A birth story.

August 23rd, 2011

Our day started early... 4:30 am. I hadn't been sleeping much then anyway. A giant belly made sure of that!

Taken the day before her birth... 38 weeks pregnant.

We rushed to the hospital to be there for our 6am pre-op check in, and then waited... and waited. The c-section was booked for 8 am. At 7:50 they called me to get prepped (so much for schedules). This is when the trouble started. 

Let me take this opportunity to give you a little history.

I have a "Bicornuate" uterus. That means "two horned"... or heart shaped. The birth of my first child ended in an emergency section because of this. My babies are carried to one side and are unable to enter the birth canal. They seem to present with the side of their foreheads. 

With my first, the epidural was offered after 20 hours in hopes of relaxing me enough to dilate. It didn't work. Other than a portion of my right leg, it had no effect. I finally did dilate and pushed for over 4 hours. Once I was taken into the OR for the section, I was given a spinal because the epidural hadn't worked. The spinal did the opposite... it numbed ALL of me. I couldn't feel myself BREATHING.

So this time I was having a planned section. I was kind of looking forward to not having the drama of last time. Nice and relaxed right?

My veins were so restricted from dehydration due to my almost 12 hours of no food or drink that they couldn't draw blood. I was poked and prodded so many times. They finally tried to go through the IV in my hand. There was blood everywhere except in the tube they needed it in. Needless to say, I got super woozy and almost fainted. They called a lab tech in who was able to get blood on the 1st try. Note to self: ALWAYS CALL A LAB TECH. Just saying.

Once in the OR, the anesthesiologist went to work. Knowing full well what happened my 1st time around, he went right to the spinal. Better to be totally numb than not at all. 

I had very weird tingling in twinging (yes I just used "twinging" as a word) in my back and right leg as he was inserting the needle. He seemed concerned and asked me to tell him when it stopped.. which it did. He finished up and laid me down.... no numbness. We waited 10 minutes.... mild numbing but still could feel and move everything. He then informed me that it should have happened by then and that if it didn't in the next couple of minutes, I'd have to go under. I started asking questions about what that entailed. I was informed that:

- My husband would not be present for the birth.

- The baby would not be taken to him at the time of birth. Meaning the opportunity for her to be with family or go skin to skin with someone immediately would be gone.

- I could be out for several hours and therefore unable to nurse immediately. 

- I would be very groggy for most of the day... further delaying breast feeding. 

- I would likely have diarrhea and vomiting for up to 48 hrs. AWESOME with a c-section.

As exciting as all of that sounded... I was seriously hoping that the spinal worked. After over 20 mins... I started to numb. The surgeon poked my abdomen with a scalpel and asked if I could feel it. I could.... but it didn't hurt. So they went ahead with the section, telling me I'd be knocked out if I started to feel pain. It was uncomfortable, but not horribly painful. That is until they started pushing on my belly to get her out (SEE ABOVE - my babies are in weird positions). The anesthetic had started to ware off. The pain was getting worse and worse with every passing minute. I could feel everything. 

Finally they pulled this AMAZING little person from me. We cried tears joy. Unfortunately, the pain got continually worse. I was offered laughing gas to take the edge off. It didn't even come close to helping. I shut my mouth and held on for dear life. I was not about to be put under. I DID NOT want that for either of us. It was excruciating; the worst pain I've ever felt. Worse than the 26 hours of labor and pushing with my 1st... by far

The hubs has video of Frankie's first moments. I have yet to watch it because you can hear me in the background making sounds I didn't know I was capable of making.

It's hard for me to look back now at what I missed because of the immense pain I was in. I wish I could have been able bask in the glow from the moment she entered the world.

We certainly made up for it in the hours following her birth though. Every moment spent with her is heaven sent. My heart is so full.

So there it is... Frankie's birth. Not what I thought it would be... but I'd do it again in a heartbeat to have this little girl in my life. Obviously.