Oden

Due Date: June 21, 2020

Birth Date: June 17, 2020

6 pounds 14 ounces

19.25 inches long

PREGNANCY

I had a very healthy first pregnancy. Mostly asymptomatic throughout, save round ligament pain, back pain, and stretch marks. I stayed active (weight lifting) until pandemic stay-at-home orders hit in my third trimester.

At my 38 week appointment, we found out baby was breech.

DECISION TO DO A PLANNED C-SECTION

I had intended on a vaginal delivery with spontaneous labor and minimal medications so when we found out baby was breech at 38 weeks I was so upset. The OBGYN practice I go to has about 4 doctors who rotate and you see all of them throughout your pregnancy and whoever is working when you deliver is who delivers your baby. The doctor I saw at my 38 week appointment I had never had before so our first meeting was unfortunate because he had to deliver the breech news. He didn't know I wanted to go "natural" and made a snide remark that I didn't appreciate but his patient education was pretty good so I'll forgive the remark. He suggested a ECV (doctors manually rotate the baby by pushing on your stomach. Can be quite painful, not always successful) and we scheduled it for 39 weeks.

The plan was that I would have a normal weekly prenatal appointment on the Monday of my 39th week, confirm baby's position, then come in the next day, Tuesday of my 39th week, for the ECV. If the ECV was successful I would be induced immediately after, if unsuccessful, I would go for a c section immediately.

Obviously, having the natural route my original preference, all of these interventions were terrifying to me and I didn't want them. I spent the days between my week 38 appointment and the Monday of my 39th week appointment trying to spin baby.

I did the Spinning Babies 6 day program laid out in their $10 ebook. I followed advice to crawl around, scrub the floors on hands and knees, do yoga poses for turning a breech baby, I sat with great posture in chairs, and spent tons of time sitting on the birth ball. I used Moxa Sticks to do Moxibustion. It's ancient Chinese medicine with the same theory as acupuncture/pressure points. To do Moxibustion you hold the lit moxa stick to the outside of your pinky toe for 15 mins on each side. This heats the point called bladder 67 which coordinates somewhere in the abdomen and encourages baby to move their head to the heat, which would be head down.

None of this worked.

At my 39 week appointment on Monday 6/15 the baby still hadn't turned, my cervix wasn't really dilated or effaced either. My OBGYN looked at the positioning of baby in my body and the location of my placenta and a large blood vessel. He thought there was less than 10% chance baby would turn either on his own in the next week or with the ECV. He encouraged that a c-section would be the best route. The ECV being unsuccessful in turning the baby would likely stress the baby (and me and the doctor) and make it an emergency c-section situation, which I liked even less than the idea of a planned C-section.

We scheduled the c-section on Wednesday 6/17/2020

BIRTH DAY

On 6/17/2020 we arrived at the hospital at 6:30am after fasting since midnight. We had our temperatures taken at the entrance and we were already wearing masks. We went up to L&D, checked into our room, and got ready for surgery.

I got into a gown, peed in a cup (which was difficult since I couldn't drink anything for 7 hours prior), and set out my Birth Preferences. Our pre-op and post-op nurses and team were awesome. I had a middle aged nurse and a nurse my age who was on orientation. The rest of the scrub team consisted of two LPNs, 3 folks from anesthesia (one of whom was a student who inserted my spinal), and a baby nurse.

We went into surgery and had the baby at 9:42am! I was nervous but not terribly so.

The Spinal shot was nerving because I had trouble sitting slumped enough for them to get it in. A student was placing it so she was being extra cautious. My pre-op/post-op nurse on orientation, Kacey, held me up from the front and to distract me we just chatted. Then it did feel like warmth and tingles when I started to get numb. My left leg went numb first. They pricked me with a safety pin to see what I could feel until I only felt pressure.

The procedure went great! I chatted with the anesthesia team the whole time because I needed distracted.

My husband came in once the surgery was going. He announced the baby's name once he was out. The baby didn't cry right away but about 30 seconds later he cried. I got to see him through the little clear spot in the blue curtain. The first thing I said was "he doesn't have eyebrows!" 😆 But he does have like facial structure where the eyebrows go and he has my husband's forehead and hairline. A more prominent chin like mine... Hoping for brown eyes 🤞🏻 so far they're dark and we cant tell the color.

The baby nurse took the baby to the warmer and yelled out his height and weight. My husband wouldn't leave my side to go to the warmer like I wanted him to, but that's because he would have to stand up and he didn't want to accidentally see the surgery site. The nurse gave him the baby all swaddled up in a blanket to hold and show me. It was so sweet!!! My husband eventually had to pace a little in the OR while they stitched me up, his back was hurting on the little stool. He carried the baby while he paced. They wheeled me back to the room once I was all done. They wheeled the baby in the warmer. My hands were both tied down to the table for the surgery which I thought I would hate but I really barely noticed.

Once back in our room, our baby got checked by nurses, I'm not exactly sure what all they did. My nurses did lots of checks and vitals on me and fundal checks. They got me cleaned up and got an abdominal binder on me. My husband took a nap during all of this. He's a quiet guy but he was pretty anxious about the whole thing and didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I'm sure his nap was a release of finally feeling relief and knowing baby and I were taken care of.

The nurses helped baby get latched for breastfeeding right away, which was skin to skin. I wrote down 10:30am in my feeding log. I had the baby at 9:42am so that's pretty quick after getting back to our room, but I remember feeling like it took forever. Throughout my stay, I was taking Oxy and Motrin for pain. I had an IV in my wrist for surgery and they were going to give me meds through it post-op but I accidentally ripped it out shortly after surgery maneuvering the baby. I did get to eat a regular diet meal for lunch, not just liquids.

After 3pm, we got a new nurse. Unfortunately, she was awful. She and I just were not a good match. In the evening, maybe around 6 or 8pm I finally got to get up and walk around with her. I wanted my catheter out. That wasn't her plan but she adapted and removed it. That wasn't nearly at traumatic or painful as I thought it would be. Most of the rest of the time I nursed and held baby and did skin to skin at my leisure. The nurses only came in to do vitals on me and baby at whatever intervals, I didn't notice how often. Overnight, baby was taken for vitals in the nursery and the nurse brought him back in a Halo sleep sack swaddle because he was getting too cold in his blanket swaddle. Unfortunately, some of that was due to him being a bit underdressed. His little shirt became soiled (we are newbie diaper changes, the first day or two were messy) and one of the blankets being soiled. I asked for new ones when it happened since there were no more in our room, but she said there were no more available. Again, not a good nurse because there absolutely more available.

Thankfully, at 3am a new nurse came on who was amazing. She helped me further with breastfeeding, gave me nipple cream, and helped me soothe baby overnight. She encouraged me to just keep feeding him as often as he rooted or cried, while the nurse prior to her subscribed to feeding every 3 hours only. I can't be more thankful for the nurse who came on at 3am. She really turned our stay around and definitely impacted our breastfeeding journey and my confidence for the better. She was off at 7am but I told her that I didn't like the nurse I had before her and asked if she could pass that along to whoever made assignments. She did and I am so thankful for that. I didn't get much sleep that night.

6/18/2020

Lactation was in and helpful! My nurses were good. I got to take a shower and change the dressing on my wound. From that day on, I only had to wear a small, thin covering over my incision with one long slice of medical tape. It was much more comfortable. My incision did have staples in it that were not removed until 6/22/20 in my OBGYN's office very quickly and painlessly.

I wore my hospital gown until this day when I got a shower. After I showered, I put on my robe and high waisted undies.

I had some dizziness this day. I later learned that is was probably from the fluid.

Baby's jaundice levels were very low and he had only lost 2% of his birth weight.

He was circumcised this day. He was taken from the room for this procedure and neither of us went with him.

6/19/2020

The lactation consultant helped me figure out my pump so I would be set up to use it when the time came. Her recommendation was to introduce the bottle at 3-5 weeks and not to pump until at least week 2.

My husband went home briefly to get us a SwaddleMe so we could Velcro baby in tight, the Halo the hospital provided did not have Velcro and he would wiggle out easily. He also picked up my "victory meal" of an Italian sub and iced tea.

That night, my milk started coming in which I could tell from the pain and giant hard breasts I suddenly had. The nurse told me I could use my Haakaa to express some milk to make my breasts more supple for baby to latch onto.

Once I showered that day I put on my button down nighty and high waisted undies.

Baby lost 2.7% of birth weight this day. Jaundice check was still low.

6/20/2020

We got to go home on Saturday afternoon. I dressed in a nursing tank and soffee shirts and baby wore a onesie, pants, and socks. He fell asleep on our short carride home. We did not have to bring the carseat into the hospital to be checked. Our nurse asked a few questions about if it was new or had been in a wreck and said that's all they were required to do. We brought it in anyway so we could buckle him into in the room instead of outside in the parking garage. She carried the carseat with baby in it to the elevators outside of the L&D wing and then we were on our own. I also walked out, I was not wheeled in a wheelchair.

When I got home that day, I cried a lot. Just tears pouring from my face. I was in pain because my hands and feet were still swollen and that was part of it but the other part was hormones.

POSTPARTUM

I've been teary in the days since, as well from the hormones. I've found talking to my husband, texting friends, and having my mom visit has helped me. I struggle most when my husband and baby are both asleep and I'm alone, but in working in distractions to help me through that- some little nuggets or my old "normal" to sustain me until our pre-Covid life can come back, because the socialization is what I truly miss. We've been quarantining since mid-March.

COVID-19

We were not tested. We were merely screened upon entry to the hospital for a fever and asked if we had symptoms. We arrived wearing masks. We both stayed masked through all of my pre-op experience. We were given new masks for the surgery but mine was removed during surgery because I had oxygen on. Our intent was to continue to put masks on when staff entered our room for the duration of our stay but that became an impossible challenge. With the baby our hands were full all the time, plus we weren't sleeping with them on and we were napping on/off all day and night trying to keep up with the baby. The hospital's policy was that we didn't need to wear the masks in our room, but we wanted to out of respect for the staff. They didn't seem upset that we didn't get masks on when they entered, not one nurse or staff person said anything.

I loved my birth. We are so lucky to be healthy and happy. Yes, this pandemic has put a damper on some of the things we were looking forward to but I just keep reminding myself that is we don’t stay safe now we will have to give up more of the future we were looking forward to.

Are you interested in seeing my hospital bag packing list (and what I wished I had brought)? Let me know in the comments!

Also, I love reading birth stories! Share yours in the comments below!