Catelyn's C-section birth

Atina shares her daughter Catelyn's birth story:

Early in my pregnancy with Catelyn, I learned she had a two-vessel umbilical cord; that basically let us know that our delivery of her could/would be different. I knew several months out that a C-section was more than likely to happen, unless the stars lined up.

Catelyn stayed breech the entire pregnancy. The picture shows how Miss Catelyn stayed. It made it difficult for me to feel her kick, or even move around. I remember being able to feel her head by my rib cage, and it’s a feeling I still miss to this day.

Due to the umbilical cord, Catelyn didn’t deal well with stress. My blood pressure was starting to get wonky and weird. My OB let me know that unless my blood pressure straightened out, and Catelyn flipped, I was looking at a C-section. It wasn’t want I wanted, but I understood the risks of a stressed baby. As my due date got closer and closer, he tried flipping her (which was uncomfortable, but he was pretty nice about it) and she wouldn’t stay flipped. I know she wasn’t ready to flip, but she wouldn’t stay in any other position either. She was happily rear facing breeched, thank you very much. When he would try flipping her, her heart rate wouldn’t go back to normal. That bothered both the doctor and myself.

My blood pressure also stayed overly high. So in the beginning of October, he let me pick the date, either a Tuesday or Thursday. Ha -- like I was gonna wait till a Thursday! He also asked if a student could watch the C-section. I knew that I wouldn’t care if there was an audience or not, I just wanted to meet my new baby. So on October 12th, Shawn and I showed up at the hospital bright and early at 6 a.m. The nurses got me all prepped and ready to go. The worst part of the prepping was the catheter. Oh, the flipping catheter. I would somehow forget how awful the catheter was between kiddos. They wheeled me into the O.R. and got everything set up.

The spinal block wasn’t a big deal. Imagine someone standing up with their arms straight out, and make a line from one pointer finger to the other. That imaginary line is the Mason-Dixon line of the spinal block world. Everything below that line is numb. The anesthesiologist let me know I should be able to move my thumbs. I could feel the numbing creeping up my lungs; it felt weird and breathing became more difficult. I realized that my thumbs weren’t moving, and I couldn’t get a breath. I must have been tearing up, because the anesthesiologist asked if I was okay, and if my thumbs were still moveable. I shook my head no, and he quickly made an adjustment, and apologized (he had read my files from previous surgeries and made an educated guess to how much medicine I would need, and apparently my body decided this time I didn’t need that much). After that, everything was good.

My doctor showed up, and asked where the student was at. She was a no-show. He didn’t take that well. Both my doctor and I are, uuumm, what you could call smart asses. I remember him making a comment about the new scalpels in the OR, and how he might as well use a butter knife. I found that funny; the nurse by my head felt she needed to apologize, which made me laugh.

By 8:20, Catelyn was delivered. She cried early on, but was flashed by me pretty quickly. The peds doctor said she had some fluid in her lungs and wasn’t breathing well. They darted off with her to the nursery, and I sent Shawn with them.

By the time they were closing everything up, the student showed up. My doctor wasn’t thrilled in the slightest. He asked her where one muscle should be attached to (though he did use the lovely Latin name, that sounded really flipping cool). She said something that I didn’t hear, and apparently she was not just wrong, but very wrong. I chimed in that I didn’t want to walk with a hunch for the rest of my life, which made the nurses and the doctor chuckle as he sent the student out of the room. I do believe that was the last time she was ever allowed in that O.R.

I was whisked off to the recovery room, where I waited for info. After about 10 minutes or so, Shawn and my mom came in. Shawn came in to check on me and let me know that Catelyn’s breathing was still a bit weird, and he was going back to her. I bounced back from the spinal quickly and was sent to my room. I waited until almost 1 before I got to hold Catelyn or even see her for more than a few seconds.

Catelyn’s heart rate and breathing were completely wild. Her heart rate would jump all over the place. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days.

Recovering from the C-section wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. The first time moving was less than fun, but I found that the more I moved the better I felt. I never took pain medications, because I’m stupidly hard-headed. When we got home things were back to normal. Shawn had to go back to work, so it was just me and C. Life was good (for a short time, but that’s another story).