Mac's Story ~ End

When I got back to the room, Mac and Daddy were walking and bouncing around the room. The baby was fussing and Mr. Workin' still seemed to be in good spirits. It was such a special time for the two of them to be alone in there for all that extra time. As icky as it was to have the complications I had, I wasn't there to hog the baby, and to this day Mac and daddy have a special little thing.
In the picture of me holding Mac, I was super puffy from all the fluids they pumped in me. The little dude is a champion nurser and from the first latch has been great. After I fed the baby for the first time the nurses came back to give Mac his first tubby and take his picture for the hospital website. It all seems kind of fuzzy...thankfully there are pictures of his first bath to jog my memory.
So it was about 8:15 when I got back to the room. And by the time we bathed the baby and let him nurse several times, it was about 11:00. I, of course, was high on happiness. Mr. Workin's folks brought him dinner and came briefly to see the baby. I have no idea when exactly that was.
After things settled down, I stripped Mac down and looked him over like only a momma would. Perfect...every last inch.
Dr. K came in to check on us and tell me about the surgery at about 11:30. She explained that she basically was trying to stitch the vessel to my bone because she couldn't see and there was no room. She said she thought my pubic bone would be quite sore. She was correct. Between that and the bladder trauma, I felt like I had been hit by a truck between my collar bones and hips. ooofta.
We didn't sleep a whole lot that first night. I found I was much stronger from the beginning in my recovery. I could pull myself up from a lying to sitting position by the next morning. The soreness came more from my stomach muscles than the incision. It was so different than the c-section with Fara.
Mac wanted to nurse most the night and it didn't occur to me to try a pacifier until the second night.
Baby Mac and Grannie
We had several visitors the first day. But the most exciting was introducing the babe and kiddos. My mom came up to the hospital with them. It matters not, when I see mo=y mom after a big event like that, I tear up. Everyone seemed to love him. The kids all wanted to sit with me in the bed and I worked at being kind and inviting even though I was nervous about them hurting me.

I had to have a catheter longer than average because of the bladder trauma. But once that was gone, I was able to get up and walk and it has been smooth sailing.
We checked out of the hospital at about noon on Friday. Recovery has been speedy and the more I know of Mac the more in love I become. He is an easy baby.
Welcome to the family little dude!

Mac's Birth Story ~ Part 2

When we got to the OR, I was asked if I prefer the room temperature to be warm or cool. In my mind I thought, maybe we should give preference to the person cutting me open...but instead, I said cool. Surgery is wonky enough without being over-heated and waves of nausea.
They ask me to hop up on the table, and arch my back like a cat. I laughed, and said, "hopping isn't in the cards and have you seen my tummy?" We all laughed. Again, it was a fun and light-hearted feeling with the whole team.
I asked Dr. K if she would consider removing some fat or extra skin, and she politely declined.
After I received the spinal, I never feel like I am numb enough to be cut open. Mr. Workin' was brought in, and positioned at my head. He seemed really excited. The doctor ask over and over, "can you feel this?", in which I air on the side of caution and say yes. The nurse anesthetist, called BS, and gave the doctor the nod. I looked at the clock and it was 5:07. The next thing I remember was the smell of burnt human, and it seemed like quite a bit of time was going by, so I asked how things were going. Dr. K said she was encountering quite a bit of scare tissue and my bladder was distorted and pulled out of whack by lesions from the uterus. Ohhhhh, so that's why my uterus was so grouchy. Every time my bladder got full, the poor thing thought it was go time! What seemed like forever later, Dr. K, "OK let's have a baby." I looked up and it was 5:35. She lowered the curtain a bit so I could see, and when she pulled him out, she said, "look at that head and those shoulders, we made the right choice." Mac chose that moment to potty all over everything. He went to the warmer and Mr. Workin' went over to be with him. Things get kind of fuzzy for a while, I don't remember the baby crying much, and everyone seemed kind of quiet. Mr. Workin' brought the baby over and I thought he looked like Ella. His hair seemed so light. I was expecting it to be much darker. Several minutes passed and then the baby, baby team, and Mr. Workin' left to go back to our room while I was closed up.
Again, it seemed like things were taking a while and I got a strange sensation and started feeling woozy. I asked Dr. K if I was bleeding too much and she shared at that time, actually I was having a bleed they were having trouble controlling. Apparently, a vessel under my pubic bone started to bleed and there was no way to see it, so they were having trouble stopping it. Dr. K kept calling for different needles, and there was a sense of frustration coming from the other side of the curtain. At one point a piece of bloody gauze was tossed to the side and actually hit me in the face. It was funny and it lightened the feeling for a couple of moments. I said, "Hello...you just hit me in the face with that." I stopped watching the clock for a while. Those crazy tremors you get from the hormones or being in the cold OR or whatever had set in. I was grateful for the nurse anesthetist. He did a great job of keeping my mind moving and my mouth chatting. I started to feel more pressure and the more time that went by the more nervous I became that I was losing too much blood or that I was going to get feeling back! About 45 minutes after Mac was delivered, Dr. K called for the staple gun to close. She is known for not stapling so I said, "NO!" She laughed and was fine with that.
I wanted to see my baby, and kept telling the nurse to tell Mr. Workin' to not let anyone see him until I could hold him. She would call and ask about how the boys were doing back in my room. Everyone kept assuring me that daddy and baby were fine.
I had to go to recovery for about 45 minutes before they took me back to my room. Since I was open for about 2.5 hours longer than they thought I was going to be, they were concerned with my body temperature. It was 95.3 when I got out of surgery. It didn't fully recover for about 48 hours.
About 40 minutes into recovery, our friend and OB nurse, Brookie, came into to recovery. She and I are room parents together so we have become friends and she was quite familiar with my desires for this birth. When I saw her, I said, "It's never easy and straight forward with me." We both laughed. She had come to check on me because Mr. Workin' was losing the battle with bouncing his hungry baby boy.

TO BE CONTINUED...

*sigh*

FYI...
Not even the most perfect soft squishy baby can protect you from postpartum ickiness.
Thankfully this is my fourth go-round and I know that "this too shall pass."

p.s. I am OK just short tempered and leaky eyed.

Mac's Birth Story

Before

 

This easily was the largest I ever was with any of my babies.
After

 

I love this picture. I am in pain and really uncomfortable (story to come) but all I can see here is BLISS.

Maclan Young Hayes
8 lb 11 oz 20 inches

 

It happens every time. You walk into a hospital with a giant tummy, and within hours they hand you your heart. How is it that you can fall so totally in love in a moment? It's happened to me time and again, and it's amazing each time.

We decided to pull the trigger and have an election c-section two days before my due-date after a scan and vaginal exam determined labor wasn't immediately imminent. It was a tough choice, but there were a handful of heavy factors and I was 95% sure it was best answer.

We were asked to be at the hospital at 3pm. Due to the fact I was arriving for surgery, I wasn't able to eat after 6am. I spent the day with my mom and the girls nesting. I cleared out a closet and worked on getting my bedside ready for the co-sleeper. Despite not being able to eat, the day passed fairly quickly. Wy came home from school around noon. The teacher found him trying to vomit. He seemed fine as soon as he got home. I think his nerves got the better of him.

I wasn't super nervous most of the day, but my mind was busy getting last minute stuff together. Mr. Workin' arrived home around 1pm and installed the car seat base, which required some rearranging. Ella got promoted to the third row. She was thrilled...Fara was jealous.

It was cold on February 8th, the high was 14 degrees. The walk from the car to the hospital entrance was one of the longer walks I have ever taken. The combo of being cold and nervous was weighing on my pace. This was the only trip to hospital I have ever had when I arrived with a bag in hand. When I was in labor with the other babes, Mr. Workin' dropped me at the emergency room door and brought the bags in later, after the baby was born in some cases.

When we arrived, the nurses had a room already assigned and we spent some time settling in. The kiddos had made me art for the hospital stay, so I was sure to hang it right away. Jen, my nurse came in and did some paperwork, ran a strip and started an IV. I was slightly annoyed about comments about my veins rolling and me being dehydrated. Duh! You didn't let me eat or drink after 6am.

Brock, the nurse anesthetist and Courtney, the baby's nurse came in and introduced themselves. I loved my team. We giggled over silly stuff, totally helping with my nerves. Brock asked about my blood sugar which was in the low 70s. He ordered me some apple juice, which made him a rock star in my eyes. Then came the waiting. Dr. K was finishing up a case on another floor, and Jen said we wouldn't go to the OR until "we saw the whites of her eyes".

There were about four minutes during the waiting where I thought my heart would beat out of my chest. I considered bolting. Isn't that funny? It is to me...I gave thought to actually running out of the hospital. Mr. Workin' was talking and talking trying to keep me engaged. Dr. K came in followed by the entire team for my case. We all walked to the OR together. It reminded me a bit of the scene on Monster's Inc. when Sully and Mike are walking into the "door room", or when the shuttle team is walking out to get on the shuttle pre-launch.

TO BE CONTINUED....