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"Marie-Etta, I think you should have a c-section. We need to get this baby out."
I spent my entire pregnancy telling my obstetrician that I was going to have a natural delivery. I wasn't taking pain medication and I was going to push this baby out. However, when he said I needed to have a c-section, the most surprising words came out of my mouth.
"I don't care, just do what you need to do."
Seriously. I said those words. I know I said those words because when the doctor didn't hear me, my husband, in a somewhat panicked voice, repeated them for me.
I don't know what it is about labor and childbirth, but I don't remember a lot of what was said in those moments. I recall my doctor telling someone to get the operating room ready for a c-section and I remember him using the word 'urgent' when he described it. Michael said he hear him refer to it as an emergency at one point.
After that, everyone sort of disappeared. Literally. Dr. M said he'd see me soon and went to get ready for the surgery. All of the nurses left, too. My nurse came back with some disgusting liquid medication that would stop me from getting sick to my stomach (I'd been throwing up off an on for several hours). The anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist came back in and started putting more medication into my epidural and asking me the same exact questions they'd asked me two hours earlier when they placed it. Other than that, though, Michael and I were left alone in the room. Here I am, 10cm dilated, fighting the urge to push. My poor husband was listening to me scream in pain, not knowing how to help other than to encourage me to breathe.
For being an "emergency" c-section, it took them an awful long time to get things ready. I blame the anesthesiologist. It was approximately 45 minutes from the time the doctor ordered my c-section before I was being wheeled down the hall.
Once I arrived in the OR, the nurses asked if I was able to get on the table on my own. I did it easily, which seems odd considering all of the drugs that had been pumped into my epidural. By this time it was almost 6AM. I had been awake for 28 hours, in active labor for 5 hours, and fully dilated for 2 hours. I then had to lay there while the anesthesiologist pinched and poked me for 15 minutes, obviously agitated because I could feel everything.
Fortunately, Dr. M finally intervened and asked them to give me a spinal. A nurse helped me sit up on the operating table, still feeling my contractions, and trying not to fall asleep. This is when the anesthesiologist discovered that my epidural catheter had come out 2-3mm. No freaking wonder I was feeling everything! He quickly administered my spinal and it worked immediately. I told him I suddenly liked him a whole lot more and started asking for Michael.
Michael was brought in and my surgery began at 6:36AM. I wanted to hear everything, so I was fighting the urge to sleep. During the first part of my surgery I heard a lot of suction and heard mention of meconium. The last thing I remember them mentioning was that he was a cheesy baby.
At 6:56AM, I heard my baby cry for the first time. It was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. After 9 months of carrying him, he was finally here. When they held him over the screen, Michael and I both started crying. We had a beautiful little boy! Michael went over to the edge of the room where they were cleaning the baby up and was able to cut the umbilical cord. A few minutes later they brought Gene over so I could kiss his little face. After that my guys headed off to the nursery.
My surgery went on for another hour or so. All I heard from the nurses the next two days is how meticulous and thorough my doctor is when it comes to c-sections. He himself even talked about it. He said that some surgeons are in and out in half an hour. He closes the incision up in multiple layers, though, which takes more time. I actually slept through most of the last hour of my surgery. I woke up as Dr. M was placing the last of my 35 staples. I was wheeled to the recovery room where I stayed for the next hour. Michael came in a few minutes later and we began making the obligatory phone calls.
Soon after that, the nurses brought Gene into the recovery room and I was able to nurse him. During my surgery, the nurses had moved me, at my request, to a different room. The bed in my first room was a delivery bed and was incredibly uncomfortable. I somehow ended up in the "VIP" room at the very end of the hall (flat screen, HUGE shower) and that's where we stayed for the next two days. Gene and I were discharged 2 1/2 days after he was born and headed home as a family of three.
After we arrived home, I asked Gene if he liked his house. He immediately flipped me the bird and screamed on and off for the next hour. Welcome to Mommyhood!
