Scheduled C-Section Birth Story

[MrsDarcy]

Hi ladies!

I wanted to share my birth story with you. As many of you know, I had a scheduled cesarean due to a breech baby. Enjoy my long tale!

We arrived at the hospital at 5am, and came up to the maternity floor. We were taken back to one of the triage rooms to be prepped. I was hooked up to the monitors to listen to baby's heartbeat for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, my IV was started and I started my first of four or five bags of fluid for the day. I was shaved, forms were filled out, birth certificate info was filled out, consult with the anesthesiologist, etc. Eventually, it was time to walk back to the OR. We stopped in recovery, my husband got suited up and they did a quickie ultrasound to make sure she was head up. I was then taken back to the OR, where they placed my spinal anesthesia and laid me down. They draped me, got my oxygen on, put my catheter in, and pretty much got to work. My H said they had already started when he sat down.

At one point my BP got low and I started feeling weird and kinda nauseated, so they gave me something via IV and had me smell something to wake me back up. After that I felt fine. The pulling and tugging part were weird feeling, but didn't hurt. By where my H was sitting he was able to see quite a bit, and was able to see the baby being born. At times his eyes kept getting big, it was funny to watch. Because she was breech, her bottom was born first, and the rest followed. We had watched a youtube video of a breech c-section that looked quite violent, and thankfully, my H said it looked nothing like that.

Greta Margaret arrived at 7:34am, and cried right away. She was taken to the bassinet where they started to clean her up. Her apgars were 8 and 9. She was 8lbs 1oz and 21.5 inches long. The U/S tech's guess for weight was spot on! They gave her to my H and he brought her for me to see her. I wasn't able to hold her until the recovery room, but that was ok. Also, cameras in this OR were not allowed.

They took my H and her out and began her bath and footprints while they finished the surgery. They finished and moved me back to the stretcher and wheeled me back to the recovery room. I had the shivers, but felt ok overall. They brought her to me and placed her on my chest for skin to skin. They then helped me start to breastfeed. A women then came to talk to us about donating my placenta for this new wound care thing they're doing with the placentas. Very cool! She talked FOREVER, and a lot about herself, to the point where I was like, ok, I've just met my daughter for the first time, leave us alone! But, she eventually left. After a while they let my H take the baby to the nurses station and met my mom there so she could see her.

After a few hours, we were moved to our postpartum room. I had gotten several doses of dilauded in recovery, so I was sleepy and drunk from that. The anesthesia made me itchy, but I didn't take the Benedryl for fear I'd be out of it for hours! I felt pretty good once we were settled in our room.

It's been easier every day, but I still have some pain, especially in the evenings. If you have a cesarean, don't shy away from the narcotics right away, they really help you get over the hump. I thought I was managing with just ibuprofen, which I was for a while, but by that first evening I needed something stronger. Also, don't overdo it, and rest as needed.

Thanks for reading the world's longest birth story!

[curbsideprophet]

She is adorable! Congrats!!!

[FastHands]

Precious! Congratulations!

Neat about donating the placenta! You'd think they could've talked to you about it when you were in triage, though. Kinda busy, lady, buhbye! Lol

[rbp]

Yay! Glad your c/s went well. Congrats!

[aqualuv]

Congratulations!!!

[Blue Moon]

Yay, so glad to hear it all went well. I'll be thrilled if mine goes as well as yours did! She's a cutie for sure

[melsamoony]

Congratulations she is gorgeous

[laurenh]

Glad everything went well, she's beautiful!

[jorja]

I'm so glad everything went smoothly. She is such a cutie!

[ewall]

She's gorgeous! Congrats!

[kballerina]

Great story - congrats

[luv2rn4fun]

Congrats on your beautiful baby girl! Glad to hear your c-section went smoothly...prayers for a speedy recovery!

[linz]

Glad it went well. She is so cute!

[MamaMaui24]

Congrats! She's adorable in her bassinet.

They should definitely discuss the placenta donation before the day of! Crazy.

[pennylane]

Congrats again! She's precious.

[cb]

So adorable!!

[tacocat]

Congrats! Glad everything went well and she's so cute!

[thatgirl2478]

Congratulations!! She's beautiful!

[scribellesam]

Congratulations! She's beautiful.

[vtdiamond]

Thanks for sharing you story. Your daughter is beautiful!

[cheeseandcrackers]

so cute!

[blueberry10]

Congratulations! She's so sweet!

[FoxInFiji]

Thank you so much for sharing your story! I might be in your shoes in a few months (baby is and has been breech for every u/s to date) so this gives me good insight.

Did it take a while to shed all of that extra liquids from the IV? Did they have you take a water pill to help shed it or did you not blow up like a balloon? The friends I know that had scheduled C-sections were mentioning this.

[MrsDarcy]

Aug 12, 2014 10:53:24 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Thank you so much for sharing your story! I might be in your shoes in a few months (baby is and has been breech for every u/s to date) so this gives me good insight.

Did it take a while to shed all of that extra liquids from the IV? Did they have you take a water pill to help shed it or did you not blow up like a balloon? The friends I know that had scheduled C-sections were mentioning this.

Yeah, I feel like I still have some swelling/fluid retention, of course in my belly which is expected, but also still in my hands. I didn't gain a lot of weight, so I know it's not that so it must be fluids. I was an idiot and forced my wedding rings back on when we got home (they've been too tight to wear because of swelling in my hands during pregnancy), and now they're stuck! Oops! Guess they'll eventually come off.

I don't recall taking any kind of water pill or anything - I guess it'll come off eventually!! I peed a LOT in the hospital. They measured my urine output for 24 hours after the removal of the catheter, and it was ridiculous how much I was peeing.

Hope your baby flips, but honestly, recovery really hasn't been that bad. Since I had a vaginal delivery with my son, I can compare the two, and this really hasn't been any worse at all, just different. It's nice to have my downstairs all in one piece, if you know what I mean.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Deleted]

She is perfect!

[awick14]

She is so precious. Congrats again.

[jayded]

Congratulations, she's precious!

[FoxInFiji]

Aug 12, 2014 11:08:53 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Yeah, I feel like I still have some swelling/fluid retention, of course in my belly which is expected, but also still in my hands. I didn't gain a lot of weight, so I know it's not that so it must be fluids. I was an idiot and forced my wedding rings back on when we got home (they've been too tight to wear because of swelling in my hands during pregnancy), and now they're stuck! Oops! Guess they'll eventually come off.

I don't recall taking any kind of water pill or anything - I guess it'll come off eventually!! I peed a LOT in the hospital. They measured my urine output for 24 hours after the removal of the catheter, and it was ridiculous how much I was peeing.

Hope your baby flips, but honestly, recovery really hasn't been that bad. Since I had a vaginal delivery with my son, I can compare the two, and this really hasn't been any worse at all, just different. It's nice to have my downstairs all in one piece, if you know what I mean.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks.  I know she has plenty of time to flip.  I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that it might all go down that way because I was previously very anti-c-section.  My dr recommends a version (not sure how I feel about this :/) and if that doesn't work or she flips back they will schedule a c-section.  It just sucks that I have no other options.

[MrsDarcy]

Aug 12, 2014 13:47:49 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Aug 12, 2014 11:08:53 GMT -5 MrsDarcy said:

Yeah, I feel like I still have some swelling/fluid retention, of course in my belly which is expected, but also still in my hands. I didn't gain a lot of weight, so I know it's not that so it must be fluids. I was an idiot and forced my wedding rings back on when we got home (they've been too tight to wear because of swelling in my hands during pregnancy), and now they're stuck! Oops! Guess they'll eventually come off.

I don't recall taking any kind of water pill or anything - I guess it'll come off eventually!! I peed a LOT in the hospital. They measured my urine output for 24 hours after the removal of the catheter, and it was ridiculous how much I was peeing.

Hope your baby flips, but honestly, recovery really hasn't been that bad. Since I had a vaginal delivery with my son, I can compare the two, and this really hasn't been any worse at all, just different. It's nice to have my downstairs all in one piece, if you know what I mean.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks.  I know she has plenty of time to flip.  I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that it might all go down that way because I was previously very anti-c-section.  My dr recommends a version (not sure how I feel about this :/) and if that doesn't work or she flips back they will schedule a c-section.  It just sucks that I have no other options.

I completely understand as I never wanted a c-section at all. I was induced last time, and the pitocin contractions were so intense that I needed an epi, but I really wanted a med free birth then, and wanted one this time as well. But, my H and I decided that the version wasn't for us when we read about the procedure and risks, and laying upside down to try and flip her hurt my back, so c-section it was. I quickly became at peace with it, and I hope you do too.

[mrssandro]

Great story! Thanks for sharing. She is beautiful!