ferrousland.com - diary archives
Saturday, September 20, 2003
the caesarian - 07:24 PM
on thursday the 11th of spetember, i went to my obstetrician appointment as usual. at my last appointment he'd told that he was going to do an ultrasound & an internal examination to find out about this second placenta deal once & for all, which he wasn't able to do the previous week.
when i went in there, i sat up on the examination table & he noted my swollen ankles. they were actually pretty good at the time, most nights lately they'd been looking like elephant's legs. he took my blood pressure as usual, only this time it wasn't as usual. it was higher than it had been before. he had on his worried face by now, so he sent me down the hall to pee in a cup. when i brought it back to him, he tested it & found there was protein in my urine. later on after i'd been in hostpital a few days, he also told me that i was quite red in the face.
all these things are some of the symptoms of pre-eclampsia. he sat me down & said, "so, what are you doing tonight?" i said, "i'm guessing i'm having a caesarian," & he told me that yes, indeed, that was the plan.
i was sent downstairs to have some blood taken for cross-matching, just in case there were any troubles during the caesar, then i went back upstairs to find out what time that night i was going to meet our baby.
i was told that i was to be at the hospital at 4pm & that the operation would be a couple of hours after that. i used the phone at the obstetrician's to call shroom at work. "how are you?" i said. "good, good," he said. after one or two more sentences of small talk, i sprung it on him with, "so .. how do you feel about having a baby tonight?"
"when?!"
"tonight. we have to be at the hospital by four."
since i had the car, i arranged to come to collect him from work straight away & we'd head home to pick up just a couple of things which weren't already in the car. we had about half an hour at home, in which time i called mum & dad & my sister, monica to let them know i was going in that night for a caesar.
initially, i was quite excited about finally being able to meet our baby, i wasn't concerned about the whole major abdominal surgery thing at all, but after we jumped in the car & got closer & closer to the hospital, it weighed more heavily on my mind. by the time we reached the hospital, i was feeling rather apprehensive. by the time we were settled in my room, i was plain unhappy & ready to have a small cry. shroom was good & gave me nice hugs.
i changed into my gorgeous (*cough!*) hospital gown & we waited. at about 6:15pm the anaesthetist & his assistant turned up & asked me the usual questions about allergies etc. they then walked me to the room where the caesar would take place & showed shroom where he could put on the blue gown, cap, mask & cute little booties to cover his street clothes. when he came into the room i was already on the operating table & they were preparing me for the epidural.
i was really anxious by this stage & i made sure that shroom was holding my hand or at least touching me while i lay on my side & scrunched into as tight a ball as i could, as instructed, as the epidural was placed. it didn't really hurt, except for the initial sting & perhaps a pushing sensation or two & in a few seconds i began to feel my left leg go numb. it felt very much like the carpal tunnel syndrome which i'd been having during the later part of the pregnancy. my right leg followed, but a little slower. i was worried for a moment that it wasn't going to completely 'take' but once they began to pump the morphine into me i wasn't worried about a thing.
in seconds i was as high as a kite! i began with a slow giggle & then started slurring my words, barely able to get the words out sometimes. i didn't feel a thing of the operation. i could have been lying there having a pedicure for all i knew.
in fact, after getting so worked up about the operation & then having the effects of the morphine on top of that, when i heard a baby cry a very fast ten minutes later, i wondered why there was a baby in the room with the ten other people & then slurred out loud, "oh! that's right. i'd forgotten that the whole point of this thing was get a baby out of it!"
i was too off my nut to be terribly excited straight away & both shroom & i didn't even think to ask if we'd had a boy or a girl, but then they lifted our baby into the air so that we could see him over the screen & showed us that yes, he was very much a boy.
they took him over to the side under a heat lamp thing & performed the various tests which are standard, as well as weighing him. shroom followed them over there while they continued doing caesarian things to me, such as, i assume, removing the placenta.
eventually they wrapped our baby son in a blanket & lay him on my chest. the only part of him that was exposed was his face, so i brought my hand up around the back of his head & stroked his tiny, softest of soft cheek with my little finger. he was still crying, but (as jade pointed out later when viewing an mpeg which shroom had made with our digital camera) he quieted down considerably when i spoke to him, telling him how gorgeous he was.
they took him out to the recovery room, & shroom followed them to make sure he was all happy, where they put him in a special temperature & oxygen controlled crib. after stitching me up & taking me out there as well, they explained that he was in there because he was a bit cold & that his breathing was a little laboured, very often an effect of the epidural drugs.
eventually they wheeled me back to my room & took our beautiful new son to the special care nursery to monitor him for a while. i wouldn't get to see him until the next morning. i pined for him all night.
you can see the pictures which correspond to this diary entry here.
I cried when they kept Jade in the nursery and took me to my ward. I was so relieved later that morning when they brought her in to me.
Wow, that's pretty much how I imagined a C-section to be. Thanks, never had anyone describe it before. I gave birth naturally with all 3 kids, no drugs at all. Those epidurals sound nice! With the exception of our first son, who stayed in hospital a week after his birth due to complications of pre-eclamsia and bleeding, I was brought my second and third babies only 2 afters after giving birth. It was hard to be up all night straight away like that caring for them, but I do treasure the bonding time.
Like you though, the hardest was being away from my first born for a week while he was treated in hospital. You go from having him inside of you to someone taking him away out of your sight, and your heart aches. You can't help but cry, even my husband cried. It is traumatic to have the baby away from you at first, but when you're together again everything is right in the world. You have Riley with you now, and will for many many years to come!
Congrats on becoming 3 and I hope everyone is doing well. Glad to hear the C-section went ok. Get some rest and enjoy your new son.
A real family. Everything changes now. Isn't it great???
Congratulations you two must be so happy and proud of your new baby son...I wish you all the happiness in the future for all three of you.
I started crying too when you said about laying him on your chest and stroking his cheek. It reminded me of when our two were born and I did the same then.
How beautiful. Congratulations to the new Mum & Dad!
Whoa! I saw a "C" on TV once... yikes. But I guess it is different when the baby is yours.
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oh man, i'm so emotional at the moment. as i was writing the last part about how i didn't see him that whole first night, i began to cry. then i began again when i read it over to check the spelling.