So, I thought I'd post my version of Monday evenings events here--both for my own journaling and for those who are curious.
We arrived at the hospital at about 5:20 p.m. I was concerned that I wouldn't be on "The List" since no one from the hospital had called by the time we left the house. I worried, (as I usually do), in vain. They knew we were coming and we were called back about 10 minutes later. We were taken into a room with 4 curtained areas. I think it's a place they usually used for pre-term labor monitoring, but since the unit was incredibly busy that night, that's where we started out. After changing into my gown, my nurse started poking me for an I.V. She usually gets it in on the first try. It took 3 tries this time around. I was grateful that she was able to take the 5 vials of blood needed through the I.V. port instead of a separate poke each time. By this time, we were approaching 7 p.m.--and my scheduled time was 7:30 p.m. I didn't have much time to dwell on this, though, as they announced that we were ahead of schedule and would be heading down to the O.R. within a few minutes.
As we walked through the hall, my mind was racing. It's been a while since my last c-sec and I remember all of the issues from the past 2. It was more than enough time to work up some nervousness. As soon as we got in the room, the anesthesiologist administered my spinal. After the initial "pinch" of the topical anesthetic, I had to ask if it was done. Yep--all done even before I knew it had started. I layed down on the table and focused on relaxing as much as possible while they prepped me for surgery. With my previous c-sec's, I felt like the spinal numbed me up to my collar bone. It made it hard to breathe and I think contributed to my nausea. But this time around, it didn't spread higher than about the bottom of my ribcage. I was numb higher than that, just not dead-numb. I could feel a lot more of the pushing/pulling, but absolutely no pain--AND, I never felt short of breath. That, alone, was a miracle to me.
Within a few minutes, they pulled Clayton out. He came out just as I predicted: kicking, screaming, and peeing. My Dr. commented that with the amount of fluid Clayton had off-loaded, he had probably lost a few ounces. After determining his APGAR scores, (9 & 9), suctioning a bit, and wiping him off, they wrapped him up and handed him to Ryan. As I looked at that tiny little face, I could definitely see familiar features. He looked like Whitney, but had definite Kallie features as well. It's fun to see that our children have a look that connects them all.
About this time, my nausea kicked in. I was amazed that it held off for that long in the first place! As soon as I mentioned the impending off-loading, the anesthesiologist added Zofran to my IV and slapped a motion sickness patch behind my ear. I did throw up a couple of times before the meds kicked in, but miraculously, that was it. I was seriously amazed by this--because with my 2 previous c-sections, it has taken several hours for the nausea to abate.
When I was all closed up, they took me into a recovery room and Ryan went with Clayton to the NICU. Clayton was doing REALLY well, but since he was born prior to the 37 week mark, he had a mandatory 6-hour stay in the NICU for monitoring. After my 2-hour post-op monitoring, I was wheeled on my stretcher into the NICU to see and hold my baby. The pic in the post below is the first time I held him. Let me tell you--it was about 10 p.m., I had barf in my hair, and was getting over the post-op shakes. I didn't feel attractive for the pic--but I was thrilled to hold my little one!
After a few minutes with my son, I was taken to my room and tried to get some sleep. Yeah, right. Does anyone get sleep in the hospital? They brought Clayton in to my room around 2 a.m. and he stayed there the rest of the time I was in the hospital. About that same time, I started getting up and walking around.
I have to say, it's been interesting having a "pre-term" baby. Clayton and Kallie were born 5 days apart, gestationally, and he was bigger than she was at birth. However, Clayton had to have a "car seat check" to make sure he would be able to breathe well in his car seat. Kallie never had to have one. Apparently, those 5 days make a difference in a baby's ability to breathe in a typical car seat. Clayton didn't pass his test--his oxygen saturation was consistently too low. So, we had to rent a special "car bed," which is a little boat-shaped bed that straps into the seat belt. There was a possibility that he wasn't going to pass his car bed test, which would have meant we would have to leave him at the hospital. I'm SO glad that didn't happen!
Now we've been home for almost a week. Clayton is growing before our eyes. He is a very good eater and rarely cries. Sometimes, it's hard for me to believe he's actually here--but I am really enjoying him! He is a sweet, cute little bean and we're so happy to have him in our family.
