BFing is now not going well, and we have an appt with a lactation consultant in half an hour, so I only have time to post the same message I posted to the iVillage boards:
Bob made a surprise appearance on the morning of March 15th, and it’s a …
.
!!!!!!
Here are the stats: She was born at 9:23am, weighing 6 pounds and 13.4 oz, and measuring 18.25″ long! She is beautiful and perfect!
I woke up at 2am from a dream that I was on my period and I was leaking. Of course, my water had broken! I managed to wake up in time to tell John, then run to the bathroom before making a mess of our bed. We then quickly packed some last minute stuff, called L&D, and were out the door by 2:25. I started having early ctx on the way, basically just BHs with some light menstrual cramp-type pain.
When I first checked in, they thought I would probably have a c/s within an hour. However, since the baby looked great on the monitors, my ctx were still those of very early labor, and there was another woman in the unit who was possibly headed toward an emergency C, they decided to postpone mine until 8:30. They also did another u/s just in case, and of course Bob was still breech!
Since I went through almost seven hours of labor before the c/s, of course the ctx got worse and worse. I don’t know how much I progressed since they never checked me, but I don’t think the rate my ctx were going would have made for a speedy labor. Even at that many hours into it I still wasn’t having regular ctx, though they had gotten fairly painful. I have a feeling I would have ended up getting pitocin.
Honestly the worst part was the gushing fluid: I had no idea how much there would be, and it was crazy! It felt really gross. I also found it difficult to move around for the first few hours, since they had me hooked up to fetal heart and ctx monitors, an IV for fluids and abx, plus I had to manage the darn robe, a towel between my legs, and the constantly trickling or gushing fluid. Finally the MW on call unplugged me from the monitors, got me a birthing ball, and snuck me in some ice chips to boot! I love my MWs!! The birthing ball was awesome, and really helped make the ctx more manageable.
So finally around 8:30, they walked me down to the OR. Overall, the c/s went wonderfully! Everyone was so supportive in the room, and kept commenting on how calm John and I were. They were happy and cheerful, and made it a great experience.
The spinal took a while – maybe 15 minutes – since I apparently had some swelling in my lower back, and also a very small “space” that he had trouble finding. He finally did find it and the spinal took effect almost immediately. It was the weirdest thing ever! I could feel pressure, but no pain, cold, even touch, from about mid-belly down. Mid-belly up was a gradient from feeling just the roughest touches to feeling everything again. Even the bottom half of my bbs were a little numb! I didn’t feel them put the catheter in, nor did I feel the doc start operating. Both times I only knew because someone told me.
The thing that surprised me most about the c/s was how slow the part before they took the baby out went, and how quickly the closure and cleaning up part went! I’m sure it was all mental: the ten minutes you’re waiting for your baby feel like an eternity, while the 30 minutes you’re laying there kissing and talking to your new baby feel like nothing. : ) When the first person said they saw the bottom, it was incredible. Slowly other parts were visible to various people, and then next thing I knew John was leaning over my head telling me it was a girl! My baby was finally part of the world and had an identity, and it was the most amazing I have ever felt! I teared up, of course, and craned my neck to see her the whole time they were dealing with the cord and her lungs, and wiping her off at the little warmer. She took a little bit to cry – maybe 30 seconds – as they had to suction her out. She’s not much a crier in general though, which I’m hoping lasts!
So far I’m feeling pretty good, though I don’t know how I’ll feel tomorrow: they gave me Duramorph in the spinal, which is a 24 hour morphine derivative. It takes the edge off the pain, and makes me a little tired, but I’m completely lucid. Plus I’d be tired anyway, I didn’t exactly get a good night’s sleep last night! They also have me on an IV version of a strong Ibuprofen-like drug. Since the IV comes out tomorrow, the next thing is Percocet. I hope it works as well for the pain! I already have a bit of pain at my incision site, kind of a dull aching, and I have to be careful when I laugh, cough, or move.
I’ve been able to BF successfully once, right after the surgery was completed, and with limited success a couple more times. Eleanor seems more interested in sleeping than eating today, and the nurses aren’t concerned. They want to see her eating every 2-3 hours after 24 hours after birth, but the first 24 hours they just want you to offer the breast every four hours at least, and let the baby take what they will. The nurses have been incredibly helpful with BFing, and I feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to make it work. She seems to mostly get how it works, when she’s interested. : ) I also seem to have a lot of colostrum: one of the nurse’s expressed some onto the tip, to entice Eleanor to feed, and it came out quickly and easily. She said that was a great sign. I’ve also already started to leak on the left side, which I hadn’t done during pgcy. Yay!
I am so excited and so amazed to have little Bob/Eleanor here already!! It’s been a wild ride with her, and I’m sure it will continue to be. She is the cutest baby I have ever seen, naturally, and we truly love her to pieces already. I didn’t expect to feel such an incredible bond so quickly.
Here are a couple pics:
