Our Story

Today our son is 3 months 2 weeks and 4 days old today. It is still so surreal to me. He is a strapping young lad. He is healthy and has a happy and mellow temperament. We are in LOVE with him.

If you have followed my blog (and not many of you are I am sure), we had a very challenging pregnancy. It included the loss of a twin and the fear of losing the entire pregnancy; my father shattering his pelvis prior to a surgery to remove cancer; my parents moving in with us; gestational diabetes; my own inability to walk (in the third trimester I was in a wheelchair for 90% of my mobility and a had to use a walker for the rest...essentially on bed rest; and a really good bout of depression before and after I gave birth to Mr. Baby. That's just a summary and does not include the flea infestation, head lice (don't ask), and our 3 year old cat peeing on everything we own a few week before he suddenly died. Yes, life is always a mixed bag of joy and sadness. Still I am happy and grateful and would do it all again to be sitting here typing this blog.

Here is our story.

In my 37th week I started to have contractions. Pretty good ones. At 37w1d (37weeks 1 day), on a Friday, we made arrangements to have the girls stay with friends because we were sure Mr. Baby was going to be born either 37w2d or 37w3d. We executed the whole "IT'S TIME Protocol 1.0". Instead of progressing contractions, they subsided by Sunday night and we picked up the girls. Over the next few days contractions were just always there about 20 minutes apart and not overly intense. But by the next week on Wednesday they were back and stronger. Thursday lunchtime, WW and I were watching a movie, it was the girls' last day of school and the contractions were gaining in strength and consistency. They were about 10 minutes apart and I had to stop talking during them, but they were manageable. WW thought that he was definitely on his way. I had my doubts. I wasn't going to get worked up over it. I didn't have the energy! But she convinced me to call the MD and tell them what was going on. My MD told me to come in and get checked. I was 38 weeks, one week away from my scheduled c/s. WW was still convinced he was coming, so on the way to the hospital we took our dogs to the kennel and made calls to arrange to have the girls picked up after school. It was starting to fee real but I think I was in a strange denial.

Once we got to the hospital WW dropped me off, put me in a wheelchair, and went to park the car. I felt like she was gone forever! I had no watch on, so when she walked up I said, "You've been gone for 3 contractions!". She said, "I wasn't even gone for 10 minutes, you know what that means?!". She was right, the contractions were getting more frequent. We checked into L&D and they got us a room and hooked me up to the belly monitors. Everything was really calm. He was doing marvelously. Great heart rate. My blood pressure was just a tad high. Nothing to get too concerned about. WW and I played cards, talked, watched some bad TV. Finally my doctor showed up and said that it looked like this was going to happen before the scheduled c/s so she suggested that we do the c/s that evening. I was so ready to have him that I was thrilled with her offer. Yes! Yes! Let's do it. They told us that at 7 PM the anesthesiologist would come in and go over all the consents with us. I told WW that at 6:30 PM I was going to use the restroom and "freshen up" before my big date in the OR. It was going perfectly. I was calm and happy.

So at 6:30 PM WW helped me up and the second my feet hit the floor my water broke. It gushed out along with a lot of blood. I was instantly in a huge amount of pain. I went from a pain level of 5 to a pain level of 10 in just a few minutes. WW flagged down the nurse who once she saw me sitting on the toilet got concerned immediately and told me to go back to bed. I was in transition and dialed, ready to go! The nurses started to hustle around and the anesthesiologist came in. I felt like he was talking in slow motion. At that point I would have consented to have an arm removed to get him to stop talking and get me to the OR! WW asked if we could speed things up a little and he stopped to lecture her about informed consent. UGH what a mistake!

Things were going on but I was blind and deaf because of the pain. They finally came to get me and once I got on the gurney I HAD to push. I told the nurse and she was adamant. She said, "YOU DON'T PUSH. YOU DON'T NEED TO PUSH. YOU NEED TO HOLD ON. YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A GREAT C-SECTION IN JUST A FEW MINUTES. NO PUSHING!!" I was really caught off guard, but it worked. I started thinking about keeping him in, squeezing my legs together. I don't know how I did it because I really wanted to push.

They stopped WW and took her into a dressing room to change. All I could think of was hurry, hurry, hurry. I felt so vulnerable without her. The anesthesiologist that I hated so much, became my best friend. He was so quick and so good. I trusted him completely once I saw him in his element. In a few minutes, I could feel no pain and I was relaxed, totally relaxed. They put up the drape and I had come claustrophobic reactions to having it so near my face, but they moved back a little for me.

WW filmed the surgery. Near the end I got very nauseated and had to throw up. Not a huge deal, but for some reason I was afraid I would choke.

Then, I saw him. He was so big, so healthy, and so beautiful. I was stunned at how perfect he was. I was just in the moment. So happy. Once I knew he was fine, I started thinking about me. I needed to concentrate on recovery. I was in enormous pain. Despite the fact that I told them I don't do well with morphine they gave it to me anyway. I was very sick in recovery. WW told me that I threw up almost 2 liters. Can you imagine? Sadly, a pretty good amount landed on her. Thank goodness for scrubs and shoe covers!! I was too sick to hold him or to even look over at him much. But I knew he was fine. They tested his blood sugar and it was borderline low so they fed him a small amount of formula from a cup.

When I was stable enough, we moved to our room. If I had not been medicated I would have been up all night just holding him. I don't know what time we got into the room, but when the sun came up he was waking up and I got to nurse him for the first time. He was/is a great latcher. He made it easy for me to get started.

There is so much more to tell, but that is how we started off in the world together. I have just reported the news here without too much description of my emotions, but it was beyond what I hoped and dreamed it would be.

Fast forward to today for a moment. If you have made it this far you are if for a small treat.