Birth Story

On Saturday I had a few contractions throughout the day but they were so far apart that I didn’t think anything of them.  On Sunday, they increased in frequency and intensity but still weren’t regular enough to go to the hospital or anything.  I also started losing my mucous plug on Sunday so I had hope that things were progressing.  Sunday night, we got all our stuff packed up and ready to go since we had to leave our house at 5 am on Monday morning to get to the hospital by 5:30, which was when we had our scheduled c-section appointment.  I was nervous and stressing about everything, so I didn’t fall asleep until about midnight that night.  I woke up again at 12:45 because my contractions had started getting really painful and I couldn’t sleep though them.  Plus, once they started, I couldn’t stop thinking about if I was still going to go in and have the c-section or if I’d be able to have my VBAC now that my body was sort starting to do something resembling labor!   So I got a total of 45 minutes of sleep the night before I had the baby and that was kind of miserable! 

I asked the nurse to check my cervix as soon as I got checked in.  I was sure those contractions would’ve been at least somewhat productive.  Nope.  I was still completely closed.  At least that made my decision easy.  My body was not going to have this baby on its own, the only way out for baby girl was c-section.  

Dr. Seale came in for a few minutes before heading into the OR but I was in the bathroom, so I didn’t get a chance to ask him the millions of things I wanted to.   Next, our nurse took us to the OR where I met the anesthesiologist and we got started.

This surgery was super different from my first c-section.  My dr with Barrett was really gentle and I didn’t feel like I was being ripped to pieces.  He showed Barrett to me as soon as he pulled him out and showed me the placenta too (I asked).  The room was smaller and quieter and I felt a little more included I guess. Dr Seale was very rough.  I got so sick from him pulling and jerking me around that I couldn’t even hold the baby until I had gotten back to recovery and had a few different medications for nausea.  When they pulled her out, I could hear her crying, so that was good. The other doctor (my doctor had a helper with him, I don’t remember his name) brought her to show her to me for about 1 second before taking her over to get her assessed.  Neil went with the baby, they were still in the same room as I was, so I could hear them, but it felt like they were gone forever.  Finally, Neil came back and tried to hold the baby so I could see her but it was practically impossible because of the way I was laying and the fact that I was still being jerked around a lot. I was too sick to even enjoy the moment L

Finally, we got taken into the recovery room, I was pumped full of anti-nausea medication and then I could hold my own sweet baby.  I felt totally left out and like I missed out on a lot during the time in the OR, but what can you do?  I made up for lost time in the end.