Sunday, February 5, 2012

Scarlett's Birth Story {part 1}

After a 2 week hiatus to heal after having little baby Scarlett, I'm back. I figured I'd just go right into her birth story since that's usually the thing I want to read/hear about when someone has a baby. I'll start at the beginning, hence the 'part 1' in the title.

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We spent Thursday night relaxing with each other, talking about what it would be like if we did end up having a baby the next day. We didn't have anything special for dinner, Alex just whipped up something easy and delicious. This was also the last good sleep we were going to get for a while and we took advantage of it.

The last photo of me pregnant. 39 weeks 4 days.

We spent the morning prepping and packing in case we wouldn't be coming home that day. Everything was cleaned and in order. I wasn't allowed to eat but did get to enjoy a small 8 oz glass of water.. yumm! We arrived at Women's and Babies hospital at 11:30am which is conveniently only 10 minutes from our house.  We went to Triage to get checked in. The ECV was scheduled for 12:00pm. After check-in, we were taken to a small room where I was hooked up to the monitors for the baby's heartrate and my (non-existent) contractions. They needed to monitor for 30 minutes. Feels like we waited 45!

The ultrasound tech came in to do the final scan to determine whether the ECV was even possible. She was very nice and even tried to show us Scarlett's face, it was pretty smushed in there at this point. We wait another 15-20 minutes as the Doctor reviews the scans. A nurse returns and tells us that the ECV will not be possible and we'd be having a csection. We were prepared for this. Honestly, I think we were both hoping for it at that point.. we were so prepared to have a baby that day, going home would've been disappointing.

Trying to wait patiently.

Okay, okay.. I guess this is the last picture of me pregnant!
So we were on our way to Day Surgery Waiting so that I could get prepped for surgery. This included getting blood drawn, getting an IV and 2 bags of fluid in me since I hadn't eaten since 8pm the night before at it was now after 1pm. We sat in an even tinier room watching TV waiting for the csection which was scheduled for 4pm. Alex headed out to have lunch while he still could while I got my IV and blood taken. Sidebar: The nurse there asked me if he came from work because he was dressed in khaki's and a button down tucked in. I told her no, that he just likes to dress nicely. Meanwhile, I sat arrived for the day in sweatpants and slippers. When he got back we were informed that our Doctor was running behind schedule and our csection would be pushed to 5:30pm. We called our parents and let them know. We tried to gauge what time we thought we would be done and back in couplet care.

Doctor Rapp's initials so they know who is supposed to cut me!
Alex in his scrubs, ready to meet our baby girl.
We met with different doctors during our wait, the anesthesiologist, the surgery nurse, a resident who would be observing, and Dr Rapp who would be doing the surgery. Everyone was super nice and Alex and I were ready to get things moving. Alex got his scrub jumpsuit on. 5:30 came and went. Soon it was 6:00pm and we were wondering if they would ever come get us so we could have a baby. A little after 6:00 the surgery nurse arrived.. luckily too because we were getting very anxious.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

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