The scheduled c section was very hard on my nerves. I was so scared in the weeks leading up to the cs. Lots of people prayed and I prayed a lot, and some of the fear subsided. The few days leading up to the section went by so slowly, like eternity. I was very large and very uncomfortable, part of me really wanted the baby out, I guess that made the fear less, but the waiting harder.
The night before the surgery I actually slept pretty good. It was such a weird morning, so different than my son's spontaneous labor. I sat in bed listening to music trying to block out fear, waiting for 8:30, as I had to be at the hospital by 9am. Me and Ben got the hospital bags ready and said goodbye to our son, and my mom and dad.
We got to the hospital and Ben dropped me off at the door and parked the car. I was afraid and started crying in the hospital lobby, but I started praying and really turned my heart to God. Its funny how the most difficult circumstances in our lives, are the times we draw closest to God. I am thankful for the difficult times that draw us to Him.
We got to the maternity ward, and then went to admissions. There was a man being arrested in the admission area that delayed us getting admitted.
I was prepped for surgery, a student nurse came in to put the IV in my arm supervised by a teacher, she did something wrong and blood started squirting out of my arm, all over the bed sheet. Normally this would have freaked me out, but I felt calm for some reason, people must have been praying for me. The student got really upset, and the teacher looked at the IV. Apparently she had put the IV in perfectly, so the teacher was happy. The teacher said 'well, she got the vein, that's why it was squirting blood".
It was about 10:55 exactly and someone said "5 minutes, they will come get you". It was sort of eerie in the maternity ward because we were the only people in the unit. One or 2 women came in with minor concerns. Just then we heard a woman come in, and we overheard "water is broken....twins....you are next...there is a scheduled c section but you have priority". Quite some time later, around noon, a nurse told me she was an emergency c section and I would be bumped back until 1pm.
Ben went for lunch, came back and I sat there in that waiting bed until 3pm. So many thoughts went through my head. By 3pm, I had lost the anxiety of 'when? what time is it?". I thought, I will get bumped until tomorrow. In some ways that was reassuring to me, put it off another day. I was listening to music and had found something interesting on my ipad and was getting lost in that when doctors and nurses started coming in and talking to me.
I thought "oh.....its going to happen...what....I'm not ready". Because I had prepared myself to come back tomorrow. A very nice, old nurse came in and walked me and Ben to the operating room. Ben had to wear a funny white suit, mask and hat. That was a weird moment. Before we walked to the OR, she told me to go to the bathroom, so I did. I prayed in there, "God, please let the anesthetic work, be with the doctors, protect me and the baby".
Walking down the hall to the operating room was a strange feeling. Its one of those moments that stand out in life, that you always remember. I looked at Ben and he was happy and texting his dad pictures of himself. We went into the operating room and the resident and obgyn were waiting. The anesthesiologist was late and made a joke about how he was late. At that time I started to relax because the doctors were so calm and there was only 2 doctors, the anesthesiologist and the nurse. They were all relaxed and there was no fear in them.
I sat on the 'operating table' and the nice nurse held onto me and the anesthesiologist gave me the freezing needle in my spine. I wasn't too nervous about the needle because I had the epidural with my son and I felt I had already been through this and I didn't have any bad reaction last time, so it should be OK. The anesthesiologist was way better, more confident and skilled than the one I had with our son,, the freezing was perfect. With our son, the freezing didn't work. I was so happy God had answered my prayer.
The freezing sensation itself, wasn't that scary. My lower body felt numb, but I could still feel light taps and light pressure. Apparently the anesthesiologist was twisting my skin as hard as he could, showing Ben, and all I felt was a light, kind of finger touch even though he was pulling and twisting my skin.
After I was frozen, the anesthesiologist started joking around with Ben. The curtain was up in seconds and I felt the doctors getting to work. My blood pressure took a sudden drop and my face went cold and I got dizzy and faint. I told the doctor and he was explaining to Ben why blood pressure drops and told me he was fixing my blood pressure, I saw him put some kind of pressure device on the IV to pump the IV at high pressure.
I felt better from then on, I'm not exactly sure what order things happened. There was chatting, people talking to me, asking questions. I was holding Bens hand, we talked about triathlon, name of the baby. At some point, I heard the dr's say "some pressure" and yes, I felt pressure, all kinds of pressure, but not painful....
"She's tubby!" I felt her being pulled out of my body and it was a relief, but also a little shocking to my body. She cried really loud. I cried. Ben was over there taking pictures and brought her over to me. I was surprised, she didn't look like our son, she was totally different. It was comforting to see her, breathing, crying, eyes open. The doctors didn't clean her up, they were waiting for the recovery room to clean here so she was covered in all kinds of goo and blood.
There was only 1 uncomfortable time, just after she was out, I'm not sure what the doctors were doing but it felt uncomfortable for 2 or 3 minutes, I think there were cleaning the uterus or pulling the placenta out. I said "Ben, say something" that was the only time I was anyway near to panicky and, I wasn't that panicky. I was surprised how calm I was.
I was surprised how quickly I was stitched back together. It went faster than the '40 minutes' I was told it would take, probably only 25 minutes? I heard staples and the drs were finished. The dr came over and congratulated us. We thanked her. I wanted to thank her more, but all I could say was 'thank you'. Ben said "is this your last one of the day?" She said "yes".
I was wheeled to a recovery room and the nice nurse stayed with me and monitored me. The freezing started wearing off slowly. I got these weird shakes. Different nurses were taking care of the baby, washing her and weighing her. I was really out of it by this time. The shakes were really distracting me, the nurse told me they would stop in 10 to 30 minutes. Ben was taking pictures, the nurse was taking pictures, Ben was texting and calling family. I thought, everyone must be worried because we told them 11am, and its almost 5pm. Apparently Sable was born at 3:33pm.
My hospital stay was really good. From what I could tell the maternity ward was empty, I didn't see any other babies or mothers, it was silent. The nights were silent and peaceful. Not like our son, when he was born it was packed, loud, and I barely got any attention. This time the nurses looked after the baby and I had glorious sleep. I was sleeping and sleeping all night. The nurses brought the baby in every 3 hours or so, for me to feed her.
Today, its hard to believe its been 2 weeks since the surgery. Today was the first day I had no bleeding. Yesterday we went out with the baby, grocery shopping and to church in the evening. Afterwards I was exhasted. Felt like I was run over by a truck. I probably could have gone all day today without any tylenol, but I took 4 regular strength tylenol today. I still get minor cramping pain and prickly shooting pains in my abdomen. It feels like only 1 week has gone by. I still have the big belly, hope it will go away soon.
Update - After 3 weeks, I don't need pain medication anymore. However, now that I'm off the pain meds, meaning plain tylenol and advil, I feel shooting pains under the incision a lot. The bleeding started again because I started going out grocery shopping and doing housework, laundry, cleaning, so I should probably stop that. I finally understand why the doctors recommend vaginal birth, the c section recovery is harder. I remember after the vaginal birth I didn't need ANY pain medication at all, I was grocery shopping 3 days after, doing all the housework and I remember we were going out 7 days later with the baby. This time I have barely left the house. I was on Tylenol 3 for 1 week, and regular tylenol for 1 week.
