A Birth Story - Part 4

Feb. 6th about 8:00am

I did not want a C-Section. Not at all. I was not "too posh-to-push" and had heard that the healing process was incredible afterwards, not to mention trying to care for a newborn and attempting to breastfeed. I had serious anxiety at the fleeting thought of a C-Section, but to actually go through with it? Having someone tell you that you will be cut open in a major surgery less than one hour before being wheeled in for it to happen is traumatic. That may sound a little dramatic to some people...

9:00am

I would have two OB's working on me during the C-Section. My OB Dr. T and Dr. Elisabeth Evans. Dr. Evans shares the practice in Issaquah with Dr. T and was ranked as one of the best doctor's for women's health by Seattle Magazine and isn't even taking new patients for the next 5 months due to her popularity (I tried to get in with her originally!) So, I knew I was in good hands, but still...

I was wheeled into the operating room with an oxygen mask still attached to my face. Drugs were being pumped into me via the IV to take a bit of edge off as they pumped up the epidural so that I wouldn't feel anything during surgery. I remember laying there flat on my back staring at the ceiling and hearing about 2o different voices (various nurses, surgeons and assistants) around me conversing and talking about recent vacations they'd taken. Neil was dressed as if he was about to head into a serious hazmat situation and sat there holding my hand.

Dr. T - Do you feel this? What about this? Do you feel anything sharp?

Me: No... (I don't think so? I have so many things pumping through me how am I to know?!) I laid there wiggling my toes as I felt them making incisions. I didn't feel the pain of the incisions but felt the drag of the sharp instrument against my skin and then the shifting, tugging and moving of various organs to get to the uterus.

Dr. T - Yes, I was in New York about two months ago.

Dr. Evans - Yeah, that's a great city...

Me (thinking): Can we please keep the vacation chit chat down while I'm being cut open?!

About 10 minutes later I felt a huge tug, then a newborn's cry, then Dr. T exclaiming, "It's a boy!" She lifts him over the curtain so that Neil and I can see. I cry, Neil takes a picture but I don't get to hold him.

They take him over to get cleaned off, then swaddle him, bring him to Neil who brings him over to me to see him close for the first time.

Me: Hi, there.

Austin looks right at me as if he's known me for years.

I still don't hold him as the oxygen is still pumping through the mask attached to my face and I'm completely numb from the top of my rib cage to my knees. I wiggle my toes again to make sure my feet are still there.

My uterus is taken out, vaccummed clean then put back in and my bladder is shifted back into place.

I'm sewn up and then wheeled into a recovery room where I see Austin in an incubator type thing that's really warm - he's about to get his first bath.

I still don't get to hold him.

My parents come in to check on me and Austin cries while he gets his first bath. I want to hug him and tell the nurse to not be so rough, but I'm laid up in bedwith the catheter and IV still stuck in me. They've given me my first lethal-feeling dose of Percocet for pain management that leaves me feeling so high I swear they tie a string to me to keep me from floating away.

1 hour later

I hold Austin briefly, for the first time while beating back the pain from the surgery to sit up right in bed. He's cute, he has toes - not twelve toes, but ten. I'm afraid I'll break him somehow, he's so little. I look at Neil and am in disbelief that we are responsible for creating such a perfectlycute creature.