Here's how I remember it... =)
My due date with Kupcake was 1/01/11. I had been scheduled for an inversion w/c-section on December 27 2010, but canceled because I was hoping she would turn from transverse/breech on her own if given a little more time. My fabulous midwife friend tried to run her officially twice, I did all the inversion exercises I could find (repeatedly) and Aceball and I tried to turn her ourselves a few times as well. She was suspiciously easy to manipulate, but would NOT stay in the position you moved her to. Sad, sad.
So we recheduled for 12/31/10. Our insurance had called to verify the charges we would ow, and (LIED!!!) told us even if she was born in January the deductible we had paid for 2010 would cover it. So we went to the hospital Friday morning, had a fabulous triage nurse who (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE) got the IV started on the very first try. Dr. McA put something in my IV and started trying to turn the child. She said "no". It was NOT a COMFORTABLE PROCEDURE. I don't think he tried all that hard to be quite honest with you, and the triage nurse who was supposed to help him did pretty much nothing. So the original plan was to go ahead and section her if she didn't turn.
Turns out the W.C. "Women's Hospital" (where the NICU is, there's "always a anesthesiologist working", and "always a neonatologist on hand" was "not staffed" beause of the holiday (New Year's Eve? Really? At 9 o'clock in the morning??) for a non-emergency c-section. They also would not be staffed Sat (New Year's Day), Sun (I guess they try to avoid folks having babies on the weekend??) or Monday. There's no good excuse for not being fully staffed on Monday- they just said they were going to fully staff a sister hospital in the next town over, then the "women's hospital" where all the babies are supposed to be born would be fully staffed on TUESDAY. So we scheduled the section for Tuesday, retrieved our child and all his belongings from Celeste's house (bless her) and went home. I was sort of furious. And still on dilated to 1 at the very most.
So Monday we decided to have lunch at Cracker Barrel since we figured we wouldn't be able to eat out as a family for a while after the c-section. I had been having pretty strong contractions for months, they registered up to 50% on the monitor at the hospital even, but they were pretty high up on my uterus. Monday morning I had some pressure/pain really low in my pelvis, but nothing near unbearable so we went to lunch. A few times during lunch I had the pains again, but I was sitting up in a hard chair and just leaned forward a bit until the passed. And they did pass, fairly quickly, and we kept eating. We ate a LOT. Just as we finished lunch B asked if I needed to go to the bathroom before we left, so I figured what the heck. Had another heavy pain on the way, and one in the bathroom. And bleeding as well- not a lot, but since I had none before it was worth noting. I came back and told them I thought I might be in labor, though I wasn't in terrible pain, and that we should go home and think about the hospital. We did stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home because Christmas stuff was 80% off! (helllooooo- priorities!!)
We got home and B was timing the "pains" by then, and we packed up all Dball's things, I changed clothes and packed some additional things, and we went to the hospital. I think we got there a little after 2pm, and Celeste had taken one child to the Dr. so Dball sat in the waiting room and waited for her to come pick him up. I went to the "emergency" room (triage, basically) and they put an IV in (took this woman 2 tries, which is actually better than "usual" for me, but it BLED ALL OVER THE PLACE and hurt). When she checked my cervix she announced I was in labor and dilated to 4cm, and before she removed her hand she says, "ooh wait a min". ??? Um, NO. I'm thinking "remove your hand now", but I said, "What happened?" at least, I think I did. I was thinking some less charitable things, and having harder contractions now that were hurting WAY MORE because I was flat on my back. Anyway, nurse says, "something grabbed my finger!" She figured it was either Kupcake's fingers or toes holding on, and she was afraid to pull her finger away from Kupcake because she didn't want to break my water. Since Kupcake's head was still under my right rib, I knew it was her toes holding on to the nurse. Once she released the nurse went away. They wouldn't let me sit up because they insisted I still needed a c-section because the baby was still breech, and if I could've gotten on my hands and knees I might have progressed labor too far and it would interfere with the c-section. Then my water broke anyway, and Celeste showed up to get Dball. B went out with DBall, Celeste came in with me for a few minutes. The anesthesiologist came, my OB's partner came (he's the one who actually ended up doing the section) then Celeste left w/Dball and B came back in just as they were going to wheel me back to the operating room. They said they would call him in before the first cut was made (apparently they did not).
So I had a lidocaine shot in my back and then he put in a spinal block with astramorph. It was a little uncomfortable but not truly painful (less painful than the IV insertion by far) and we were on our way. Both when he put the meds in my IV for the external version and when he put the astramorph in my spinal I had really strange "visions" in my head... similar to seeing intestines rolling around in guts?! It was bizarre.
Thankfully B was finally called in, and restrained himself and stayed back with me instead of watching from the "business end" (he really wanted to). I couldn't actually hear any cutting or smell the contraption they use to seal off all the bleeding, but apparently he could. I figured they were cutting because B kept looking at me like he was concerned if I was ok or if I could feel whatever they were doing, plus there was a LOT of tugging and pulling. Right before Dr. Mason pulled the little darling free (at 4:25pm) he told us he had nicked her with the knife- she had a little slice on her tiny pink bum =(. She didn't appreciate it- and was quite vocal about it. I got to see her and kiss her and then B went with her to the nursery (or wherever they go) to be doctored and they set about sewing me back together. I had no idea there were 5 layers to be sewn through! The anesthesiologist (fabulous man!) offered me valium in my IV but I couldn't figure out why I'd need it, and he kept telling me what a great job I was doing?!?! I clearly wasn't doing anything but lying there while being sewn up, but there ya' go. He was I was "such a trooper". They told stories about when they were young and how they cut down trees and got in trouble for it as boys...
After all that I went to recovery, which was completely devoid of activity and the two nurses who were there seemed like they had just gotten there. The Dr's had been talking about other babies being born, but I was the ONLY ONE in recovery, and the nurses even had to wait for the computer to warm up, so I figured no one else had been there all day. I kept asking them questions and they were polite but seemed confused. I finally asked if everything was okay, and the one nurse indicated that most people who have c-sections are not awake (or not coherent?) when they arrive in recovery. They weren't used to patients actually interacting with them. I kept asking when I could go to the baby, and she finally told me I HAD to stay in recovery for at LEAST 30 mins no matter what, and my baby would likely get to our room at the same time I did. They did ask if I wanted them to get B, but I told them "only if he brings my daughter with him". So he didn't come to recovery.
I got to our room, and it was 30-45 mins LONGER before B & K showed up. I don't know how most c-sections go, but I'm pretty glad I was only at the hospital for about 2 hours by the time the child was born. I would've gladly gone home the next day, but they make you stay at least 48 hours. They were wanting me to stay until 4:30 on Wednesday (thus completing the full 48 hours) but I informed her I was leaving, with my newborn, directly after lunch and if someone needed to check her out they needed to get on it because I wasn't waiting around.
So we recheduled for 12/31/10. Our insurance had called to verify the charges we would ow, and (LIED!!!) told us even if she was born in January the deductible we had paid for 2010 would cover it. So we went to the hospital Friday morning, had a fabulous triage nurse who (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE) got the IV started on the very first try. Dr. McA put something in my IV and started trying to turn the child. She said "no". It was NOT a COMFORTABLE PROCEDURE. I don't think he tried all that hard to be quite honest with you, and the triage nurse who was supposed to help him did pretty much nothing. So the original plan was to go ahead and section her if she didn't turn.
Turns out the W.C. "Women's Hospital" (where the NICU is, there's "always a anesthesiologist working", and "always a neonatologist on hand" was "not staffed" beause of the holiday (New Year's Eve? Really? At 9 o'clock in the morning??) for a non-emergency c-section. They also would not be staffed Sat (New Year's Day), Sun (I guess they try to avoid folks having babies on the weekend??) or Monday. There's no good excuse for not being fully staffed on Monday- they just said they were going to fully staff a sister hospital in the next town over, then the "women's hospital" where all the babies are supposed to be born would be fully staffed on TUESDAY. So we scheduled the section for Tuesday, retrieved our child and all his belongings from Celeste's house (bless her) and went home. I was sort of furious. And still on dilated to 1 at the very most.
So Monday we decided to have lunch at Cracker Barrel since we figured we wouldn't be able to eat out as a family for a while after the c-section. I had been having pretty strong contractions for months, they registered up to 50% on the monitor at the hospital even, but they were pretty high up on my uterus. Monday morning I had some pressure/pain really low in my pelvis, but nothing near unbearable so we went to lunch. A few times during lunch I had the pains again, but I was sitting up in a hard chair and just leaned forward a bit until the passed. And they did pass, fairly quickly, and we kept eating. We ate a LOT. Just as we finished lunch B asked if I needed to go to the bathroom before we left, so I figured what the heck. Had another heavy pain on the way, and one in the bathroom. And bleeding as well- not a lot, but since I had none before it was worth noting. I came back and told them I thought I might be in labor, though I wasn't in terrible pain, and that we should go home and think about the hospital. We did stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home because Christmas stuff was 80% off! (helllooooo- priorities!!)
We got home and B was timing the "pains" by then, and we packed up all Dball's things, I changed clothes and packed some additional things, and we went to the hospital. I think we got there a little after 2pm, and Celeste had taken one child to the Dr. so Dball sat in the waiting room and waited for her to come pick him up. I went to the "emergency" room (triage, basically) and they put an IV in (took this woman 2 tries, which is actually better than "usual" for me, but it BLED ALL OVER THE PLACE and hurt). When she checked my cervix she announced I was in labor and dilated to 4cm, and before she removed her hand she says, "ooh wait a min". ??? Um, NO. I'm thinking "remove your hand now", but I said, "What happened?" at least, I think I did. I was thinking some less charitable things, and having harder contractions now that were hurting WAY MORE because I was flat on my back. Anyway, nurse says, "something grabbed my finger!" She figured it was either Kupcake's fingers or toes holding on, and she was afraid to pull her finger away from Kupcake because she didn't want to break my water. Since Kupcake's head was still under my right rib, I knew it was her toes holding on to the nurse. Once she released the nurse went away. They wouldn't let me sit up because they insisted I still needed a c-section because the baby was still breech, and if I could've gotten on my hands and knees I might have progressed labor too far and it would interfere with the c-section. Then my water broke anyway, and Celeste showed up to get Dball. B went out with DBall, Celeste came in with me for a few minutes. The anesthesiologist came, my OB's partner came (he's the one who actually ended up doing the section) then Celeste left w/Dball and B came back in just as they were going to wheel me back to the operating room. They said they would call him in before the first cut was made (apparently they did not).
So I had a lidocaine shot in my back and then he put in a spinal block with astramorph. It was a little uncomfortable but not truly painful (less painful than the IV insertion by far) and we were on our way. Both when he put the meds in my IV for the external version and when he put the astramorph in my spinal I had really strange "visions" in my head... similar to seeing intestines rolling around in guts?! It was bizarre.
Thankfully B was finally called in, and restrained himself and stayed back with me instead of watching from the "business end" (he really wanted to). I couldn't actually hear any cutting or smell the contraption they use to seal off all the bleeding, but apparently he could. I figured they were cutting because B kept looking at me like he was concerned if I was ok or if I could feel whatever they were doing, plus there was a LOT of tugging and pulling. Right before Dr. Mason pulled the little darling free (at 4:25pm) he told us he had nicked her with the knife- she had a little slice on her tiny pink bum =(. She didn't appreciate it- and was quite vocal about it. I got to see her and kiss her and then B went with her to the nursery (or wherever they go) to be doctored and they set about sewing me back together. I had no idea there were 5 layers to be sewn through! The anesthesiologist (fabulous man!) offered me valium in my IV but I couldn't figure out why I'd need it, and he kept telling me what a great job I was doing?!?! I clearly wasn't doing anything but lying there while being sewn up, but there ya' go. He was I was "such a trooper". They told stories about when they were young and how they cut down trees and got in trouble for it as boys...
After all that I went to recovery, which was completely devoid of activity and the two nurses who were there seemed like they had just gotten there. The Dr's had been talking about other babies being born, but I was the ONLY ONE in recovery, and the nurses even had to wait for the computer to warm up, so I figured no one else had been there all day. I kept asking them questions and they were polite but seemed confused. I finally asked if everything was okay, and the one nurse indicated that most people who have c-sections are not awake (or not coherent?) when they arrive in recovery. They weren't used to patients actually interacting with them. I kept asking when I could go to the baby, and she finally told me I HAD to stay in recovery for at LEAST 30 mins no matter what, and my baby would likely get to our room at the same time I did. They did ask if I wanted them to get B, but I told them "only if he brings my daughter with him". So he didn't come to recovery.
I got to our room, and it was 30-45 mins LONGER before B & K showed up. I don't know how most c-sections go, but I'm pretty glad I was only at the hospital for about 2 hours by the time the child was born. I would've gladly gone home the next day, but they make you stay at least 48 hours. They were wanting me to stay until 4:30 on Wednesday (thus completing the full 48 hours) but I informed her I was leaving, with my newborn, directly after lunch and if someone needed to check her out they needed to get on it because I wasn't waiting around.
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