Where does the time go???? I kept saying "I'm going to blog Rachel's birth story soon!"
And now she's almost 5 months old (in 9 days!!!) and no birth story blog. The adjustment from one kid to two was a bit difficult. I would say she was almost 4 months old before I really felt like we had some sort of a routine and I wasn't in over my head lol. Then we went on vacation, came back, Rachel had a tummy bug, Corbin started at one Kindergarten and a week later switched to another one (a very good thing - he was able to get a spot at our first choice for Kindergarten), and now here we are (almost) 5 months later!
So first things first....a birth story....
On March 29, 2012, at 1:55 PM, Rachel was born (Corbin was born at 2:15 PM...around 5yrs, 3 months, and 6 days (give or take) before). We were told to be at the hospital at 10AM, no eating and drinking after midnight since I was having a repeat c/s. My surgery was scheduled for noon. So, just before noon, they wheel me back, the anesthesiologist comes in, my nurse sets me on the table, they rub disinfectant on my back, get ready to put the spinal in, and.....the OR door flies open. There's an emergency C/S coming down the hall. They had totally lost a baby's heart rate on the monitor and obviously that c/s was way more important than mine (seriously...I wouldn't have had that any other way). So we go back to our room to wait and at 115ish the nurse comes in. Of course we asked about the other baby and of course she couldn't tell us much - but she did let us know it was a happy ending, so thank God for that.
So back to the OR, back on the table, back to getting a needle in my spine. At this point, I kind of lost it. James couldn't come in until the spinal was in and so I was all alone and scared to death of this stupid needle going into my spine. I'm shaking and crying and completely overwhelmed. Not only by the spinal, but by the fact that we were finally getting our rainbow baby after so many years and disappointments. It was very surreal and overwhelming.
Anyway, James came in, and it took me FOREVER to numb up, and my OB told some dumb (and slightly off colored) jokes to take the edge off. It worked pretty well. They made the first incision at like 150 and she was out 5 minutes later. I won't lie - it hurt! I couldn't feel the incision or the cutting - but the pressure! Oh dear Lord, the pressure was intense. I thought my ribs were going to crack, I couldn't breath, it was like an elephant was on my chest. Then I got a horrid headache out of nowhere, so they hit me with a shot of fentanyl. Then I got nauseous and got a shot of zofran. And more fentanyl. They're incredibly generous with the drugs when you get a headache and threaten to puke in the middle of surgery.
I saw Rachel briefly and she was so sweet and little and LOUD! The first thing I said was "is she still a girl?" then "Does she have hair??" and then "she doesn't look like Corbin...she looks like my sister!" I kissed her and then James went with her to the recovery room to be measured and weighed and cleaned up while they stitched me back up.
Would you believe this - halfway through my stitch up - as the doctors and nurses are telling more jokes over my gaping abdomen - in runs yet another nurse for yet another emergency. So they stitched me up insanely fast and off we went back to my room. We tried to go to recovery, but for some reason - I don't remember why? - we couldn't. So I recovered in my room.
I got to hold Rachel as soon as we got back in the room and just kept saying "we're so glad you're here!" And harassing my poor nurses about when I would get to nurse her. They were trying to get my situated and I'm sure I drove them half crazy, but eventually they got my morphine pump hooked up, decided my low heart rate wasn't going to kill me, and helped me figure out the whole nursing thing. Which Rachel was a pro at so it didn't require a ton of work from me other than making sure she was awake and not getting lazy with her latch.
I had a slight reaction to the spinal and my heart rate hung out in the low 40's for several hours. But it eventually came back up. I also had a reaction to the morphine pump. I have never itched so much in my life. They finally started to give me benedryl every 4 hour and it helped a bit. But then I was a hot drugged up mess. So the first 24 hours is a blur lol. After the night nurse came in, I got them to pull my IV and catheter and start me on some oral pain meds. Much better!
We went home on Saturday and my sister was there to help us out! And Rachel was home in time to watch her very first UK Wildcat ball game. And of course they won the NCAA tournament this year - so she got to experience that in her first couple of days of life as well! It was a good week around here :)
So I'm going to skip all the fun stuff in between - she cried a lot, got diagnosed with reflux and a milk soy protein intolerance, got put on meds and I stopped eating soy and dairy (now she's on hypoallergenic formula and hopefully will outgrow the mspi within the next year), she got happy and more happy and then even happier. Started sleeping 12hrs at night at 14wks and is just generally an excellent baby.
And now pictures:
And now she's almost 5 months old (in 9 days!!!) and no birth story blog. The adjustment from one kid to two was a bit difficult. I would say she was almost 4 months old before I really felt like we had some sort of a routine and I wasn't in over my head lol. Then we went on vacation, came back, Rachel had a tummy bug, Corbin started at one Kindergarten and a week later switched to another one (a very good thing - he was able to get a spot at our first choice for Kindergarten), and now here we are (almost) 5 months later!
So first things first....a birth story....
On March 29, 2012, at 1:55 PM, Rachel was born (Corbin was born at 2:15 PM...around 5yrs, 3 months, and 6 days (give or take) before). We were told to be at the hospital at 10AM, no eating and drinking after midnight since I was having a repeat c/s. My surgery was scheduled for noon. So, just before noon, they wheel me back, the anesthesiologist comes in, my nurse sets me on the table, they rub disinfectant on my back, get ready to put the spinal in, and.....the OR door flies open. There's an emergency C/S coming down the hall. They had totally lost a baby's heart rate on the monitor and obviously that c/s was way more important than mine (seriously...I wouldn't have had that any other way). So we go back to our room to wait and at 115ish the nurse comes in. Of course we asked about the other baby and of course she couldn't tell us much - but she did let us know it was a happy ending, so thank God for that.
So back to the OR, back on the table, back to getting a needle in my spine. At this point, I kind of lost it. James couldn't come in until the spinal was in and so I was all alone and scared to death of this stupid needle going into my spine. I'm shaking and crying and completely overwhelmed. Not only by the spinal, but by the fact that we were finally getting our rainbow baby after so many years and disappointments. It was very surreal and overwhelming.
Anyway, James came in, and it took me FOREVER to numb up, and my OB told some dumb (and slightly off colored) jokes to take the edge off. It worked pretty well. They made the first incision at like 150 and she was out 5 minutes later. I won't lie - it hurt! I couldn't feel the incision or the cutting - but the pressure! Oh dear Lord, the pressure was intense. I thought my ribs were going to crack, I couldn't breath, it was like an elephant was on my chest. Then I got a horrid headache out of nowhere, so they hit me with a shot of fentanyl. Then I got nauseous and got a shot of zofran. And more fentanyl. They're incredibly generous with the drugs when you get a headache and threaten to puke in the middle of surgery.
I saw Rachel briefly and she was so sweet and little and LOUD! The first thing I said was "is she still a girl?" then "Does she have hair??" and then "she doesn't look like Corbin...she looks like my sister!" I kissed her and then James went with her to the recovery room to be measured and weighed and cleaned up while they stitched me back up.
Would you believe this - halfway through my stitch up - as the doctors and nurses are telling more jokes over my gaping abdomen - in runs yet another nurse for yet another emergency. So they stitched me up insanely fast and off we went back to my room. We tried to go to recovery, but for some reason - I don't remember why? - we couldn't. So I recovered in my room.
I got to hold Rachel as soon as we got back in the room and just kept saying "we're so glad you're here!" And harassing my poor nurses about when I would get to nurse her. They were trying to get my situated and I'm sure I drove them half crazy, but eventually they got my morphine pump hooked up, decided my low heart rate wasn't going to kill me, and helped me figure out the whole nursing thing. Which Rachel was a pro at so it didn't require a ton of work from me other than making sure she was awake and not getting lazy with her latch.
I had a slight reaction to the spinal and my heart rate hung out in the low 40's for several hours. But it eventually came back up. I also had a reaction to the morphine pump. I have never itched so much in my life. They finally started to give me benedryl every 4 hour and it helped a bit. But then I was a hot drugged up mess. So the first 24 hours is a blur lol. After the night nurse came in, I got them to pull my IV and catheter and start me on some oral pain meds. Much better!
We went home on Saturday and my sister was there to help us out! And Rachel was home in time to watch her very first UK Wildcat ball game. And of course they won the NCAA tournament this year - so she got to experience that in her first couple of days of life as well! It was a good week around here :)
So I'm going to skip all the fun stuff in between - she cried a lot, got diagnosed with reflux and a milk soy protein intolerance, got put on meds and I stopped eating soy and dairy (now she's on hypoallergenic formula and hopefully will outgrow the mspi within the next year), she got happy and more happy and then even happier. Started sleeping 12hrs at night at 14wks and is just generally an excellent baby.
And now pictures:
Rachel just born
Holding my baby for the first time
Corbin meeting his baby sister
Go BIG BLUE!!!
1 comment:
beautiful story. beautiful baby
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