My c section was scheduled for 9:30 am on Saturday the 22nd. The day before, one of the nurses from the hospital called to confirm and told me what to wear, bring, etc... and to be at checkin at 8am. Doesn't that seem crazy that you check in only an hour and half before your child being born!
We checked in, and they took me to triage where I put on a gown, my IV was put in and they monitored contractions and the heartbeat for a little while. I was actually having contractions every 5 min (laying down) so who knows... maybe I was going into labor on my own!?!
The clock seemed to go so slowly and 9:30 came and went. My Dr stopped by and said that there was a patient in labor and the baby started tracing (heartrate going too low during contractions) so she was taken in for a c section and we were bumped back about 45 min or so. We of course were anxious but I had no problems waiting a little longer since that was exactly what happened with Isaac and we need healthy babies!
At around 10-10:15 they came to get me. I got out of bed, put my flipflops on and walked into the OR. Very surreal walking in and climbing up onto the operating table.
The anesthesiologist was there and started prepping me for the spinal block. With Isaac I had a regular epidural, but this time they gave me a spinal (injection directly into the spinal fluid). It's faster and pretty much certain to work whereas epidurals can take longer to start working and may not bee 100% effective.
I must say, the spinal block was more painful than the epidural from what I recall. However, as soon as they injected the anesthetic I immediately felt my lower body going numb. No delay whatsoever. At that point, they laid me down and started prepping.
They put in my catheter, washed down my belly, covered all but the incision with paper covering and hung the drape in front of me so I couldn't see anything. At this point I stared getting really nauseaus. I told the anesthesiologist that I threw up when I had Isaac so they were prepared. They injected something into my IV and tilted the bed so my head was below my feet. Immediately I started feeling better and after a minute they tilted the bed back and I was good to go.
At this point, Bryce was finally allowed in. My Dr said, "Alright, let's get started!". I remember with Isaac feeling the first incision. It wasn't painful of course, but it felt like someone was drawing a line on your abdomen. This time I couldn't tell if anything was touching me.
Once they got in, they mentioned that any c-section after the first is more difficult because there is more scar tissue to get through. Yay... More on that later.
I felt lots of tugging and pulling and pushing. It seemed like an eternity (Isaac felt like 30 seconds). Then the Dr announced, the head was coming out and it was a "good size". (Again thankful for a c section!) Bryce looked over and saw the face at this time. Then my Dr said there would be a lot of pressure as they pushed the baby out the incisions. I had asked the surgery team to not announce the gender (Bryce wanted to do it).
The Dr then said "Ok Dad, take a look!". Bryce looked and said something like "OMG, it's a girl!". I looked at him and said "REALLY?? Are you sure???". Haha! I was absolutely certain it was a boy so nearly passed out when he said girl.
Once of the nurses brought her around so I could see before the whisked her off to be cleaned, measured, etc... Sure enough, it was a GIRL! She screamed and screamed which was tied with the best sound I've ever heard (when Isaac screamed at birth).
In the other room they measured her and shouted back to me 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 3/4 inches long. I also thought she was going to be 10 lbs since we went 10 days further in gestation so I was surprised that she was 3 oz smaller than Isaac (but also 1" longer).
Several months earlier I had talked with my Dr about doing a tubal ligation (tubes tied) and signed all the documents to have it done. She gave me one last chance to say not but I said to proceed. We have a healthy boy and healthy girl and that will be it. No more babies for the Jakub's.
When Isaac was born his blood sugar was so low that he had to be taken to the NICU immediately where he spent the next 3 days. I asked the Dr this time about the likelyhood of NICU time and she said 85-90% of all babies born to Type 1 Diabetic mothers go to the NICU for low blood sugar. Once I heard this, I made it my personal mission to keep my diabetes as perfect as possible. It paid off, because Hayden's blood sugar was PERFECT and remained perfect for the critical 24 hrs after birth which meant NO NICU TIME!!! So many prayers were answered by this!
They finished stitching me up, took me to the recovery room where we stayed for about 2-3 hours until taking us back to our room.
More on recovery in a later post...
Morning of delivery
In triage waiting for my c-section
Hayden Kay is here! 8 lbs, 7oz.
Happy family!
In recovery room.
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