Birth Story November 9, 2005

We woke up at 4:45 on Wednesday morning. (In case you were wondering, I showered and applied under eye cream and eyebrow shaper. But in the end I didn’t care. I did get to wear my glasses and A brought the bag in from the car later.) We arrived at the hospital just after 6:00 a.m. and I was immediately hooked up to an IV and started on fluids. Monitors were attached, one to monitor his heartrate, the other (I think) my blood pressure. Blood was taken for the hospital and for the cord blood kit. Duplicative forms filled out. (The number of times I had to tell various people about my drug allergies or if I had any loose fillings was astounding.) One last ultrasound was done to establish the position of the baby and the placenta.

At 7:37, I was wheeled into the OR, where I began to shiver uncontrollably from the cold in my thin little gown. The room was filled with people: Dr. Nice, a resident, a med student, a nurse, a nursing student, the anaesthesiologist, the pediatrician. I sat up on the operating table and leaned forward, rounding my back and pressing my forehead against the nurse’s chest, while the anaesthesiologist numbed my back and then inserted the spinal. I remember thinkng at that point how I didn’t want to do this, how I wished there was another way out! Except that I didn’t want the other way out either…

Then they helped me lie down, and a warmth began to spread from my toes, up my legs, past my abdomen, then stopped at my chest and shoulders, leaving them to shiver and shudder. My arms were out to the sides, one with the IV, the other with something on my finger monitoring something or other. The drape went up and A was brought into the room in his scrubs. He sat next to my head, holding my hand.

Dr. Nice was working with the resident, teaching her, so I could hear bits and pieces of what was going on, but I was never sure if he was explaining what he was doing or telling her what to do. I felt this unpleasant tugging, poking, prodding. No pain at all, but just the idea of what was going on was so icky. Then next thing I knew, I heard crying!  It was surreal. I couldn’t believe it was true and I shed a few tears myself.

A peered around the drape to see them taking care of the baby. Dr. Nice said he was big, everyone was remarking on how good his muscle tone was, how strong his cry, how pink his color, and then he peed all over the nurses. Finally they brought him over to me. I remember they kept putting him
in front of my lips to kiss him. Pictures were taken, and then he was
whisked up to the nursery.

Dr. Nice was surprised to hear that he was 9 lbs. 1.5 ounces and said he couldn’t wait to tell Nurse Nice. I, personally, was not a bit surprised. I’d guessed he was well into
the 8s and said I wouldn’t be shocked if he was over 9. A asked if I
was proud to have made such a large baby, but it wasn’t that so much as
that I was proud to have been right about the fact that he was large!

Between his size and the fact that the cord was wrapped tightly around one of his feet, Dr. Nice said he was very glad that we had planned the c-section, as there’s a good chance a natural labor would have ended with one anyone. Which is extra nice because it gets rid of any lingering doubts I had about the c-section being the right choice for me.

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