I was scheduled for a repeat c section on Oct 13th
but I didn’t make it to that day. I’ve
never gone into labor before but Hannah decided to spice things up this go
around. On Thursday the 8th I
was sitting in the Dr.'s office feeling pretty blah. I really have no other way to explain it
other than I just did NOT feel good. I
had 3 contractions close together in the exam room and mentioned it to Dr.
Watabe. He said it sounds like I could
be starting labor and to let him know if they got closer together or
worse. He said he was on call that
weekend so if in the 30% chance that I go into labor he would be there.
So Friday, October 9th around 10 am I started getting lots of
contractions (which by the way that morning I took Tyson to the Dr and he was
tested positive for strep throat) and I pulled up the notes section on my phone
and started documenting them. I was
really only having about 4 an hour but they did get progressively more painful. I kept Brian up to date during the day but didn’t want to go
to the hospital without him. He came home around 4pm and found me doing things
like packing the hospital bag and washing newborn clothes, blankets and burp
cloths. I still hadn’t decided what to
do but I felt so anxious. Brian took
Jeffrey and Andrew to a ward chili cook off and me and Ty stayed home. The whole time I kept thinking that surely
the Dr wouldn’t want me to have my water break or something. I only have c sections and that seems like it
would turn more into an emergency and I didn’t want that. On top of that, why would I want to suffer through the pain of
contractions for 3 more days and end up still with the pain and recovery of the
c section? The contractions felt more
painful through the evening and I called my mom and texted a bunch of friends
and Emily. I finally decided around 7:30pm that I should just go to the hospital to get checked out. My parents came over and I got a blessing
(which I don’t remember anything from because I was so focused on getting to
the hospital) from Brian and my dad and then off we went. I remember holding Brian's hand in the car, extremely nervous and still documenting the times of the contractions on my phone.
We got checked in and I was monitored for about 2 hours. They checked me twice (despite begging for them not to) and that only made the contractions worse. According to the monitor I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes. I just couldn’t feel all of them and was only feeling the worse ones. Dr. Watabe evaluated the situation and I was told I was going to have the baby that night! I instantly started to panic. All the pain I felt DURING the last c section came to my mind and I started crying. I talked with the anesthesiologist about the history and I think he believed me but maybe not to understanding the extent to which I was explaining, but he promised to have everything ready in case I needed more numbing. The nurse that was prepping me for the c-section was the sweetest nurse. She held my hand while I cried and told me everything was going to be okay.
I remember it taking forever to get the spinal in and finally Dr. Watabe came over to help me relax and lean over the pillow. Then they laid me down and I started feeling sick and I threw up. Brian came in and I remember him dropping my phone on the floor while he was walking in. I felt the usual tugging and pulling of the c-section and a few minutes later they were saying, “She is here!” Hannah was born at 11:38pm and weighed 6 lbs 11 oz. It took a long time for her to cry and it made me very nervous. I heard some grunting and I asked if everything was alright. They came over with her wrapped up and placed her right next to my face. I was so excited to finally have Hannah here after 10 years of knowing she was coming to our family. She kissed my nose. It was one of the sweetest moments. Then they took her away to put her on the CPAP machine (just like all my boys so that didn’t scare me). I started to feel pain while they were stitching me up (twice actually) and told the anesthesiologist both times, immediately. He seemed a little bit surprised and asked where I felt the pain. I said on my left side and he goes, “Okay, that makes sense. That’s where they are working on you.” Needless to say, it wasn’t a completely painless surgery but we stayed on top of it as best as we could and it was better than Jeffrey's delivery. Even in the recovery room I needed more pain medication and the nurses had to keep checking with the anesthesiologist on how much more I could have. My mother came even though it was like 2 am because she had to see Hannah. I was wheeled into my room and an hour later after Hannah was on the C-PAP for 2 hours I got to hold her for the first time at 3 am. I held her for a bit and talked with my mom but I was too tired to nurse her and she was alseep anyway. My mom left around 4 am and Brian slept on the couch because he was too tired to drive home.
(insert birth weight photo)
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