i wanted to document this while it was still somewhat fresh in my mind, because with logan, so many little details escaped me as i was in that newborn fog. if you followed along with my weekly #bumpdates, you know that this was about as routine as pregnancies get. not a high blood pressure reading, everything within range. i had had some contractions around 37 weeks, but nothing to get alarmed about and definitely nothing to send me to the doctor. other than being a little uncomfortable [ok, a lot to me, but i’m kind of a whiner ;)], the end of my pregnancy went as smoothly as one could possibly imagine.
we had a c-section scheduled for friday, may 10th, and made it to that morning excited and nervous to meet the newest member of our family. at the time, the surgery/delivery didn’t scare me at all [notice how i say “at the time”]; i was more anticipating meeting this new tiny human, that, while i already loved, was essentially a stranger coming into our family.
the delivery
we showed up at the hospital at 5am to get settled into our room and start our prep for the c-section. since my last one was an emergency c-section, i didn’t have this long, drawn out prep process, so that shocked me a little. we sat around while they monitored his heartbeat and joked around with the nurses. finally around 7:30am it was time to head down to the OR! they got me in there and joe stayed back while they did my spinal and would then be brought in. again, our nurses, anesthesiologist, – everyone – was so nice! we chatted about summer in minnesota and all kinds of mundane things until my spinal block was in and BOOM. my blood pressure dropped and i felt SO sick. like a kind of sick where i sat there and seriously contemplated asking them to just let me go, i’d try to have this kid naturally [cue cry laughing emoji here]. they got my blood pressure back up and joey came in the room to be with me. the next part is a little bit of a blur, but i remember just dreading how long it was going to take.
after what felt like forever, i could hear my doc say “he kicked me!” and i was thinking “oh great, they haven’t even started. he just kicked her through my belly. c’mon doc let’s go.” i kind of zoned out and just focused on my breathing for the next few minutes until i felt the familiar tug that all of a sudden allowed my lungs to fill up with significantly more oxygen than before – he was out! i was kind of loopy, but i remember thinking “it’s weird he hasn’t cried yet, but nobody in here is freaking out, so i’m not going to freak out”. then my cute little baby came peeking around the corner of the curtain 🙂 i remember just feeling this sense of calm, like “hi bud, welcome to the family! you belong here.” they then whisked him over to the warmer to be cleaned off before we did skin to skin. i heard one of the nurses yell “8:01!” and i immediately thought they weighed him. now, logan was 9lbs 9oz, and big babies run in my family, so it’s kind of the running joke that i expect myself to birth big babies. i spent the next few minutes rationalizing what an 8lb baby meant, and that “it’s still big kels! you are delivering him a little earlier.” i had totally heard the TIME of the birth as his WEIGHT. it wasn’t until they laid him on me and all the nurses started commenting on how big he looked “i bet he’s at least nine if not more!” “his head is so big too!” that i looked at joey, confused, and asked if they hadn’t weighed him? he assured me they hadn’t, so my hopes for another 9 pounder were still alive 😉
i will say, when they laid him on my chest, i thought he felt TINY compared to logan [all the people who have held both babies say the same thing, too]. i was just happy to have him there. he immediately chilled out and just laid on me, both of us happy to have the other. i was so thankful to have this experience while they were closing me up. he even was able to latch in the OR, something i’m VERY thankful for, since breastfeeding is a priority for me [as long as it works for us] and i wanted to set ups up for success from the get-go.
they finished closing me up, got cole ready to go up, and whisked us up to our postpartum room. everyone – nurses, docs, random people i saw in the hallways, were smiling as we went by. i remember being so much more alert and awake this time, and really just soaking in the magnitude of what had just happened. i had a baby boy in my arms, his sis safe with family, and was headed to enjoy some bonding time while we were cared for for the next few days. life was good – painful, but good!
the immediate recovery
recovery was relatively uneventful for us, with the exception of a little scare we had that first morning. because c-section babies aren’t ‘squeezed’ in the birth canal, they can get a lot of fluid in their airways/lungs. mid-way through the morning as cole was nursing [he took to that RIGHT away like his sister], i noticed his nostrils flaring and he just had a hard time getting air/milk in and out. i mentioned it to the nurse and she [calmly, bless her] whisked him off ‘just to check him out!’ turns out we made the right call because he had a chunk of stuff the size of a dime stuck in his airway and couldn’t breathe really well. we all were able to breathe a sigh of relief after that [no pun intended!]
plot twist
the nurse that had been with us through delivery and after was AMAZING, and would be available for anything we needed. i asked her once we were all back up in the room “ok, so i realize that i only experienced one side of that, but is there anything i need to know about him or me during the surgery? any surprises?” and she let us know that 1. he was breech [surprise! remember when my doc said “he kicked me!”? he literally kicked her as she went in to get him out]. we never really worried since it was a c-section, but my doc had thought he was head down the whole time. 2. the cord was wrapped around him twice, and he kept getting stuck getting out. my chill little perfect pregnancy baby really had a little twist to his birth story, that’s for sure! lets give a hand for all of the docs and nurses that remained calm during that, because had i not asked, i would have known none of this. seriously, l&d nurses are angels on this earth.
there’s so much more i could say, and i want to do a separate post[s]/have posted about healing from a planned c-section [much, MUCH easier than doing it after two days of labor], differences in having a second baby [those post-partum cramps – OUCH!] and nursing for a second time [that drop in oxytocin during letdown is a little scary, mental health-wise]. if that interests you, check out my fourth trimester series.
thanks for all the sweet comments, well wishes, dm’s, messages, and overall sharing in this experience with us. we loving journey as a fam of 4. as always, thanks for reading!