this). At the time, living through both of these were I guess you could call ' inconvenient' but as I've looked back, it's become something much more wonderful. The first example is: whenever I would work on our yard in New Jersey (mowing primarily), I would have to wear her in a sling. It's unfortunate we never got a picture of me in shorts, t-shirt, and sling. I remember so many occasions when she would be asleep while I was working, and it would be sweaty and uncomfortable, but at the same time, I knew I wouldn't be able to put her down so I just kept going. It was one way to make sure she got some sleep. The second example is a little more amusing. While I was gone at work during the day, she would be happy with mommy and sisters. As I was in the military at the time, I wore a uniform complete with boots. The house we lived in at the time had a nice big porch. Every day, when I walked on the porch, she would hear my boots and immediately start crying and carrying on until I would hold her. We had an friend who was witness to this, as she was holding her when I came walking in and said 'you were just fine a minute ago' when the crying ensued. Wonderful memories as we've looked back. We laugh now, but we certainly weren't at the time. One of the more difficult instances was, during her last open heart procedure, she wouldn't settle down to sleep at night in the hospital unless daddy was there. It can be difficult to have to sit watching your daughter suffering, and at the same time waiting for her to drift off to sleep, and sometimes get halfway out the door and have to come back because she wasn't as asleep as I thought, but it gave me time to be with her and focus on what was truly important in life.