Welcome Baby Savannah

I haven't posted in months, but I wanted to take the time to write down what I can remember from the baby's birth before I forget everything! It's already been 9 days and memories are fading fast.

I had to get up about 4:30am on Saturday to get ready to be at the hospital for my third cesarean. Grandma Jenith kindly came over the night before to take care of Jase and Ian for us while I would be in the hospital. Huge relief to know your kids are safe, happy, and sound while you're away.

As usual I was a ball of nerves getting ready. I also made sure to slap on a little bit of makeup this time since I've gained these lovely face splotches (pregnancy mask) from my pregnancies that I like to attempt to cover up--even though the makeup doesn't help much. Ok back to the story...So this entire pregnancy had really been surreal for me. It just never seemed like I was REALLY going to have a baby! Since becoming pregnant, Reuben had switched jobs which also meant our insurance had changed and I had to deliver at a "new" hospital (a much smaller one than I was used to). I was lucky enough to snag a quick tour of the place a couple weeks prior, so at least I had some idea of where I'd be staying this time 'round.

Reub and I pulled into the parking lot right on time and just walked right in. They had me do a little bit of paperwork then next thing ya know I was changing into the hospital gown. Yikes. Things were getting pretty real pretty fast. My prep nurse was a woman probably in her 50's or so, nice, friendly...but it was soon to be discovered that she was what I call a "second-guesser." First she tried putting the IV into my forearm (ideal place) and after one try she gave up on that and decided to put it into my hand (not ideal). She got the IV in without much trouble, but then informed me she had to take a few vials of blood from it. For some reason it seemed to go on and on and the torture was almost unbearable. I started getting sweaty, clammy palms, and super nauseous. She kept apologizing and repeating how shocked she was that it was taking so much time to get the blood she needed. Ugh. Finally, the torture ended. Only to my horror, she notices that the IV is not dripping into my veins! Lovely. I am already planning revenge in my head because I'm thinking "she is NOT going to redo this IV" when she calls in a fellow nurse to come try and solve this new problem. After a few minutes, the other nurse realized that the IV would drip as long as I bent my hand down at the wrist. If I flexed my wrist, it cut off the IV drip. Great. So I get to have a bent hand throughout this entire procedure? Deal, if it means I don't have to get another IV (hahaha). Well turns out after a few mintues the vein opened up and I didn't have to bend my hand any longer! Phew. They made me put on a lovely hair cap, had Reuben all suited up as well, and put those compression "air" boots on my calves (they help prevent blood clots), then wheeled me into the operating room.

The anesthesiologist was so nice and informative. She talked me through the entire process about what could happen with a spinal. Ironically, pretty much everything she warned me about happened (we'll get to that later, though). I am pretty sure I had an epidural with Ian's delivery (for sure had one with Jase's), but she was saying most ppl do spinals for c-sections. I am still convinced her spinal was my first one. Anyway, it didn't hurt much at all (just feels really weird and uncomfortable when they do it, but it's fairly quick). She had me sit up and lean into Reuben while she did it. It's just so bizarre being in this sterile, surgical room knowing soon you'll be having your baby in there! Ugh. Not my favorite. I am pretty jealous of all the moms who get to have normal deliveries. I did get to sort of experience some of that with Jase...up until the part when he wouldn't actually come out, heh heh, but I digress...Soon after the spinal my legs started tingling very quickly. They did the catheter, which I couldn't feel at all (good thing) and very soon after I could not feel anything from the chest down. To me, having a c-section is like being at the dentist, except 10x more terrifying. It's like you're hoping you're numb, but you're worrying WHAT IF I'm not numb and I feel them cutting into my body!? Scary.

They didn't even tell me that they had started the procedure but it had been a few minutes so I asked and they said, "Yes, we already started and we are about to pull the baby out!" I barely felt a thing at all. I did start to feel nauseous so I told the anesthesiologist and she gave me something that knocked that out and then I felt better. She had also mentioned that sometimes the spinal will numb your diaphragm a bit and make it almost feel like you can't breathe. I had that sensation as well, but it didn't scare me bc she had prepped me for it, so I just focused on taking slow, deep breaths. Next thing you know they got the baby out and I begged for someone to tell me if it were truly a girl (to which my doctor replied "yes") and I was sooo happy! I could hear her crying as they took her immediately into the next room to check her out and clean her up a bit. Now I can't remember if they even showed her to me before they took her--oh yes, wait, I think they did and I remember a ton of dark, dark hair! Hooray for a baby girl with hair! Reuben was still sitting next to my head for a few minutes and then he asked if he could go with the baby (and so he did). Then I was on my own. While they were stitching me back up, I started feeling major yuck-o. Like nausea city. Oh man. I remember them telling me they were going to move me from the operating table back to the bed and that it would feel like they were going to drop me on the floor but that they would not drop me (it totally does feel like they will drop you, by the way)! I barely got the words "I'm going to throw up" out of my mouth and they had some sort of cup at my mouth and I started puking. YUCK. The entire time they are wheeling me down the hall back to my room, I am throwing up over and over and over. This was a first for me. Luckily, I was numb all the way down, so at least it didn't physically hurt to throw up, it was just disgusting. And a bit embarrassing. They got me back to the room and I think I remember them bringing me the baby rather quickly. She was so tiny and beautiful! I tried to get her to eat but she was having NONE of that. It was a few hours later before she showed any interest in eating at all. Reub and I were worried, but they said some babies just aren't hungry right off the bat.

It's frustrating to me right now trying to type this all out, bc it's already hard for me to remember details and this all happened only 9 days ago. I think day 1 is the hardest to remember because I was so sick all day and super tired (I kept falling asleep mid-sentence while speaking to people). I think the tiredness was due to the anesthesia because to my surprise, at the end of the day I found out I hadn't been given any pain meds at all (I thought the entire time they were giving me morphine in my IV)! Nuts! My mom came up with Jase and Ian to meet the baby later that morning--I know my mom was over the moon excited to meet her 2nd granddaughter! The boys were cute and excited to meet their little sister as well. We took some videos and pics while they were there, and it was kind of neat to know our little family is now complete. I was still feeling super tired and the room would kind of spin if I moved my head too much and I was a little worried I might drop the baby! From what I remember, I had her underneath my hospital gown just resting on my chest. At some point they took her and really bathed her (up until then she still had that white stuff on her from birth...I guess they just sort of toweled her off after she was born?). Reuben's parents came to visit baby Sav on her "birth" day as well. I think this is grandchild #32 for them! What! Ha ha. I tried to eat some chicken noodle soup for lunch and after a couple bites, I started vomiting again! Bah! By about 7pm, I was starving and starting to feel MUCH better. I ordered a turkey sandwich that came with a huge mound of fries. I remember thinking, "I probably should not eat this" but I was so hungry I woofed down EVERYTHING. And guess what? It all stayed down! Ha! After that I was fine--no more nausea.

Sunday Jerel and Crystal came to visit, as well as Reuben's sister Julie and her family. Later that day, an old friend from college (who I literally haven't seen in yearsss) came to visit and brought me some Twix bars, cookies, and magazines! She is the best and it was so fun to see her!

It was day #3 at the hospital and I was able to move around fairly well, so we asked if we could go home. I was still teetering with this decision...but it didn't really matter much anyways bc my mom had to go back to work, which meant Reuben would have to go home with the kids and I'd be all alone in the hospital if I stayed an extra day. Also, the day nurse (we called her the bull in a china closet) was super loud and obnoxious (though nice) and I couldn't take her any longer! While she ran off to get us discharged, we both started packing up stuff and I guess from my moving around a little too much I started getting major pains. Oops. It felt like my incision area/internal organs were on fire. Not fun. But I am not very good about taking the full doses of pain meds, so that is my own fault. After a few hours they determined we could leave, so we did. We put the baby into her sweet going home outfit, and headed off in the car to stop at Walgreens to fill some prescriptions for me. It really hit me in the car that I was taking a new baby home and I was going to have to be new mommy all over again. Thrilled, scared, tired, overwhelmed...all those emotions just hit me like a ton of bricks and I just cried, most of the way home. I am so grateful she is a healthy baby. I worry so much during my pregnancy, so it's a huge relief to me when she's born with all her fingers and toes, can hear, can eat, and can breathe on her own. She did have to deal with jaundice (but so did her brothers when they were born) and we had to take her to the pediatrician a few times to be tested, as well as having her bloodwork done at the hospital. But we were able to avoid needing the bilirubin lights or any hospitalization, so that was good.

The best thing about a new baby is that they sleep...a lot (except at night, ha)...at least for the first couple of weeks. So that really helps transition everyone into "baby mode" without too much stress. People in my neighborhood and ward (church group) were awesome and brought meals and gifts for a few days...I was overwhelmed at how NICE everyone was being to me and I appreciated it sooo much. I decided that I will definitely give back when the time comes. :)

She was born at 8:18 am, 19" long, weighing 8 lbs (though there is some discrepancy on this! The nurses logged it into the system as 8 lbs, 4 oz. (wait, I think it was Reub that said that is what the scale said when they weighed her), but her card on her incubator said 8 lbs. We decided to just go with the 8. Oh, and her head measured 36 centimeters.

Welcome baby Savannah. Now our family is complete.