The original plan was to have Benjamin via c-section on the 14th of December. However, my stomach measured larger than normal consistently and at 35 weeks my doctor guessed he already weighed 8 lbs. Because of this she decided I should have an ultra sound at the end of my pregnancy to measure his size and check the efficiency of the placenta. I had the ultra sound on the 9th of December and the amniotic fluid measured lower than normal. That can be a warning sign the he was outgrowing the placenta and there could be a chance of him not getting enough nutrients. After talking with the ultra sound technician, doing a non-stress test, and discussing it with the doctor the c-section was rescheduled for Thursday, December 10th at 7:30am.
I was ecstatic! I had stopped being able to sleep at night because of discomfort, nerves, and contractions. The days were dragging on, I was tired and unable to take care of Zack as well as I’d like to. When I learned I wouldn’t have to wait another 5 long days I was completely thrilled!
I quickly got on the phone and began scheduling babysitters for Zack. I packed all our bags and then we went out to dinner as a family to celebrate. Then we headed over to my parents house to sleep because we wanted to stay with Zackie as long as possible but had to leave at 5:30am for the hospital.
We chatted with my parents for awhile and went to bed around 10:30. At about 1:00 I woke up in complete pain from contractions. I thought for sure I was just nervous for the upcoming events and my nerves were causing the contractions to come. I tried everything to calm down but couldn’t seem to do it. The pain just got worse and worse, eventually I threw up and really started wondering if I was that nervous. I didn’t sleep the whole night…I just tried to rest. Zackie didn’t sleep much either, he totally knew something big was going on. Of course he being totally attached to his Grandpa spent half the night calling for him (ya, not for mom, for Grandpa!:) When I’d go in to talk to him he kept asking me if it was morning yet so he could play with Grandpa! I don’t think he slept very deeply at all until Grandpa went in to lay by him. What a cute little kiddo…so in love with his Grandpa, I love it!
At 5:00am, a half hour before we were supposed to leave for our SCHEDULED c-section, my water broke! It was a pleasant surprise because then I knew it wasn’t just nerves that were keeping me awake and giving me contractions, my body was actually trying to go into labor. I knew it wasn’t any rush so we got ready and left at 5:30 like we had originally planned on.
Trent and I were talking on our way to the hospital about how blessed we were that everything happened the way it did. Whether or not we had rescheduled the c-section my water would have broke. But if we hadn’t gotten that ultra sound and rescheduled the surgery we wouldn’t have had our bags packed (I was refusing to pack them because I felt like that meant I was getting my hopes up that he’d come early…I didn’t believe we had a chance of that!) We also wouldn’t have been sleeping at my parents house and had someone all set up to watch Zack, my mom wouldn’t have gotten a substitute for her class so she could come with us to the hospital without any problems…it was like we got to plan for something we had no idea would happen. Such a blessing since I love to have things all planned out so much. Someone upstairs must know me really well!
Since my water had broken I began wondering if that meant I should try having a VBAC. To be honest I wasn’t excited about the idea at all, so far my body hadn’t shown any signs of true labor progression so I doubted that anything had changed just because of a few contractions and my water breaking. I talked it over with the nurse and when she checked me she confirmed my suspicions. My cervix was closed, the baby hadn’t dropped and I wasn’t effaced or dilated at all. The nurse said it was pretty much impossible for me to deliver him vaginally with all of those things working against me…not to mention that their estimate on his weight from the ultra sound was 10 lbs 2 oz! I was relieved to have such a clear cut suggestion from them to go ahead with the c-section as planned. I didn’t want to be feeling guilty later for not at least giving labor a try again.
The c-section went amazingly well. To be honest I was completely terrified of having a c-section again. It was a very difficult and scary experience with Zack. I was terrified of it being like that again. However, it was COMPLETELY different. I actually enjoyed the experience which is the last thing in the world I expected to happen!
I was able to just walk calmly into the operating room, they did all the preparations there. I received a spinal block this time (whereas with Zack I had an epidural) and it was much more effective. I could feel everything they were doing when they delivered Zack but this time I didn’t even know they had started the surgery until Trent told me they had. When the spinal block first began working was probably the hardest part of the whole experience. It is common for this to happen to people but when the spinal block medicine went into my system it made my blood pressure drop very low very quickly. It was a scary feeling, suddenly I felt like I was going to pass out and had excruciating pain in my upper shoulders. I felt like I was going to throw up and began dry heaving (no wonder they don’t let you eat before surgery!). The nurse was really good and talked to me throughout the whole process to help me stay conscious of what was going on. She asked me what we were going to name the baby and all kinds of questions about him, it was the perfect thing for her to talk to me about because he was the whole reason I was going through it all and it reminded me that it was all worth it!
After my blood pressure went back up to normal levels I was able to calm down and felt normal again. I was able to talk to Trent and the doctors the whole way through the surgery. They didn’t strap my hands down or put me on oxygen like they did for my first c-section so I just sort of felt like I was my normal self while they did the surgery. Trent was able to hold my hand and tell me what was going on throughout the whole process. When they pulled him out it was like a huge celebration! All the doctors were just laughing and amazed at how BIG he was. He actually didn’t cry when he was born and that made me worried because I wanted to hear that he was ok…but hearing the doctors laughing and being so happy about it calmed me down immediately. They just couldn’t stop talking about how huge he was and his big head…hehe! It took a few minutes before I was finally able to hear him, I guess he just came out whimpering and it was so loud in the room I wasn’t able to hear it. Eventually he let out a few little screams but he never did cry much at all.
As soon as they knew he was stable and had him all wrapped up they gave him to Trent and he was able to bring him over to me, that was when I saw him for the first time. He was PERFECT! The first thing I noticed were how big and chubby his cute little cheeks were! I loved feeling his soft skin that already had such good color, I could already tell he was going to be so handsome! I was totally shocked at how MUCH hair he had and how DARK it was. He did seem like he had just been through something very difficult (go figure I guess!) and he had his eyebrows all scrunched into a very stressed looking face and he just lay in his daddy’s arms and moaned and grunted. He just looked so innocent and perfect. I loved being able to look at his cute face and hands. The doctors were a little worried about his breathing though so after a few short minutes they took him out of the room so they could monitor him more closely. Trent went with him and the doctors finished stitching me up. I went into my hospital room where both Grandma’s were waiting for us to come back. They were a little disappointed that he wasn’t able to come with me but it was nice to have them there when I got into the room.
After about a half hour they tested him and his blood sugars were low. They wanted to feed him a bottle but I was able to talk them into bringing him to me so I could nurse him. They didn’t let me take my time, they had me nurse him quickly and immediately took him away again but it sure was nice to FINALLY be able to hold him! He snuggled right up close to me and nursed like he’d done it a million times before.
I had to wait a few more hours for them to monitor him. I was so anxious to see him but since he spent so much time moaning and grunting and had such a stressed look on his face I knew he really wasn’t feeling well and it brought comfort to me knowing that they were monitoring him very closely to make sure he was staying healthy. At around 1:00 that afternoon they brought him to me and we were able to finally spend some quality time with him. He spent the rest of the day and that night moaning and grunting all day. He was wide awake most of the day which seemed strange for a newborn. I guess he was just very anxious to discover this new world he was in. He looked into our faces and all around the room. He was so interested in everything. He stayed up most of the night and I ended up having him go to the nursery so I could get a little sleep and recover some more from the surgery. It wasn’t until around 11:00am the next morning that he started acting like a normal newborn. He finally stopped grunting and making that sad stressed out face. He settled down and went into his first really deep sleep that I’d seen…and now a couple days later he’s still been spending the whole day sleeping. He is so good about nursing and loves to be snuggled tight and close. He is such a beautiful and perfect baby, I am so excited to spend the rest of my life getting to know this cute/perfect little boy I’ve been given!
All the cousins together
The Power kids.
Bradley
Connor
Halley
