Tille Family

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A new home.

I am so sorry for the delay in getting info up on the site. Angela and I have been so busy. Angela has her hands full trying to recover, and frankly, has had better things to do than knock out a blog post. I’ve been terribly busy between ANW and Children’s; supporting Angela, checking on the kids, and also getting the family we had in town an opportunity to see the kids. So let me back some things up for everyone.

Friday was such an emotional day. We slept a little on Thursday night, but were up early Friday morning. Everyone was so awesome during the day. As I think back on it, I can’t get over how organized, planned, and smooth the entire process went along. They had a plan and executed it perfectly. Thank you so much to everyone at ANW and Children’s. (Dr. Wagner, I’m gonna buy you that steak I promissed. Go Hawkeyes!) I’m gonna try to get some pics on here for everyone from my personal camera. I have more pics available that the hospital provided. They will be added to the site as soon as I can work on it.

So as the day got started, the staff was busy with Angela and I got changed in to my scrubs.

We had a little down time before things got started and had a little time to spend with Meredith. My family took on the challenge of looking after the big sister for the weekend. What a job she’s gonna have.

Angela went in to the operating room a little after 9:30. I stood around with Angela’s mom, some hospital personnel, and a few others. While they were getting things ready with Angela in the operating room, a nurse manager from Children’s brought me the hats. The hats have become pretty popular and everyone seems to like them. I’m sorry that I don’t have a picture of them. The whole thing started a month or two ago when the same nurse brought Angela these hats that would be used on the kids after they were born. Angela added the ribbons over the next couple days. This was also the same time that we (mostly Angela) were finalizing the names. The names were chosen a long time ago. On Thursday, Angela gave me my “cheat sheet” for the delivery that associated a name with a specific colored ribbon. No one knew the names before hand and I can say that I did find a little pleasure teasing people with the list for a day or so. The moment that I got the hats, I had a little breakdown where things got emotional. I had so many things flying through my head. If you saw the article on-line at the Star Tribune (I recommend that you see it if you haven’t), you can see some of those candid pictures in the picture gallery next to the story. You can find that story and more on our media page or click here for a link directly to the story. After a minute or two, I was called in to the operating room to be by Angela’s side. She was so awesome!!! I’m sorry, but I don’t have a good pic of the operating room. I was focused on Angela during the first stage of the surgery. As the kids were delivered, I stood up and watched. Angela didn’t see them at all until she made it over to Children’s later than afternoon still in her hospital bed. As soon each one was born, they were rushed to one of two adjacent rooms where a team of people worked on each child. As I was called in, I was asked to give hats to each of them and thus name them in the process. Alex got the hat with the blue ribbon and the others just got the hat on the top of the pile when I got to them. It was pretty busy in there for a few minutes. I never felt panic in the room. It was so calm.

As soon as the babies were stable, I went back to Angela to tell her that things were fine with all of them and that I was going with the kids over to Children’s. I tagged along with the first transport team. Soon after we arrived in the NICU, two more teams arrived. They put the last four of them in sets of two for the ride over to Children’s. After a little while, I came back to check on Angela where she was doing fine. Thank you Becky for sticking by her side while I was gone. The rest of the day was very busy between the two hospitals and getting family in to see the kids once things were stable.

Angela is doing well in her recovery. She’s having a few minor issues, but they were expected. She’s really tired, a little weak, and pretty sore. She said it was pretty weird to see her feet.

The children were all doing as well as could be expected. At the time of their transport to Children’s, 4 of the 5 had breathing tubes. Ironically, Emma (the smallest), was the only one not put on a breathing tube. They are listed in critical condition, but that’s because they’re in a NICU. All 4 of them had their breathing tubes removed today which is an awesome development and now all 5 of them are wearing a breathing mask. I keep telling everyone that I feel like I should be panicked, worried, concerned, fearful, scared, etc; but I’m not. The reality of the situation is that they’re all doing well, I’m 100% comfortable with the staff at Children’s, and I can’t do anything to help anyway. I say the Serenity Prayer every night and I truly believe that it’s helped me through the past few days, weeks, and months.

As for the Children, here are the stats:

Thank you so much to everyone for your tremendous support!

Until next time…