James and Claire

We woke up this morning with a simple itinerary. We would attend the ultra-sound with the birth parents and then goof around until we flew back to DC on a 4:30 PM flight.

I tried to sneak out the door in my comfortable tennis shoes, as my weary feet had been completely destroyed by a pair of 'nice shoes' that Christy insisted I wear to everything. My observant wife nabbed me as we were about to leave. "Nice try" she said... "You can't wear those."

I am not typically one to complain, but the pain my feet would endure for the remainder of the day was borderline abusive. Like any of you care.

So we showed up at the B's house at 9:00, where B's mother had arranged a nice spread of coffee, juice, and fancy scones from the basket of goodies we had delivered two days earlier. We chatted for a while, and then the four of us (Christy, B, the birth father, and I) drove to the doctor's for a 10:30 appointment.

Christy and I stood in amazement as the ultra-sound was displayed on a 50-inch HD television, complete with heartbeats and whooshing sounds in 5-channel stereo surround sound. The only thing missing was popcorn. Sure enough, we were able to see first hand that there were two little babies in there....one male and one female. Every ultra-sound ever taken of these babies (including this visit) was compiled onto a VHS tape, which B then gave to us. Now I just have to find a dinosaur who still has a VHS. I know a few prehistoric-types in Vienna that just might...

Most importantly, the ultra-sound-giver stated that everything looked great and it might be several more weeks before the twins would be born. This gave Christy and I great comfort that her premonition was false and we would be able to go back to DC and prepare further.

We went back to the birth mom's home and said goodbye. Right as we were leaving, Christy and I conferred and decided to go against the advice of the adoption agency and we gave our cell phone number to B's mother. We had achieved a high level of comfort with all parties involved and thought they should have it. We knew that B had an afternoon appointment and we did not want to wait until we got home to hear how it went.

We departed and headed to Chuy's (pronounced Chewy's) for some authentic Tex-Mex. I took a photograph of an extremely happy Christy who was looking forward to going back and seeing our son, Nicholas (who had been staying with my parents).

I was tired and wanted to head directly to the airport, check in the heavy suitcases, and curl up with a beer in the terminal. Christy, not wanting to waste any opportunities, convinced me to scour the area (close to the hospital) for possible hotel locations where we could stay when we returned to Austin when the twins were born. So we checked out a few of the 'suite' hotels, not really impressed with any of them. My cell phone was on its final bar (with no car charger), so I had had it turned off to preserve. As we were departing from the La Quinta Suites, I turned on the phone. Within 5 minutes, I got a phone call....It was now 1:51 PM.

It was B's mom. She said that B had been experiencing severe pain (contractions 2-minutes apart) and she had decided to take her to the hospital. She told me the doctors indicated that there was a high-probability they were going to perform a C-Section within the next couple of hours. It took a few minutes for that call to sink in. We sat in the parking lot of La Quinta freaking out for about 3 minutes. Then Christy got on her phone and started calling her mom and mine while I used the final bar on my phone to cancel our flight.

We stopped by a Walgreen's to buy a phone charger and then headed directly for the hospital. B's mom had texted me the room number where B was being prepared for the C-Section because the boy was in breach position. We found the hospital and made our way to the room just in time to wave to her as she was going in. We were sent to the waiting room where we plugged our phones into wall outlets and made a ton of phone calls.

At around 3:30, B's mom poked her head into the waiting room and asked "Have they told you yet?". We just looked and said "No". She said "They are here". We got up and followed her to the nursery area where we were asked to wait outside for a moment. We were then led to a small sink, where we scrubbed in and the pediatrician gave us the low-down. She told us that the boy was Baby A and weighed 5 pounds. The girl was Baby B and weighed 4 pounds, 3 ounces. They were both 17.25 inches long. She said that these were good weights given how early they arrived....and that this sort of early arrival was commom-place for deliveries of multiples.

We were informed that they were healthy, but were in some respiratory distress, which was also normal. After a few minutes, we were led into the nursery where we met James and Claire. They were perfectly formed little creatures, but they were really having trouble breathing. Even though we were being re-assured constantly that everything was fine and the staff attending them was superb, it was tough to watch. Here they were, not an hour old, and they were fighting for air.

One thing to note is that we were instantly recognized as the parents and everyone involved seemed to know the situation. I credit B's mom and a compassionate staff.

I think Christy had gone into some sort of trance, just staring at our new children and watching the oxygen levels on the fancy equipment. She looked calm and normal on the outside. I was doing the same thing, but I must have looked freaked out. The nurses kept asking me if I was OK. It was one of those moments where you are not really sure it is actually happening. We went from 1 child to 3 in a couple of hours....and two of them were hurting.

B's mom found us, gave us hugs. She told us that B was doing well, but had a lot of medication in her. We went to see her, and it was comforting to see that she was blissfully unaware of the pain. Christy gave her a hug and then we were ushered back to the nursery area, where they told us that they had decided to transport the twins to a hospital in North Austin with a better Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The twins had stabilized and their breathing was being aided by machines. They looked like tiny astronauts in space helmets.

After what seemed like 2 hours, the transport team arrived (5 uniformed people). We were planning on following the ambulance to the new hospital, but we were told to give them 2 hours to move them and they really did not want us there for that. It was a blessing to be told to take 2 hours off from this.

We had all of our luggage in our car, we needed to find a place to stay for the night. We ended up being suckered in by a hotel that had renovated their lobby to look fancy. Once we arrived in our room, it was clear that the renovations had not made it to the room. But we did not care. We checked in, put our stuff in the room and headed downstairs to eat dinner.

After a quick dinner, we headed to the new hospital. We parked in the parking garage and navigated through the labrynth to find the NICU. Once there, we identified ourselves, gave them the password, scrubbed in, and were allowed back to be with our new children. We were greeted by a very competent doctor who assured us that everything was very normal. The nursing staff in the NICU made us comfortable, explained everything that was going on, answered all of our 1,000 questions, and let us be with our kids.

At 10:00, we had to leave for shift change, so we went to the hotel and slept....one of us with foot pain.