(For those who don't know, I had a scheduled c-section)
I could barely sleep the night before the scheduled c-section. Before we went to sleep, I cried and cried to Mike about how scared I was. We prayed and I cried and cried some more. I was a WRECK!!! I woke up at 5 (when our alarm went off) with butterflies in my tummy! I woke Mike up, stood up to get my clothes, and walked into the bathroom and threw up. LOL. Mike came in and said "jess you have to calm down, you can't get yourself all worked up like this!" ...I stood up and said "I feel better now! Let's do this!" I couldn't believe how prepared I was all of a sudden...all I did was throw up! But I felt 10x better and I was ready! We said bye to Bentley & Schmegal, took our bags, and we were on our way!!
When we got to the hospital, they were waiting for us. They took us into our triage room, and let me get changed, and started hooking me up. They monitored Miah's heartbeat, and started my IV. The anesthesiologist and doctor came in, talked to me about the c-section, and then the nurses came in and we walked to the operating room. When I saw the operating room, (completely white, sterile, SCARY LOOKING!!!) I instantly teared up. I took a deep breath and started praying. I said "God, don't let me lose it now. Just get me through this!!!". Mike was told to stay outside while they did my spinal. They brought me in, sat me up on this tiny table (that I swear my left butt cheek was going to hang off of....it was that small!) and started prepping for the spinal. My doctor held me while they did it, and I just prayed my way through it. It wasn't bad at all. I felt a pinch with some pressure, then a little more pressure and that was it. My legs got really warm feeling (like they fell asleep) and they laid me down. The sensation started going up my whole body which was weird!!! They told me they were going to do my catheter, and I said "Wait no, I can still feel everything!" ....well, i THOUGHT i could feel everything LOL, but they said "Um, it's in honey..." and I definitely DIDN'T feel it LOL. Mike came in and sat next to my head. One of the anesthesiologist's was at my head monitoring me and talking to me. God bless Mike & that doctor, because they were both talking up a storm to me, and I don't recall one blessed thing they said LOL. I had to leave my mind and enter a "happy place" and that happy place consisted of me talking to Jesus. I wasn't hearing a thing they were saying, I just kept nodding my head.
The actual procedure kinda sucked. Laying on my back for so long made me feel really sick, and the spinal made my blood pressure drop so that contributed to the sick feeling I was having. The anesthesiologist kept pumping me with anti-nausea medications anytime I said I was beginning to feel nauseas. I couldn't feel anything except them tugging and pulling at my stomach. The doctor said to me "Jess, you're going to feel a lot of pressure and feel like you can't breathe in a minute...it's normal, just try to breathe through it!" I said okay and just kept breathing. Then it felt like someone was standing on my chest and I couldn't breathe. The pediatrician was explaining as this was happening (as I later found out from Mike) that the pressure was them pushing on my stomach to get the baby out since I couldn't push her out. Then the doctor said it. The words i'd been dying to hear .... "SHE HAS A LOT OF DARK HAIR!!!!" ...Mike looked at me and said "Did you hear that babe?! She has a lot of dark hair like you wanted!"( It wasn't that I necessarily WANTED a dark hair baby, I had just always said I pictured her having dark hair and blue eyes and she did!)
I started crying hysterically at that point. Everything I was trying so hard to hold together, just flooded out. I couldn't stop crying!!! I knew my baby was here, and I felt SO incredibly blessed to have been there when that precious gift arrived into this world!! Mike said "They're cleaning her off!" ... We waited for a minute (I completely forgot at that moment that my body was cut open and my guts were just chilling on a table) and the doctor said "Daddy come on over!" .. He went over (past my ooey gooey organs, which he later described to me LOL) and took Pictures as they were weighing her and cleaning her off. He came back over and showed me the pictures of her and told me "She's 6lbs 1oz babe..." I said "What!? No WAY!!" ... EVERYONE thought because of how I was carrying that i'd have at least a 7lb baby....The doctors told me they estimated her at my last appointment at 8.5 lbs. HA! Were they wrong or what!!
Mike went back and got her after she was cleaned off and wrapped up, and brought her over to me. She was truly the most beautiful baby i'd ever seen in my life!!!!!! I couldn't stop saying "She's so beautiful. Miah you are so beautiful. I can't believe you're here!" Then I said "Give me those lips!" and gave her, her very first kiss :) It sucked that I couldn't hold her right then, but I really enjoyed watching Mike with her. He looked SO in love. He kept kissing her head and talking to her and telling her how beautiful she is.
They took Miah to the recovery room and Mike went with her. I got stiched up (WHICH FELT LIKE IT TOOK FOREVER!!!!!!!) then they finally took me to recovery. When I got there, Mike was in a rocking chair with his little girl just hanging out with her. They hooked me up to a bunch of drugs & fluids, gave me some pain pills, and FINALLY let me have some water lol. Then I got to hold my baby...........
Holding her for the first time felt amazing. When they handed her to me I took her right out of her blankets and put her right against my bare chest and put my gown and a blanket over her. Of course, there were A LOT of tears of joy at that moment. One of the most important things to me was getting that skin to skin time with her, to keep her warm and bond with her. It was the most amazing bonding experience with her, and it's something she still to this day LOVES.
first time I held Miah & did skin to skin contact
After she was laying on my chest for a little while, she was awake, so I decided to try breast feeding. Much to everyone's surprise, she latched right on! She had a strong urge to suck already, and was doing great with it.
The rest of the day was just spent with family and friends, and bonding with our sweet angel baby. The C-section itself was NOT bad at all. I was up that night walking the halls, and I felt pretty good. Everyone told me c-section recovery is really tough and awful, but for me it really wasn't at all. I had a very rough pregnancy though as far as pain goes, and the problems I had with the pubic bone were definitely worse than my c-section recovery.
Hope you enjoyed reading about the day we met our daughter as much as I enjoyed reminiscing :)
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