So the past few weeks have been a huge blur for me. Let me try to back track and fill in the gaps as best I can. This is Levi James Spohr's birth story.
Warning: This post will contain my birth experience, so if you ain't down with hearing the details, and I mean details, you may want to pass on reading this post.
First, the havoc Levi has rendered on this old body... I had gestational diabetes, placenta attached pretty much on my scar tissue from the three previous Cesareans, a huge amount of amniotic fluid, very frequent contractions and was anemic. As far as the diabetes goes, I controlled it well with changing my eating habits, so Levi did not get huge. All of these thing just added to the "advanced maternal age" statistics. We were merriely moving along and waiting for the scheduled arrival of Oct 12. I hurt and waddled, drove the little assistance carts at the grocery store so as to not go into labor during a shopping trip. I had peace about having a cesarean
again, so the days flew by...
Soon we were one week away from Oct 12 and the already scheduled surgery. I had my usual ultrasound and ob appointment (I had those every week for months). Since we were one week out, Dr Amy gives me the lists of risks for the next week and for surgery since I had SO much fluid, I had a strong chance of having my water break early. Since my placenta was so low, I had a strong chance of having a prolapsed cord if I did have my water break. Since I had dialated in the past week, this risk was growing by the minute. During surgery, I had a chance of the placenta being attached into the scar tissue and causing major issues, like hysterectomy and major bleeding (boy that helped the fear factor go up about 3000%). I was anemic that made my risks for blood products increase during surgery. Add 4th cesearean and you have a dr that is not happy with the "ifs" and she suggests an earlier delivery. She had rather do surgery with a controlled environment than having a problem over the weekend and being in an emergency situation, so John and I decided to go ahead with an earlier date. Oh and btw, since you have gestational diabetes, your baby may have some breathing issues when he's born.
Fast forward 36 hours and we are having a baby... I have a HUGE, irrational fear of cesareans, I know I have had 3 others but I still freak out when I think about having someone cut, tug, and pull a baby out of me while I am awake. I am very blessed to have a dr who knows this about me and is patient and helpful with making sure I am ... as happy as medicine will allow ... during surgery. I also have a cousin that works in labor and delivery, she was able to make sure she was in the OR with me. That really helped with the mood of the morning. The anesthesiologist was great as well and did his job to keep me happy.
My
husband, hero was let into the OR just as things were getting started. He was able to let me listen to my Ipod during the surgery and put one of the bud in my ear so I could hopefully have a distraction... not really but I tried. I was having a hard time breathing while laying on the table but that got better as soon as all that fluid was allowed to travel elsewhere. John was able to stand up and watch a large part of what was going on. That was neat for him since usually he is focused on me. He got to see Levi being removed from his warm cozy hot tub and I got to hear him not.really.cry the first time or two he tried. I didn't think much of it as one of my children wouldn't cry at first. So they get him ready, move him from belly to bed to scale to bed to dad's arms to my face, take picture, then he is gone along with John, in milliseconds. I on the other hand have to endure the next 45 minutes of the surgery alone... fun. I then had about an hour in recovery, with my great cousin "Nurse Kayse" watching carefully. :) As the recovery period ended and I was being wheeled to my room, Kayse mentioned that my little guy was in the NICU.
What? .... Tears ... I was not prepared for this. I was prepared for my laundry list of issues, but not his one "maybe" issue.
As I arrive at the room John is returning from yet another trip to the NICU to see our hours old son. He had just gotten in to see him and had pictures... Thank you Lord for digital cameras. The rotten part of it all was up until I got to my room, John was frantically trying to get to see Levi. They were having a hard time getting the vent in, so they kept delaying his access to the NICU and Levi. John was not happy. So now I find out that he is on a ventilator and is having breathing issues. John spends much of the next several hours walking back and forth from NICU to my room just to see our sweet boy and bring his momma pics back. While this was a trying time, I am so thankful to the Lord... Levi being in the NICU, probably kept me saner than any of my other maternity stays in the hospital. I was able to rest, recover and at around 8pm that night I was able to hold my sweet boy... and they had removed the vent by then. Again, thank you Lord for my not having to see him with the tube in (in real life). When I did get to hold him, he was alert and had his eyes open. He then looked at me like he knew me, like he had been missing me, like he knew my voice and was interested in hearing it. That was amazing. I know they can hear while in the womb and I know they recognize our voice but the fact that I had been away from him for 12 hours and then his reaction was such an amazing thing. Thank you again Lord.
The next several days were one long week.... I felt like we were there forever. While we could go and look at our son most anytime we wanted too, we were only able to hold him at certain times of the day... 12, 4, and 8 round the clock. Most nights I skipped the late night and early morning times just to sleep. I pumped and got the milk supply going while the baby was on IV. Within 2 days, I was able to start feeding him straight from the factory, but that was limited so that we could make sure he was getting the calories he needed. The outlook for his homecoming looked like it was going to be the same day as me, until the night before the last night... the step down NICU area was cold where he was and he would not hold his temp up... We were heartbroken since we could tell it was cold right there and it really wasn't "his" fault. The nurses/doctors should have had it warmer in there! Gggrrrr. Anyway, they fixed the temp and after mom and dad had to sleep at home alone one night, he was ready to come home the next day. Whew.
Posts
