After a busy working weekend, we spent Monday cleaning the house and running last minute errands before our planned cesarean section on Tuesday. I had some mild on-and-off contractions throughout the day, but nothing that stayed consistent. Early Tuesday morning, I woke up to some stronger contractions that really kept going for a while. I was awake from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and when the contractions finally stopped, I was able to sleep comfortably until my alarm went off to get us moving at 4:30 a.m! We showered and loaded the car and arrived on time to the hospital for our 5:30 a.m. check in time. We walked right into the registration area where we were officially checked in and then sent to the sixth floor.
We were met by a labor and delivery nurse who quickly got us into a room, got me changed into a hospital gown, and started strapping me into monitors. She drew blood for blood work, placed an IV catheter, and went over lots and lots of lots of paperwork. At this point, I expressed my desire to avoid any codeine products (including hydrocodone and oxycodone) because they make me really nauseous and typically cause me to vomit. Knowing that I would be dealing with significant abdominal pain, the last thing I wanted was to be vomiting and using those sore muscles. My mom was able to join us in the prep room while we waited for things to get set up for surgery. We were visited by the anesthesiologist, a surgery resident, and another two or three nurses. Everyone expressed some surprise/concern at my plan to try to avoid traditional pain medications, which started to increase my own anxiety over this decision. After a fairly long wait, we finally had to ask my Mom to go to the waiting room and Chris was sent into a dressing room to change into his scrubs.
By 7:10, I was walked into the surgery room. I can't describe how strange it is to WALK into the surgery room and have a nurse help you climb onto the surgical table. Again, I was hooked up to all sorts of monitoring devices and the anesthesiologist began prepping me for my spinal block. The lidocaine used for a numbing agent prior to the block was pretty stingy, just as I knew it would be. But, it worked and I had no idea what Dr. Marek was doing back there until she said OK, you are probably going to start feeling warmness in your legs now. By 7:15 a.m. my spinal block was in and my legs were getting warm and heavy. I was moved into a laying position and surgery nurses started prepping my surgical area. I could feel them pushing and pulling on my abdomen, but couldn't move at all and when they tested my sensitivity, I couldn't feel a thing. Dr. Boo and his team of doctors walked into the room around 7:25 and with a few reassuring words, we were headed into surgery. The nurse called incision time 7:35 a.m. which is the only way I knew that they had made an incision at all. I could feel some pushing and tugging and two minutes later, at 7:37 a.m., Dr. Boo announced that we had a big, healthy baby boy. He carried him over to the nursery nurses in one corner of the surgery room and Chris went with them to see him get cleaned up and snap his first pictures. I barely glimpsed him as he went by, but he looked like he had dark hair.
Happily, only a few minutes later, they brought the baby to me and let me hold him on the surgical table. Since I barely got to hold Ledger before he was whisked to the NICU, this was a big important change for me. We were also able to take a few pictures of Mommy and Daddy with the new baby.
Chris then went into the attached nursery room where the baby was weighed and worked up. With the important business of a baby being born, I tried to keep myself distracted by paying attention to the conversation of the doctors in the room. (The topic of discussion was wild boar hunting in Texas and Oklahoma. lol.) I had a mild reaction to some of the medications where I became flushed and hot and also started developing pain in my right shoulder. The anesthesiologist quickly gave me some medicine to correct the flushing but told me that the pain was a referred pain due to the pressure on my uterus and would probably persist even after surgery was done. (She was right) Dr. Boo had agreed to do a little extra tuck during surgery to get my incision to lay flat -- and if it helps my jeans fit a little better in the future, then all the better. That little "extra" meant that suturing the incision took longer than usual, but by 8:15, I was rolling into the recovery room where the baby and I would be monitored until we were deemed fit to move into a mother and baby suite. During this time, we had a chance to get a good look at our son and I got my first chance to try to nurse. He's got long fingers and long toes and a head full of short, dark hair. He weighed in at 8 lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long.
Chris went out to the lobby to introduce our youngest son to the awaiting family - Oma Korey, BoomPa, and Grammie Pam. (We only have pictures of Oma and Ledger, but hopefully I'll add more soon.) Everyone was very excited to meet our baby and anxious to find out if we had finally decided on a name. We officially announced him as
Locke Steven Michel.
By noon, my spinal block began to wear off and the pain began to set in. We took a few pictures before things started to feel too bad. The rest of my hospital stay will be documented in a separate post to spare the general public the details!
