Happy Birthday Little One!

In honor of LO's birth, I thought I would post her birth story:

Little One was born at 11:45 am on Friday, December 16th (the day after my b-day), 2005. She weighed 8lbs 13 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Well, it all began on Tuesday, Dec. 13th at the dr's office. My blood pressure was up and the dr decided that we give it a shot and start cervidel that night (I was high, soft and baby was not engaged). She wouldn't even let me go home first and get my bags. I called Hubby and met him at the hospital. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a long week.

The cervidel needs to be in you for 12 hours. So by Wednesday morning, and a ton of contractions later, there was no change in my cervix - a finger tip the dr said. So another round of cervidel was ordered. By 10:00pm Wednesday night, there was no change. The dr said to do one last try and would check me in the morning. Again, no change. So on Thursday morning (my birthday), I was told that I would have a c-section, but because it wasn't an emergency and there were no slots for me to go in, I would have to wait until Friday. They moved me over to post partum for observation and I had 2 non stress tests and an ultrasound (My brother got to witness that - he thought it was the coolest thing - and we were good - I stayed on Team Yellow even though the tech told us we could look).

I got up on Friday with a c-section time of 10:30. I learned that nothing starts on time at hospitals. At 10:30 they started to prep me - IV's flowing, cathedar inserted, etc.

I was wheeled into the OR around 11:15am - the spinal block was administered and I was quickly laying down to start the surgery. I remember my nurse Barbara - she told me to put my head in my lap - yeah right - I told her the best thing I could do was to put my head in her boobs. After that I couldn't stop laughing. Hubby was then brought in once the spinal block was working. I don't think he was truly prepared for it all - the child birth class spent maybe 10 minutes on c-sections? It was really hard for him to see me laying there - however it didn't really bother me as much as I thought it would.

The funniest thing about the surgery is that the dr's and nurses were so laid back. We had conversations about old people driving and getting their license taken away and about my dr never wanting to drive a mini van. I laughed throughout the whole thing, as my belly felt like a bowl of jello. My dr found this to be the funniest thing as well, because I kept saying it over and over. I think Hubby was a little annoyed at all of my laughing.

This might be TMI but when the bag of waters broke, my dr said "Woah! Tsunami!" and I felt water go everywhere. The suction container (near my head) overflowed and they had to go to the second container. I found it amusing, not gross. Also in the end, my placenta weighed 3lbs 2 oz - the dr said it was one of the biggest placentas she had ever seen.

So back to the birth of LO - the dr told Hubby to stand at the moment she pulled the baby out and he got to watch our daughter be born. He couldn't tell me what she was, b/c he just stopped at her face - the dr exclaimed, "It's a girl!" I instantly started crying/laughing. They took her over to the warmer and suctioned her out, weighed her, and cleaned her up (I could see all of it) and Hubby held her for the rest of the surgery.

Afterwards, they took us to the recovery room, where my mom was waiting for us. Funny, as the nurse was working on me and I was holding the baby (she actually suckled my breast!), my mom and Hubby were franticly making phone calls telling everyone. The ended up taking LO away b/c her blood sugar was low (25) and they had to suppliment her with a 1/2 oz of formula. Her sugars went up to 85 and she was fine.

In the recovery room, my dad, brother and uncle snuck in to see me for 2 minutes - At that time, I was so drugged out, I didn't care. They soon transfered me to my post partum room and LO was able to come in and spend some "skin to skin" time with me. The morphine made me so sick and I never pressed the button to increase the medicine, so they shut it off. By that evening, I was getting up to the bathroom and by midnight, I was eating crackers and taking motrin by mouth.

In all, the c-section was not bad. My only part of not liking it was the IV and cathedar (the first 30 min of it). During the surgery, I kept thinking to myself - thank God I don't have to push this thing out, which is completely different than how I thought before. Looking back, there are many women who feel that having a c-section makes them feel like less of a woman or a mother - for me after going through the pregnancy I had and the 3 day induction ordeal, it was the most liberating experience.

Happy 2nd Birthday Little One! I love you!