BB's Birth by C-section

We left the house at 6:20 on Thursday morning, Sept. 3. Dad drove with mom and I sitting behind her. Katie had worked late and said she was going to take a shower and would meet us at the hospital. she had worked until close at Red Robin and didn't get to mom and dad's until midnight. Mom stayed up and they talked so I was really surprised when mom was able to get out the door by 6:20.. its a miracle in itself!

41 Weeks, the morning of Sept. 3

We had to be there at 7:30 for a 9:30 C-section. I filled out the paper work, and needed to borrow $200 from dad for the Co-Pay. I had assumed I would just get a bill for it. It's a really special feeling asking your parents for money when you're 30 and left your checkbook at home. We sat in a tiny waiting room, just enough seats for the four of us. I don't think reality had set in at that point. we waited for what seemed like forever in the most uncomfortable chairs and I was hungry from not being allowed to eat or drink since midnight the previous night.

The minute mom went to the bathroom, the nurse Bernadette, bernie for short of course came back to get us. Us leekers never travel light and it looked like we were moving into the hospital. I was asked to change into a gown and non-slip hospital slippers, they were stylin' let me tell you! Long and grey with white spots on them.

The PACU had a bed in each corner and the nurses station central to all of that. Bernie put me on an IV and strapped a few fetal heart monitors to me. BB was at a funny angle and moved around a lot so we had to readjust those quite a bit.

We spent an extra hour in the PACU because one of the deliveries turned into an emergency C-section. I got put on a second IV bag and asked my mom to get my phone. Sarah had arrived ! I got texts and selfies from her and my sister.

I had to put on a super stylish hair net and mom put on a bunny suit complete with a hair net and mask. I got wheeled to the OR about 3 doors down on the right. The anesthesiologist and nurses were wonderful. We had a conversation about tattoos as I have a bunch and one of the nurses' first jobs was tattoo removal.

The epidural was not exactly a walk in the park. He put the numbing shot in first which stung for about 20 seconds. I thought if I could handle 3 hours of a tattoo I can handle 20 seconds of pain. Then the epidural needle. He seemed to have a hard time finding the spot, a very sharp pain on the right side of my back, he would adjust it and there would be pain in my left and then the center.

He reapplied the numbing shot and used a bigger needle, more stinging, and as that was going on I started to cry for the first time. I had been so calm but it hit me that this was going to happen, this was real, everything from finding out in July to being pregnant, moving home, ultrasounds, a relationship ending, choosing adopting, meeting Macii and Tom, I was about to meet BB. Having a full on panic attack and snot cry is not what I would call a good idea while having someone insert a needle into your spine while you try to arch your back into a "C" shape. 

I got it together and was told to put my legs up on the table before I wasn't able to move. Everything was feeling tingley. Soon I was not able to move my legs or toes and it caused me to have a panic attack I quickly started thinking about something else. The blue curtain was raised, I was put on oxygen and it was go time. My mom walked in wearing the bunny suit, she looked awesome heheh.

We both started crying the moment we saw each other. It doesn't matter how old you are, you always need your mom. She was crying because here was her daughter laid out on an operating table. The  nurse told me she just pinched me REALLY hard and I didn't respond so it was now time. I started to feel a little dizzy and told the nurse, she immediately put in anti nausea meds into my IV and I felt better. Don't try to wait that out!I heard a lot of stories of people puking the entire time they were going through the procedure. I'm sure i would have as well without that medication.

I didn't feel any incision being made, I felt pressure and tugging, it seemed like it was taking a while for them to get BB out. I cried and hyper ventilated off and on and would squeeze my moms hand when the pressure would scare me a bit. It is a very weird thing to smell something burning, knowing the doctors were using cauterizing tools and know it is your own flesh causing that smell. I will never forget that smell.

The anesthesia nurse was wonderful in telling me when i would feel tugging or pressure. The more they tried to pull BB out the further she would move up into me, which is the whole reason we were having a c-section to begin with.. she was up too high and was not causing contractions, hadn't dropped and was quite happy where she was. They had to use a vacuum method to get her out.

Her first breath took mine away. Hearing her wail and cry. She came into this world weighing in at a healthy 8lbs 10 oz born at 11:28 a.m. at Inova Alexandria Hospital on Sept. 3, 2015. Her apgar scores were all 9s. Which is apparently the best you can get, its a scale of 1-10 but all babies have blue fingers and toes when they are born and coloring is one of the points. The anesthesiologist nurse was amazing and took about 100 photos of her, my mom and I.

I couldn't hold her just yet as I was still being put back together. I rubbed BB's cheek, welcomed her to this world and thought she was perfect. I had been worrying about her movement inside, kick counts, and paranoid when I didn't feel her move. I thought that paranoia would end. Nope, it got worse. She was blinking rapidly and the nurse said she was trying to open her eyes but it was just too bright, so we shaded her from the light with the blue operating curtain and she opened her eyes wide, it was as if the vast blue ocean was looking back at me through her eyes and she had curly blonde hair! The same color as mine. We have the same nose, she has Dutch's eyes and face shape. There was a moment when my mom was holding her and she didn't blink and I didn't see her breathe and I had a panic attack something was wrong, she took a deep breathe in and I realized that paranoia would never go away.

When the doctors were finished I was told to put my arms over my shoulders like a mummy and was rolled from side to side and put onto a gurney to go back to the PACU for recovery. They told me I would feel like I was about to fall off, they were not kidding! Thy recommended I close my eyes and that helped immensely. I got to hold BB on the way there. When babies stick out their tongue and turn their heads it means they are hungry so I got to feed BB her very first bottle.

I ate some crackers and drank some juice and got to be wheeled to the hospital room an hour after recovery. We got rolled right past the waiting room where Sarah, Dad and Katie were, we waved and they met us up in room 3006. I told the nurse i was impressed with her ability to roll the bed around and not hit anything. She asked me if i showered that day.. "yes?" Your hair smells really good she told me. At first i thought... do your patients not shower? I figured a lot of them are probably in labor for a really long time and sweaty and exhausted by the time they get rolled to their rooms. I had taken a very long shower that morning to try to enjoy it knowing it may be my last pain free shower for a couple of months.

Dad, Katie, Sarah, Mom and I sat in the hospital room for a few hours holding BB , she was awake and alert. I had text photos to Macii and Tom, they were really sweet and Karen had told them we would text them when we were ready for them to come to the hospital. This gave us a chance to meet and bond with BB a bit before Macii and Tom arrived. I still couldn't move my legs or my toes but I was happy I was in absolutely no pain. yay drugs!

 As it got a little closer to dinner we asked Tom and Macii to come on over :)