WOW! What a week! Our cesarean was originally planned for Friday, August 20th. On Sunday, August 15th, I noticed that I wasn't urinating as much. I had an appointment with Dr. Howard on Monday so I figured I would just let him know. When I told him about it, he said that I needed to contact my doctor and let her know. His suggestion was to go ahead and deliver them. When I got home, I called Dr. Bradford. She said that her first inclination was to go ahead and deliver them but she wanted to talk to Dr. Howard first. After she called Dr. Howard, she called me back and said to pack my bags because we were delivering at 7:15 on Tuesday morning.
We made it to the hospital at 4:30 a.m. and they attempted to hook me up to the monitors. The nurses had trouble getting the babies on the monitors so they called Dr. Bradford at home. She came up to the hospital and hooked me up to the monitors herself. It took, overall, about an hour and a half to get the monitors to pick up their heartbeats. A nurse anethesist came by the room about half an hour before the surgery and got information from me. At promptly 7:15, the nurses wheeled me into the operating room for surgery. I moved myself onto the cart and I was told to sit on the side and put my legs up on a stool so they could do the spinal block. I leaned on the nurse's shoulders while they gave me a topical anisthetic. There was more discomfort than pain. I was expecting more. It felt like I was having acupuncture because it felt like electricity shooting down my spine and legs.
When she was finished, they had me quickly lay down on my back. I felt nauseated so they gave me some medication to help soothe me. The curtain was put up and the nurses asked what the babies' names were. I said, "Kayla and Bryce". When I looked to my left, I saw Kevin and my mom enter the room. Kevin sat down beside me and grabbed my hand. I was shaking from the medicine. I started feeling nauseated so the nurse gave me more meds. I felt the lifting of my belly as they prepared me. Then they used tape to hold it in place. The nurse next to me let me know when they made the incision. I was so nervous, but excited. It seemed like time flew. The next thing I know, one of the surgical team said, "here's Bryce" and held him up above the curtain. He was screaming and flailing about. I had tears in my eyes and it became hard to breathe. I was so happy. Then I heard everyone in the room say "awwwww". When I asked what happened, the nurse said Bryce had crossed one of his legs over the other.
Only a minute later, at 8:05 a.m., I heard another loud cry. It was Kayla and she wasn't even fully out of the womb yet. I looked up at my mom and saw that her eyes were red. It was nice to know I wasn't the only emotional one in the room. I sent Kevin over to look at the babies to make sure they both were healthy. He came back over and said they looked great. I was relieved. While Kevin and my mom were looking at the babies, I threw up. This was one of my fears but the nurse stuck a suction tube in my mouth to take care of it. My blood pressure had gotten low in the meantime. I was still shaking and my teeth were chattering throughout the whole surgery. It felt like the room was freezing. I had two blankets on my chest but they didn't help. Finally, the doctor closed up the incision and the drape was taken down.
The nurses used a board to move me from the operating table back to my hospital bed. I still couldn't move my legs at this point. Kayla and Bryce were placed in between my legs and we were wheeled back to the labor and delivery room where I started. My dad was waiting in the room. The nurses tested Kayla and Bryce's blood sugar. Bryce's was a little low but not too bad. Kayla's was in the 40's so the nurse had to bottle feed her immediately to get her sugar up. One of the nurses asked if I was able to breastfeed but my teeth were still chattering and I was exhausted so I said no. Over the next couple of hours, I was in and out of sleep. I could still hear some things going on around me at the same time. When I finally woke up, I had stopped shaking. The first thing I saw was Kevin holding one of the babies. He seemed to be mesmerized by them. I fell in love with him all over again. Since I was awake, my mom handed me one of the babies, and then the other one. I loved them immediately.
After a couple of hours, the nursing staff wheeled me up to the postpartum floor. I was still falling asleep but I remember the nurse saying that Kayla was cold so they rushed her off to the warmer. Poor Kayla. She had low blood sugar and now she was cold. I felt so bad for her. While Kayla was in the warmer, the lactation consultant came by and worked with me on getting Bryce to latch on. I was still so exhausted that I was falling asleep throughout the whole feeding.
I had a total of an hour and a half sleep the night before the surgery and maybe another hour throughout the rest of the day. That night, Kevin stayed with me at the hospital and we both took care of them. It was exhausting. I probably got another hour of sleep, along with Kevin. The next night, I didn't sleep at all. These first couple of days, my blood pressure had seemed to drop. On Thursday, my blood pressure started to creep up. By Friday, it was in the 150's over 90's. On Friday night and Saturday, it had elevated to 180/110. I was dizzy, nauseated, and I had a headache. The doctor started me on blood pressure medication again. On Sunday, we finally got to go home. Kayla had explosive vomiting as we were getting ready so we thought we would end up staying another day.
We have been so blessed!
No comments:
Post a Comment