birth story continued!

All right, I'm back to continue my birth story!

So when I left off I had asked for nu.bain to help with the contractions and, like I said, it basically didn't give pain relief but just made me care less about the pain I was in. What I really think would have helped with all the contractions is a heating pad. I brought my own from home, but upon arrival was told I couldn't use it because it had not been approved by the hospital. BOOO!! They did get me one of their "heating pads" but it didn't work very well and did not get as warm as I needed it to be. My mom and MBL were great help during the contractions, MBL would come rub my arm or hold my hand and my mom would put counter pressure on my hip. It was awesome to have their help! I actually ended up feeling the most relief when MBL came and got into the hospital bed with me and just snuggled me. Something about having his presence so close helped me relax and made the contractions more bearable.

FINALLY, it was 3:00!! The anesthesiologist came and talked to me about the spinal and how things would go once we were in the operating room. My main concern was that I would throw up while on the table. He told me that most people do and that it wasn't a big deal...not exactly what I wanted to hear. I told him I wanted an anti nausea med with my spinal and he said he would give me one if I needed it. He then gave me a salty tasting drink that he said would make my stomach less acidic in case I did throw up. They then brought in the wheelchair for me and loaded me up. Once we got into the operating room, I started shaking (I was told it was from nerves and all my hormones). I kept praying that I would have a contraction before they started the spinal so I wouldn't flinch when there was a needle in my spine and, thankfully, I had one right before he started. The spinal itself was not bad, I jerked a bit when he went in with it, but I think it's because he hit a nerve that made my foot move. They reminded me to stay perfectly still. Once the spinal was in I could feel the medicine rushing into my spine and as soon as he was done, they made me lay down immediately and started getting me prepped for the section. The anesthesiologist was upset because my OB wasn't there yet and apparently once they do the spinal they like to have the doc in immediately. I later found out from my husband that she had gone to OB triage thinking we were there and that's why she was late. He said he knew it was her running because of the click clack of her heels. My OB has fantastic style :). The rest was kind of a blur, MBL came in and sat by my head and held my hand. They tested my belly to make sure I was numb and then started cutting. They were very chatty through the whole thing, like it was no big deal. It actually made me feel better to hear them bantering. In what seemed like mere seconds, I heard a cry and my OB was yelling, "Lower the curtain, lower the curtain!!". She then held out my daughter for me to see and then went and plopped her on the warmer.

I was in shock that a real baby just came out of me. To be honest, whenever I heard women talking about wanting "to be present" during their births, I was confused. How could you not be present? Now I totally get it. Having a csection was a completely bizarre experience...and it felt so surreal to have a baby just pulled out of me. Oh, and I should mention that when the pulled her out, the OB said, "A double cord!" As it turns out, Piper had the cord wrapped around her neck TWICE. And that is why they don't let first time moms deliver breech babies, because there is no way to tell if the cord is around the neck until the baby is in distress. Anyways, MBL left my side and went over to the warmer where he asked the nurse if he could touch Piper and she was like, "Of course, she's your baby!" The csection team was awesome! They thought MBL was so cute in his shorts and scrubs that they were taking pictures of him. They made the whole experience so wonderful. After I was sewn back up, they wheeled me to recovery with Piper and MBL. They gave me water and tried to get Piper to breastfeed. This part of the section was a total mess...Piper wouldn't latch and was screaming and I started throwing up. I am impressed that the hospital did such a great job of trying to get BFing started right away, but it just didn't work out for me.

After an hour in recovery, they wheeled me to my post partum room where my mom was waiting to meet her new granddaughter. The first night in the hospital was not the greatest as I was hooked up to all sorts of machines and the one taking my pulse kept alarming because I kept dropping below 50bpm (I have a low resting pulse when I'm not pregnant) and they refused to shut it off until 4am. I ended up being quite exhausted on Thursday, but I was blessed to have loads of visitors who wanted to meet Piper. Those first few days with her in the hospital were just magical, with visitors stopping by to see our new little one and having time to bond with MBL and our new addition. All in all, even though my birth story is not what I was imagining it would be, I feel so blessed to have a beautiful daughter who got here safely.

Oh, and one interesting point is that my hospital doesn't do VBACs due to the risk of uterine rupture. So it looks like if/when we're blessed with another little one, I will be having another csection. Pretty crazy!

Here is another picture, of MBL snuggling with Piper: