At 6:30am Wednesday, August 20th we made our journey to Providence Hospital so we could meet Penelope. To be perfectly honest, I was not looking forward to the whole process of getting Penelope out. I do not have fond memories of any of my c-sections and I had developed this huge paranoia that I was going to feel the entire cutting process.
As the nurse got us prepared, I tried to make jokes and Tyler tried to keep things light and it worked mostly. But once the IV was in and all the information they needed taken care of, and they were wheeling me into the operating room...I began my normal shaking. I shook the entire time they were administering the spinal block. The nurses were really sweet and worked hard to calm me down but my head gets away with me...
Then came the pinch test, to make sure I was numb. And my fears were semi-realized. I could feel some sharpness. No, I didn't feel the entire pain of having a metal clamp pinch me but it did hurt. SO they waited longer and eventually determined I was good and numb and started cutting in. The nurses continued to chat with me, trying to distract me with questions about my kids but ugh, it did not feel good! And they took forever to get Tyler to come join me. I didn't like that :(
After uncomfortable tugging, pushing and some painful feelings out came my Penelope at 9:47am. These nurses were great and they took over the camera and took some pictures of Penelope fresh out of my womb. She is our smallest baby yet at 7lbs 13oz, 21 inches long, and her head measured 35cm:
Then the sweet nurses brought her over so we could admire her cuteness and they even put her by my hand so I could touch her sweet, soft skin:
After that, though, was an intense amount of pain and uncomfortableness as they put me back together again. It was awful and the anesthesiologist could tell I was not doing well so he offered to put some drugs in my IV that would help but might make me sleepy. Holy crap, "might make me sleepy" was the understatement of a century. Next thing I know I am drifting in and out of consciousness as they wheel me back into my room. Honestly though, I am so thankful for those drugs, because I don't think I could have survived the whole process awake. I really don't think I have it in me emotionally to have another baby. I feel so traumatized by c-sections.
The rest of the day was a sleepy blur, mixed with Penelope cuteness. I was in some pain again shortly after returning to the room so they gave me more drugs that once again made me extremely sleepy.But thankfully, Penelope was a great nurser and I didn't need to be super alert.
Around 6pm that night my parents brought the kids to visit and our photographer came as well to do the hospital photo shoot. I was feeling pretty gross, I was super hot and sweaty, tired and swollen and I am really not excited to see the pictures that include me BUT the kids were all really excellent photo subjects. They were so excited to see and hold Penelope. They all smothered her with kisses and love and those are the pictures I can NOT wait to see! Here's the preview shot she put online:
I was a little nervous about our first night in the hospital. This hospital doesn't have a nursery and all our previous children had been terrible sleepers that first night but that night was rather painless. Maybe because I had slept so much that day but regardless, the night went rather smoothly. I was even able to get up and walk to the bathroom all by myself. That first walk is always painful BUT it always feels so good to get out of the bed.
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