Lights, catheter, ACTION!!!!

So I never really got to talk about this whole birthing experience....



Completely different and opposite in almost every way....



You know, I really didn't know what to expect the first few hours after the amnio that I had done on friday at the hospital.... Dr had said by the looks of the fluid, he didn't think it looked mature enough (meaning he didn't think baby's lungs were going to be mature enough to be born on monday). So I started not counting on the csection for monday morning (even though it was already scheduled, it could very easily be cancelled by dr).... So I started feeling like none of this was going to go through and I'd probably end up just waiting until I labored naturally because I had been poked and stuck so many times, and waited for so many hours for all this "pre-surgery" testing.... I figured there wasn't going to be any point to doing it all again, given that my due date was within the next 3 weeks anyhow....
(hilarious by the way, that as I'm typing this, little man is knocked out on me, laughing in his sleep.... Yes, laughing.... )



Soooo.... After a few hours of waiting for the "lung maturity" results.... (Which,by the way could have taken up to 12 hrs), I get a call from dr, while in the drive thru line at in-n-out.... Through all the crackling and cutting in and out (he was at a family picnic dinner) he says "it's all a go for monday morning.... It's mature!" .... WOW!!! Reality starts sinking in.... Baby boy is comin in T minus 3 days!!!! What needs to be done still?? It's just an intense feeling knowing that you'll be holding your baby.... On the OUTSIDE of ur stomach, rather than feeling all those "knock the wind out of you" kicks to the ribs!!! (Mmmmm.... Ribs sound soo good right now.... Houstons has the absolute best ribs by the way!!!) Okay back to baby....



So sunday night comes. Tears are flowing for reasons unknown (probably a combination of hormones and nervousness about the surgery).... So here I am packing our bag for a "4 day stay." (That's the guess-timated stay time for our situation).... So.... I packed a diaper bag, and our duffle bag.... And prepared for the next morning....



And the next morning comes.... And like clockwork, I wake up just a few minutes before the alarm goes off at 345 am.... I sit at the edge of the bed and my eyes fill with tears.... Half happy tears, the other half nervous tears.... I don't know what to expect.... I don't know what kind of recovery we're looking at.... A normal recovery for csection is around 6 weeks or longer maybe.... And what about with a separated pelvic bone? God please just let's get through this a step at a time....



So we arrive at the hospital, a few minutes before 6 am.... And head straight up to labor and delivery on the 5th floor.... Jason pushes the intercom button and in we walk, only to find more than half of the night staff remembering me.... I hear a loud "IT ISSSSS HER!!!!" Since my last name was hyphenated on one of the papers, they were all wondering if it was ME (their old night clerical coordinator) coming in to have this baby.... So Jen, a super sweet nurse, got us all situated and set up and began monitoring his heart rate (which took a few dips with contractions, so we had to end up leaving the monitors on the entire time rather than just 20 minutes like originally planned....) The anesthesiologist comes in to talk to me (low and behold I know him too!) =). The gang arrives (my mom, poppa, my auntie diana, grammy, and taylor).... They are told where to wait and that the surgery will take about 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish and then I'll be in recovery for an hour and then up to our room....



They come in and wheel us back to the OR (operating room), just Jason and I. They have Jason go off to the recovery room to put the white jumpsuit on, blue OR hat and yellow face mask.... I didn't know that they'd just wheel me right off to the OR.... I only gave him a quick kiss before I was off.... And then.... Into the OR.... SUPER BIG, BRIGHT lights lit up the entire room.... It was sooo cold, it felt like we stepped into a huge fridge (or like you walked into one of the giant freezer sections at costco). It instantly sent shivers over me.... And all I had on was a gown and some socks. The surgical tech and my nurse were the only 2 people in there, aside from the anesthesiologist who walked in a few short moments later.... The nurse helps me onto my side and the medicine man wastes no time starting the epidural.... "You might fill a small pinch" I hear him say.... And a pinch is felt.... "You might feel another" and I feel another.... "Now you shouldn't feel pain, but you will feel pressure." No pain, just pressure was felt.... Now you might feel a shock down your right leg. That's completely normal." I felt two. He was dead on.... Everytime.... Then he does the "pin prick test.". "Tell me when u can feel the pin." And he begins poking me from my waist up.... Right side was good.... Couldn't feel it til he was at my breast.... Left side I felt about halfway up.... Nurse (no longer Jen, but now day nurse)says "we are going to put in the catheter now that you are numb." OKAY!!!! I have no choice! I can't move my lower part of my body (anything below my boobs).... So, this OR table is pretty freakin awesome.... Kinda NASA material or something. They push all these buttons and suddenly my head is lower than my feet.... By a lot.... I'm leaning to the left. (At a pretty steep angle) I felt like I was sliding off the table but I wasn't even moving.... WEIRD!!!! I'm shaking horribly because it's cold and because the medicine was totally taking over and that's just a side effect from the medication. I mean, shaking to the point where my arms were jumping around.... I have my or hat on, my gown pulled all the way up to my chest.... The only body part NOT revealed were my boobs.... So here I am bare stomach and below, catheter hanging off the side, arms jumping around, my eyes were rolling (just the meds kickin in), my head lower than my feet and leaning waaaaaay over to the left and they are about to bring Jason into the OR.... My blood pressure dropped suuuuper low so they had to push some meds for that. I remember telling the medicine dr to please reassure my husband that everything was normal.... Everything that happened to me was normal. The low blood pressure, the shakes, my eyes rolling like they were.... I was soooo worried about jason coming in and seeing me like that!!!! But in he came.... He looked soo worried. Asked me over and over again if I was alright.... Wiped the tears that were sneaking out of the corners of my eyes.... I could hear the loud beeping behind my head of all the machines and my own heart rate, I wanted so badly to just keep my eyes on jason's face, but my eyes kept rolling all around the room. I do remember his face. I remember him leaning in to my cheek and kissing me through his mask... I remember his fingers on my cheeks, all multiple times.... I could feel the constant tugging and pulling, and pressure.... But no real pain.... I could hear the doctors talking back and forth, almost as if just small talk, about who had what.... And then I heard him (the dr) say "just a few more seconds til baby.". So I waited as they tugged and pulled and pushed. The anesthesiologist reached for the mirror and I told him no... I wasn't quite ready to see my uterus outside of my body and on my upper chest.... A few more hard tugs and pulls and there he was.... A few seconds (which feel like minutes) when you're waiting to hear your baby's first cry.... "We have a boy!!!" Well duuuh! We knew we were having a boy. =). Jason immediately went over to the warmer and began snapping photos of our little man.... Brought the camera back over to show me our boy.... Soo adorable!!! I remember looking up at the ceiling so that my ears were unmuffled and I could hear his cry the best.... And as I looked up at the ceiling there was a reflective part on the ceiling that revealed my flesh tone skin and a large, red gaping incision in my abdomen.... I could SEE the cut! It wasn't exactly like looking into the mirror, but it was pretty darn close....jason brought him over to my side so I could touch his cheeks and kiss his face.... He asked "what's his name mama?" I couldn't see him well enough to pick his name.... I told Jason to pick his name.... He looked at him and said "it's Lewis mama. He looks like a Lewis...."


Our little Lewis Raymond King was born at 0810 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.... He was as healthy as he could possibly be, for being born at 36 weeks and 4 days.... (Nearly a month early).... How blessed we are!!!!


And they stapled me up and pulled down the curtain and asked me if I wanted to hold our boy.... I did. And I continued to shake so hard. I wanted Jason to hold him.... So we moved into recovery. I had no pain at all. Just the shakes.... I got to hold him and kiss him. They checked him all over and he was great. He would be staying with us in recovery.... I was in love again. Love at first sight. I was in love with Jason all over again, and seeing him with our boy. He was so attentive and held his little hands and kissed him and whispered into his ear.... I loved my husband even more (which I didn't think was possible)....



Upstairs we went to our room.... We brought taylor in with us first for a little bit so she could hold her brother and see him first.... This was the first time as our new family of four.... I was exhausted.... But you kind of just run on adrenaline for awhile.... Wanting to see and hold your new addition.... You sort of don't feel pain, or feel as tired as you probably should be....



Everyone else came in to see our new boy.... And hold him and wow! Just wow. What an entirely different experience! You go in and 45 minutes later there's a baby.... Not like the 12 hours it took with Taylor.... The waiting to see how far dilated you are and all that, although I must admit, it is very exciting that way!!! =). I was just as excited to meet our little man....



We ended up staying until friday, mid morning.... So from monday through friday. Overall, I had pretty great nurses.... I had one of the nurses I worked with before up on labor and delivery come down to visit on a "horrrrrribly painful" day....she just came down to say hi, and ended up helping me shower and clean myself up as I sat and cried like a freakin baby! Thank Heaven for people like her!!!! Honestly, I will never forget that! NEVER EVER EVER!!!! It's crazy how one day you work with these lovely people and another time, they're taking care of you.... And it was totally not her floor or her responsibility to do that!!!! Waaaay too sweet of her! BIG thank you to Miss Melissa! =)



So friday comes, and we get home.... What a day. What a day.... Just exhausted.... We are home now.... With our man finally.... And ready to find the balance of not one, but 2 kids.... Ready to find the balance of each other, and work and home and everything else.... Ready to get better and back in shape again.... We are ready.... Ready to continue our journey as the kings.... =)