A Miracle

     The joy of having twins was shattered when the pediatrician came in the day after their birth to tell me that our little girl, Jonita Rochelle, which we had named her had a serious heart problem.  There was a hole in her tiny heart.  He had called in a heart specialist who observed her since the day she was born hoping that the hole would close on its own as if often does in new infants.  But on the second day the hole was still there and was located in a place that rarely if ever closed on its' own.  We were informed that she would need surgery to close it.   I was devastated!  Jim called the Bishop to help him give a blessing to our little Rochelle.  After the blessing the Bishop started a phone chain of members of the ward to call a special fast in her behalf.  

     The following day I was to be released, taking home our little son, James Richard Jr.  Rochelle was to remain until a surgery date could be scheduled.  I was surprised to see the heart doctor come in my room when I was expecting my OB doctor to come in sign the release papers.  When I saw him my first thoughts were that something bad happened to Rochelle and I was terrified.  What a shock it was when he said, "I have examined the baby very thoroughly this morning and I can find nothing wrong.  The hole is just not there."  He said how shocked he was because he had never seen such a large hole in that part of the heart ever close on its own.

The best news that he give us was that Rochelle could go home with her brother today.  We later learned from one of the nurses who was there when the heart specialist examined her that morning that the doctor had whispered under his breath, "This is impossible!  If I believed  in miracles this would be one."  Well, doctor I do believe in miracles, and you've just seen one. Only you just don't how and why it occurred. 

To this day Rochelle has shown signs of a heart disorder.  Now it was home to introduce these two new additions to the family to their three sisters

I just have to add one more thing about my "sensitive" and "loving" obstetrician.  The day after the twins were born he came into the room, threw some papers on my bed, and said, "These are your exercises you are to do every day beginning right now in bed.  And don't think I won't know if you have been doing them when you come back for your six week check-up.  Right then I hated that man, but when I was able to put on all my pre-maternity clothes within a week I changed my mind.  Of course since I had only gained 23 pounds and the babies weighed a total of almost fourteen pounds, I didn't have too much to lose.  But I have never felt greater after giving birth than I did right now.

 

Just When You Think All Is Well

I arrived at the hospital at about ten in the morning as did another of my doctor's patients...and the race was on.  I handed the admitting nurse the card with the scribbly  "Z" on the back as instructed by my doctor over a month before.  I now realized that that "Z" was really a coded "2" so that the nurses would be alerted to the fact that I would be having two babies.  I hoped that this information would give me priority over the other "in labor" patient.  I was wheeled to a labor room and informed that my doctor had not yet arrived, but not to worry.  They assured me that he would be there in time to deliver the babies.

An obstetric nurse listened to the heartbeats of the babies through my bulging belly and asked if the doctor had predicted the gender.  I had asked him but he wouldn't even give me an educated guess.  The nurse said,  "Do you want to know?"  I answered, "Sure".  "Well, the bottom one is a boy and the one on top is a girl."  She didn't even add, "I think."  She seemed so sure that I thought that should make a bet with someone ... maybe my uncertain doctor.  But I didn't.

Both of us  pregnant women were now in serious labor.  The nurses kept running back and forth to our two rooms to see who should be wheeled into the only delivery room of the small hospital first.  The doctor arrived and made the decision.  I should go first.  The first baby, a boy, was delivered very quickly, and while one nurse wrapped the baby in a blanket, the two other nurses immediately began running to the door to wheel the waiting patient into the delivery room.  The doctor yelled, "Wait! there is another one!"  I guess not all the OB nurses had been informed of the multiple birth.  The second baby did not come immediately as expected.  There was a problem.  She, (yes it was a girl as the nurse had predicted) was not in position to be born and had to be turned.  That was not easy.  It took seven additional desperate minutes for our little girl to be born.  They immediately wrapped her in a blanket and whisked her away.  I didn't hear her cry, and that really worried me.  To be honest, I never even gave a thought to that poor woman waiting in the hall to deliver her baby.  For all I know she gave birth in the hall without a doctor.  My only thoughts at this time were the well-being of my two precious little ones.

Our little boy weighed in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces while our baby daughter weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces.  It was no wonder I was so uncomfortable those last two months.  It was like having two normal sized babies crammed into a space meant for one.  But that meant they were big enough to come home with me in three days (the time that all new mothers were kept in the hospital at that time) ... or at least that is what I thought.  I had had a chance to hold and feed the babies the day after their birth and they were so beautiful and looked so healthy.  But later that day a pediatrician came into my room to inform me that one of the babies had a pretty serious problem.  My heart sank! 

  

Twins? You've got to be kidding.

     I wasn't too fond of my obstetrician.  He didn't have much of a bedside manor with his patients.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say he rated a low 2.  But I guess he didn't have to have a great re pore with any of us because there was no other choice.  He was the only OB - GYN in Klamath Falls and had all the patients he could handle.  If you didn't like him the only other choice was to go to a general practitioner.  While I was waiting in the waiting room one day, I saw him walk up to a patient who was eating a candy bar, grab it out of her hand, throw it in the trash, and walk walk back to his office without saying a word.  We all got the message.

     He never said much on my monthly visits other than, "Everything is just fine.  You are right on schedule."  He was a "stickler" on weight but never had to scold me those first months because I wasn't gaining any weight.  I was too sick.  But when I began feeling better, the weight went on and my tummy got big...FAST!  On my seven month visit he handed me a business card and said to take it to the hospital when I went.  All that was on the card was his name, address, and phone # like any regular business card.  On the back he scribbled something that looked like a lower case "z".  I didn't question him about the card ... just tucked it away in my purse and forgot about it.

     By my eighth month visit I had only gained 17 pounds, but I was HUGE.  I couldn't drive the new VW bus we had purchased because I couldn't fit behind the wheel. (No adjustable seats.)  I just knew the doctor had figured the due date wrong and I asked him about that at my next visit.  Then as kind of a joke I added, "or I'm going to have twins."  I had never seen that man smile until that day as he said, "Yes you are".  He then said, " I have suspected it for a while because I thought I had been hearing two heart beats, but it is easy to be hearing the front and back of the same baby.  But today the heart beats are at different rates.  There are definitely two."  (No ultra sounds back then.)  He told me that twins usually come early so expect them at any time.  At that same time he told me not to gain any more weight because I had developed toxemia which can worsen when you gain weight.  So here I am, expecting twins, having only gained 17 pounds and I can hardly eat anything.  This was CRAZY.  But I was too scared of my doctor not to do what he said.

     The next weeks were horrible.  I looked like hot air balloon.  My maternity smocks wouldn't cover the big cut out in the front of my maternity skirts. (No stretch panels) I had to hold the smock down when I walked in public.  I remember telling Jim that he didn't have to walk next to me because I was sure he must be embarrassed just being seen with me.  I slept sitting up on the couch because I couldn't breathe if I lay down.  Judy, Jim's teen-age niece came from Salt Lake to be there to help me when the twins came home, but after two weeks and no babies, she had to return.  It was now only a week before my real due date and I was still waddling around home ... and I mean WADDLING!  "Twins come early?"  Right!!

     It was four days before my actual due date that my water broke and I headed for the hospital.  But wouldn't you know that at the same time I arrived at the hospital, so did another of my doctor's patients.  Now the race was on.  Two women in labor and only one doctor and one maternity team of nurses.  Which one of us would the doctor choose?