Sam and Max are born

While Amanda was in the antepartum ward, she was routinely monitored. They measured her vitals, contractions, and the twins' heartbeats. The pieces of apparatus around her stomach are the baby heartbeat monitors and the contraction monitor. There was a paper printout of the results, which seems low-tech at first glance, however it is very reliable and allows staff to quickly scan the history of measurements.

Contractions are well underway

When it came time to go to the operating room I got this spiffy blue suit

Amanda had some second thoughts about the whole thing, but I don't know what the big deal is.

Note: this may have been staged for dramatic effect

While in the operating room I was allowed to take some photos of the babies, and of Amanda's face, but not the surgery itself. I assume this was due to liability reasons, both to prevent me from distracting the staff, and also in the highly unlikely event that something was done wrong and I got evidence of it. Small aside: from living in the US for over a decade I've come to realize many rules and guidelines are created purely to reduce legal liability, and don't make sense otherwise.

Maxwell Raphael Kaiser was born at 6:21pm, weighing 3 pounds 5 ounces. Note that Max and Sam both have the same middle name, Raphael. We'll do our best to keep things equal for them, so we might as well start off right.

During the pregnancy ultrasound techs and doctors referred to him as "baby A", since he was going to be born first due to his position lower down in the uterus. Any photo with a hat with a big "A" on it means that it is Max (any photo with a "B" hat is Sam).

Shortly after this photo I was allowed to cut his umbilical cord. It felt like the ceremonial cutting of a ribbon; a nice gesture, but mostly staged. He was already a few meters across the room from Amanda at this point.

Max

Samuel Raphael Kaiser was born at 6:22pm (just one minute after his littler, older brother), weighing 4 pounds 2 ounces. Note the "B" on his hat. I got to cut his umbilical cord, too.

Sam just before the cord cutting ceremony

Sam just after

The nurses brought the babies over to Amanda so she could finally see them.

Max

Sam

Sam

Our first ever family photo with all four of us!

After they were born and we took some photos with help from the staff, the babies were whisked off to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). They were both breathing on their own just fine and had normal heartbeats, but it is standard practice to take twins of their gestational age (33 weeks, 5 days) to the NICU for care. I followed the twins to the NICU to enjoy them for a few moments before returning to Amanda's side back in the operating room.

Sam is really cute.

Max is also really cute!

After the delivery Amanda spent several hours in the recovery room, and that's when we called family and friends to share the wonderful news. Since Amanda was recovering nicely, and the babies were already doing so well, we were able to visit them in the NICU the same evening that they were born. Amanda was wheeled there on the recovery stretcher, and held her new babies for the very first time ever.