Since our baby was breach, and the external version (described in an earlier post) didn’t work out, we scheduled a Cesarean Section for the following Tuesday morning. Our daughter had a birthday! I repacked all of the hospital bags since I knew I wasn’t going to labor and would have a longer hospital stay. On Monday night, my OB, who I love and trust, called to tell me that he had the flu and could not do the c-section. He said that we could try to wait until he was on again on Thursday, but that he recommended that I go ahead and have it with one of his partners, so that’s what we did. I had seen that doctor several times, so at least it wasn’t a stranger.
We arrived at the hospital, as directed, at 5am. The surgery was scheduled for 7:15. I was admitted and sent to the lab. Only, no one was in the lab because they were out rounding. We waited for about 30 minutes before my husband called up to the L&D floor and explained the situation and we were instructed to come on up. I was really glad to have my husband there, who works in the hospital as a pediatrician and, knew all the nurses in L&D and the nursery. We got to the room (the same one I had been in for the version) and I got changed and settled. I hated the nurse. She was high strung and frantic. She kept talking to another nurse the whole time about another patient and was driving me crazy. I could tell my husband felt the same way. When she left the room, his first words were “shift changes in 30 minutes.” I laughed and figured I could survive that long. They started an IV for fluids and hooked me up to the monitors again.
The shift did finally change and I got a fantastic nurse, much to my relief. She was calm and professional and just what I needed. Unfortunately, the surgery was delayed because another woman came in who was in labor and was having her second c-section. So, I pulled out my magazine and my iPod and settled in for a wait. It went rather quickly and the doctor came in. They did an ultrasound to check position one last time. Of course, she hadn’t moved at all. They gave me the beautiful surgical hat and walked me to the OR. My husband said that the time we were separated there was the hardest part of the day.
I got to the OR and onto the operating table. The anesthesiologist did the spinal, which was nothing. I kept reading about how bad that would be and I think getting my flu shot hurt more. I immediately layed down and they draped the curtain. The worst part was that I wasn’t quite numb when they inserted the catheter. Yikes! Luckily, I numbed up quickly and they brought in DH.
From there, everything went really quickly. Before I knew it, the OB was saying, “Got one foot,” pause. “Okay, here’s the other foot.” Pause. “Here come the girl parts.” And then she came out and I heard all the suctioning and pretty soon, she let out a cry. And so did I. The doctor held her up over the curtain, and I don’t care what anyone else says, she was beautiful straight out of the womb! Sophia was born at 9:35am. She was 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 22.5 inches long. Her cord had been wrapped around her shoulder, which was likely why she couldn’t turn head down.
They cleaned her up and DH went over to see her. The pediatrician attending the section said that our daughter looked like him and then yelled over to me, “don’t worry, she’s beautiful.” Everyone laughed. DH brought her over to me and they untied one arm so that I could touch her, which is what I wanted more than anything. I just stroked her head and the tears were falling. I couldn’t believe that she was here and healthy. A couple of pictures were snapped. You could tell that DH was smiling ear to ear, even though he was wearing a surgical mask.
I thought I’d want DH to stay with me for the rest of the surgery, but once I saw him with Sophia, I didn’t want him to leave her side. Everything was going fine, so I sent him with her. He was able to give her the first bath and be with her in her first moments. Once the baby was gone to the nursery, someone turned on some happy music and the whole tone changed. Everyone was happy and relaxed and chatting. I had a really bad pain in my left shoulder, which was more annoying than anything because I couldn’t move. I was trying to massage it with my free hand, but that didn’t work very well. I told the OB that my doctor had told me that he did the best incisions. The other nurses agreed that it was true, and later on, several nurses looked at my incision and said, “Ah, must’ve been Dr. X.” They finished up and wheeled me back to the L&D room. DH was already there. They brought in Sophia in a short time later.
I can’t even begin to describe holding her for the first time. I was just amazed. She was so calm and alert. We stared at each other, just trying to take it all in. I attempted to nurse, with some help, but didn’t have a lot of success. Both of our mothers made it to the hospital soon after and were able to see and hold the baby. We didn’t call them to come until after we felt like we had sufficient time alone with her.
Eventually, they wheeled me to my room on the post partum floor, which was huge! It was hard not being able to move and trying to hold and nurse and take care of the baby as much as I could. DH did almost everything, because I just couldn’t. But I held her and tried to nurse her as often as I could. Since I didn’t go into labor, I don’t think she was getting anything at first, so she just kept getting frustrated. It was the beginning of quite an ordeal and we didn’t nurse successfully until about a week after she was born. Luckily now, she’s doing great.
The first week was really hard. Walking, standing, sitting, and especially coughing and laughing hurt. I really couldn’t do much and I needed lots of help. I’m glad my DH was home with me. After that, it gradually got better. I never had huge amounts of bleeding, but I’m still spotting occasionally 5 weeks later. Otherwise, I feel pretty much back to normal. I get occasional twinges near the incision, especially if I’ve tried to do too much, but that’s about it.
Breastfeeding is hard work and was really rough at the beginning. Since my milk didn’t come in, we had to supplement. We didn’t want to give her a bottle, so we cup fed her formula for about 4 days and I pumped at every feeding. My milk did come in sometime on the second day, but Sophia still wouldn’t latch. So, we kept going through the routine of trying to get her to latch, her refusal, then cup feeding and pumping. It was exhausting. Finally, on the fourth day, in the afternoon, I was sitting with her and tried to get her to latch and she did. Yay! She got progressively better. I’ve had some other minor issues, but in general, she’s been feeding and growing really well.
Being a mom is hard work. I knew that going in, but like many things in life, you can’t really understand it until you experience it. I love that little girl with all my heart and I still marvel at her beautiful face and that we brought her into the world.
