I went to my obs appointment on Monday 17th and she checked me out. She confirmed that bubbas head was still high and cervix was no where near ready for labour. She said that Baby would be another 2-3 weeks away. I could have cried. She could see the mental damage the pain I was in was causing me. I was sleep deprived, bruised and depressed. Not to mention utterly useless and fat!!
She scanned me and said she could see that there was a lot of cord near bubba's head and neck. She said that it could have been wrapped around her neck and that it was preventing her from dropping. Also this posed a major risk if she broke my waters. I later found out (as I thought) that she had a patient lose a baby girl from cord prolapse after ARM (Breaking her waters). She was not prepared to put me in the same position and I was not willing to put us at that risk. I knew I could not wait 2 or 3 weeks without going completely mad and I was also going to take a huge risk if I went into labour naturally. Against every fibre of my being, I opted for the cesearean and tried not to think too much about it. She booked us straight in. We went to the hospital. I got prepped at 7pm and got sh!t scared as I walked into the OT. I used some relaxtion techniques I planned to use in labour, and it worked! I was probably only 20% nervous and scared. Plus the drugs had me feeling pretty sick and woozy which took my mind off the whole event.
I had the spinal block administered, which was probably the most uncomfortable of the experience. I felt like a pin cusion. It took a few attempts to get a good block without pain. But after I was blocked I was dead from the nipples down. The aneathetist and one of his nurses talked to me to try and distract me while my Obs made the cut. Then he said "You are doing really well, she has just cut through your belly, so we know you can't feel anything." Argh. I didn't want to hear that. Then I heard my obs say, "Well she's not a blonde, daddy." Then I heard her say "And look the cord IS wrapped around her neck. Come on darling!" My heart skipped a beat. Five seconds later she was telling me to "Look look look" and there was my beautiful baby girl being held up on display. There was a whisk of scrubs and a green sugical blur as the nurses handed her to our peadiatrican. He checked her out and DH went straight over to greet our new addition. She had two scores of 9 on her APGARS. She weighed in at 3370 gms and measured 50cm. A little fatter then India was and almost 2 cm shorter. She was covered in vernix, confirming that she could have happily stayed in there for another 2 weeks. I looked over at her smiling, and overcome with relief that she was happy and healthy. She cried only a little and was quiet and content straight away. I got sewed up, and my obs. thought it would be funny to show my how flexible I could be when my legs are dead. She stretched my right leg up beside my ear. In my groggy state It looked like I was sitting on a rubber dummy and its legs were being flung past my face. Freaky! But funny for everyone else
Crazy Irish woman...which is funny because she delivered our St Patty Day baby.The most painful moment was getting up for my first walk and shower. I was dying to get up though. It was so strange staring down at my feet flailing around at the end of the bed. I was willing them to move and they were, but I could not feel it. It took about 4 hours to get full feeling back in my legs. I got up at 4:45am for a VERY early shower. So about 8-9 hours after surgery I was venturing out of bed. The nurses helped me up and the pain was excruiciating. I had two strong pain killers about 20 mins before so it would help with the whole ordeal. I would have hated to see how I went without them! I shuffled very slowly to the bathroom and every where screamed with pain. It was a very achey bruised feeling everywhere, especially in my belly. I sat down in the shower and soaped myself up. I couldn't stop shaking from the residual effects from the spinal block and meds. Each time I ventured out of bed, it hurt but got easier with every time. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be except for that initial trip to the bathroom. My first loo experience was quite painful but all part of the healing process.
I stayed in hospital for 4 days and we got home on Good Friday. And boy was it good!! I couldn't wait to get home and have India home too. She is still working out what's going on. Everytime she sees the baby, she says "Seraya!" Although I doubt she knows that she is here permanently and not just mummy's new dolly.
Although the recovery will be much slower then that of a normal delivery (I know I was up and feeling great the next day with India) it was worth it for the safe arrival of our beautiful little Seraya. I know I changed her name at the last minute!! Stuart got over his dislike for that name considering that I had to go through hell to get her here safely. I am very sore, but can walk around okay. It's not really as bad as I thought and you can't even tell I have been cut open. My Obs did such a good job. You really can't even see a line. Getting in and out of bed is getting easier with each day. I am hoping to be back to normal by week 6! It is very frustration not being able to tackle the housework or pick India up. But I wouldn't have been able to do those things being heavily and painfully pregnant as I was. My ribs have mild residual soreness but NOTHING compared to the pain I was experiencing before. I am happy our little bundle made it here safely and nothing compares to that!
