Our newest arrival - Baby G

On April 17th, at 7:47am, a precious baby was born, a BOY!  He weighed 8lbs, 14oz and was 20.5 inches long.  

I have shared with you my birth story with my first-born, I want to share my birth story from this time with Baby G.  I didn't think I'd have a reason to, it was still a scheduled c-section.  So I was thinking it was going to be the same as the others, pretty routine - Go in, remove baby, sew me up.  But it wasn't, and not in a bad way!  R's birth was my worst experience, this one was by far the best.

Rewind to Thursday morning.  Mr. P and I were up late the night before doing last minute stuff around the house to prepare for being gone all week and weekend.  So Thursday morning, we slept in a little - oops!  Just about 15 minutes.  Mr. P did his animal chores, I got ready and finished packing and tried not to think about my full bladder (the hospital requests a urine sample upon arrival, and since I couldn't eat or drink anything, I needed to hold it!).  Got to the hospital about 15 minutes late.  They got me in a gown, did all the vital signs, hooked me up to monitors and tried to get an IV started.  

Now, I'm a smaller woman, maybe considered dainty and so my hands are small and bony.  It took three excruciating tries to get my IV started.  Painful!

Once that was done and the fluids were started, I requested to speak to the anesthesiologist.  I had a miserable time with the spinal+morphine with my last birth and I wanted to see what my alternatives were.  The anesthesiologist was not the one I had for the two previous births, but he was still knowledgeable and informative.  He suggested adjusting the medicine cocktail a little and then using a different drug to control the itching instead of Benedryl.  This drug hasn't been available for years (it wasn't an option when my first son was born almost 4 years ago) because it's been on backorder.  But, they just got it in last week and after he explained the side effects of the alternatives, we decided to go that route.  I am so thankful that he took the time to listen to my concerns and come up with a solution that would work better for me.  

Surgery time!  My parents hadn't arrived yet with my other kids, but it was ok.  We walked back to the OR and I got all drugged up and prepped.  I told the nurses and doctors that we didn't know what we were having and I wanted my husband to get to announce the gender - call me old-fashioned, but I thought it was cool.  

Surgery started and Mr. P leaned over and said, "Ok, the baby's almost here!"  And then we waited.  And waited.  And I kept feeling them jostle me.  And more jostling.  I was starting to get seasick from the jostling.  Finally after 5-10 minutes of jostling (and hearing the term "vacuum") I heard the cries.  Mr. P looks then says to me, "You have a baby boy, Mama."  He didn't really announce it so the nurses were a little afraid to say anything for fear of giving it away.  He finally did say it loud enough for everyone to hear and the nurses all cheered.  

All the jostling was not just my imagination.  Little G had decided that he wasn't ready to be born yet, he was just fine where he was, thankyouverymuch.  They could not get his head through the incision!  After many attempts they used the vacuum to pull his head out.  During all this jostling and pulling, G pooped, which as most moms know, pooping before birth is bad.   So, they had to do quite a bit of clean up and checking to make sure he hadn't aspirated any poop into his lungs.  Thankfully, he hadn't, so they cleaned him up and did the measurements.  Mr. P heard them say "seven four seven" and thought that was the weight - 7lbs, 4.7oz.  Our other kids were in the 7 pound range, so it wasn't unusual, but I did think this one was bigger than the others, so I was a little surprised.  Our first, and smallest, was 7lbs, 4oz.  Then a couple of minutes later, they called Daddy over to take a picture of G on the scale.  We were a little confused because we thought that part was over.  Then they announced the weight - 8lbs, 14oz.  15 ounces bigger than B, my biggest!  Not chunky, just not a scrawny as my others, for sure!

Then comes my favorite part of the story.  Back in July or August of 2013, there was a news story that my hospital had become the first in the metro to offer skin-to-skin after a c-section.  Imagine my delight since we'd just found out we were pregnant!  So, I did request this at the time of surgery, but I didn't know what that really meant.  I was hoping for just some special bonding time out of the burrito blankets.  It was more that I felt like Mr. P got more time with the babies after they were born than I did.  And I did all the work to get them there!  So, they laid this sweet baby, still a little goopy on my bare chest.  

And then I knew what all the hype was about.  There is something about feeling this baby on the outside that does something to a mom.  He did the "breast crawl" already trying to root (no nursing during surgery unfortunately).  And he was content.  No warming lamps, just me and him and a lot of blankets.  I knew they were stitching me up and Mr. P was kinda looking lost, waiting for them to take G and put him in the nursery to do the rest of the checks and such.  He finally asked the nurse and she said, oh no, he'll stay with you through surgery into recovery.  Mom needs to nurse him as soon as she gets to her recovery room and then he needs to be skin to skin with either you or Mom for 2-4 hours.  

TWO to FOUR hours?!  We were absolutely forbidden to pass him around.  No nurses were going to be taking him and poking him for 4 hours!  I have no idea how long it took to sew me back together.  Time stood still during that surgery.  I remember almost nothing about what else was going on around me, just this sweet boy who already felt comfortable with me.  He knew me and felt safe, and despite the rocky birth, he was going to be ok because he had his mama.  

Mr. P left at some point to give the news to our kids and my parents.  We took them to Build-a-Bear a couple weeks ago and let them make a bear for the baby.  They each put a heart in it and helped stuff it.  We bought a girl t-shirt and a boy t-shirt for the bear and Mr. P gave them the correct shirt to put on the bear.  They were a little excited about having another little boy around the house.  

After surgery, they wheeled me into my room and I got situated to start nursing.  He took to it right away, perfect latch, first try.  He hasn't had a perfect latch every time, but it's an easy fix and he's really rocking this breastfeeding thing.  

The rest of the hospital stay was awesome.  The hospital got a new caterer (small facility, so they cater meals in), even though I thought the last one was fine.  The new caterer was amazing.  Really good food, which I was actually able to eat now that I'd had the bowling ball removed from my abdomen!  The nurses were great and took great care of all of us.  We did butter them up by bringing eggs from the farm to share.  Nothing wrong with being nice!  And before I knew it, it was time to go home with this little bundle.  

I am so very thankful for my birth experience this time around.  If you are a c-section mama, start a dialog with your hospital about skin-to-skin after delivery.  My hospital has seen healthier babies with less need for warmers and other monitoring just from this simple change.  I also think my nursing experience and his overall temperament has been better because of it.  There's plenty of studies that show the benefits of skin-to-skin after vaginal deliveries, those benefits don't go away just because you have a c-section.  

This is my story.  An experience I will never forget.