Meet Allie and Harper Wakefield!

Alloway Dayton Wakefield
Born October 15, 2010, at 5:28 PM.
5 lb. 3 oz., 18 1/4 inches.



Harper Brooks Wakefield
Born October 15, 2010, at 5:39 PM.
5 lb. 13 oz., 19 1/2 inches.

All four names are from our family trees. Alloway and Dayton are from Kakhi's family, and Harper and Brooks are from mine. We had a fun time looking through family histories and tracing our families back through generations.

Here's an overview of the rest of the delivery.

Between 4:00 and 4:30 yesterday, the nurses wheeled Kakhi into the operating room. I had to wait a few minutes for them to set things up, and then they retrieved me to help (ha) with the delivery. Can't say I've ever seen anything like babies being born.

I gather from the nurses' reactions that it was a relatively easy delivery. Most twins are delivered via C-Section, and even when they're not, babies aren't always cooperative. Kakhi had about two minutes between contractions once she started pushing, and it only took about 8-10 contractions (45 minutes, maybe?) to get Allie's head out. From there it was all downhill.

The rest of Allie followed shortly, I got to cut the umbilical cord, and then they whisked her away to be tested and checked and weighed and cleaned. We didn't have much time to look at her because Harper still had to be born! But it only took another 10 minutes before her head emerged, and when the rest of her came out, the doctor tossed her onto Kakhi's belly and said "here, hold this." So the first we saw of Harper was a wriggling, crying, messy baby sitting on Kakhi's suddenly not-huge belly. Then they whisked her away, too.

I spent the next hour or so bouncing between the babies and Kakhi, who did an amazing

job with the birthing. She was walking a little within a couple of hours of the birth, and she seems on the path to a quick recovery.

We have moved to a post-birth room, and we get to see the babies whenever we want. They haven't expressed much interest in eating yet, but the nurses tell us that babies don't usually start to eat very well until 24 hours after birth. The hospital runs lots of tests on them. Too many rules and regulations caused by too many lawsuits.

If everything goes as expected, we'll all come home tomorrow, and then the real fun begins!

Here are some pictures:

Above: Allie on the left, Harper on the right.

Above: Harper on the left, Allie on the right.