Here she is just an hour old with me holding her right out of surgery.
If you like birth stories, read on. If surgery, birth, and medical stuff is gross, then skip to the end and enjoy some more baby pictures.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM to be checked in for the c-section. They brought me to a post-partum room and set me up for monitoring and IV fluids for an hour or two until it was time to get pre-op preparations done. While Rob was getting all gowned up for surgery, I was in the operating room having spinal anesthesia. The spinal wasn't so bad. I think the nurse anesthetist said something about hitting a bone but only having to puncture the spinal area once, so I guess that was a good thing? I could tell that he doesn't do spinals as often as the anesthesiologist I had in Utah who probably does them all day every day, but I didn't have a choice in this rural Nebraska town.
I could feel the numbing almost immediately as they laid me down on the operating table. I started looking around for Rob and wondering when he would come in. They don't let dads watch anesthesia. I looked up and could see the big round operating room lights and I noticed that I could also see the reflection of my belly as they started to scrub it for surgery and I was thinking, GROSS I do not want to watch my own c-section in a reflection on the ceiling! I mentioned it and had them move the lights. By the time Rob came in I think they had already started the surgery.
It took a bit longer to get Ivy out, and they mentioned that they had to cut through scar tissue and that was causing the delay. I heard lots of snipping sounds that I tried not to think about. I think about 10 minutes into surgery Ivy was born. One of the doctors actually brought her around the drape right after she came out so I could see her right away before she went to the warming area, which was awesome. They hadn't done that with my other two babies. I heard all the nurses saying wow she's a big baby and I was thinking, how big could she be at 39 weeks? (she was 8lbs 8oz, 21 inches) They hadn't seen my giant baby Cora born after 41 weeks.
Rob got to hold her and bring her to me after her first APGAR score (they were 9 and 10). We were amazed at all of her dark hair. She didn't look like Finn or Cora either- she's her own mix of us both.
I spent the next 30 minutes or so with the doctors stitching me up. I'll skip most of the details, but this time was very uncomfortable compared to my other two c-sections. I had a lot of chest pain and shoulder pain when they were pulling everything out to stitch and putting it all back. I also saw stars, glowing gold streaks at the edge of my vision at one point and was about to mention it when it went away. All-in-all it's not something I'd ever want to do again, like, ever.
Rob took Ivy to our room while the anesthetist placed catheters to deliver numbing medication to the incision area for the next few days. This was a new thing that they are doing to control incision pain, and I think it was awesome, even if it meant I had to spend another 30 minutes away from my baby. It meant that I didn't need to take any narcotic medication for the first few days of recovery. Within 90 minutes or so from the start of surgery I was wheeled to the post-partum room to be with Rob and Ivy. We got her to nurse as soon as we could and she did great!
A couple of hours later my mom and mother-in-law brought Finn to the hospital to meet Ivy. He was in love with her right away.
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| My Dad also got to visit on his way to pick up my brother from college. |
And here are a few professional photos a friend of mine took when Ivy was a week old:
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