“birth” story
i am taking advantage of the adrenaline, pain meds, lack of baby, and sleeping husband to go ahead and update the world on the “birth” story. i am using the term “birth” lightly because anytime you have a c section its really more of a surgery story. it’s a surgery story with a rocking outcome, but still a surgery.
and for a little background: i had my standard 38 week appointment last Monday and when checked my doctor said that i was 3 cm and that she could feel C’s head. i found this extraordinarily groovy considering the week before i was 0 and clara might as well have been floating in the black sea. encouraged, i went home and did all of the things that you do when you are trying to get a baby to get moving. i did not partake in any of the magical teas, or cod liver oil (yuck), or any other such drama. however, i did walk, do squats, work in the yard, work in the house, etc. i was trying to get sister to bust a move on her own. this weekend i was quite anxious about my tuesday appointment and told my husband several times ‘i dont need to rush the plan, but i’d love to know what the plan is” i asked him when he thought she would come. he said “late sunday night” i think i am getting this home dog a crystal ball. or hell, he doesn’t even need it.
we had a most excellent weekend with jack this weekend. we flew kites, we played in the sprinklers, we played in the baby pool, we played with toys, we went to Church, we got some yummy MDay lunch, we went to the Dairy Isle, and we generally just enjoyed the heck out of spending time together. i am so glad. tonight when we put him down for bed he was clearly exhausted. (exhausted from all the fun, duh). i put him to bed and went out to the den to watch Last Cake Standing and to cheer for Josh. (i still think he was robbed by the way). i made the observation that there should be no baby body part at 39 weeks that with my ability to put my arm down. yet, i had a piece of baby clara that did, indeed, interfere with me putting my arm at my side.
after LCS i hit the hay. jerry read for a bit and i played solitaire on my phone. sometime between 815 and 845 Clara lost her mind in my belly. her moving because VERY sporadic, frantic, and generally unpredictable. the only thing i knew was that it hurt like heck. this game of charades (or perhaps celebration of the up and coming kung fu panda 2) last about a half an hour and then crickets. no matter what i did i could not make her move. i pushed on her, i prodded her, i wiggled my hand around trying to get her to jiggle in the approximate place she usually does her moving and NADA. thankfully, i have a fetal doppler at home and i sprung up out of the bed to see if i could catch her heartbeat. i put it down low where i assumed that he hb would be. it was so all over the place i nearly passed out from fear. her hb was galloping horses for a couple of seconds and then a beat………. beat…………..beat….beat….galloping horses… beat…………..beat. it was then that i decided that i was going in to L&D. the worst thing that could happen is they’d call me crazy and send me home.
i took a 2 minute shower, threw on clothes, and ran out the door. i left j and j behind thinking i was merely coming to the hospital for some monitoring. when i got here, i had to go through the er entrance. i asked the gentlemen security guards “which way to l and d” a kind salt and pepper haired guy hopped up out of his seat and escorted me up. i told the lady what my problem was and she brought me back to triage. on the way to triage, i saw my doctors little brown ponytail and instantly felt relieved.
as soon as my amazing nurse nancy hooked me up to the machines, my doc was in with the portable u/s machine. she started down low (where her head SHOULD be) and all i saw was a flicker of feet. my doctor hopefully doesn’t fancy herself much of a poker player because he chin feel in surprise and she turned to me and said “can i sit down?” of course i told her yes and she went in search of clara’s head. all the while it was very evident to me that she was flabbergasted as to how this happened. i mean, i had just seen her 7 days ago. its unusual on a 2nd pregnancy for kids to have that much roon. i mean, if i had a floppy old michelle duggar uterus that would be one thing. however, my uterus should still be fairly taut. the only thing i said when my dr confirmed “she is breech” was “that means you are going to have to cut her out aren’t you”
i’ll save you all of the medical discussion that followed, but the sum of all the parts was that not only would we be doing a c section, but we’d be doing it tonight. i told jerry. he definitely didn’t see that one coming. i put him on the phone with my dr (amazing that she would do that btw) . she recapped our convo and we put the emergency baby train into action. i made all the phone calls and jerry prepped the baby and house. 1 hour later i was supposed to be in the operating room having a baby.
my nurse, nancy, started doing all the prep. we were afraid we’d be late to my c section date, but jerry wasn’t there yet anyway. jerry arrived about 14 minutes before they wanted to take me back. just as we were about to go for the ride of f lifetime, we got bumped. first, a lady who had been pushing for 1 hour decided to finally give her baby the old heave ho! then, a lady who had her blood pressure bottom out on her needed an emergency c section. although my c section wasn’t exactly leisurely in nature at this point, we could wait. and we did. i honestly have no idea what time we went back.
once in the room they scooted me onto the bed, the doc got me all hooked up with my spinal (which incidentally did not hurt A BIT– i don’t know what he did different from the doc in EP, but i like this guy exponentially better). after the spinal kicked in, i got very sick to my stomach. i told the doc i needed to throw up. he gave me explicit instructions and i followed. i ended up barfing. doc used suction to get it out, but i just spit most of it into a bed pan. how’s that for a heroic birth story!? after the barfscapades they drapped me up, and off we went. my doc used the exact same incision as last time, so she had a considerable amount of scar tissue to get through. while she was cutting, clara was kicking up a storm. finally they got all the way down to my uterus cut and POP! out comes a foot. like seriously, they didn’t even have to try. (apparently she has monkey toes. i cannot confirm or deny this as i have not seen them yet). one limb at a time clara made her entrance into the world.
at 222am she was 100% out and ready to meet the world. she was breathing on her own, but was a little paler than they like (i almost asked if they took a look at my skin color before making that determination). clara also appeared a bit floppy. she seemed awfully well-mannered for someone who was just pulled from their warm cozy home of 9 months (again, i almost asked if they were aware that he mother is a southern belle). jerry got to cut her cord and i am really not sure else what happened for the next 20 minutes becuase i was busy being tripped out on meds and wondering why it felt so weird that i couldnt feel my feet.
at some point she was wheeled over so i could see her and my first thought was “holy cow she looks just like that!” i am actually quite certain that i said that out loud. she does look just like him. the only forseeable difference right now is that she has lots of chunk. jman was a lean mean fighting machine. clara… not so much. although, i don’t think that 8lb and 1oz is particularly heavy the staff around here have been referring to her as “a bigger baby” so for now (and not a day past when she can understand what it is we are calling her) she will also be known as heavy c. kidding. really, i am kidding. and don’t you dare call her that or ill punch you in the nose.
soon after the c section, i went to the recovery room. i stayed there for approximately 1 hour and then my nurse wheeled me to the NICU. i got to gaze at my little gal for a few minutes before coming up to my room. at the time she was on 30% oxygen with the expectation that she would be weaned off over the next bit of the day. we will see. i certainly hope that is correct. cici will be spending at least 48 hrs in the NICU because they had to draw labs. although i really wanted to avoid a NICU stay this time, i would certainly feel much better about a baby with no oxygen and no real issues that was just in the NICU because she is waiting on labs.
after the NICU visit, i came to my postpartum room where i’ll be spending the next 48-72 hours. it’s where i sit now and why i had a little time to write. since i have been in here i already pumped once. my nurse didn’t bring in any containers to store my milk in because she assumed i wouldn’t get any. 2 oz of colostrum later, mary pat went on down to the storage room and brought me back a container. if she has to be in the nicu, i am proud that i can at least provide her milk. a bit ago, i ordered “room service” for me and jerry (yes, that is what they call it here). it should be delivered at anytime in the next few minutes and then my nurse assures me that i can get in a wheelchair and head back down to see my gorgeous girl.
and for now, that’s all she wrote….
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