Birth Story

We had to be at the hospital 5:45 on Wed morning. I actually got four hours of sleep, which is four more hours then I expected to get. We arrived at the hospital to find a nurse all ready and waiting for us. It was her job to prep me for the surgery. This nurse gets high marks in my book because she inserted my IV in one try. She promised she would only try if she could find a good vein, and when she did find one she would only poke once before calling IV therapy (which usually happens with me). Anyway, she got it in and that was one sigh of relief. Pretty soon our room was busy. A nursing instructor came to ask if one of her students could observe, my midwife, the baby nurse, my nurse and another nurse who was training to be on the OB floor, my OB and then the anesthesiologist all arrived. Then it was time to head to the OR. I actually walked over there. Walking into the actual OR brought a moment of panic where all of a sudden it just hits you that you are about to lay on that table and be cut open. Unfortunately the part I was the most nervous about, getting the spinal, didn't go that well. He tried and tried but could not get that needle in. My back is pretty bruised up from the attempts. Finally, he had to use a bigger needle. Once the spinal was in, it works fast. They laid me down, put up the sheet, and got started. Jeremiah stood there and gave me a running commentary about my guts. Before you know it they were saying they could see a lot of dark hair. Then I could hear her cry. "It's a girl?" I asked twice but nobody heard me. "IS IT A GIRL??" I asked again before Jeremiah finally heard and confirmed that it was indeed a girl. She was handed over to the neonatologist. At this point I was trying to get a glimpse of her, and I was just happy to be alert (I wasn't at this point with Sammy). Then I got slammed with an excruciating headache, which I understand was a spinal headache due to the bigger needle. I had to tell the anesthesiologist three times before he heard me and put something in my IV that helped with the headache. Pretty soon I was all finished and ready to move to recovery where I got to be next to Sadie's warmer. They were testing her blood sugar and warming her up. After it was obvious she was able to maintain her temp and her blood sugars were fine they handed her to me so I could hold her on my chest. She was just a little tiny curled up ball and at first I wasn't even sure how to hold her but pretty soon she was all snuggled with me and we were both doing fine. Aside from getting a migraine aura (they gave me something before I got the actual migraine), recovery went fine. After a few hours they wheeled us up to my room. I had to stay flat on my back for 24 hours to prevent a spinal headache which was very frustrating. All those weeks of bedrest and now I can't even sit up! Sadie was not your typical sleeping newborn. In fact, she hardly slept at all and fussed quite a bit. On Friday we both were cleared to go home and I was ready. I know a lot of people wonder why I would want to leave ASAP after a c-section but I find the hospital to be so interruptive and intrusive that I am always ready to leave. I have gotten so much more rest at home, and thankfully Sadie is like a whole different baby then she was there. She sleeps and eats just like you would expect a newborn to do. Sadie was considered small even for being three weeks early, which is probably due to the blood pressure. They sent the placenta away to Detroit for study to see just home much it had been affected.

Here we are five days later and things are going good. Obviously, I'm pretty sore and moving slow. The pain killers they prescribe make me so dizzy and sick to my stomach that I barely use them. It's not that I don't want to, but when you have to choose between discomfort and laying on the couch for hours feeling dizzy and sick and just out of it, I would rather the discomfort. I use a lower dose of Motrin, which is all I can tolerate. Sadie has a checkup this morning and I can't wait to see how she is growing. I really can't wait to feel better so I can go shopping. Can you believe we don't even have one of those lacy little headbands for her?