The Arrival

What follows below is my version of her arrival, guess you could call it a birth story. I’m keeping it PG though. However I thought I’d forewarn as some people don’t care to read about that ‘stuff’.

The big day started at 4:30 in the morning. Our c-section time was scheduled for 7:30am and we needed to be at Labor and Delivery by 5:30am to check in. Thank goodness we live less than ten minutes from the hospital or we would have had to be up even earlier. Not that we slept much the night before anyway. Granny and Grandpa Wannamaker were there to watch Jack so we kissed him goodbye until that afternoon and headed off.

When we checked in the immediately took us down to what would be our recovery room and where we would stay until we were discharged. (Makes sense I guess as there was no reason to take up a L&D room) I got changed into a hospital gown, they took my weight and blood pressure, asked all the standard questions, we filled out a couple of forms, got a blood draw, etc. Glenda, the nurse we had that day was wonderful. After the phlebotomist struggled with getting my vein to cooperate for a blood draw (I can be a difficult person to draw blood from anyway and since I hadn’t had anything to drink since 9pm the night before…..well  you get the picture) she called another nurse, who used to be a trauma nurse for several years, to come do my IV. She also said she’d wait on doing the catheter until I’d gotten my spinal as she “Didn’t believe in practicing dark magic on expectant mammas.” She made me laugh.

By  6:45am we were ready to go and spent the next 30 minutes pretty much waiting for the doctor to arrive. At about 7:15 the anesthesiologist came in and went over the spinal procedure. He gave me this really nasty Bismuth something or other medication to neutralize my stomach acid. It tasted terrible, but later I would be very thankful for that little shot-cup of nastiness.

About 7:20 they came in and told Kevin to put on his jump suit, booties, and hat (forgot to take a picture of that). Then they walked us down the hall to the OR. Kevin got to sit outside the door while they took me into what had to be the brightest and whitest room I have ever been in. I climbed up on the OR table and sat there while the anesthesiologist did the spinal. I still hate that part the worst; sitting in that uncomfortable hunched over position is the pits. However, it is much easier when you are not in labor and having contractions.

I could tell when the spinal took effect, my toes immediately started to tingle. They laid me back and within two minutes I was numb from the middle of my ribcage down. Then the curtain was put up. From that point on I really can’t tell you what went on anywhere below my chest. I really don’t want to know the details either. When you check in to Labor and Delivery modesty checks out. Sometimes it is nice just to be oblivious to it all.

Remember that stomach acid neutralizing junk they had given me earlier? This is where it came in handy. Shortly after going numb I started to feel lightheaded and nauseous. I told the anesthesiologist and he got out the puke bucket for me. Bless that man and his drugs! The stuff he had given me completely eliminated that nasty burning you normal have when you throw up. Nice to avoid since I couldn’t rinse my mouth out afterwards obviously.

After emptying what little was in my stomach I felt great! Well, the part of me I could feel felt great anyways. They brought Kevin in and sat him on a stool next to my head. At some point the nurse put in the catheter. Then the Dr. came in and asked if a resident could attend. Sure, why not?

At 7:29am the started the c-section. I really didn’t realized they had started. All the Dr. asked after noting the time was, “Can you feel this?” and I said, “Can I feel what?” Then I got to hear all the latest L&D gossip. There was a lady who decided to give birth standing up and the Dr. really had to practice his catching skills. Dr. Astin would be on that night and he tends to attract all the wild and crazy deliveries and so forth. Then the Dr. said, “Yep, definitely a baby in there” and about a minute or so later Emilie made her grand debut loudly voicing her displeasure at the current state of her affairs. It was 7:59am.

They showed her to me briefly than took her across the room to clean her up and get her vitals. Kevin went over and took pictures while I watched as they sewed me up. Once they got her cleaned and wrapped up she was brought back over to say ‘Hi’ then she and Kevin went down to the nursery while they finished with me.

Once I was stitched up and the Dr’s had moved along (the nurses really do the majority of the work I noticed) I remember thinking to myself, “Now how are they going to get me off this table and back to my room?” I was dead weight lying on the OR table and could be absolutely NO help to them. I found out soon enough. They brought the bed down from our room and used this nifty little roller board to slide me from the table to the bed. Then they just drove me back to my room. Very slick.

While I waited to have Emilie brought to the room Glenda ran all my vitals again. They drew more blood and I was given some ice to chew on. Finally, something to eat! I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since around 9pm the previous night. When the ice stayed down Glenda decided I could have something more substantial and ordered a meal of clear liquids. This turned out to mean green J-ello, beef broth, and apple juice…uhhh,  yum?

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the day was spent bonding with Emilie. Granny and Grandpa brought Jack for a visit mid afternoon. I thought he would be more excited to meet his little sister, but there were some loading cranes working outside my window which upstaged Emilie. Two year olds have their priorities. Fortunately now that she is home Jack absolutely loves his baby.

By the end of the first day I was up and out of bed and most of the monitoring equipment had been removed. We spent the following day continuing to recover and by Friday afternoon we were discharged and sent home.