Anna's Birth Story

(Boy, with 2 kids you'd think I'd post less right? Oi, as long as I'm not neglecting them all is good.) I was scheduled for a repeat c-section at 10:30am on April 6th; I was to report to the hospital at 8:30am. At a little after 8:30am Ben and I showed up at the Hospital. I registered, got my hospital bracelet put on and was told to head on up to the Birth Place. When we got up to the birth place we were told there were no available rooms! No available rooms! We were asked to have a seat, I started ranting and raving to Ben that why is it whenever I have a baby the Birth Place just fills up! I told him I was not leaving the hospital without a baby but at the same time I was not sharing a room from the start! After about half an hour I made myself comfortable, took of my shoes and reclined in my chair. About 30 minutes later we were told they were in the process of discharging two women and they would prep me in one of the shared rooms and while in surgery they would move a woman who was being discharged the next day into a shared room and make up her private room for me. I was relieved to hear that while they were so full they had to move women to the shared rooms they weren't as full as they could be, both woman being discharged were alone in their shared rooms. (There are two shared rooms, where they do things like prep and NST's, and 4 or 5 private rooms.) We waited out in the lobby as they discharged 2 women and cleaned up the private rooms. It was about 10:30 when we were taken back to a shared room to prep for the c-section. I was starting to get very nervous thanks to all the time I had to sit around and think about IV's, catheters, Spinals, needles needles needles, whether Anna would come out a boy and of course- surgery. I was also extremely thirsty since I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since midnight. I was eagerly anticipating that huge jug of water they give ya after surgery. Once in the room I peed, stripped, dressed in a gown, laid in bed and waited some more, I sent Ben out to smoke cause god knew when he'd get a chance to again. Before surgery they had to get a strip on the baby, check her heartbeat and if I was having any contractions (not sure why that mattered) and monitor my blood pressure. After they got that all set up they did the IV (which hurt), shaved me and inserted the catheter (which stung a little, not bad) and left me to be monitored for about 45 minutes. It was nice to sit with Ben and listen to Anna's heartbeat for a while. I kept thinking how this was my last baby, the last time I'd ever hear a tiny heartbeat coming from inside me. I'm not sure the time, I think around 11:30am they came in for me. They gave Ben scrubs to put on and told him to wait in the hall, they'd call him in when I was strapped down. They wheeled me into the OR; I shifted to what I refer to as the cutting board and sat up to receive my Spinal. It seemed like it took a long time because the anesthesiologist was talking so much to the nurses I just wanted to tell him to shut up and put it in. He finally did it and it didn't hurt at all, a tiny sting and immediately I started going numb, they moved quickly to lay me down and position me for my doc. As they were strapping my arms down Ben came in and sat next to me. A few minutes later my doctor and the assisting doctor came in. Start surgery. It seemed like it took my doctor forever to do this c-section, even the anesthesiologist whispered in my ear at one point, "She sure is taking her sweet time with you." And later during our stay at the hospital more than a few nurses made comments like, "We thought she'd never finish with you!" During surgery I got sick. My blood pressure kept dropping and I'd get nauseous, I was able to hold back the first few times but after that I just had to throw up. I think I threw up 3 times, at one point I heard my doctor say, "I have to wait for her to stop retching." That made me feel so bad. I love the anesthesiologist who was by my side; she looked over the tarp and gave us a play by play the whole time. I was worried when she said she saw the baby then got real quiet, but then she bent down real low and said quietly to me, "She's beautiful." Then I heard the tiniest cry and I started to cry myself- Anna was born at 12:34pm weighing 7lb 5oz and 20inches long. Ben couldn't take his eyes off her as they took her to the table to be cleaned up, I couldn't see his mouth under the surgical mask but I could tell he had big happy smile on. We both commented on how much quieter than Eli she was! (Not anymore, it took her a week, but she's now up to his level of loudness lol) The anesthesiologist held the blue tarp at my side back so that I could also see them cleaning up Anna and through my tears I asked Ben a silly question, "Does she look normal?" He just laughed at me and said, "Yes, perfect." When they wrapped her up and brought her to us the anesthesiologist unstrapped my hands so that I could touch her (with Eli a different anesthesiologist didn't do this so it meant a lot to me that she did it without me even asking). After a few minutes Anna and Ben left for the nursery. My nausea was gone and I felt so much better except for an itch on my nose! It seemed like it took forever but the surgery was finally over, I was starting to worry as the numbness in my legs was starting to go away! I knew the end would take longer this time because they were tying my tubes. As they were cleaning me up and getting me ready to shift to my hospital bed I got the shakes so they covered me in about a dozen warm blankets and took me to my room. Anna was brought in a few minutes later and right at that moment I new for sure I would not be breastfeeding. I asked a nurse if it was okay to change my feeding option and she said I was the mommy I could do whatever I wanted so I asked her to bring a bottle. The nurse was very nice and gave me a few minutes and asked again if I was sure and when she came in with the bottle asked one more time, I was sure. My boob issues had begun to creep up and bother me the closer and closer it came to the c-section and I of course would rather be comfortable and sane and bottle feed again than stress and freak to breastfeed. I held Anna for a little bit before relinquishing her to Ben (who wasn't in the room when I was wheeled in because he had to pick up his best friend around the corner cause his car broke down! But Ben was there about 5 minutes after Anna was wheeled into the room with me so he wasn't gone long). We could not believe how tiny she was, how big of a difference there is between 8lb 7oz and 7lb 5oz, how pink and pretty she was, how long her fingers were, how dark here hair was, how big her feet were. Our precious beautiful daughter was born and our family was complete.