The Big Day - 1 Year Later

So this is it. The end of one short saga. The beginning of an odyssey.

At 6:35am on April 30, 2010, I made this short and to the point entry:
http://olliestale.blogspot.com/2010/04/bekka-back-for-c-section.html

Less than 2 hours later, it was "over." And it was just starting.
http://olliestale.blogspot.com/2010/04/babies-are-in-nicu-and-bekka-in.html

That evening, we actually had time to think and compose a longer entry. I'm not sure how I managed to make it sound so "together" and functional. I think my engineering brain just turned on at some point during that day and pushed me into clinical mode. That allowed me to step away from the abject terror lurking deep my id.

http://olliestale.blogspot.com/2010/04/babies-are-in-nicu-and-bekka-in.html

We can't give enough credit to our "hosts" at WakeMed. Prior to, and just after the delivery, their calm professionalism kept both of us focused and while frightened, also hopeful. We aren't exactly easily rattled people, but this wasn't exactly a normal situation.

Perhaps you might want to go back and revisit photos of that first week just to get an idea of what we were dealing with. When you can see more medical equipment than the skin of the little person in the incubator, it doesn't create a particular sense of comfort. Also it doesn't help that they looked a bit (or a lot) like ET when they were born.

As tense as that morning was, to my dying days I will remember Isaak opening his eyes at the sound of my voice in the post-delivery room. He was lying there with an oxygen tube in place and in a plastic sandwich baggie for warmth (not really, but that was what it looked like). And at the first sound of my voice, he cracked his eyes. 

Amazing.

We owe a lot to so many people. Doctors, nurses, family, friends....

Thank you all for a brilliant first year.