Everyone kept telling me how HUGE I was! I didn't feel like I was that big to merit people telling me I was HUGE, so I took the comments in stride. Looking at pictures now, yes, I agree, I was HUGE! :)
My due date was Sunday, July 27, 2008. My doctor (Dr. Weisert - OBGYN) was going to be out of town the whole week after my due date. So, if Kyle didn't come by my due date, I probably wasn't going to have my doctor for delivery. I was NOT okay with this, I wanted MY doctor to be there to deliver Kyle. Not just because I knew her, and she'd seen me the whole 9 months...but because I really trusted her and wanted her to be there with me in case something went wrong, or we had to do a c-section, or whatever. I wanted her to be the one to advise me, and get me through it. So, I had to make a decision. The doctor wasn't going to let me go but 2 or 3 days past my due date no matter what. If Kyle didn't come on his own by then, they were going to have to induce me and it would be with a doctor I have never met before (since my OB was going to be out of town). So, I had to decide...do I induce and have my doctor there for sure...or....do I chance it and hope he comes out on his own before some stranger has to induce me and deliver my baby.
I decided to induce so I could have my doctor there to deliver Kyle. Two days before our induction, Dr. Weisert did an ultrasound to measure how big the baby was. She measured 8 lbs.+. She thought that as long as the baby was somewhere in the 8 lb. weight category that I should have no trouble with a vaginal delivery. She said I was tall and healthy, and it shouldn't be an issue with an eight-something pound baby. But, if the baby was 9 lbs. and up, we might have issues. She thought that would be too big for me to deliver on my own. So, all in all, we were ready to do this, and meet our baby boy, Kyle!
Josh and I went to dinner with a couple good friends of ours at the Olive Garden. We had a nice meal, and then it was time for us to head to the hospital to have a baby! The induction started at 8:00PM, on a rainy Friday night. That would make the date Friday, July 25, 2008.
They put the gel stuff in there to soften my cervix. And from there we just had to wait. I don't remember too much because I was in and out of sleep all night (waking for sleep interruptions from my lovely nurse). Kyle had his head down and all, but his face was facing my belly button, instead of my butt (the way they are supposed to be when they are delivered). So, all night I kept getting woken up by the nurse so I could roll back and forth, from side to side, in hopes of turning him around. No such luck. :(
At 5:00AM Saturday morning (July 26, 2008) the nurse asked if I was going to want an epidural. If I did, the guy was available, and that was my window of opportunity to get it done before they started the pitocin (to make the contractions happen faster and closer together). The idea of getting a huge needle in my spine terrified me! (One of my biggest phobias is needles!!!) But, I knew that the pitocin would make the contractions happen quick and hard, so I knew I would want the epidural. The worst pain of my entire birthing experience was actually getting the epidural. All my girlfriends said it didn't hurt, you just felt a little pinch and it was over...no big deal. Yeah right! It hurt SO bad, the poor guy was trying to calm me down so that he could get the thing in quickly! I'm glad I had the epidural when I did, because I would have had to get it anyway, but I'll tell about that soon enough.
Okay, so the epidural is in, I am still rolling back and forth, side to side...now with the help of my husband and the nurse because my legs were pretty numb. I still had feeling, but not enough to move them all on their own. The nurse and doctor both said that the pitocin was doing it's job and my body was reacting perfectly! Yay! They broke my water (don't know exactly what time) and we were moving along. Kyle was still facing the wrong way though, so after a while, Dr. Weisert used a tube and put water back in there to try to "float" him so he could turn around and face my butt (despite him not "floating" with the back and forth I was doing all night long). This was not successful either. So, we kept waiting, and I finally told the nurse I felt pressure in my butt, and thought I was ready to push.
I didn't realize how much time had really passed (I was so tired and in and out of sleep). At 2:30PM Dr. Weisert came in (around the time I was ready to push), and told me that it had been 5 hours and I was still at 8cm. She said that usually after the water is broken you dilate a cm every hour. I had been at 8cm for 5 hours. Uh oh! "Honey, I think this baby is too big and I think we are going to have to do a c-section." Oh God, the words I was most dreading were coming from my doctors mouth! No, not a c-section! So naturally this was my response: "Is the baby okay? Because I am fine, I can wait." Yes, I was totally serious, I would wait 5 days if I had to, but I did not want a c-section! I had seen so many baby stories on TV where the mom had to have a c-section, and I did not want that to be me! NOT ME!
Dr. Weisert had always known that I did not want to have a c-section, so she regretfully gave me that news. She is so sweet, she told me that the baby was fine, and she would go do some paperwork for 30 minutes...if the baby didn't start coming by then, then we would talk about a c-section. Of course she knew we were doing a c-section, whether I wanted to or not...she was just simply giving me a few minutes to let that sink in so I could prepare myself. At the time I really thought I had 30 minutes to get that baby out, and by golly, I was going to do it. LOL
3:00PM Dr. Weisert comes back in. There was no sign of Kyle coming on his own, so I knew I only had one option left. The anesthesiologist came in to put the spinal medication for the c-section into my epidural (this is when I was glad I already had the epidural - it would have not been ideal in my opinion if I was having contractions and had to hold still for them to put this huge needle in my spine). Both the anesthesiologist and Dr. Weisert spent the next 10 minutes talking with me about the c-section (while Josh got into the OR garb so that he could come with me) to try to make me feel better about it (I was scared to death, to say the least!). My biggest concern was that I could not believe that I would not feel anything while I was laying awake on the operating table! I had the epidural all day and still had some feeling, so I was scared to death that I was going to feel her operating on me! They had answered all my questions, and around 3:12PM or so they wheeled me into the OR. They assured me that I would not feel anything, except maybe a little tugging.
This is the part that happened SO fast! The anesthesiologist gave me some concoction to drink that was supposed to keep me from throwing up. They had me on the OR table before I even knew it, and the anesthesiologist said he was going to poke me with a safety pin. He gave me a poke on my shoulder to demonstrate what feeling it would feel like, and then he poked me all down the side of my body from about my chest down. I couldn't feel a thing, so I didn't know he was actually doing anything! He was checking to make sure that I couldn't feel anything, and I was glad for that. :) There was a blue sheet up so I couldn't see anything. My arms were straight out to my sides, and the Dr. told me not to move my arms because she was going to be standing right next to me, so not to bump her! Bump her! Oh my gosh, now I am nervous that I am going to bump her and she's going to cut something she isn't supposed to! Josh was standing next to my head to the right, and the anesthesiologist was standing at my head to my left. They could see over the sheet because they were standing up, so Josh could see everything! (Josh later said that he wished he could have been standing closer than he already was so that he could see even better!)
I told Josh to let me know when the Dr. had started cutting (keep in mind we'd only been in the OR for a couple minutes). The anesthesiologist quickly replied that she had already started about a minute ago! She was already operating and I didn't even know it...I couldn't believe it!
Then there was this weird sound that kind of sounded to me like a aerosol can or something of that nature. There was this terrible smell, and I asked the doctor what the smell was. She answered me, but I didn't fully understand her answer until the next day when I talked to my husband about it. She said that she was cauterizing to keep the bleeding down. So, I thought she was spraying something in there to keep the bleeding down, and boy did that stuff stink! LOL Little did I know that she basically had a little torch type thing and was burning through some layers of whatever...muscles, nerves, skin, who knows! I'm glad that I didn't understand at the time what was happening, I think it would have freaked me out! Josh didn't seem bothered by any of it at all, he was totally cool throughout the whole procedure!
Here's the comedic part...Dr. Weisert was doing her thing getting me open, and in the process she says to me, "Honey, you have such nice [healthy] stomach muscles!" She was totally being serious! LOL I think I responded with something like, "Oh, that's nice." But I was really thinking, "That's great, can you just make sure to put them back that way?!!!"
Dr. Weisert told Josh, "Get your camera!", and before I knew it I felt some tugging, and the next thing I heard were all of the nurses (including Dr. Weisert) saying "He's huge!". "Snap, snap, snap" went the camera in front of Josh's blue face mask. Then came the deep, low cry of my baby boy! He only gave 3 "waaa's" and he was done. Kyle David was born at 3:17PM on Saturday, July 26, 2008. It took Dr. Weisert less than 5 minutes to take that baby out of me from the time I entered the OR! I could not believe how efficient those people are, they don't mess around in the c-section OR room!!
The anesthesiologist warned me that the roughest part of the c-section was when the Dr. was putting all of my organs back where they were supposed to go. He warned me that it may make me feel sick. Oh boy, was he right! As soon as she started moving organs around, I was sick right into one of those little pink buckets! That part was really rough, but it was over pretty quickly.
I had to stay downstairs in the recovery section outside the OR for monitoring, while Josh was in the nursery with Kyle. As soon as they were done in the nursery, Kyle was brought to me right away to breastfeed. I was SO glad that they got him to me as soon as possible, because in our breastfeeding class they had told us it was important to breastfeed as soon as possible after the baby is born and "processed", of course. Josh said Kyle had his fingers in his mouth right away after birth, so he was definitely ready to eat! :) The nurse brought Kyle over to me to have him latch on, and I knew that I was too exhausted to hold him. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, so I asked the nurse if she would hold him for me while he fed. She held him for me while he nursed for 45 minutes straight! When he was done nursing we were allowed to go up to our room where we would be staying for the rest of our time at the hospital.
I was so sick, and I got super panicked when we got to our room. I felt like I needed to go outside to get some fresh air. The room felt claustrophobic, and I was having a mini panic attack inside, but trying to keep as composed on the outside as possible, so as to not appear crazy, of course. I was trying to figure out how I could get some "fresh air" being stuck in the hospital bed. I asked if they had a fan they could bring in the room, and thankfully they did! I was so relieved! I was so hot, sick, and generally didn't feel well. Not surprising 19 hours, and a c-section later!
I had my baby, and all was going to be okay! I will never forget the nurse coming in to check on me. I was nursing Kyle on one side, and throwing up in a pink bucket on the other side. She said "What are you doing?" I didn't really understand the question, because Kyle was very hungry and I was nursing him. I didn't want my being sick to get in the way of his dinner! LOL So silly, now that I am thinking about it! I was feeling better by the next morning as far as the sickness, and we allowed visitors to come and meet Kyle. The immediate family came the evening Kyle was born, despite my condition.
I stayed in the hospital for 4 days. On my third day the doctor came to look at me, and she said I was okay to go home, but if I wanted to stay one more day insurance would pay for it. Of course I stayed! I didn't mind the extra help for both me and for Kyle. The nurses tried to give me Percocet, which the Dr. prescribed for the surgery pain. I refused all medication, although I did take Ibuprofen twice while I was there. After all Kyle and I had been through, and I did have some antibiotic put in my IV before Kyle was born (that was because of my heart, just as a precaution), I decided enough was enough, and we didn't need anything else in either of our systems. Mind over matter, I had decided that the pain was not bad enough that I needed any medication, and therefore, it was so! :)
After 19 hours of labor, one c-section, and 4 days at the hospital, we brought Kyle home for the first time. We left a family of two, and came home a family of three! Toby (dog) and Shadow (cat) welcomed us home, and were very gentle with the new addition to the family.
Now it was recovery time......
I realize that this was not how I in-visioned Kyle's birth. I expected to have a pretty typical delivery, with no complications. But in the end, after all of that, I came home with the most perfect little baby in my arms, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat! Everything happened exactly how it was supposed to, for me to have the experience I was supposed to have (and Kyle too)! I do not regret any of it (even though it was all out of my control). Everything happened in divine order!
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