After the IV was set, fluids were dripping, and most other preparations were made, we were informed that I would likely not be the scheduled noon c-section. Another mother with gestational diabetes was waiting on test results to determine if she had priority over me. Our go-time was looking more like 3pm if my doc could make the proper arrangements.
NBD. I could wait a few more hours. Then we were told that I’d been pushed to 5pm–another “more urgent” situation came up and now two c-sections needed the operating room before me.
I was given a generous cup of ice water to keep me satisfied for five hours and we decided that Devin didn’t need to be there. So he left to do some shopping near by while I settled in for a nap.
About an hour and a half later (around 1:30pm) my nap was interrupted by two nurses waking me to tell me baby’s heart rate had dropped. We went through the dance of “turn this way…no turn to the other side…sit up…lay down…lean more to that side” all with my hands to the sky to allow for frantic adjustments of the fetal monitors gelled to my stomach. The four nurses successfully got baby’s heart rate to resume to its initial speed but not without some remaining concern. In a matter of a few minutes they were scrubbing down and prepping for surgery. I made a panicked call to Devin who luckily was only ten minutes away. A nurse reassured me they wouldn’t start without him.
A big difference with this delivery is that I probably wasn’t in labor. (I couldn’t tell since I’d been contracting every day for months). Therefore, the spinal block was done in the operating room instead of in the laboring room. In other words, it was without Devin. When I realized that was the case, I got more nervous but a sweet nurse gave me a pillow to hug and her hands to squeeze. The process was a breeze and hardly hurt at all. A few minutes later Devin was with me and the blue curtain was up.
Everything was going great. Pressure was as expected. I was surprised, however, that I became sleepy from the block. I was sleepy with Katelyn and Abby but always thought it was because I went into it exhausted. You learn something new every time.
A few minutes into surgery I started to feel nauseous. That made me nervous as I thought I’d have to fight the urge to throw up the entire time. But the anesthesiologist gave me a couple syringes of meds in my IV and in seconds it went away. Awesome.
Then the moment came and our little Jacob became part of our lives…
You are so strong!!!