Elijah's Birth

Two days after our due date, on September 4, we had a routine prenatal appointment.
I went in a bit frustrated because I wasn't feeling any closer to
going into labor.  Besides Braxton-Hicks contractions I had no signs
of labor.  For the past 4 days I had been walking as much as possible,
though the heat and my enormous belly made it very uncomfortable.  Our nurse practitioner
started by listening to the heartbeat and she had a hard time finding
it at first.  She palpated my belly and said that she wanted to check
and make sure he was still head down with an ultrasound.  Two weeks
earlier the ultrasound clearly showed him in head down position so we
didn't think it was even a possibility that he could have flipped.
But sure enough the ultrasound showed him in breech position.  It made
sense because the night before I couldn't sleep at all because my ribs
hurt no matter what position I was in.  Daniel and I both started
crying immediately because we knew that meant we had to have a
cesarean.  Everything we planned for- laboring at home, a natural birth- went out the window.  I asked the doctor if we could schedule the surgery for that day
because I was tired of waiting.  She left the room to call the
hospital, and that gave us time to calm down and focus on the
positive.  Daniel and I reassured each other that a Cesarean isn't all that bad and tried to get excited that we were having a baby tonight!  She was able to schedule us for that evening at 7:30pm.  I
spent the whole day excited and trying not to think too hard about the
details of the surgery and desperately thirsty because I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything in preparation for surgery.  We decided to go with Sky Ridge Hospital
since we couldn't try for a natural birth anyways.  Sky Ridge is much nicer than St. Joe's.  

We showed up there at 5:30pm with all our bags and got all prepped for surgery.  The obstetrician/surgeon came in and introduced himself and spent a long time answering any of our
questions and concerns.  Daniel did a great job making sure the doctor
knew that we were hoping for a natural birth and asked that they do
everything possible to stay with that plan in the operating room.  He was very understanding of our original plan, and sympathetic that it had suddenly been drastically changed.  The
doctor used the ultrasound to confirm the breech position and was very
surprised to see that there was very little amniotic fluid because the
baby was taking up so much space in my uterus.  He had no idea how the
baby flipped.  With his size and how far along I was in the pregnancy, it's very unusual.  The baby was completely breech- he was actually sitting cross legged with his head up.  The doctor did allow us the option to
go back home and see if the baby turns back on his own.  We decided against that.  The chances that he could flip again were so low and we were tired of waiting.  Then he
checked the monitors and discovered that I was actually already in
labor having contractions about 5 minutes apart (I had noticed them, but
they weren't painful yet).  So we proceeded with the surgery.  The
anesthesiologist also came in and spent a good amount of time
explaining the procedure and answering all of our questions. This was the part I was most nervous about.  I've never been under any kind of anesthesia or had any surgery.  I was afraid the spinal would hurt.  I was also upset that Daniel couldn't be with me in the operating room until all of the prep was done and I was already numb from the chest down.  Daniel told me later that at this point- after I had left to prep for surgery and he was waiting to be allowed into the operating room- he started to freak out.  He text messaged his best friend to try to stay calm.  Daniel and I were very impressed with all of the doctors and nurses.  After
talking to everyone we felt good about the decision.  The surgery went
very smoothly despite Elijah's size.  The surgeon's assistant
explained to me later that I was very lucky to have such a great
surgeon because any other doctor would have needed to make a much
larger incision to get our baby out.  I could hear all the doctors and
nurses surprise at how big he was when they pulled him out.  All along our ob/gyn thought he was on the big side, as did the surgeon, but nobody knew that he would be almost 9 1/2 pounds!  As they pulled him out I heard his first cry and then I started crying immediately.  It was such an overwhelming feeling that there was actually a real live baby here that wasn't here a minute ago.  As they took him over to the warming bed, the first
thing I noticed was all his hair, and then that he didn't really look
like a tiny newborn.  He looked like he was 2 months old already!  Though the doctor had promised they would put the baby on me immediately, the pediatrician did not know that so Daniel spent the
first 10 minutes after Elijah's birth arguing with the pediatrician to
let me hold him skin-to-skin.  After less than 5 minutes on my chest they
took him away and Daniel went with him to the nursery.  I didn't see
him again until almost an hour later in the recovery room.  I think
there was a miscommunication because the surgeon did agree to let us
have that skin-to-skin contact, but the pediatrician didn't want to.
Daniel convinced them to wait to bathe him (though they did towel
him off and everything) and do all the other procedures so they could get to me as soon as possible and start breast feeding and skin to skin.  He didn't end up getting a bath until almost 24 hours later.  

In the post-op room Daniel and Elijah came and I got to hold him and feed him for the first time.  I don't remember much about that except that I was so happy we were all three finally back together and that the surgery was all over.  Daniel and Elijah left to go back to the nursery and my nurse finished up and wheeled me to my final recovery room.  On the way there I saw three of our friends standing at the window watching Daniel and Elijah in the nursery.  They saw me and followed the nurse to my recovery room.  A few minutes later Daniel and Elijah came in.  We stayed up way too late hanging out and celebrating.  I fed Elijah a few more times and fell asleep.

Overall I thought the experience was much better than I expected.  It
was not painful at all until 2 days later and all the doctors and nurses (except the
pediatrician) treated us with respect and compassion.  Elijah is perfectly healthy.
His glucose levels were monitored carefully for the first 12 hours
after birth because of his size (9 lbs 6.5 oz) and it was within
normal range every time.  Breastfeeding has also gone remarkably
smoothly until the last few days.  He latched on right away in the recovery room and nursed
well for the first 2 days.  On the third day he was circumcised and we went home.  
That seemed to make him so sleepy that he wasn't interested in nursing
for almost 24 hours.  I couldn't get him to latch on, he just cried hysterically every time I tried.  Thankfully we had a previously planned visit from the nurse/lactation consultant the next morning.  They discovered that he has lost almost 15% of his birth weight and was down to only 8 lb.  One more ounce and he would have been hospitalized.  She gave us a new plan for feeding and after one day he gained a whole ounce.  I am feeding him every 2 hours around the clock and then pumping after each feeding and giving that to him by syringe.  It takes about an hour to feed him and pump, so I spend one hour feeding him and the next hour off around the clock.  It's exhausting, but completely worth it to get Elijah back up to a healthy weight.  It is pretty scary that he went a whole day without eating and I feel like a horrible mom when I think about it.  He must have been so confused and hungry that whole day wondering why I wouldn't feed him.  :-(  But now we're back on track and he's doing really well.  

My recovery has also gone very well.  The nurses
were very surprised how quickly I was out of bed and walking around.
We were discharged after less than 48 hours in the hospital.  I feel
fantastic now- as long as I keep up with my pain medication.  I've already lost 14 pounds and I don't think I even look pregnant anymore.  I've gone for a few long walks through the neighborhood and I can get around the house and roll over in bed without much pain or discomfort.  I feel a million times better now than I did in my last month of pregnancy.  I haven't had even a touch of the baby blues.  I'm just so happy that I have this tiny baby in my arms and not in my belly.  Watching Daniel with him has been incredible.  He is such a natural Dad.  From the second Elijah was born, Daniel has been attentive and loving towards both of us.  He's so concerned with my health as well as the baby and spends every second of the day making sure both of our needs are met before his own.  My sister left yesterday and my Mom leaves tomorrow, so that'll be the first time it's just the three of us.  I'm a little nervous, but also excited.  I love our little family.  There are no two people I would rather be with than my boys :-)