I must say that of my 3 c-sections, this one was the smoothest and least stressful. Like I told my OB, it's hard to "complain" about a delivery when it ends with a healthy, perfect baby, but at the same time, it is nice to have a happy, comfortable story if possible.
We had time to watch the news in the morning and the weatherman gave the weather a perfect 10! A beautiful day to have a baby. The c-section was scheduled at noon but I had to be there by 10:00. My OB warned me that there would have to be a "perfect storm" to actually start on time, as he had clinic in the morning, but that was fine by me. (Side story, randomly, a few days earlier I met someone who was having a c/s with the same OB as meet at 2:00, so I knew I would at least be going before her!) It was nice to not have to get up really early in the morning to be to the hospital before dawn. We had plenty of time to get the boys situated before we left. Andy's mom watched the boys for a bit in the morning before my mom took over for the next 24-ish hours.
My co-workers had a little pool going. These are their guesses!
When we got to the hospital, we were on a new unit, so it already felt different than the last two. Everything looked bright and fresh. I liked it! We went to the pre-op room where they started my IV and had a bunch of different people come in to talk to me. One of these people was the anesthesia resident. Thankfully, we got a good one! He totally listened to all of my concerns from last time and was really agreeable to what my hopes were. (Mainly, I didn't want medicine that would make me feel crazy (aka the ketamine that I got last time) and I didn't want to vomit for 8+ hours (like I did when I had Ben.) Those seem like simple requests, right?? :) The anesthesia team ultimately decided that I bad spinal block last time, hence why I was having so much pain and why they gave me the medication that made me feel confused and horrible. They ultimately decided to give me a spinal in addition to placing an epidural catheter. This was just in case the medication wore off sooner than appropriate, they would be able to give me a bolus via the catheter instead of something in my IV. We also decided against the duramorph, which is likely the medication that made me so nauseous in the past. Anyway, back to the rest of the procedure.
I ended up having several RNs prior to the actual c/s. I guess it was a popular day to have a baby! My OB had stopped by and said they were waiting for a nurse to be available for the c/s. The RN who ultimately was in my c/s ended up having to come in on her day off. I felt bad that she had to leave her yard work, but she was great so I'm glad she did. Once she arrived, we were able to start. I can't remember what time we went back to the OR. I think it was around 1:30-1:45 or so. Again, the OR was brand new and bright. The anesthesiologist (who I later learned was the head of the department) as well as the anesthesia resident and the RN were so nice and helped calm my nerves. The RN didn't think I had any, but I did have a few!
The anesthesiologists did a very thorough job in making sure I was nice and numb. I had a little episode where I became light headed and nauseous, but whatever they did made me feel normal again within a few minutes. My OB finally came in and we got started. I don't know how long it was, but at one point I asked when they were going to get Andy, because I was afraid they forgot about him! (They didn't.) I was feeling so relaxed and comfortable the whole time, but I felt a lot better when Andy was there. He seemed a little nervous, which I wasn't expecting, but he didn't have much time to be nervous because it wasn't long before we heard a little cry! It was at 1402, to be exact. It was the sweetest little cry. Just as planned, they held the baby up so Andy could tell us if baby was a boy or a girl. I had told Andy that it would NOT be funny if he told me the opposite sex. When he said, "oh my gosh, it's a girl!!" I was in total and complete shock! I was 99.99% confident that she was a boy! I must have said, "Are you sure? I can't believe it! We have a girl!" over and over at least 100 times. My OB told me not to quit my day job. Hah! I still think that suspicious ultrasound picture looks like there are boy parts!
Andy got to cut the cord and the NICU team checked her over quickly before they let me hold her. It was the BEST! It was the first time I got to hold my baby nearly immediately after birth. I was still in shock and on cloud nine at this point. It was truly the best surprise ever! My OB said it was one of the best surprises he had seen as well. Andy and I were so convinced she was a boy! They stitched me back up and that only seemed to take like a half an hour. Maybe it was longer, I was just too happy to care.
We got back to the recovery room and my dad and photographer friend came to see baby girl. It was so fun telling our family that it was a girl! We had thought about waiting for our family to get to the hospital before telling them it was a girl, but we couldn't wait that long. About an hour later, we were able to go up to my hospital room. For the record, I could still not move my legs much by that point, but this was MUCH better than the last time were I am confident I could have walked out of the OR. (Owwww!)
The rest of the day was a happy blur of excited visitors. Perhaps the most excited visitors of them all were Ben and Josh. Their reactions were priceless and absolutely perfect. I think these videos here and here pretty much sum things up.
Here are some more pictures from Genevieve's first day of life. This day was so perfect and definitely one of the best days of my life! I told Andy that I was the happiest girl in the whole world! I still am! I just love my three babies (and husband, of course!) so much!
