7:45 am: D starts stirring in his crib but he’s talking to himself so we ignore it.
8:10: Alarm goes off, and D REALLY wakes up. I’ve got 20 minutes to drink clear liquids before I’m cut off for who knows how long.
8:15: Hubs takes D downstairs for his morning milk and cartoons. I can already hear my FIL making coffee and watching TV.
8:20: Heave myself out of bed and downstairs to take my blood sugar, have some sugar-free jello and drink a big glass of water.
8:30: Chat with the family and check my phone for a few minutes. Make mental notes of what I still need to pack in my hospital bag. Cuddle D as much as he’ll let me because I know I’m going to miss him while in the hospital.
9am: shower, get dressed after debating what to wear for several minutes, makeup, blow dry hair, pack up makeup/daily beauty essentials.
9:45: pack iPad and chargers, fancy camera and new lens. Show FIL which sippy cups are best for D to use (straw cups – not tip/spout cups), and quickly clean up kitchen/bedroom.
10am: Head to hospital. Low gas indicator starts beeping. Of course. Stop to get gas.
10:30: Check in at maternity welcome center. Sign a bunch of papers and release forms. Wait for a nurse to come get me.
11am: Taken to prep room. Change into this really weird, heavy paper gown. It’s a new type that has vents and a temperature controlled air hose that blows either cold or warm air on you, depending on your preference. It’s a bit bulky so I don’t really like it. Get hooked up to fetal monitors and an IV. Praise The Lord that she got it on the first stick.
11:30: First anesthesiologist comes by to answer questions.
11:45am: Second anesthesiologist comes in and starts prepping me. Hairnet on (should’ve brought a hair tie). I drink a little cup of anti-nausea medicine and it’s a bit like taking a shot of something. So gross. He has me get into position for the stick but isn’t ready yet so I sit there for about 10 minutes, uncomfortable as hell and starting to have a panic attack. This was possibly the worst part of the whole experience. My mind was just going crazy! I honestly thought I might die that day.
Nurse walks in and asks if a high school student can observe. My mind is too preoccupied to care so I just say yes before immediately regretting letting some HS kid watch my entire birth experience. Whatever.
12:10: Epidural is in. Did it hurt? Yes. But certainly tolerable. The worst part was having the anesthesiologist dig his finger in my spine to find the right spot to stick me.
The numbness starts setting in and now we’re just waiting for my OB. She’s usually early they say but today she was running late. The anesthesiologist uses a needle to prick my belly and asks me to let him know when I feel it. I feel nothing all the way up to the top of my belly so he says I’m ready. Somewhere in there a nurse comes in to insert my catheter. I barely notice.
12:20: OB shows up and things really start moving. I’m wheeled into the operating room. I’m trying really hard to focus but the meds are making things seem really fuzzy.
I see bright lights and a couple of people (nurses?) in scrubs. I’m instructed to fold my arms across my chest as they transfer me to the operating table. The curtain is raised and my OB says she’ll Ryan know when it’s time to look/snap pictures.
12:30: My OB and her resident doc/assistant (who also helped deliver D, oddly enough) are chit chatting so Ryan and I are just sort of looking at each other. I tell him to put on some music, so he plays some Bob Marley. (We played Bob Marley for D all the time as a newborn and it’s still D’s favorite music.) The music relaxes me a bit and everyone in the OR seems to approve of the music choice, particularly the anesthesiologist, seated behind my head now, as he starts chatting about vacations and Jamaica with Ryan.
12:45: Time seems to be creeping by slowly but the docs are just taking their time “cutting through the muscle” she says. I feel a little tugging but nothing significant or painful, thank God.
And then my OB says it’s time. Ryan stands to look over the curtain and I feel her push down really hard at the top of my belly.
A few moments later, I hear the most beautiful cry in the world and my eyes instantly fill with tears. The docs hold him over the curtain for me to get a good look at him before handing him off to a nurse to clean him up. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see his face since the little stinker would never show it in his ultrasounds. He’s still crying, so angry about being taken from his warm and cozy home. I can see him on the infant bed on my left and can’t stop looking at him. Ryan walks over to watch and it isn’t long before they wrap him up and hand him to him. Still crying. So unlike D who barely cried at all.
1:15pm: Docs finish putting me back together and staple me shut. I still don’t feel a thing and even though I’ve been shaking a bit, it’s nothing compared to the shaking from the first time. And I can feel and move my arms this time so that’s awesome.
I’m wheeled back into the recovery room, but unlike last time, I’m wide awake and don’t pass out. Baby is still crying. The hubs and I exchange fearful looks and say how this one is going to be our high maintenance baby.
I hold him for a bit and we try nursing. He’s showing promise but it’s far too early for me to be producing anything yet so I consider it practicing.
Nurse gives baby his first bath, right in the recovery room with me.
A couple of hours pass before I’m transported to my long term recovery room. It’s smaller than last time and clearly hasn’t been remodeled yet. It’s fine, and private, but I’m already not looking forward to spending 4 days here. And that’s before realizing that half the buttons on the bed (for lights and bed adjustments) don’t work.
The first 24 hours post-op is a blur of nurses checking vitals and blood sugars. After not eating all day, my blood sugar dropped dangerously low a couple of times which got me two forced servings of juice each time. But I was more worried about baby’s blood sugar. Since I was gestational diabetic, they had to monitor his sugars more than usual (meaning more foot pricks), but he only had one low reading which corrected itself after his first real feeding. I wasn’t thrilled that he was already being given formula from a bottle, but if my choices were a bottle or the NICU with IVs and such, I just had to go with it.
We still practiced nursing about every 3 hours. This, plus the every 2 hours of checking mine and baby’s vitals (which never coincided) plus the administering of my pain meds and IV bag replacement basically meant that we did not sleep – AT ALL – that first night.
By day 2, I was really feeling the lack of sleep. Ryan stayed pretty busy running back and forth to the house to check on D. Having a toddler at home already definitely adds a layer of complication to everything. My FIL and his sister (Ryan’s aunt) stayed at our house to watch D, but Ryan tried his best to be home each morning before D woke up and every night to do his bath and put him to bed before coming back up to the hospital to sleep on the weird, folding couch. What a trooper.
On day 2, my catheter was removed and I was forced to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom on my own. I still had my epidural line in, running Demerol pain medication through me, but the nurse went ahead and clamped off my IV so that was one less cord to worry about.
The hubs, my FIL and aunt-in-law brought D up to visit. I made sure to send the baby to the nursery so that when he first saw me, I wasn’t holding the baby. Instead, D and I cuddled in my hospital bed, watching videos on the iPad, while the adults went down to the nursery to see the baby. It wasn’t long before it was time to feed the baby again though so my FIL and aunt went to get something to eat while our little family of four hung out in the hospital room. Every time the baby would cry, D would run over to look at him and then hug my leg. Cutest thing ever.
That afternoon, little baby S received his circumcision. Poor little guy. Just 24 hours old. At least it didn’t take long to heal and we were told we could stop using gauze and A&D ointment on it before we even left the hospital, since it looked so great.
On the third day, Saturday, my epidural was removed and I was started on a low dose of Motrin and Vicodin. I could definitely tell a difference and some achiness started to set in. A few friends visited, which made the day just fly by. I still wasn’t able to get much sleep so when the OB on duty said I could leave on Sunday instead of Monday, if I wanted, I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea. So on Sunday, we finished up all of our paperwork for the birth certificate, safety waivers, and discharge papers, packed our things and checked out around 4pm.
On the way home, we had to stop by Walgreens to fill an order for my pain meds. While we waited, I talked the hubs into swinging by Dairy Queen for a little mini cookie dough and Oreo blizzard, despite the fact that it was barely 40 degrees and windy outside.
Once we got home, we chatted with my FIL and aunt-in-law for a few minutes before they headed out to spend the night at Ryan’s other aunt’s house. Then it was just the four of us. Our new little family unit.
Glad it went much better than last time! Can’t wait to meet him.
Yay for baby Sam! I’m so excited for your new family of four and so glad everything went so easily and he didn’t have to go to the NICU or anything like that! Congratulations again!
Glad there was no NICU this time! Can’t wait to meet this little guy. You have the sweetest little family :-)
Congratulations! What a story. :)
Such a cute family unit too. Thanks for posting this, I just love being a part of it all through your blog. And you have two wonderful boys. :-)
Oh, three if you count Ryan. Haha.
I’m so glad you wrote all of this down. What an amazing experience. I can’t wait (well, I can) for our turn! Sam is so beautiful! So happy for you guys.
What a great birth story! I’m so glad everything went smoothly and you’re enjoying life as a family of four. What a great new adventure!