My Birthday (as told by my mommy)

March 30, 2009
Today is my baby girl's birthday. What a whirlwind of a day it's been!
Lori and I got up at 4:00 so we could shower and get ready to leave for the hospital. We arrived at 5:30 and checked in at the surgical admissions center, and waited in waiting rooms until almost 7:00. Just before 7:00, we were taken to be prepped. This time it was different because I went into a prep room with a group of surgical patients, and was prepped in a big room divided by curtains. The anesthesiologist came in and started the I.V. (joy) and thankfully, it went in on the first try.
Then after waiting a little longer they took me over to the Operating Room in Labor and Delivery. A nice difference this time is that they didn't put the catheter in until I was already numb from the spinal, so I was spared that ordeal. Once I was on the table it was time for the spinal. That part was utter horror this time. You have to lean over and push your back out, so usually someone comes and you lean on them so you don't fall off the table--see, you sit on the edge with your legs dangling off, and when you lean over you really could just fall right off. This time there was one nurse standing there for me to lean on, but she wasn't standing in a very good position because there was a second nurse nudging her way in there with a fetal monitor trying to keep it on the baby's heartbeat. (That could be a rather humorous mental picture--trying to monitor a baby when the mom is hunched over and ready to fall). Anyway, my "support" nurse wasn't very supportive at all, so I had a difficult time pushing my back out as far as they needed me to. Before they give the spinal, they put a couple of shots of numbing medicine in, which is pretty painful. (A pinch and a burn, they say). Well, since they weren't finding a spot for the spinal, I got the numbing medicine again (ouch) and again (ouch again). Then for every time they attempted the spinal there was that awful pressure, and I just knew he was going to push me right off the table.
Then the other anesthesiologist stepped in to help. As a fun little sidenote, the two anesthesiologists were married to eachother (and I love them, they were awesome--I do blame those two nurses in front of me for all the trouble with the spinal). So the wife anesthesiologist came in and got rid of the two nurses, and she stood in front of me and gave me the support I needed (as tiny as this girl was, she was awesome). I leaned on her and then within a minute or so the husband had the right spot and I was medicated.
After the spinal went in they laid me down and started getting me all ready. I got an oxygen mask and the pulse/ox thing on my finger, the blood pressure cuff, and my arms got strapped down spread eagle style. That didn't really bother me, because I was totally relaxed by then. And the wife anesthesiologist stood by me the whole time, so when I got severely nauseous and wanted to totally puke, she stuck something in the IV and I was all good again.
When I was finally ready they went and got Lori. They wouldn't let her stand up and watch over the curtain, but when one of the surgeons turned his head just right she could watch the reflection in his goggle things. The anesthesiologist was pretty short, so when she wanted to see what was going on she pulled the curtain down a little, which made it easier for Lori to see the reflection. It was just nice to have her there holding my hand. I had to mentally prepare myself that I might go into that OR by myself, but it really was a huge blessing that I didn't have to. I am so thankful that my awesome mother-in-law (and my father-in-law who helped) made the arrangements to get here in time.
Because this was my fourth c-section, the doctor didn't want to cut through all the scar tissue from the one spot that was used for the other three. So this time I got a vertical incision, starting a little bit below the belly button. And let me tell you, the vertical cut felt so different. I did not feel them cut, but I could definitely feel them working. And this one took a long time. Usually it's only a matter of minutes before the baby is born, but this time it seemed to take forever, and I expected that any minute I'd hear the baby cry, but time just kept ticking, and still nothing. Nothing.
And then they started pushing with their hands, right under my ribs, and I knew we were really close. A few minutes later I heard her amazing cry--so loud and mad that she was taken from her warm little water balloon (that's what the boys call it). Even after hearing her cry, I still could not believe that I had another baby, let alone a baby girl. I really think that having Jared gone for so long made it harder to process. Besides that, I spent most of the entire pregnancy completely focused on other things, so the whole baby idea still had not really sunk in. But there she was, crying for us all to hear.
Another huge difference this time is how much I got to see her right after she was born. As soon as they pulled her out they held her up over the curtain so I could see her immediately--none of the others were like that. I got to see her with all the goo all over her (sorry, but it's true) and she had so much of that goo that we thought she was totally bald.
Then they took her over to her little isolette where the pediatricians were waiting, and they let Lori cut the cord. (That was cool). They also let Lori take pictures, and they even took a picture of Kamryn and Lori before they cleaned her all up and stuff. After the cord was cut, they wrapped her in a blanket, still all gooey, and brought her over to me. I got to get a good look at her and kiss on her, and she was over there with me for a really long time--with the boys they let me have a glance and then whisked them away, so the longer Kamryn was there the more surprised I was. Then they took her for real, and there I was on the table. Time for the sew-up.
The sew-up was...one of the most interesting (?) experiences of my life. First of all, it took them FOREVER. It was getting old. Luckily I still had the anesthesiologist by my side (Lori was with Kamryn, because nobody's allowed in the OR for that part) and she gave me fairly regular updates as to what they were doing. I guess they fixed some of the adhesions that had developed from the previous c-sections, which is a really good thing. And, (the following is REALLY TMI), they did a lot of "irrigation" which means they sucked out lots of blood, etc. So yeah, less bleeding for me--I love that part.
Toward the end I started feeling a lot of tugging and really weird, painful stuff. I wanted to scream. But my hero anesthesiologist was right there and she took care of it for me. As much as I hate having an IV, it really does come in handy. Anyway, it did feel like they were trying to turn my body inside out through my belly button. It was the yuckiest, nastiest, freakiest thing I've ever felt. And THEN (and this is what really surprised me) the anesthesiologist told me they were putting the uterus back inside. WHAT THE HECK? I had no idea they took it out in the first place. Jared watched Adam's c-section, and he said they never took the uterus out. So I don't know, that was just really weird. But hey, what comes out must go back in, so it's all good I guess.
After they put my stuffing back they sewed me up and stapled me and all that good stuff. (Joy). And I heard the best words you could hope to hear after such an ordeal: "Perfect. No complications, everything looks great." I couldn't ask for a better statement from the surgeons. Finally I was released from the straps, the cuff, the monitors, etc. and wheeled over to the recovery room for yet another surprise--Lori and Kamryn were in there waiting for me. This is the first time I've ever had the baby with me in the recovery room, usually once they take the baby I have to wait to get to the postpartum room before I see the baby again. But these brilliant people had Kamryn's isolette and all her little needs in there so we all got to be together. It was great.
Sidenote: At one point one of the doctors (or nurses, or whoever, I don't know) said something about my mom taking care of me so well. We explained that Lori is my mother-in-law, and whoever it was commented that she sure takes care of me like a mother. And I have to completely agree. I've said it before and I'll say it again how blessed I am in the mother-in-law department.

After that we headed to the postpartum ward. I was in such good shape that I moved myself from one bed to the other. That was awesome. And postpartum was, well, postpartum. All the things that are usually hard were not nearly as hard as they usually are. I felt amazingly good amazingly fast, and went home on Wednesday morning with my beautiful new baby girl.