The Birth Saga Part 2 - the delivery

When we last left our heroine she'd just received communion from friends in the hospital on Ash Wednesday night... (for Part 1 go here)

If I'm being honest with myself I knew the moment I woke up on Thursday morning that my time pre-delivery was very short. Every day I felt a little worse and despite the drug-induced sleep I was more tired, had a harder time focusing my energy and all around worse for the wear. This takes some talent since most of my time in the previous days involved lying in bed napping with wraps on my legs to prevent clotting.

So I was not really surprised when early that morning the Dr. came in and said that my platelets had dropped another significant amount and that we were going to deliver that day. "See you at 1:30!" she said. It was sort of helpful knowing it wasn't a "emergency" c-section - the kind where the baby is in distress and you have 20 minutes to make it happen. Still it was a shock to actually be at that point.

Earlier in the week we had briefly pondered induction over c-section, but Zy was perfectly content swimming around in there and my cervix showed no sign of wanting to let him out. So rather than risk the exhaustion and continued pressure on my body a c- section it was. Up until this point in my life I'd never been admitted to the hospital. I'd only had one surgery - my wisdom teeth. I'd only ever been to the ER once - possible allergic reaction that ended up being a badly burned throat instead. This week had been full of firsts for me, mostly ones I don't want to repeat.

All in all I think I was surprisingly calm on the outside while my insides were churning over the ideas of being cut open and my child delivered far too early. The one problem with having a c-section scheduled for the future (even just a few hours) is that you are left with plenty of time to consider all that could go wrong - a particular gift of mine. Even so I did have trust in my doctors and knew it was necessary at that point.

I texted my husband who was still at home, and my parents too. Thursday was a snow storm here and I was so grateful that my parents had the good sense to drive from WI on Wed in order to get to MN rather than Thurs as they'd been planning earlier in the week. It was nice to have them there. Luckily, there was also time to call Chris' family and get them up to the cities as well. Chris' sister left school to come up only to have school canceled an hour later. They found out just in time to make it before the roads got bad.

Then it was a waiting game. Honestly I don't remember much about this time. They had begun my magnesium sulfate - an awful drug to keep me from having a stroke due to my blood pressure so I was increasingly out of it. At some point in the early afternoon they came and gave me my epidural. I imagine that it must be a relief to get one when you are in the pain of labor, but to get one without having any pain means that you can just focus on the fact that a big a** needle is going into your back. Still, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting and before I knew it they'd tested it and I was back in bed waiting to go down to surgery.

And then the comedy of errors began. They tried to move my bed up but it wouldn't move. They were going to need to move my bed in order to get me on level with the surgical table but hadn't realized it didn't work until I was already prepped. So they called to the other nurses on other floors to come and try to move the bed. A flurry of nurses came through my room and couldn't get it working. Finally they were running late for surgery so they took me down anyway.

When we got downstairs they brought more nurses to try to get my table to move in the operating room. Again no luck. So they had to wheel me out of the OR, transfer me to a new bed, THEN wheel me back and transfer me to the operating table. I wish I could have just gotten up and gotten on the table myself but I was numb by that point mostly so they wouldn't let me.

So we got started a bit late but all was looking good. I couldn't feel a thing as we got going and finally I was all open and Mr. Goat was let into the room. And then the fun began. I didn't know much of what was going on as I couldn't see over the curtain. It was very surreal to be strapped down and have all this bustling going on around me.

The surgery seemed to progress quite quickly and all of a sudden we were at the point of getting Zy-goat out. Except, he didn't want out. The anethesiologists had warned me that they would be putting a lot of pressure on me to get the baby out but I was unprepared for just how much pressure and pain that would cause. I got quite nauseous and it was a really awful moment. Or rather it was an awful four moments because it took four attempts to get Zy-goat out of me. Considering that he was early and small you wouldn't think he'd be so stubborn to come out. Knowing him now, I can believe it though.

But since he didn't want to get out they had to use the suction to assist the doctor. I had never heard of them needing the vacuum on a c-section before but there you go. But eventually they did get him out, showed him briefly to Mr. Goat and swept him off to the warmer. Mr. Goat was able to go over there once they knew he was stable. I was left on the table trying to hear crying (there was some) and getting myself stitched back up.

Eventually they brought him wrapped up over for me to meet for a moment before taking him to the NICU. Mr. Goat when with the baby and I was left alone to be stitched up. I don't remember much of that at all and I'm sure I was essentially passed out. But the surgery was done.

The Birth Saga Part 3 - the aftermath coming soon!