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I would like to introduce you to...
Solon Alexander S.
Born on Friday, February 25th at 37 weeks at 4:15 p.m. via an unplanned c-section. Weighing in at 5lbs 15oz and 17 inches long with a full head of thick black hair and an apgar score of 9.9 despite his perfect cannon ball (breech) presenation in the world.
Despite Solon being his official first name we will be calling him Alex even though Alexander Solon S was starting to look more and more appropriate considering he refused to flip around and got his butt stuck in my pelvis, I still think there's a special place for people who would knowingly give their baby the initials of A.S.S.
Here's a recap of how it all went down *warning this ended up being a lot longer than originally intended*:
Friday, 8:00 a.m. appointment with Dr. to perform a version to flip baby Alex from breech presentation to the correct head down presentation. After an hour of monitoring Alex's heart rate and any contractions I might be having two things happen: 1) It's discovered that I'm having very regular contractions. They start an IV to give me some fluids to try to stop them as the believe I'm probably slightly dehydrated. 2) Baby Alex thought it'd be a good time to step on or lean on his umbilical cord making his heart rate drop from 135 to 60 bpm causing multiple nurses and the Dr. to rush in have me try a few different positions while moving the heart monitor around to try to get it to go back up, which it did within about a minute or two.
Because of #2 Dr. wanted me to be on the monitor for another hour to make sure baby boy was stable before attempting the version. She also checked me and found that I was 70% effaced but my cervix was still closed. After the hour of monitoring my contractions were getting closer together and more intense (although to me they just felt like a burning/itching sensation across my stomach which I had been having all day Thursday on and off but just thought it was from his head being in my ribs). I was checked again and I was now 100% effaced and a little over 1cm dilated which meant these contractions were real.
Dr. decides to go forward with the version in hopes that it would work and my contractions would slow down and baby boy could cook for another couple of weeks. The version was not painful, at all. Granted it was unsuccessful because the Dr. could not get baby's butt out of my pelvis. She was pushing with quite a lot of pressure and I could feel that baby was not budging an inch. The contractions were pulling his butt down and his butt was engaging my cervis the same way his head would have. The Dr. looked at Joel and I said "It looks like you might have baby today," I'll never forgot the look on Joel's face 
We requested to wait another hour to see if the contractions would slow and give us a shot at attempting another version next week, she agreed but had called down to the OR to have them ready for us because most likley they weren't going to stop, which they didn't. So they drew blood and formally admitted me. At 3:30 p.m. they wheeled me down to the OR, Joel got all scrubbed up while they prepped me. I had been strangly clam through the whole day and only got nervous as I was wheeled into the OR and they were explaining to me how everything was going to go down. I told them I had never had surgery before and that the epidural made me the most nervous so they took their time explaining everything to me in detail which helped a TON.
I will also say that the Bradley birth classes helped a lot because I was able to use some of the relaxation techniques to keep myself still during the version and during the epidural. The epidural itself was not even close to what I had worked it up to be. It was just a little pinch and then pressure, just like they said it would be. It was really weird not being able to move anything and I didn't like that it felt hard to breath towards the middle because I'm so small it numbed me from the top of my boobs down, but I could still move my arms.
After they had me all hooked up, Joel was allowed in the OR and sat on a stool next to my head on my right side. He was allowed to look over the curtain it he wanted, but I was not (I asked if they could video tape it so I could watch it later on, but for legal reasons they're not allowed to. Bummer. I think it would be awesome to see! I've also always been obsessed with all surgery shows on Discovery Health). The c-section itself only took 15 minutes! I was shocked because it felt like they had just started and then they said "Okay, here comes baby!" Joel stood up to watch as they pulled him out and was able to snap a picture (they actually let him take the camera in the OR, which I was surprised at but very happy about!) I'll post those pictures on facebook later as they're on my good camera and I haven't loaded them onto my computer yet. After they cleaned him up a little bit, Joel was able to bring him over to me to and put him by my head, they unhooked my arms so I could touch him and say hello for the first time face to face. I can't explain that feeling but it was amazing. We decided on Solon Alexander as soon as we saw his little face.
Joel went with Alex while they began sewing me up. I was away from Alex and Joel for an hour total with closing and recovery time. During that time Joel was kept trying to get the nurses to let him bring Alex down to me because he felt so bad that I wasn't getting to spend the time with him right away. Meanwhile in recovery I was feeling very nauseous from the epi after they rolled me from side to side to clean me up a bit and ended up threw up a little (SO glad I was still numb!) I refused the anit-nausea meds because the feel subsided pretty quickly. Then I got to go up to our room and hang out with baby boy
We were discharged from the hospital Tuesday afternoon and have been home enjoying the comforts that has to offer and things are going well over all.
Did this happen the way he had planned or hoped it would? No. But this is exactly how it was supposed to happen and our strong willed little man had a plan all of his own. Despite being a bit early, he is completely healthy and hasn't faced any kinds of complications. Our only struggle has been getting him to nurse well, because of this he lost 10oz, but we're working on that and have a follow up appointment tomorrow to check on his weight. The hope is he has at least maintained the lower weight and not lost anymore but ideally he has gained a little back.
Thanks for all the support, thoughts and praryers I know a lot of you left comments on my facebook page (which I'm still going through reading!) I may be MIA for a bit after posting this because his next feeding is around 10ish (he's napping his daddy right now 
) but I'll definitely check back as soon as I can.
Re: I would like to introduce you to...
Congrats! How exciting!
Newborns in hats...can't beat that kind of cute.
Zuma Zoom
Oh, Christina - I am so happy for you and Joel!!! I've been seeing the pictures are you put them up on facebook! Congratulations again! He's perfect.
Welcome to motherhood!
I might have missed it, but where does Solon come from? It's so unique -- is it a family name?
updated 10.03.12
It is so good to hear that everything went well and he is absolutely perfect. Congratulations again Christina.
Thank you
Yes Solon, pronounced Soul-in, is a family name from Joel's dad's side of the family. Alex is the 7th generation to have it in his name. It's Joel's middle name and his dad's middle name but it was Joel's grandfathers first name and we found out later on the night that Alex was born that he was actually born on Joel's grandfather's birthday (his grandfather passed away a long time ago, Joel never even met him, so we didn't know his birthday). Pretty crazy coincidence though!
He is too stinkin' cute!!! Congrats to you and Joel
this made me LOL: I still think there's a special place for people who would knowingly give their baby the initials of A.S.S.
What does the name Solon mean? I have never heard it before, it's so unique!
It's actually Greek and means "Wisdom" and apparently it dates back to 638 BC to a famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet.
Stand up for something you believe in.
Congrats to both my TTC buddies, Amberley18 and sb2006 on their beautiful babies!
He's amazing! I adore his little nose :-)
So glad that things turned out okay, even though they didn't go as planned. I guess Alex was just preparing you for a life with children! Congrats to you and Joel.
Aaaadorable! Congrats!
And he *almost* has the most awesome birthday ever. Almost.
The napping with daddy picture is just too adorable.
And Alex looks like you, Christina! I thought that as soon as I saw his pictures. Very cute. Congratulations!
Dx: Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism After 2 years TTC & failed IUs,we have our IVF baby born 9/24/11
LO#2 aka 'Miracle Baby' Orig. EDD= 9/28 EDD moved to 10/3/13
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." -- Dale Carnegie
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." --Thomas A. Edison
:Blog:
Thanks. The way I see it, if we didn't have the version scheduled I would have been laboring all day, as I already had been on Thursday I just didn't know what I was feeling was contractions. This means depending on how bad the contractions got I may have worked through the day again and gone home. This was the night of the terrible snow storm here in central NY, so we would have had a terrible drive back to the hospital and it would have ended in an emergency c-section since he was still breach.
Instead, we had a more laid back (if that's possible to imagine) experience even if it was pretty unexpected. I was less surprised than Joel and I had made him put all our hospital stuff in the car that morning (hospital bag, lap top, camera, baby's diaperbag, etc) "just in case." We also had spent all last week getting everything almost completely ready "just in case." I'm just glad I got have to the "pretty c-section" instead of the emergency one
haha. This means the incision is really really low and horizontal instead of vertical and down the center of my belly. I also was considered to be a little crazy because I refused the morphine drip post-op and only wanted the motrin which was necessary to reduce swelling and also for pain management. I took one tylenol with codine on Saturday night which was after the epi had offically completely worn off and I really needed to get some sleep, but it made me really foggy, which was okay at that moment since I wanted to sleep, but it reaffirmed why I didn't want to take it during the day when I needed to be coherent to care for Alex. Now I'm just annoyed that I have to 'take it easy' because there's so much that needs to get done around the house and I feel bad that Joel is having to do it as he's been getting up when Alex and I get up for feedings and helping with everything, which is amazing. I'm also getting a litle nervous already for when he goes back to work on Monday and I'm left to do it on my own because he's been such a huge help.
haha I know! He was SO close
He was super determined to come on the 25th though apparently. I shouldn't be surprised given how stubborn and strong willed both Joel and I are, it's only fitting that Alex would be as well.
Thanks! It's funny because depending on the angle or the face he's making he either looks exactly like Joel or like me. He ended up being a really good blend
We've decided he has Joel's top lip and my bottom lip. The profile of his nose looks like Joel's but from the front it looks like mine and he definitely got my dark hair. The rest we'll have to see in another couple of weeks as his features become more defined!
I cried, a lot when I saw him for the first time as they were walking him over to the table. I meant to add in my response to Mary's comment that if it had been an emergency c-section they would have had to knock me completely out, so I would have totally missed all of that. So that was another plus about the way it worked out because I just had an epi and awake for the whole surgery and was completely alert and with it for meeting him for the first time. I also couldn't see when they held him up right after pulling him out but when Joel looked down at me and said "He's out! Oh my God, he's out!!!!!" with the biggest smile on his face and then I heard Alex cry out for the first time and I just started crying. It was so amazing, even though I didn't have the "complete rush of horomones" that comes with natural delievery, I don't feel like I missed out on that feeling or felt it less than I might have. I don't think it's possible to not get that feeling of complete amazement, no matter what way your baby decides to come into the world.
ETA: Can you tell Alex is napping right now? lol. Thus the time to give long replies to everyone
Stand up for something you believe in.
Exactly! I pretty much feel normal, I just have to "bare down" to laugh, cough of heaven forbid sneeze. I am SO very much dreading my first sneeze.
I will definitely turn to you ladies if I need anything. I don't have any family or friends who have had a c-section, so it will be helpful know I have some support here.