Sawyer's Birth Story

Though not as exciting as many people's birth stories, I figured it was a good idea to document the day Sawyer was born before my brain turns to permanent mush and I forget.  So here we go...

At my 38 week appointment we'd determined that I was carrying a BIG baby and that we'd need to consider a c-section if I hadn't gone into labor on my own or if I wasn't dilating.  So on Monday July 16th I took my big belly to the doctor's office with my Mom who'd just come to town.  As luck would have it, none of the home remedies we'd tried (at this point we'd tried evening primrose oil and spicy food) had worked.  I was still 1/2cm dilated and 60% effaced as I had been for over two weeks.  Then when the doctor measured my belly, I was measuring at 42 weeks, three weeks ahead of where I actually was.  This pretty much convinced the doctor we needed to schedule a c-section.  She went out to call the hospital and find out when they had openings.  There was one later that afternoon which I would have LOVED to have taken except that I'd had a string cheese that morning and was therefore disqualified (boo breakfast!) and the next available times were either Thursday the 19th at 1:30 or Friday the 20th at 7:30.  My doctor highly recommended the Friday morning since I wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight the night before and my going more than 13 hours without food when 10 months pregnant wasn't anyone's favorite idea.  Friday at 7:30 it was.

We talked about all the details of the surgery and then what we'd do if I went into labor on my own.  She said she was fine with my trying to deliver naturally if that happened but that I should mentally prepare myself for the high likelihood of a c-section no matter what happened.

I spent the entire week trying to make that baby come on his own.  I tried walking and walking and walking. I tried caster oil.  First it was a tablespoon in a Diet Coke. Then two.  Finally on Wednesday night I tried what has worked for one of my friends three times in a row with labor starting within two hours and the baby coming out within about ten...6-8 oz orange juice, 1/4tsp baking soda and 2oz caster oil.  She had explained the process this way (and I quote because it's pretty awesome):

"So you'll drink this crap, which is the worst tasting thing in the history of things.  Then two hours later you will poop out all your organs.  All of them.   Then about a half an hour later labor will start and just when you think you can't be in more pain, you'll throw up your bones and your body will be made of nothing.  Then, shortly after that, that baby will come shooting out your butt."

I laughed for about ten minutes straight and then set off preparing the concoction.  I drank it as fast as I could and noted that it wasn't the worst drink EVER, just really oily orange juice.  Then I sat as close to a toilet as I comfortably could and waited.  Then I waited some more.  Then I gave up and went to bed, bags packed and ready to go to the hospital at a moments notice.

Eight hours later I pooped out all my organs and then felt better and ate breakfast.  End of caster oil story.  No baby.  Not even one contraction.  I was irritated but at the same time I figured at least my entire digestive system was squeaky clean! 

Thursday night I re-packed my bags and snuggled my sweet puppy for one last time before his life got rocked.  Then I curled my hair.  I figured if I wasn't going to get to have this baby my way, at least I'd look good in the pictures.  Then I went to bed and slept pretty well, all things considered.  We woke up at 4am the next morning and I put on my favorite make-up and then we dropped the puppy off with our neighbor and headed to the hospital.

When we got there it was kind of strange to check in while not in labor.  We moseyed into admitting, went to our room, met our nurse and then waited for things to get rolling.  We took the final pictures of me pregnant:

Then Matt and I changed into our super sexy surgery garb:

My doctor was a few minutes late because her car battery was dead, so at about 7:45 they wheeled me in to the room.  They had Matt wait outside while they prepped me, which included getting my spinal in place, getting me in a catheter (yay!) and putting up a sheet so I wasn't totally wigged out at what was about to happen. 

Matt came in and got the camera rolling and they got started.  It took all of ten minutes for my doctor to cut me open.  I heard some ruckus as she announced he had a VERY round head and she was going to need to use a little vacuum pump thingy to get him out because of that.  The anesthesiologist (who I loved) told me that the baby hadn't dropped into my pelvis at all and that he looked huge so I was going to be grateful we'd decided to go with a c-section.  A few seconds later I heard a bunch of "woah he's huge!" and "wow!" and "Eight Ten!" to which I exclaimed "He's only 8lbs 10oz??" The nurse laughed at me and said "No, he's bigger than that!  He was born at 8:10."  Oh.  Right.

Someone brought him over to my side of curtain so I could see him for a second and then they whisked him off to the baby station to make sure he was OK, weigh him and do all of that.  Matt went with them while I got stitched up and tried to catch glimpses of my screaming baby boy.  It was a bit surreal for me because I hadn't been able to hold or touch him yet, so I caught a glimpse of this gorgeous little thing and then had to wait to really get a good look.  I was overcome with emotions, mostly feeling grateful that my body had finally been able to do it's reproductive job and get our little guy here. 

I squirted a few tears which the anesthesiologist kindly wiped for me, and then a few minutes later everything was done and we were being wheeled back to my recovery room.  Matt handed him off to my Mom while the nurses checked me to make sure everything was good and then I finally got to hold my son.  I decided that he is pretty much perfect. 

The nurse suggested we try nursing right away (luckily his insulin levels were great when he was born so they didn't have to supplement with formula or anything while they waited for me to get stitched up) and he latched right on and nursed for an hour without stopping.

After that they transferred me to my permanent room where we got to know our nurse and got working on getting to know each other and recovering and blah blah blah. 

Thankfully, my recovery has been super easy.  The pain has been totally manageable with mostly Ibuprofin and Tylenol (the first two days in the hospital I was on something stronger they gave to me via IV but I never had enough pain to have to ask for anything extra), and I was on a soft food diet (which is all normal food...I guess I didn't check to see what was on the regular diet I couldn't eat, but really my options were awesome) by the end of the day and up walking (escorted) to the bathroom that night.  The next morning all the tubes and crap were removed and I was good to move around on my own.  Sunday morning the OB/GYN on call checked and discharged me and we were home by 1:30 and have been loving life ever since. 

I seriously have no complaints about the c-section and, considering my easy recovery, I have a feeling that it was easier than a natural birth would have been.  I am walking great, have minimal bleeding, very little pain at my incisions - there is a little up where the doctor cut my uterus inside but I think it's trying to shrink down and that's aggravating the scar.  I've definitely been tired, but our kick-butt baby has been letting me sleep more than I was sleeping while I was pregnant, so I feel really rested.

Matt took the week off work and has been AWESOME.  He's changed a majority of the diapers and been working on training the dog (turns out we didn't do enough of that and there's been some small issues with him listening to us when we need him to.  Ouuuurrr baaaadddd) and just being an all around rock star Dad. 

My Mom and Dad have both been here as were Matt's parents so we've had tons and tons of help around but weirdly we haven't really needed it.  I guess I hear so many new baby horror stories I keep waiting for hours of screaming and misery and nobody sleeping and so far it's just not happening.  I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed that this keeps up and we don't end up with hell next week!

I still don't understand why we had to go through what we did to get him here but I can say that he was worth every second of pain and heartbreak.  

Welcome to the world, Sawyer.  We are so glad you're here.