Backtracking

Let me tell our story now that I have a bit of time.

We arrived at the hospital on Thursday at 1:30pm to check in. We got lost on our way in the maze of the hospital but made it up to Labor and Delivery. We got checked in and settled. And then we waited. There was some emergency at my docs office earlier in the day so she was running late. As a result, we sat in our pre-op room (IV'd up, and ready to go) from 2pm until about 5pm. I took lots of random videos of Daddy P and he tried on his surgical outfit in the meantime. I tried hard not to think about knives and blood and focus on the fact a baby would soon be appearing from my belly!

They wheeled me in and had Daddy P wait in the waiting room until I was prepped. This was the not-fun part, and sadly what I would want to be totally different. So, in I go. And I warn the anesthesiologist that I have a slight mental block against blood, and I tend to almost faint. I say "almost faint" because everytime in my life I have gotten close I've thrown up all over. (Can you hear your English teacher saying "foreshadowing" in your ear?) Yeah, so, sure enough.

I sit and get my spinal block. They have me facing the nurse prepping the instruments for the doctor. A whole table of gauze. I close my eyes. Then they lay me down, and before I'm even down my feet are already going all pins and needles. As I am laying there a nurse is noticing a stain on her scrubs and trying to figure out if it is blood or some chemical or other. Another nurse says it looks like finger marks so it must be blood. I get dizzier. I warn the anesthesiologist of this. He tells me to breath more deeply on my oxygen mask. I wonder how this will not just make me lightheaded, but take slow deep breaths, trying to practice my labor breathing. Dizzier.

Now he realized O2 is not sufficient, and anti-nausea drugs go into my IV.

I'm trying to think happy thoughts. I'm trying to channel all my positive energy. Now I hear ringing....

Luckily, the nurse standing next to me hears me as I pull my oxygen mask down and peekly say "I think I'm (gag), I think I'm going (gag)" and grabs a container for me. Just in time. Nothing like being totally paralyzed from the tummy down and trying to throw up. More nausea drugs... Thoughts I am having:

"I am never doing this again."
"It's okay. I can do this. I'm strong."
"They are going to have to knock me out. I can't do this."
""Think positively."
"I'm going to choke and die."
"Breath through the feeling. In through the nose, out through the top of my head."
"I'm going to throw up."
"Where is Daddy P?!?!"

More drugs into the IV...

And finally, I am okay. They have me numb, shaved, and with a nice little line drawn where my cut will go... all just in time for them to let Daddy P come in. He said he was surprised that I was smiling when I saw him. He didn't realize how happy I was to see his face and what he had just missed!

The rest went pretty quickly for him. They worked hard to unwedge her from my pelvis (her poor little butt and lady parts were bruised from being wedged in there!), but then she was out! A couple more seconds and I heard crying, and Daddy P reported she was beautiful and gross looking (still covered in her white waxiness). They cleaned her up and let me hold her for a minute or two before whisking her and Daddy P away to the nursery. I then got to spend something like 40 minutes listening to the nurses and my doctor gab as they stitched me up.



More later on the hospital recovery...