So, it has been quite a while since I blogged. Since then, our little girl was born!

I have been a little swamped with taking care of her, so I haven’t had a chance to write about the experience yet.

So here goes…

Ryan and I were ready for her to be born already and didn’t want to wait until her due date. We began doing anything we could think of to get my body ready to have her. I had been taking Evening Primrose Oil and drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea. I went to get a massage, and Ryan massaged all the recommended pressure points.

Ryan determined that the reason I hadn’t gone into labor was because I hadn’t packed my hospital bag. So, to oblige him, I finally out one together.

That night I woke up with stabbing pains under my ribs. It didn’t really feel like the baby was pushing up on them, and because I couldn’t sleep because of the pain, I sat up with my laptop, looking for causes of this pain. At 5:30am I finally called the on-call doctor for my OBGYN group and asked him. He said to make an appointment to see one of the doctors in the office as soon as they opened in the morning.

At 8:30am I called the OBGYN office. The nurse I needed to talk to was not available so they said she would call me back. As I waited for her to call me I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. Right when I sat down I felt a “pop” and I knew that my water broke! As I told Ryan, the phone rang. The nurse had called me back and I told her that I thought the rib pains were not so important anymore and that I believed my water had broken. She told me to come in to the office and they would check me to be sure.

Since we knew the baby was breech, we knew that I would be having a c-section. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait for the contractions to get severe and close together before heading over to the hospital. Ryan was so excited! He wanted to go get in the car immediately. I really wanted to take a shower and put myself together a bit before we headed off for the big event. I knew it would be hours before anything really happened anyway, so I wanted to at least be showered and feel good. Thank goodness Ryan had talked me into putting the hospital bag together the night before!

Once the OBGYN checked me and determined for themselves that my water actually HAD broken, they sent me over to the women’s center, which is within the same complex. Unfortunately, I had a bowl of cereal before my water broke, so I would have to wait a few extra hours before surgery. I was put into the pre-op area and was monitored for a few hours before I could be sent over to surgery. While I was there, I started to feel the contractions coming on. I am SO glad that I never got to any of the serious contractions. They were getting closer together and more uncomfortable by the time they were going to take me to the OR. As they wheeled me over, I could feel myself starting to shake. I don’t know if it was pain from the contractions or if it was fear of the surgery that caused the shaking.

They sent Ryan to get some scrubs on while they gave me the spinal meds. It really was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The medication worked very quickly. So, within 5 minutes, they had me on the operating table, numbed from the chest down and the sheet up so Ryan wouldn’t have to see any of the gory details when he came in. We had a fabulous anesthesiologist who was really funny and kept us talking during the surgery. He was just the right balance of humor and information as things progressed. When the baby came out, I hadn’t felt a thing and didn’t even realize she was out until I heard her cry. They showed her to me quickly before she and Ryan were whisked away. Ryan came back in a few minutes later so that I could see our little one. We hadn’t decided on a name at this point, but when I saw her, I knew she was “Cambria”. Ryan, Cambria and I were able to be together for a minute or so before they left again while they sewed me up. Overall, the worst part about the actual surgery was being put back together. I could tell the meds weren’t as strong anymore and I could feel the pushing, squishing and tugging they had to do to get everything back in place. It was also difficult, because all I wanted to do was be with Ryan and Cambria, but I had to just lay there and wait.

While I didn’t get the natural childbirth I wanted, I still have my beautiful and healthy little girl!

We are working on staying awake during parts of the day and sleeping at night.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.