Birth Story....part 1!

We dropped Emily off at my parent's house at 5:50am. I told Emily we'd see her soon and told my parents Jim would call when there was a baby.

We got to the hospital at 6:00am. Went to the maternity ward, was put in a room and changed clothes. The nurses hooked me up to machines, started an IV and basically asked a ton of questions. I then asked them a ton of questions. The anesthesiologist came in and went over his procedure and asked a bunch of questions. He was great!

The room was empty and Jim & I looked at eachother. I explained my nervousness and that I was dying of thirst! Due to the anesthesia I couldn't eat or drink after midnight.

A nurse came in at that point and gave me some liquid that would help with the nausea (a side effect of the anesthesia). At this point I was so thirsty, I would have drank anything. Unfortunately, this stuff tasted like lemon antifreeze. Seriously, it was awful! She also gave Jim his space-age garb to be worn in the OR and gave me a funny hair covering. We looked great!

Dr. Shah came in about 7:50am and said we were on time and should be starting soon! We asked her a couple of questions and then she left. Less than 10 minutes later, the nurses came in to wheel me into the OR. They transferred me to this itty bitty OR table. The anesthesiologist then proceded to give me the spinal. He was great and I only felt a pinch. Very soon after, I started to not feel my legs. They laid me down on the table and put in the catheter. At this point, I could feel nothing. I was aware of things going on around me. My doctor and the assiting doctor came in. They brought the blue curtain up and I heard them say a moment later..."she's good".

And then it happened.....

I had a full blown panic attack! They had brought Jim in at this time and he tried to calm me down. I was having NONE of that. I told Dr. Shah that it just didn't feel right and there was no way I could go through with it.

She told me that I would just be back in a few days needing a c-section. I told her that was fine, I just needed to be in labor first. So, they started dismantling the OR and put me back on the regular bed. I had to stay in recovery until they got my blood pressure back up. At one point, it was as low as 60 because of the anesthesia. About 2 hours later, I was finally able to start moving my legs, that was a strange feeling. They started to rub the benzocaine off my stomach and that's when it happened....the nausea was overwhelming. The nurse also told me that I had a new c-section appointment set for November 27th at 10am.

They took me to maternity, where all the beautiful rooms were. Since the anesthesiologist had given me so much pain medication for after, I had to stay overnight for observation. I then made the phone calls. I told my parents that they could bring Emily up to visit, but there was no baby. I had to tell everyone the story. Jim & Emily stayed until around 7:30 and my parents left around 6:00.

I was able to get some rest even though nurses were coming in every few hours to do their checks. It was definately an eventful day!