The story of John's birth-Written 1-27-2011

John was born on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011. A week before he was due, we did an ultrasound and had our last visit with the OB. Due to a variety of reasons, we decided it was in mine and my baby's best interest to schedule a C-Section for the 18th. I was pretty nervous about the thought, but had a lot of reassurance from friends and my mother who experienced C-Sections which helped me feel a little more at ease.

We got to triage and they greeted me like an old friend! I was in there shortly after Christmas with a preeclampsia scare and then again about ten days before I gave birth after slipping on some ice walking from the parking lot to my office for monitoring. The nurses came and took some blood and I was pretty much sitting around with my husband and my mom waiting to be hooked up.

My OB came in without even taking the time to take her coat off. I was pretty impressed by it. She was aggravated that no one hooked me up to the monitor and did it herself with my mom's help. She talked to me a little and left to get ready. Then, the nurses came back and asked who hooked me up and were surprised to hear it was the OB. We waited awhile and watched "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant."

Finally, they told my husband it was time for him to get ready to go into the OR with me. Well, he chickened out and my mom decided to go in with me. Usually, the dads leave with the baby after they get them out, so they'd have him waiting for the baby to leave the room. It really ended up being the best choice for us.

So, just before they took me to the ER, one of the nurses said hi to me. Ends up that she and I went to school together from 5th to 12th grade! She hugged me and then I was all ready to go. I was taken to the OR. They wouldn't let my mom in until after they gave me a spinal. The spinal was kind of scary. They kind of numb you with a topical thing, but it didn't take full effect and I had pain on my right side, but they stopped, put some more on and then the rest went in pain free. I felt like I could throw up, but I didn't. I cried a lot, but mostly out of fear more than anything. They made me put my arms out in a cross shaped and anesthesiologist spent a lot of time reassuring me. Finally, they called my mom in and she sat at my right holding my hand and talking to me to get my mind off things.

It didn't take them too long to take John out. He arrived at 10:59 AM. He screamed and peed on the doctors. They cleaned him off and showed him to me. When they put him to my face, he immediately stopped crying and looked right at me. It was really a magical, love at first sight, sort of moment. It was the most incredible moment of my life.

They took him away with my husband and my mom kept right with me as they closed me up and on to the recovery room. Towards the end, my husband came to the recovery room and told me how our son was doing and how everyone thought he was so beautiful. He told me the baby was 9lbs, 11ozs and 21 inches long.

After recovery, our whole family was waiting for us. My dad, brother, two sisters, mother, father and sister-in-laws were waiting to meet our son. They let them all in my room and brought my baby to me. He's pretty amazing. I think he is the most beautiful baby I ever saw, but don't all moms think that? He's definately cuter than either my husband or I were as babies. He nursed real well.

However, they kept taking his blood sugar and no matter how hard I nursed, his numbers kept dropping. I didn't have GD, so it was a surprise to us. They took him in the evening to the nursery to keep an eye on him. He wasn't getting better and in the middle of the night, the nurse woke me up to tell me that he'd been transferred to NICU and wrote their number down so I could check on him at any time. He was placed on IV fluids to get his sugar stablized. I was really lucky that first night with my nurse, Rose. She went to grade school with one of my aunts and they're still good friends. She requested to be my nurse and would talk to me about my family and the things she did with my aunt which really put me at ease and made me feel better.

The next day, I let people take me to NICU as often as possible. It was hard on my mom to go there with me as my little sister spent a significant amount of time in the same NICU 22 years before and it brought up a lot of hard memories for her, but she did it and I really appreciated it.

I was mobile by Thursday and was able to walk down whenver myself and I did. My baby was doing great and got off the IV and was eating well and his sugars were stablizing. The baby blues hit me really hard that day. The hospital photographer came to take a picture of my baby and I had to turn him away. I started crying and was totally inconsolable. My sister called within the hour and as soon as I talked to her, I started crying some more and couldn't stop. She's in college, but she arranged to skip her class, picked up my mom and the two of them consoled me and it really helped. They left and my aunt came and it was the same thing. I couldn't stop crying and she helped me through it. I tried to stay away from NICU when I felt my worst to keep those feelings away from my son, but as soon as I'd work through them, I'd visit him again.

My son continued to get better and I did too on Friday morning. I spent a lot of time in NICU. So much so that when I was holding my son, I was so tired his nurse knew I was nodding off and talked me into going back to my room to take a nap. Friday night though, I had a really tough time of it and couldn't stop crying or get to sleep. The nurse and the CNA both consoled me and I got a sleeping pill to help me rest. At this point, I probably had not had four hours uninterupted sleep since I learned I was pregnant and not had a decent night's sleep in three months. I managed to get five hours in and felt better. I know the way I was feeling was no good for either me or my baby and needed to get myself together to take care of him.

Saturday, we were both set to leave. My nurse Lisa was great and let me keep my room until they released my son. My husband was great too. He made sure I went back to my room for lunch around noon and for a drink of water around 2 pm. They called in the hospital photographer to take pictures of him. Then, he got off his monitors, they took his pictures and we were off about 4 pm.

The first night home was a difficult one. I never in my life was so glad to see the sun rise. My in-laws came and we all watched the football game, but when they went to leave, I was crying again and my mother-in-law let me know she knew I went through a lot and the last few days were really hard and that she too felt that way after delivering her daughter. I felt better, but towards the end of the night was inconsolable and had to have my mom come over and rock me to sleep.  She told me that we'd be keeping a close eye on it, but I should feel better within a week. My husband then made me get a decent night sleep the next two evenings and took over our son's care.

We took the baby to the peditrician's on Monday and she assured us that he was doing perfectly well. I teared up again and we spent a lot of time with my baby's doctor who let us know he was doing okay, that we were doing well with him and be easier on myself.

Yesterday was the first day I felt like myself again and didn't end up crying. I feel good for the first time in months. I am so happy to have my son with me and to be able to wrap my arms around him anytime I want. I was pleasantly surprise how well I'm physically healing from my C-Section and how much better the C-Section experience was than I had expected it to be. I am surprised about how hard the blues were on me and never wish to be in that sort of emotional pain ever again. I feel very lucky to have a loving family who have been caring for both my baby's and my needs. I have never loved my husband more than I do now and I know how lucky John and I are to have him in our lives.