Birth Story

So even though I gave birth about 3 months ago, it's never too late for a good birth story.

For starters, I don't believe in birth plans. They will never go your way. You know, Murphy's law kind of thing? I knew as I inched towards my due date that I would just have to go with the flow. This helped out pretty well when I was told that the safest thing for me and baby, would be to have a C section. I really wanted a vaginal birth, and it was important to me as a woman, to actually birth my child but obviously that didn't happen.

The day before my C section

We got to the hospital right on time at 7:30am and I changed into my gown, and got strapped up with my fetal monitor gear. My stomach was twisted up with nerves, and the sounds of the baby's heartbeat filling the room was a constant reminder that his arrival was right around the corner. My nurse wheeled me into the OR, where she helped the anesthesiologist prep me for my epidural. She was extremely kind, and loaded me up with warm blanket, a pillow and her shoulders to lean on while I got The Needle. The epidural was uncomfortable, but not terrible. The anesthesiologist warned me that it would set in quickly, and to try and keep calm when I realized I was numb. It was the strangest feeling. I remember looking down at the nurse picking up and bending one of my knee's, and in my head I was thinking, "who's leg is that?" Obviously it was mine, but you get the idea.

And then it was time! The blue curtain went up and my doctor arrived. He leaned over the curtain asking how I was doing, and I said fine. He responded with "I'm pinching you with the clamps right now, can you feel it?" Not. A. Thing. That was even weirder. So they began, and I waited patiently, wondering how long it would take. Not five minutes later did I start to feel the pressure. It started out slight, and I could tell by the movement of the curtain that they were tugging and pulling. And then it became a little overwhelming. The pressure I felt was exactly as they'd described it, like an elephant was sitting on my chest. But then I heard that cry, and that's when my own tears came. I looked to my right and there he was, as beautiful as ever. All of the sonogram pictures I had up until that point, and there he was in real life.

Immediately following his removal, I had some intense chest pain. The anesthesiologist noticed my discomfort and injected some medicine into my IV which put me into Wonderland with Alice for a while, but it wore off and soon I was all stitched up. Langston rode with me back into the recovery room where his bed was right next to mine. My biggest fear was that after having a C section, they would keep the baby while I was in recovery. I was so relieved that this hospital kept him with me at all times, even giving him his first bath in the room with me.

Eventually we made our way up to the room, where we spent a couple sleepless nights until we got to leave and go to the comfort of our own home.