Bea's Birth Story

Tom's family left today and it's our first time alone as a family of four - so far, so good! Ellie went down for a nap and I nursed Bea and put her down soon after, so now they're both snoozing and instead of laying down like I probably should be doing, I decided to come write down Bea's birth story while it's still pretty fresh in my mind.

Well, I guess the biggest surprise of all was that Bea made it all the way to her due date...who saw that one coming?! Certainly not me. But, the closer we came to the date of my scheduled C-section, the more comfortable I became with the idea. Tom's parents came down on Tuesday evening, two days prior to the C-section date, and they did a great job of taking care of Ellie and helping out around the house. It really was a huge load off to have all the helping hands around and of course Ellie absolutely adored having her Nana and Papa around to play.

On the morning of the C-section, my nerves were definitely getting the best of me. I only slept a few hours the night before because of all the anxiety and by the time we got to the hospital, I was pretty nervous. We went to triage and got hooked up and answered a ton of questions about my medical history, the pregnancy, etc. It was really different to have so much extra time and everything just seemed so routine. While I was in triage, two other women called in - one in pre-term labor at 34 weeks (strange coincidence, huh?), and another woman who had scheduled a repeat C-section but was in labor prior to the C-section date. The nurse let me know there was a very good chance we'd get bumped back an hour or two, which I was totally prepared for. I pulled out the magazine I'd brought to kill some time and hadn't even finished a full paragraph when my OB walked in and said "OK, we're going now!" Uhhh....what??? That I was not prepared for. At all. So then I proceeded to freak out a little bit while the doctor discussed with the anesthesiologist and others to decide if I was going to go first or if they were going to take the other repeat C-section first. Ultimately, they decided that since my C-section would likely go quicker, they'd take care of me first. And so it was go time!

They had me swallow some nasty tasting stuff to neutralize my stomach contents, and gave Tom his scrubs to wear. Then I walked back to the OR with the nurse and got ready for my epidural. At that point, I was shaking really badly from the nervousness, so they gave me something in my IV to take the anxiety off. The epidural hurt worse than I remembered from Ellie's birth, but still wasn't that bad and in the overall scheme of everything that day, I barely remember it. Then Tom came in and they started cutting. I could feel a lot more pressure this time - I think just because Bea was so much bigger than Ellie was.

When they pulled Bea out and I heard her cry, it was just awesome. And then, my midwife actually carried her over to me so I could get a peek of her all covered in birth gunk before they cleaned and swaddled her. Don't ask me why, but it was really important to me to see her like that. I'm sure it has something to do with how traumatic Ellie's birth experience was, and how surreal it was to go from a big, pregnant belly directly to a swaddled baby. It's just kind of odd, with Ellie, I didn't have my arms out and since they brought her over swaddled and with a hat, it just felt like we were two disembodied heads staring at each other. This birth felt much more normal, and I think one of the reasons is that I was able to see Bea as soon as she was pulled out.

After Bea was pulled from me, they took her over to the nursery to get her cleaned up and the OB finished sewing me up while I dozed on the table. After they wheeled me over to the recovery area, my midwife and Tom brought Bea back over to me so we could get our first shot at nursing (apparently she had been mouthing her fists while she was in the nursery). The midwife helped us get situated since I still couldn't move my legs and Bea latched right on - she did great!

We were able to room in with her the entire time. The first night, she slept really well. Then the second night, she was super hungry and mad that my milk hadn't come in yet, so I basically ended up nursing her all night. And then they let us go home a day early, on Saturday! I was really happy about it, it is impossible to get comfortable in a hospital bed and I knew Bea would do better at home, too.

So far, everything's been going really well - it's been almost a week and Bea seems to be a good nurser and the past three nights, I've actually had to wake her so she could eat. She actually slept for about a five hour stretch the night before last! But of course, everything is a phase, so I'm sure it won't last. Right now I'm just trying to nurse her as much as possible to get a good supply established. We have our next pediatrician appointment in about a week and I don't think she'll be quite up to her birth weight, but I'm hoping she'll at least have gained back a good chunk of the weight she's lost.