Tag Archives: c-section

Day of Birth Memories

365 days have passed since I gave birth to my sweet little boy, though it feels like mere minutes. Your day of birth was one of the most important days of my life.

I know so many people warn you that the first year (and each subsequent year) goes so quickly, but you just don’t understand until you experience it for yourself. I believe, for the most part, I took my time working hard to absorb every special moment, but I’m sure I still missed things or certain actions passed me by without noticing. It’s just so hard and until there is a means to slow down time or to travel BACK in time, we’re left with only memories.

Day of Birth Memories - Hospital

This was Sunday night, 7/22/12. We had gone in that evening to begin the induction.

I’m a really sentimental person with everything in my life. I love sitting down with just about anyone and reviewing all the memories that each of us can remember from a particular situation. Something about doing that really warms my heart and puts a smile on my face, so over the next few days you will see a series of birthday posts made for Emmett. These are for his benefit, so when he’s older he can read through them but also for me, because I love reliving everything I experienced the day he was born and the days/weeks after.

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During the C-section

Emmett has grown from a tiny baby who needed me (or Seamus) for everything to a toddler who is fairly independent. It blows my mind that something so small can change and grow so much, in only 365 days.

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The very first moment I got to touch my boy.

I remember the way his soft cheek felt against mine and I remember thinking, I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything this soft. I do not regret having a C-section, it was what was best for Emmett and myself but I often wish that we’d been able to go naturally. We would have then had the time after birth for immediate bonding. The hospital was fantastic about ensuring he got to me within an hour, so that he could start nursing, so I truly cannot complain.

The fist time I held him in my arms.

The fist time I held him in my arms.

Because the hospital was so quick to bring him to me once I was in the recovery room, his rooting reflex kicked in and he immediately started looking for my nipple. It amazed me, that a baby less than 2 hours old, had the ability to do something so important. He needed help latching but he somehow, instinctively, knew what to do. Once he drank a little colostrum, he fell into a deep, comfortable sleep. He knew he was safe and warm, back with his momma.

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The best days of my life are ahead of us, and I had no idea!

Happy Birthday, Emmett!!

More to come…

You can read all about Emmett’s first days of life here.

Emmett’s Birth Story (Part 7)

My migraine was gone and I was ready to hold my little boy. It still took the nursery about 15 minutes to bring him to me and I was beyond anxious to just hold and touch him. Remember, up until this point I had not touched my baby because I’d had a c-section.

If you are breastfeeding it is recommended that you allow your baby to feed within 2 hours of his life because studies show that newborns who have early contact with their mothers learn to latch on more efficiently than babies who are separated from their mothers in the hour or two following birth. This is also a time when the baby will be in a state of quiet alertness, the optimal behavior state for interaction with you. Her eyes are wide open, she is attentive and is looking for another set of eyes – and for the breast. (source)

I had decided that I would be breastfeeding Emmett so it was important that he and I be able to have some skin-to-skin contact within that two hour window to allow him to learn to latch. Seamus and I were concerned we’d fall outside of this time frame because of my c-section but the hospital did a fantastic job of ensuring he got to me well within that time.

For any soon-to-be moms out there, I want to recommend that you ask the hospital to hold off on bathing your baby (if you’re planning to breastfeed) until after he’s fed for the first time. Once they’ve done that, they will set him under the heated lamps to bring his body temperature back up, which takes a lot of time, this is time away from you and your breast. This is a critical time and not one that your baby needs to be spending under heated lamps, your skin against his will warm him plenty.

When they brought him into the room and handed him over to me, my breath caught in my throat. It hit me, he was mine and no one else would ever be his mother. It was such a moving experience that just thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes.

We immediately had our skin to skin contact and worked on his latching skills. It actually went quite well, I needed assistance but Emmett was still alert and ready to nurse

If you’re breastfeeding, after the baby’s birth, all modesty goes out the window, you have nurses and lactation consultants grabbing your boob, showing you how to hold it and then placing it in the baby’s mouth, there’s just no time to be shy. I’d heard this ahead of time but I still figured I’d be slightly uncomfortable with it but truthfully, I wasn’t. I knew what they were doing was teaching me how to feed my baby the perfect food. And in the end, their advice was all VERY helpful!

After we’d had about a half hour with him, they took him back to the nursery. I was still in the labor and delivery unit and needed to be moved to my private room in the Mothers and Baby Unit. So they took Emmett back to get a bath and a few more tests, one being a blood glucose test. He was born with low blood sugar so they had to test it every few hours to see whether it was increasing.

When we got to our new room, the nurse came in and introduced herself and explained some important information to us. After she’d done all that she took my temperature and blood pressure, helped change the pad on the bed and assisted me in putting a pad on myself. If you’ve never had a baby, let me say that the bleeding you experience after a baby is far worse than any period you can even imagine, it’s gross but necessary.

Eventually they brought our baby back to us, we were “rooming in” with the baby. This is something new that the hospitals are suggesting to parents and I was fully on-board. Instead of the baby staying in the nursery, he stays with you (morning and night) so that you can adjust to sleeping together and so that you’re there to feed him as he needs. I’m very glad we did this, I don’t think I’d have wanted my baby down the hall away from me.

Time started to blur together because I was so exhausted. If you remember I hadn’t slept more than an hour or two combined the previous night and I’d just gone through surgery. I needed to rest but I was still riding on the high of my brand new boy.

In case you missed them; Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

Emmett’s Birth Story (Part 5)

I was getting so excited! I knew that the hospital midwife was going to come and check how dilated I was and I was confident that I would be nearly 10 cms along (this is when it’s time to start pushing). Well, she checked and I was still just barely 4, which I had been since 8 am that morning. It was around 6:30 pm at this point, 7 is when the doctors switch shifts, I’ll explain why this is important shortly.

To give a little background, at my OB’s office there are 4 doctors and 2 nurse practitioners. Throughout your pregnancy you see each of the doctors and NPs randomly because you don’t know who your doctor will be at the time of birth. I of course had my favorites in the office so I was really hoping that I’d be fortunate to have one of them.

As it turned out my very favorite doctor was the doctor on duty all of Monday but she worked the morning shift and was scheduled to get off at 7. The doctor coming in after her was my second favorite (SCORE!) but I didn’t know this quite yet. My doctor came in and explained that I was currently maxed out on Pitocin and that I still wasn’t dilating very quickly. She stated that because I have high blood pressure that I would need to start considering that I may need a c-section. Seamus and I had discussed ahead of time whether we would be alright with a c-section and we agreed that we didn’t care how Emmett joined us, as long as he and I were safe.

The doctor was gone for probably 5 minutes when she and my second fav doc returned. They laid out my two options, 1- They could turn the Pitocin off which could cause my body’s receptors to turn back on and cause me to dilate further. They would check my cervix again at 11:00 pm but with this option there was a chance that I would STILL need a c-section. 2- I just went ahead and had a c-section. Since Seamus and I had decided we were okay with surgery and since there was a chance I may still need it anyway, we went ahead and chose to have a c-section.

From this point on, everything moved so quickly! By the time we had made the decision to go forward with the surgery, it was 6:30, there was an OR open and an anesthesiologist available. The nurse on duty started prepping me for surgery and gave Seamus a set of scrubs to put on for the operating room.

The anesthesiologist who I had for the actual section was different than did my epidural but was just as amazing. He was a soft spoken guy who at first glance you would assume he had no sense of humor but throughout the entire experience he’d crack these really funny underhanded jokes, it was great! He also took the time to explain what was going on and to reassure me, seriously where did my hospital get these guys, they were just fantastic!

I suffer from ocular migraines, so when the anesthesiologist was inserting the medication that I needed for surgery I started to get a blurry aura in my eye, a typical sign of an intense migraine coming. I made sure to tell him and I did start to freak out a bit because I knew the pain from a migraine would be tough to take on top of surgery, he assured me that once surgery was over that I would be given pain meds to alleviate anything I was feeling.

Before I knew it I was being wheeled into the OR and they were getting me all set for what was to come. I realized quickly that my favorite doctor as well as my second favorite were both in the OR. The doctor who was off at 7 had decided to stick around and assist with the surgery, I felt very lucky! At this point they have you move from one bed to another and then start setting the drape up over you. For most, a c-section is an awake surgery, so they put up a screen so that you are unable to see what they are doing to your body.

I may look like I’m asleep but I assure you that I am awake. I had my eyes closed because I was dealing with some intense nausea from the meds they had given me.

Once the drape was up and the meds had taken effect, my doctors poked me and asked whether I could feel what they were doing and whether there was any pain associated with it. With a c-section you feel them pulling and tugging and you feel pressure when the baby comes out but you should feel no pain.

Less than 15 minutes later, the doctor said, “Jillian you’re going to feel a lot of pressure now as we pull the baby out.” It was some pretty intense pressure but certainly nothing I couldn’t handle, especially knowing that at the end of it my baby would be in this world.

In case you missed them: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

 

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