This is the birth story of Nathan… the good, the bad and the ugly (I won’t show too many graphic pictures). Jadon arrived two days before his due date so I figured that Nathan wouldn’t arrive an earlier than his scheduled c-section, leaving me plenty of time to procrastinate.
Two days before his birth (Saturday) we finally chose a name and the day before he was born I packed the hospital bag and my mom and dad installed the car seats in my car (Jacques and I can never figure those things out). That night the washing machine broke down so I called a repair guy and left my sob story of a message (having a baby at 1:00 pm, can you come before 10:00 am?). Jacques mom, Ann, and my mom and dad came over Sunday evening to help. They sent Jacques and I out to dinner and watched Jadon while they took our last load of laundry to Andy’s house (he only lives 5 minutes away), installed the car seats and cleaned up Jadon’s room. Jacques and I had dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant and then stopped by Kroger to pick up some groceries. On our way home we stopped by Lowe’s and Home Depot looking for rock salt but they didn’t have any. The generous who designed our house placed the rain gutter in front of the steps leading up to the door so when it is cold enough we get ice - more than one person (including yours truly) has slipped. Snow flurries were scheduled for that night and in case of ice we wanted the rock salt. Just as well that they didn’t have it since there wasn’t any ice Monday morning.
It was strange going to bed knowing that I would have a baby the next day. Surprisingly I slept pretty well and as I was getting ready Monday morning the repair guy called and said he would get to our house before 10:00 am. Turns out the motor on the washing machine broke (it wasn’t even 2 ½ years old). The cost of a new motor was just slightly less than a buying a new washing machine so on Wednesday we bought a new washing machine. My parents and Ann came by to pack up Jadon’s stuff and load his mattress in their van (he was going to be spending the next few nights with them). I was told to be at the hospital around 11:00 am but with all the chaos of getting Jadon ready and the repair man coming and going we left our house a few minutes after 11:00 am. We checked in to the hospital, headed up to the maternity ward and settled into our labor & delivery room. The nurse was very sweet. She hooked me up to several monitors, put the IV in and asked a million and one questions about my medical and pregnancy history. I was told that the anesthesiologist would be in around 12:45 am to get me and if our family wanted to see the baby in the nursery window they should arrive around 1:15 pm – 1:30 pm. Then she left – and I started to panic.
With Jadon’s labor nearly 32 hours had passed from the start of the contractions to the time the doctor decided on a c-section. At that point I was exhausted and everything seemed to be kind of a blur. This time around I hadn’t gone through labor, jus a few contractions here and there but nothing consistent, and I was much more alert. The thought of a spinal without the pain of contractions to offset it and knowing what the surgery and recover ahead of me was going to be like started to sink in. For the briefest of moments I thought about changing my mind and trying for a normal delivery. But the contractions were painful and I hated being strapped to a bed so I decided against it. I was out of delivery options and nothing looked good. Jacques held my hand the whole time which helped calm me down a lot. About 20 minutes later when it was time for the nurse to get me I was mentally ready. But 12:45 pm came and went…1:00 pm came and went… still no nurse. I was grateful for the delay because by the time they did come I was more than ready for the c-section. Something must be in the Clarksville water because there are so many babies! There were 7 people in labor and 6 of them were with Premier Medical (that is the group my doctor has his practice). Since my doctor was the one on call that day he had 6 babies to deliver and every woman wanted an epidural, which he had to approve and therefore, kept the anesthesiologist busy and pushed back my surgery. The anesthesiologist, Melanie, was very sweet – she gave me my epidural with Jadon… you just don’t forget the wonderful people that give you pain relieving drugs! She explained how a spinal worked, the procedure, blah, blah, blah. The nurses gave Jacques a set of scrubs and then wheeled us off to the operating room. It was 1:30 pm and on our way to the OR I could see our family in the maternity waiting area through the windows on the doors as we were going by. I asked if we could stop for a second so that Jacques could run out and tell them the c-section running a little late. The nurse and anesthesiologist said they would take the long route to the OR and wheel us through the maternity waiting area to see them, which I thought was very nice of them. Jadon saw us and started crying (a fearful scared cry) – he wasn’t used to seeing Jacques in scrubs or seeing me hooked up to monitors in a bed being wheeled around. I gave him a hug and a kiss but he chased after us crying, “mama”. I felt horrible for Jadon - even the anesthesiologist started to well up when Jadon was crying for me.
I was wheeled into the OR and transferred from the bed to the operating table. The OR was freezing!! The scrub tech was behind me counting instruments and Melanie was getting her stuff ready for the spinal. The spinal packs quite a punch in comparison to an epidural. When the decision was made to do a c-section with Jadon I was given medicine through the epidural, which took about 20 minutes to take effect and while I couldn’t feel any pain, I could feel more of what the doctor was doing during the surgery. With the spinal, I lost all feeling from my chest down within 3 minutes, my blood pressure dropped quite a bit, I felt light headed, it was hard to breath and I wanted to throw up. They elevated me somewhat, gave me medicine to bring my blood pressure up and make me feel less nauseous and gave me oxygen. Within a few minutes I was feeling fine and Dr. Anderson came in to prep for the c-section. When he was ready they brought Jacques in and then started the surgery. Melanie told me what the doctor was doing so I was ‘in the loop’ so to speak. She wanted Jacques to be able to see the birth without being distracted by taking pictures so she took over with the camera when Dr. Anderson told Jacques he could stand up and watch them pull Nathan out. Dr. Anderson quickly showed Nathan to me over the blue curtain before handing him off to the nurses. As awful as this might sound, I thought Nathan looked terrible – all purple and covered in blood. He hardly cried until he was being cleaned by the nurses.
Two days before his birth (Saturday) we finally chose a name and the day before he was born I packed the hospital bag and my mom and dad installed the car seats in my car (Jacques and I can never figure those things out). That night the washing machine broke down so I called a repair guy and left my sob story of a message (having a baby at 1:00 pm, can you come before 10:00 am?). Jacques mom, Ann, and my mom and dad came over Sunday evening to help. They sent Jacques and I out to dinner and watched Jadon while they took our last load of laundry to Andy’s house (he only lives 5 minutes away), installed the car seats and cleaned up Jadon’s room. Jacques and I had dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant and then stopped by Kroger to pick up some groceries. On our way home we stopped by Lowe’s and Home Depot looking for rock salt but they didn’t have any. The generous who designed our house placed the rain gutter in front of the steps leading up to the door so when it is cold enough we get ice - more than one person (including yours truly) has slipped. Snow flurries were scheduled for that night and in case of ice we wanted the rock salt. Just as well that they didn’t have it since there wasn’t any ice Monday morning.
It was strange going to bed knowing that I would have a baby the next day. Surprisingly I slept pretty well and as I was getting ready Monday morning the repair guy called and said he would get to our house before 10:00 am. Turns out the motor on the washing machine broke (it wasn’t even 2 ½ years old). The cost of a new motor was just slightly less than a buying a new washing machine so on Wednesday we bought a new washing machine. My parents and Ann came by to pack up Jadon’s stuff and load his mattress in their van (he was going to be spending the next few nights with them). I was told to be at the hospital around 11:00 am but with all the chaos of getting Jadon ready and the repair man coming and going we left our house a few minutes after 11:00 am. We checked in to the hospital, headed up to the maternity ward and settled into our labor & delivery room. The nurse was very sweet. She hooked me up to several monitors, put the IV in and asked a million and one questions about my medical and pregnancy history. I was told that the anesthesiologist would be in around 12:45 am to get me and if our family wanted to see the baby in the nursery window they should arrive around 1:15 pm – 1:30 pm. Then she left – and I started to panic.
With Jadon’s labor nearly 32 hours had passed from the start of the contractions to the time the doctor decided on a c-section. At that point I was exhausted and everything seemed to be kind of a blur. This time around I hadn’t gone through labor, jus a few contractions here and there but nothing consistent, and I was much more alert. The thought of a spinal without the pain of contractions to offset it and knowing what the surgery and recover ahead of me was going to be like started to sink in. For the briefest of moments I thought about changing my mind and trying for a normal delivery. But the contractions were painful and I hated being strapped to a bed so I decided against it. I was out of delivery options and nothing looked good. Jacques held my hand the whole time which helped calm me down a lot. About 20 minutes later when it was time for the nurse to get me I was mentally ready. But 12:45 pm came and went…1:00 pm came and went… still no nurse. I was grateful for the delay because by the time they did come I was more than ready for the c-section. Something must be in the Clarksville water because there are so many babies! There were 7 people in labor and 6 of them were with Premier Medical (that is the group my doctor has his practice). Since my doctor was the one on call that day he had 6 babies to deliver and every woman wanted an epidural, which he had to approve and therefore, kept the anesthesiologist busy and pushed back my surgery. The anesthesiologist, Melanie, was very sweet – she gave me my epidural with Jadon… you just don’t forget the wonderful people that give you pain relieving drugs! She explained how a spinal worked, the procedure, blah, blah, blah. The nurses gave Jacques a set of scrubs and then wheeled us off to the operating room. It was 1:30 pm and on our way to the OR I could see our family in the maternity waiting area through the windows on the doors as we were going by. I asked if we could stop for a second so that Jacques could run out and tell them the c-section running a little late. The nurse and anesthesiologist said they would take the long route to the OR and wheel us through the maternity waiting area to see them, which I thought was very nice of them. Jadon saw us and started crying (a fearful scared cry) – he wasn’t used to seeing Jacques in scrubs or seeing me hooked up to monitors in a bed being wheeled around. I gave him a hug and a kiss but he chased after us crying, “mama”. I felt horrible for Jadon - even the anesthesiologist started to well up when Jadon was crying for me.
I was wheeled into the OR and transferred from the bed to the operating table. The OR was freezing!! The scrub tech was behind me counting instruments and Melanie was getting her stuff ready for the spinal. The spinal packs quite a punch in comparison to an epidural. When the decision was made to do a c-section with Jadon I was given medicine through the epidural, which took about 20 minutes to take effect and while I couldn’t feel any pain, I could feel more of what the doctor was doing during the surgery. With the spinal, I lost all feeling from my chest down within 3 minutes, my blood pressure dropped quite a bit, I felt light headed, it was hard to breath and I wanted to throw up. They elevated me somewhat, gave me medicine to bring my blood pressure up and make me feel less nauseous and gave me oxygen. Within a few minutes I was feeling fine and Dr. Anderson came in to prep for the c-section. When he was ready they brought Jacques in and then started the surgery. Melanie told me what the doctor was doing so I was ‘in the loop’ so to speak. She wanted Jacques to be able to see the birth without being distracted by taking pictures so she took over with the camera when Dr. Anderson told Jacques he could stand up and watch them pull Nathan out. Dr. Anderson quickly showed Nathan to me over the blue curtain before handing him off to the nurses. As awful as this might sound, I thought Nathan looked terrible – all purple and covered in blood. He hardly cried until he was being cleaned by the nurses.
A few seconds old
Dr. Anderson shows Nathan to me for the first time
Jacques is trimming the cord
Our first family photo
Melanie continued her role of commentator as they were cleaning Nathan so that I knew what was happening and within a few minutes they brought him over for me to hold. He looked so different all cleaned up and I just feel in love with him. I got to see him for a minute or two before Jacques and Nathan headed to the nursery so that Nathan could be examined and the family could see him. While the doctor was finishing the surgery the nursery called to let us know that Nathan was 8 pounds, 5 ounces and 20 inches long. After the c-section I was taken back to my room and within 30 minutes they brought Nathan to me. I was about to try nursing him when my IV came out (don’t ask me how) so I couldn’t hold him until they put a new IV in. Ann and my mom were in the room at the time so they held Nathan while I was getting a new IV. Our hospital stay was like Grand Central Station…. everyone was coming and going all hours of the day and night so Jacques and I got no rest. Nathan also needed some extra tests since he was breathing pretty fast. His tests came back normal but his chest scan showed fluid in the lungs. The neo-natal doctor looked over him and said it was amniotic fluid, which is pretty common in c-section babies and as long as he improved each day (which he was), he could go home with us when I was discharged. We came home Wednesday afternoon, after 2 nights in the hospital. Nathan is a beautiful, healthy baby and we are very blessed to have this newest addition to the family!
Ready to go home!
