My parents just happened to be in Utah helping my brothers prepare their optometry practice for opening. They had arrived on July 2nd and, at that time, I hadn’t planned on having the c-section the following Monday. When I did make the decision to go ahead with the scheduled birth, it was a nice convenience that Mom could be here to help us out.
Mom arrived at 5:20 am as I was walking down the stairs carrying my hospital bag. She was still in her pajamas and Amy was still fast asleep. I felt badly leaving Amy without her knowing what was going on, but I knew she wouldn’t understand. I was just grateful that she could be with someone who would take good care of her.
Chris and I arrived at the hospital–a 5 minute drive from our house–and checked me in. I had preregistered previously, and since I had already had a baby at this hospital, much of the admission procedures that I went through last time were omitted. We were taken to room 516, one room away from where I was last time. I was given a lovely hospital gown to change into and then we were left alone in the room for awhile. We turned on the news and Chris pulled out the video camera as well as his digital camera. We were much better prepared this time to record the events of this birth. A nurse–Linda, who was also my nurse at Amy’s birth–came in to hook me up to the heartbeat monitor and start an IV. That is not my favorite experience, but then the experiences involving pain just get better as the day goes on.
The epidural man, Dr. Govindjay (I am not sure if that spelling is correct. I looked at his name tag a couple of times, but my memory is somewhat foggy. He is from India and was great.) came in about 6:30 am and let me tell you how much fun that was! It is a rather painful procedure to have the epidural inserted, and you have to hold completely still the entire time. But obviously you wouldn’t want to have a c-section without being numb and the epidural numbs you from the chest right down to your toes.
We called my mom around 7 am just to see if Amy was awake yet and to make sure that everything was okay. Amy had been awake since before 6:30 unfortunately and Mom was just trying to get her to eat. I talked to Amy for a minute, but as usual, she didn’t say much in response. I think she was just happy to hear her mommy’s voice.
I was wheeled into the Operating Room around 7:15 and the first thing I remember was how cold it was. I was already shaking and cold from the epidural. Linda and Dr. Govindjay transferred me to the operating table with some kind of contraption. From here, the procedure was pretty much the same as last time. My stomach was sterilized, a towel was wrapped around my ankles to keep them together, a sheet was draped in front of my face, and a wonderfully warm blanket was placed across my chest and arms. My doctor, Dr. Berry, and the surgeon, Dr. Sellers, arrived at 7:30 and began to scrub for the surgery. Chris was dressed in a white jumpsuit with a cap on his head, booties on his feet, and a mask on his face. (I got a picture of him this time). He was set to go with the video camera around his neck and the digital camera in hand.
Chris again watched the surgery and even caught a lot of it on tape this time. (We watched it about a week ago and there were only a few parts I wasn’t able to watch.) Unfortunately, he recorded a lot of the floor as well, not realizing that he was leaving it on every time he stopped recording.
I remember feeling them cutting through the scar tissue–not that it was painful but they had to tug on it a lot. It wasn’t a great feeling. Once they finally cut through the womb, amniotic fluid gushed all over the place, but fortunately there was little meconium in the fluid. From there, it took a lot of time and effort for them to get the baby out. She was quite engaged in the birth canal and they pushed and tugged and pulled on my stomach. Again, I couldn’t feel the pain that was surely accompanying all of this struggle because of the epidural, but I could certainly feel all of the pressure. Finally they had to resort to forceps to pull out our little girl. The first thing I heard was her coughing but I don’t remember hearing her cry. Dr. Berry held her up for me to see and said, “She’s beautiful.” I remember thinking, “Hmmm.” She didn’t look so great all covered in blood and white cheesy looking stuff. Her face was puffy and frankly she wasn’t looking all that pretty at that moment.
The nurse quickly whisked the baby away and Chris followed after her. From here until they finish stitching me, I don’t remember much except for Dr. Govindjay saying, “Just relax”. He must have given me something to knock me out because I have seen pictures of this time, and I have no recollection of having an oxygen mask placed over my nose or hearing any conversation.
The next thing I do remember is that I am back in a hospital bed ready to be wheeled out of the OR. Dr. Berry is there and says that everything went wonderfully. I asked to see the placenta. I remember thinking that it looked like a huge blood clot or liver. Not too attractive but a lot bigger than I thought.
I have not yet mentioned what we named our little girl because it took us until the next day to decide on what to name her. When Dr. Berry asked us what her name was, Chris said that we weren’t quite sure yet. Dr. Berry replied that the two most popular baby names were, “I don’t know” and “We’re not sure”. Our little girl was perfectly healthy with Apgars of 8 and 9 (same as Amy’s incidentally) weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and 19 inches in length. (Amy was the same length but about a half pound heavier when she was born).
I was wheeled back to recovery and stayed there for some time. My memory is quite foggy around this time, so I can’t really tell you how long it was. After awhile, however, I was transported to the maternity floor one floor down and deposited into room 421. I had not held or even seen my baby since that brief moment in the OR, and I was getting anxious. She had a low body temperature and they wanted to get her a little warmer before they brought her to me. I think it was finally about 10:30 am when they brought this tiny little bundle into my room. My legs were still somewhat numb though I could move the right one. The left leg was completely numb and I couldn’t budge it a bit. I had to actually have someone pick it up and move it for me. I still had the catheter and IV in my right arm, but amid all of this, my sweet little girl was placed in my arms.
She had about as much dark brown hair as Amy did when she was born though it wasn’t quite as curly and such a tiny little head. Her face was a bit swollen from being so far into the birth canal and both her eyelids and forehead were red–they call those markings “stork bites” and sometimes they take up to a year to fade. She also had a lot of little white pimple-like bumps on her nose and forehead, but those faded throughout the day. She had a sweet tiny little face with cute rosebud lips and a skinny little body. I remember Amy being much more chunky. She had long fingers and toes with fingernails that needed to be cut right away. I just remember thinking how tiny she was.
Shortly after, Chris was anxious to have Amy come and meet her sister. So while, I nursed the baby, he went home to pick up Mom and Amy. When they returned, Chris had Amy wait in the hallway for a moment so that he could capture the meeting on camera. Amy walked into the room and up to my bed taking everything and then held out her arms to hold the baby. It was so sweet. Chris lifted Amy up onto the bed and together they held the baby for quite some time. Amy was quick to point out nose, eyes, ears, etc. but we still have to caution her to be soft.
Grandma Rice was the first family member to be introduced to our new daughter. She has never been close for the birth of any of her grandchildren, so this was a special moment for her.
While they were visiting, I decided that I needed to get out of bed and stretch. So, with IV and catheter in tow, I slowly made my way off of the bed. Ohhhh, I remembered that pain, but I also knew that lying in bed wasn’t doing me as much good. I made my way into the bathroom to clean off and change pads because I was still bleeding quite a bit (that’s normal), and then I think I went for a short walk around the unit. My memory of this time is rather fuzzy. They brought me some lunch, if you can call it that since it was all liquids, later in the afternoon, and Chris took Amy and Mom home so that Amy could have her nap. They came back later in the afternoon and that began the pattern of coming and going around Amy’s naps for the next couple of days.
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