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Abe's Birth Story - Extremely Long
I posted this to his blog and thought some of you might enjoy reading it. Better late than never...right?
I always planned to attempt a natural child birth. No drugs. Best for me and best for baby. I read and did research and asked all my friends about it. I felt I was ready to tackle it. Seth and I had been to birthing classes and were looking forward to laboring together. We practiced deep breathing and had a solid plan to make it through. The due date of Halloween came and went. I went on November 1st for a non stress test and an ultrasound. That meant I got to see Abe and I was so excited. The midwife requested that I come in on the 3rd to talk about a possible induction. NOT what I wanted to do but if I had to be induced that was OK. Seth and I went to the midwife?s office and I could tell just by the look on her face that she did not have good news for me. She told me we had a ten pound baby on our hands. I cried immediately because I knew what that meant, a c-section. One of my worst fears of pregnancy was that I would have to have a c-section. I had never been in the hospital, never had surgery, never even had an IV. I was terrified. The midwife brought in a doctor that would do the operation. Thank goodness the doctor was a woman, that calmed me down a lot. She talked about the risks of birthing a 10 pound baby naturally. She told me that there was a possibility that his shoulder could get stuck and he could be paralyzed. That made my decision very easy. No way was I going to put my baby at risk of anything. Seth and I drove around for an hour or so to talk about what to do. I was still crying a lot and called my father and my sister who helped a lot, especially my father who told me that even if I had to have a c-section, I could do everything else naturally. I could breast feed and do cloth diapers. Seth kept reminding me the goal was to have a healthy baby and a healthy momma. We scheduled the c-section for the next day.
The night before the operation Seth contacted his high school friend Karen, who I also danced with. She is a nurse on the maternity floor and she said she was working the next day and would request to take care of us. I am so thankful for this and for her. It was really nice to see a familiar face pre and post op.
We arrived at Maine General at 7:00am on Thursday November 4th. I was so nervous but excited to meet Abe. Karen was right there when we arrived and that was really calming. I decided that the only way to get through this was to take it one step at a time. I was nervous about so many aspects of surgery so I dealt with each one individually. The first was getting the IV. That wasn?t bad at all!! Just a little needle prick and it was done. We waited around and watched the Today Show. Finally it was my turn to go down to the OR. We were in a waiting area and lots of doctors and nurses came by to talk to us. They told us that I would go in and have the spinal and then Seth would be able to come in. I was really nervous about having anesthesia. Finally it was our turn. I was wheeled down the hallway by two nurses. Everything was happening really quickly at this point. Once we were in the OR I remember thinking that it looked exactly like it does on TV. Very bright. Very sterile. I was rolled onto the operating table and sat up, hunched over, ready for the spinal. There was a nurse holding my knees and talking to me, trying to keep me calm. The anesthesiologist was fabulous. He told me every step he was doing. I could hear him but couldn?t really understand what he was doing because I was concentrating on breathing and trying to block out the pain. The nurse laughed and told me that I was using my lamaze techniques...I guess those classes did pay off. The nurse told me that when he was finished they were going to very quickly flip me around so I was lying down. She was right, they did it really quick! I remember thinking?hmmm my feet feel really funny. Well duh, they were going numb from the spinal! It was just about time to start cutting me open! When they started inserting the catheter I started feeling nauseous. I couldn?t feel it but I knew what they were doing and didn?t like it. I started dry heaving and the nurse above my head immediately put a pan under my chin and put something in my IV. The nausea was gone in about a minute. I could feel tugging and pulling as they cut me open and was worried because Seth wasn?t there yet. I needed him really bad to keep me calm. I kept asking for him and finally the nurse stood up and yelled, ?where is her husband??!!? Then he appeared and was able to sit right next to me so I could see him and he could hold my hand. Then the nurse above my head told Seth to stand up really quick because they baby was about to come out. I don?t remember hearing him cry for the first time but I do remember everyone laughing because he came out peeing and peed all over me. Then they lowered the curtain so I could see him, I could only see his little face. A minute later they brought him around so I could see all of him. After they cleaned him up and had him in a blanket, Seth brought him to my face so I could get a good look. He was gorgeous. Just perfection. Then they rushed him up to the maternity floor to be cleaned up some more, do the Apgar score (I believe it was a 9.6) and have skin to skin contact with Seth since he couldn?t have that with me. The next 10-15 minutes sucked. I had to sit there without Seth or my baby while they put me back together. I even heard the doctor say something about ovaries and I knew she was holding my ovaries in her hands, that really weirded me out! Finally I was back together and I was able to go to recovery. That sucked too. I had to lay there until I could feel my legs. Luckily Seth and the baby came down with the lactation consultant so I could nurse.
A few minutes later they all went back to the maternity ward and left me there to recover. At one point I had to be rolled on to my side and two nurses were cleaning me up. I told them that this part was NOT cover in the pregnancy books. They laughed. Any sense of modesty is completely lost when you have a baby. Finally I was able to return to the maternity floor and be with my baby. Karen came down to get me. I had realize about a half hour before that no one had told my father that the baby was born! I was really freaking out and worried about this. I mentioned it to Karen and she smiled and said that he was in my room holding Abe as we spoke. That made me so incredibly happy. When they wheeled me into the room the first thing I saw was my father holding my baby. It still makes me cry to think of that sight.
To be honest, the rest of my stay is a complete blur. I don't remember ANYTHING from that first day other than being high on morphine. I remember thinking, "I knew I would love my baby, but I never imagined I would love him like this." Around day two I developed a fever and was told I couldn't go home if I still had a fever. Luckily by day 3 the fever came down and we went home on Seth's 31st birthday. On the way home I told Seth I could be the mother to a newborn forever. I love being Abe's mom.
Re: Abe's Birth Story - Extremely Long
After getting to the part about you being wheeled into your room and seeing your father holding Abe, I am a complete blubbering mess (thank God for partition walls!), thank you so much for sharing your sweet story!
Thanks also for your honesty regarding being cleaned up post-op- they definitely don't cover that in the books!
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. -Henry Miller
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