[Rebecca^]

We arrived at the hospital at 505 am on Thursday, Feb 5th, 2009 to check in for my scheduled c-section. Upon checking in we were sent up to labor and delivery, where they were expecting us. Things went pretty fast when we were in there, first it was a urine sampe, then get into the gown, lay down for monitoring.... they found Ethan on the monitor fairly quickly and also those pesky contrax I'd been having since the Friday before. I was obviously in early labor and had been for almost a week. While the nurse was asking a ton of questions and entering all the info into the computer system another nurse was working away on my IV, then she went to shave my public area (which I already did) next it was this nasty gas med stuff I had to drink... after that they called my DH Back to wait with me for the OR nurse to come down to get us.

The OR nurse got there about 30 minutes after I was prepped and off we went down to the OR holding area. While we were there, we talked to anesthesia and met the nurse who would be in the OR with the doc. We waited here for about an hour, all the while, I was still contracting.

waiting in the holding area.......



My doc got there about 720 am and he asked "you ready to get this party started?" uh yeah - I've been ready - let's go. He asked me again for the billioneth time if I was sure I wanted my tubes tied and I said YES!!! So off we go - well, off I went - dh went to go put on his fancy hospital attire.

We get into the OR and they transferred me to the OR bed and started doing their thing - first it was monitoring the baby and then after that I got my cute little blue hat on and then they had me sit up for the spinal. Now, my last spinal experience was pretty crappy so I was kind of dreading this thing a lot, however, I was pleasantly surprised when she got it the first time and it did exactly what it was supposed to. I could even still wiggle my toes and actually move my lower legs a bit but everything from boobs to knees was numb just like it should be. I didn't even know until the anesthesia girl told me that he had already made the incision.

My dh is in with me now, of course, and he asks - what is the smell - it was like this sulfar smell - and the nurse says, oh that is the smell of burning flesh, lol, nice.... since this was my third section, the doc encountered quite a bit of scar tissue and we could totally hear him snipping away at it and burning it, etc.... was pretty gross actually. Once he got me cut open he said there was so much scar tissue it was like pulling a baby through a closed door, the tissue just would not give at all... he ended up cutting quite a bit of it out. My dh got to stand up and watch them actually deliver Ethan which was cool for him, with Anna the hospital had a policy that did not allow viewing of the actually birth.

Ethan Alexander Zapien Hernandez 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long 2.5.09 @ 756am


So now Ethan is out and here comes the fun stuff - well, so not fun, man all i could feel was tugging, pulling, pushing, etc... it was making me super nauseos and I dry heaved a bunch, with nothing in your stomach that was about all i could accomplish was dry heaving. DH was with Ethan at this point, this was after he brought the baby to me so I could kiss and love him for a few minutes...


I could then hear myself being stapled closed and knew it was almost over - next was being moved over to yet another bed and being wheeled to recovery. Since I still had some feeling in my legs, I could have actually gone directly to my room but they have a mandatory 1 hour recovery room rule so they did the whole massaging of the uterus, changing of pads, etc - in the recovery room and when I'd done my time (1 hour) I was moved up to my room and reunited with my dh and baby!

Ethan was pretty sleepy at first and did not show any interest in nursing at all, so we called for the lactation consultant and she suggested giving him a taste of formula from a syringe just to get him perked up a bit so we did that, he rec'd 10 cc's via syringe and it did the trick. He has such a strong, determined latch and has been at the breast since! Literally! lol. He is quite impatient also and when he wants food, he wants it - he has this really strong scream that he will bust out with if he doesn't get the milk right when he wants it!!! lol. Anyway, that is my story - thanks for reading!

[TylerJ1029]

He's so adorable! I'm glad things went smoothly aside from the scar tissue.

[Melz]

That picture of Greg.. He looks so tired! Glad things went well. He sure is cute!

I cant believe Greg got up and looked. YUCK! LOL! I would have passed out!

[Rebecca^]

We had to get up that morning at 330 am - we were both exhausted but I think he was more exhausted than I was - I was kind of on a rush.

[kallie74]

Great story, Rebecca. I'm glad everything seemed to go very well, without complications. My husband did the same thing when Tommy was born--stood up and looked over the curtain and saw him come out and was the first to pronounce to the whole room, "IT'S A BOY!" A c-section doesn't feel like quite the "journey" that a vaginal birth does, but in the end all that matters is what you get as the result! Congratulations on your beautiful baby boy! I love his name, too!

[Rebecca^]

Great story, Rebecca. I'm glad everything seemed to go very well, without complications. My husband did the same thing when Tommy was born--stood up and looked over the curtain and saw him come out and was the first to pronounce to the whole room, "IT'S A BOY!" A c-section doesn't feel like quite the "journey" that a vaginal birth does, but in the end all that matters is what you get as the result! Congratulations on your beautiful baby boy! I love his name, too![/b]

Thanks kallie I had my one vag birth - the VBAC so I don't have any c-section remorse. I wanted to see what was going on over the curtain - I wanted Greg to take pics but it all happened so fast there was no time!

[justjaQ]

i'm so glad he's here, and things went well. congratulations again!